Artisanal LA has become a proving ground for food and drink related concepts that demonstrate a commitment to local, sustainable and handmade philosophy. From April 16 – 17, event organizer Shawna Dawson gathered more than 90 vendors in a vacant space on the top floor of Santa Monica Place. Attendees got their first tastes from tenants at The Market, a 45,000-square-foot, multiple booth venue that opens on May 20, and several other concepts could easily achieve breakout status as well. Each artisan has a story, and we have eight tales to tell, including a Romanian chef.

Anca’s Romanian founder Anca Caliman and boyfriend Jack Wilson showcased the cuisine of her family’s homeland at Artisanal LA, as they do every Friday at the Echo Park farmers market, and on a regular basis at Cafe de Leche in Highland Park. They’re also hoping to add the Tuesday night Silver Lake farmers market to their repertoire, along with a couple choice restaurant accounts. We spoke with Caliman about her business’ trajectory.

At what point did you know you’d do this for a living?

Probably last week. It seemed like things really started to come together. We’re relatively new. We’ve only been doing this for about six months. This is by far our biggest event, getting so many new clients, it just seemed like it’s finally hapenning.

What have you been doing for a living leading up to this?

Finance, and I took some time off last year due to personal and professional circumstances and I have always, always wanted to be an entrepreneur, I’ve always been interested in food, and I’ve been really proud of Romanian food, and since there’s not so much of it out there, I really wanted to bring it to the masses.

Why flatbread in particular?

I picked a few things that I really, really love, that are things that I grew up with and I think have really interesting but strong flavor profiles. For example, the plachinta, the feta with dill, there’s something so homey and comforting about it, but at the same time it’s really punchy. I wanted to have people try that. The other things that I’ve loved are also plum dumplings, which are also kind of rare. I haven’t had anything like that. So I just kind of picked my favorites from growing up.

If people could try one thing, what should they try, and how come?

I would love for them to try the feta with dill plachinta because it just wraps up so many of my memories, and I love seeing people try it, and there’s something so familiar and comforting there for everyone, even though not everyone’s Romanian.

Are you from Romania?

Yeah, I was born and raised there. I’m from Transylvania, the city I’m from is called Timisoara. There’s just a very strong family oriented culture and that definitely has a lot to do with food.

Are you working on some sort of permanent location?

So far, we’re working on expanding to more farmers markets, and hopefully more wholesale business. So we’re meeting with a few restaurants that are our personal favorites…Hopefully we can move ahead.