BROWNSVILLE – A local woman started her business very small, catering food to private airplanes that landed at the Brownsville airport.

She later expanded to business meetings and parties. And she recently took one more step.

“I’m very excited,” Cel Galindo, a determined chef, said. “First of all, I can’t believe it’s happening. I have butterflies in my stomach.”

She called her business La Escondida. It’s a small, hidden building, she said, at the corner of 4th and Elizabeth in Brownsville.

“I started out of my house and I would cater for airplanes and gradually we grew. I would always save a little bit for the car or the van, and finally I saved enough to fix the whole place up,” Galindo said.

In fact, she has doubled the inside of the original building.

The Chamber of Commerce, friends and Father Jorge Gomez gathered for the unveiling of the new building. They even had a ribbon cutting ceremony.

“We’re so happy, on behalf of all the Chamber of Commerce, the board of directors, the Bienvenidos Committee,” one representative said.

The next step for Galindo is to expand her business to a buffet restaurant.

“It’s going to be a buffet, where you can eat from 11 to 3 o’clock. You know people are always running. You have 15 minutes to get to wherever you’re needing to go,” Galindo said. “Fifteen minutes to eat and 15 minutes to get back to work, like that you have 15 other minutes to rest.”

Her journey started seven years ago in 2009. There were some good times and some slow times, she said, but the goal was always to keep going forward.

“I started with a little dream. I started feeding food on airplanes and then it was like, little by little. The dream of the whole thing was having a restaurant. And I know this is a small place, but it has my heart in it and I think it was a step I was ready to take,” she said.

From humble beginnings to a buffet restaurant, Galindo continues to grow her business.

You can catch Con Mi Gente segments Tuesdays and Thursdays on CHANNEL 5 NEWS THIS MORNING and CHANNEL 5 NEWS at 5.