Upcoming food content creator and realtor from Delaware, Maya Centrella, is just beginning to grow her platform at just 23 years old. Centrella has been posting on social media for years now sharing a range of content from funny videos of her dad, to realtor house tours, pranks, and recipes. But what sparked her following started not only from making her favorite food, a chicken Caesar wrap, but the concerns of her nearly cutting her finger off.
Now, Centrella is taking her viral wraps from the heart of her kitchen to a restaurant near the University of Delaware, her alum college, at 13N Chapel Street in Newark, Delaware.
For me, this is a little more personal. Centrella is my cousin on my mom’s side of the family, and we both grew up in a big Italian family where food is always a part of gatherings, celebrations, and just everyday life. My grandfather, her great-uncle, even opened up an Italian market and deli, Centrella’s Deli in Havertown, PA, back in 1975.
Because of our connection with family surrounded by the love of food, cooking has always been something that Centrella loved. Since her favorite food is a chicken Caesar wrap, she used it to experiment with her content, and it blew up from the start, becoming a key part of her page now. When she first started posting online, chicken Caesar wraps and food in general were not her original content. “I started posting on social media two years ago and I went through a lot of different niches,” she told me in an interview. “I have always loved cooking and when I started posting, I naturally shared some cooking, but chicken Caesar wraps have been my favorite meal for a long time, and I would post my recipes sometimes.”
Surprisingly, she didn’t only blow up because of the quality of her wraps; she also got views, and comments, on her cutting skills. “It wasn’t until I posted a video of me cutting a wrap and came super close to cutting my finger that I started posting only wrap recipes,” she said. What could have been a disaster, and a kitchen accident turned her page into unique content. On February 23, Centrella posted her first video of cutting her chicken Caesar salad wrap. The video got almost 600K likes and 16M views. The comments flooded with concerns about her finger being too close to the serrated knife.
Three days later, Centrella leaned into the joke, mocking herself, spreading her fingers away from the knife as far as possible. That video received more than 14.2M views, 1.2M likes and 71K shares. Major brands even saw the video and contributed to the concern. Pepsi joked about her “growth,” while Ziploc commented, “Our girl is growing up.”
Ever since, her content has been focused on making all different kinds and combinations of wraps. “It was always a goal of mine to gain a following for my recipes, and these are videos I actually enjoy making,” Centrella said.
When she’s expected to post daily, constantly coming up with new wraps for thousands, even millions of viewers, it becomes challenging. “This is the hardest part of it all. It takes me a long time because I am a perfectionist,” she said. “I research on Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram and get inspiration from other creators sometimes.”
Sometimes, she doesn’t even need social media for inspiration. “Sometimes the thought comes in the shower or when I am trying to fall asleep,” Centrella continued. Sometimes, her audience does the brainstorming for her. One of the biggest requests from her followers was a sushi burrito wrap. Since it wasn’t a traditional wrap, she had to figure out how to make the concept work. As someone who had previously made sushi, she was excited to give it a try. “The sushi burrito was one of my highest requested wraps, so I finally decided to try it and it turned out so good,” she said.
For a while, Centrella constantly shared her wraps on social media. At some point, when she finally started getting viewers, followers, and shares, the idea of a food truck kept coming up in her comments. “I was continuously getting comments telling me to open a food truck,” she said. Opening a food business was not something she thought would come to life; but she joked with her friends about it, who work in the restaurant industry, and they were all on board with it.
That idea is now becoming WRAP’D, Centrella’s upcoming wrap restaurant in Delaware. A frozen yogurt shop called SPOON’D will also open next door. From creating a perfectly assembled wrap for “fun” on social media to selling it to customers comes with many questions and challenges along the way. “People are coming to the store because of my videos, and with that comes the pressure to make sure they look the same in person as what I have put out there,” she said.
Now you may be wondering, what is on the menu? Centrella did not want to overwhelm customers with how many flavors and options available. She plans to keep the menu as simple as possible, at least in the start of the opening for a little bit. “I am picking my most viral videos and some fun ones I think will make people curious to try,” she said.
Even so, she is adding a wrap to the menu tied to her name and her favorite wrap: The Maya. It is a spicy chicken wrap with avocado.
Centrella’s intent for the restaurant experience is wanting customers to feel a connection between the wrap and what they walked in for, knowing the content enough to come try it. Wraps are the star of the menu, with distinctive flavor combinations that customers can’t easily recreate at another chain, along with the options of smoothies, bowls, and salads.
“I hope people feel like it’s an experience they don’t get at other places locally,” she said. “I want it to be a place where people document on social media. I can’t wait to watch people post food reviews.”
Make sure to be on the lookout for the opening date on Centrella’s socials.