Food podcast: How Vicky Bakery became a Miami institution, and yes, there is a Vicky

Vicky Bakery is synonymous with croquetas, pastelitos and Cuban bread in Miami — but it didn’t start out that way.

This year, Vicky celebrates 50 years in business. On the Oct. 20 episode of La Ventanita, the Miami Herald food podcast, we’ll talk to Pedro Cao, whose father, Antonio, immigrated from Cuba, bought a small bakery in east Hialeah, kept the name and turned it into arguably the most famous Cuban bakery in South Florida.

Full disclosure: My mom was raised with the Cao family, dating back to the tiny country town of Cárdenas, Cuba, so I grew up with every birthday cake for the first decade of my life from Vicky. (There may even be video of me dancing in one of the owner’s daughters’ quinceañera.)

But there’s a lot of history I’m curious about such as, who was the actual Vicky, why Vicky decided to franchise into an 18-store company and the risk in making a family business —and family recipes, like their croquetas and pastelitos — corporate.

Tune in Thursdays at 11 a.m. to watch La Ventanita live on YouTube and the Miami Herald website. Find every episode of La Ventanita podcast at the show page and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Megaphone, Stitcher and MiamiHerald.com.