Horatio Vallejo

Uniting Cultures through Unique Cuisine

As someone new to Utah, Horacio Vallejo was missing home. More specifically, he missed the wonderful milk flan (sort of milk pie or pudding) he had enjoyed at his grandmother’s house while growing up in Mexico. After experimenting with ingredients, proportions and cooking methods in his apartment kitchen, he found the right combination for what he calls his “Flan Napolitano.” Having perfected the recipe and process, Sophi-Flanes was born.

materials – not powders or concentrates – picked by Horacio himself. The recipe is a traditional family recipe developed and passed from one generation to the next, with small but significant variations to adapt it to the kind of raw materials found in the local stores. As such, it is not anything that can be found in Hispanic cuisine cookbooks.

While the traditional flavor of flan is vanilla, Horacio has also perfected flan in coconut, walnut and chocolate. Using the commercial kitchen of another small business at night, he began distributing a few flan at a time, to make sure they arrived to customers in a safe and good condition. This delicious flan can be found in a variety of restaurants including the Blue Iguana, Paisa Grill, Gualbertos, Rancho Grande and the Chihuahua.  If you want to pick it up and enjoy it at home, go to and Marissa's, Rancho Market or Herradura de Oro.