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Interview with Coco Bakes LA Founder

Coco Portrait

When I first met Coco, the owner of Coco Bakes LA, she was dishing out chunky chocolate brownies and loaves of sweet bread to hungry customers at the Mar Vista Farmers’ Market. Luckily for me, some of her delicious baked goods were vegan, gluten-free, & refined sugar-free. I quickly learned from talking to her that not only is she so incredibly humble and sweet, but also she sure knows how to bake. This week I sat down with Coco at Groundwork Coffee to discuss her long food journey, her passion to help people, and her love for country music. 

When did you first learn about veganism?

My mom is vegan so I grew up in a vegan household. I feel super lucky because I learned how to eat and what to eat at a young age. She turned all of her recipes dairy-free for us as kids. So we really learned how to eat and what to eat. We learned to eat whole foods which is super important because so many kids don’t grow up like that. 

Chocolate Walnut Brownies

Coco Bakes LA Banana Bread

Coco Bakes LA Fruit Roll-Ups

What has your food journey been like?

I decided to go dairy-free after college. My mom had gone dairy-free early in her life because she kept getting pneumonia. I would get sick at least once or twice a month, so I decided to cut out dairy to see how I would feel. I was still having some symptoms where I was lethargic and just didn’t feel great so I decided to go gluten-free as well. That was the next step. It really helped, but there was still something lingering. So I decided to go refined sugar-free because I was a total sugar addict.  At that point, I was dairy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free and felt a lot better. 

How did you learn how to bake? 

After graduating from Pitzer, I told my parents I wanted to go to cooking school. I just thought I’d do a very short cooking program at Le Cordon Bleu in Hollywood or Pasadena or somewhere close.  And they said, “Well if you’re going to go to cooking school, you might as well go to one of the best cooking schools”. I ended up being lucky enough to do the program in Paris and that’s where I really learned the craft of baking.

What did you do after cooking school?

I worked at Huckleberry Bakery & Cafe for about a year and a half. It was a great experience. I did their pudding, tarts, cakes, and cupcakes mostly. I was making things that were gluten-free and dairy-free that people were liking and not just my family. This gave me the confidence that maybe I could do it on my own. That was in 2011, so before being gluten-free & dairy-free became really mainstream. So I knew I had an opportunity. The door was wide open. I thought, “Why don’t I just take a leap of faith? Jump right through and try it out”. So I tried it and it kind of picked up. 

What made you decide to offer a variety of allergy-friendly baked goods?

I have a lot of customers with different dietary needs so I try to really cater to as many eating types as possible. Everything is gluten-free and dairy-free. Then I’ll do some refined sugar-free, vegan, and paleo options as well. I’m just really trying to capture everybody.

Has there always been a vegan component to your company?

Yes, I’ve always had vegan options. The first banana bread I made was vegan. It is honestly my best seller. Nobody can tell it’s vegan. They don’t care that it’s vegan. They just want it because it’s good. 

When you do use refined sugar, what kind is it?

Organic cane sugar. Along my journey, I learned that regular white sugar isn’t vegan because it’s passed through bone to make it white which is disgusting and horrifying. It’s so important to know those things. Especially for me, awareness is crucial so that I know what I’m feeding you is vegan or is gluten-free. My whole point is to not make you sick.

Coco Bakes LA

Chocolate Walnut Brownies
Coco Bakes LA Banana Bread

 What do you do that’s different from other baking companies in LA?

The most important thing to me in this whole process is that I’m feeding people who have dietary needs. I just want to be able to provide for people who can’t find this stuff. That’s it. If you have a dietary need, I will most likely try my hardest to make something for you. You’re diabetic? I will try to find ingredients and create something that tastes great that you can eat. 

How do you go about helping people? 

 It’s all about interacting with my customers. At the Brentwood Market, I had a lot of diabetic people come to my booth. I don’t know if I scream, “I want to help you” or “I want to make something you can eat” but they’d ask me for carb counts. So I sat down with them and figured out something that they could eat. That’s kind of what I’ve been like my whole life. I had a birthday party in 5th grade where I had gone to a mock refugee camp downtown and I had a granola bake sale.  And then for my birthday, I asked everybody to donate to Doctors without Borders. So I’ve kind of been like that. I know that my purpose in life is to help people.

Are you hoping to give back to the community in the future?

Absolutely. I don’t know what it will be, but it will be some sort of giving back. My mom goes to an elementary school in Compton every Friday and works with kids. So it’s really inherent in me to want to be bigger than just myself. I’m most certainly looking for a component of my business to be almost like what Toms Shoes is doing. I would really like to help plant a school garden. I don’t know what it’s going to look like but it’s really important to me.

What is your vision for Coco Bakes LA?

To bring happiness to people through food. To find the food that they can eat. I want to help people. 

What do you love about baking?

 I love figuring out new things. It’s really fun for me to get in the kitchen and be in the zone and sing to my music. I am a big country person. So it’s Gunpowder & Lead radio on Pandora at all times and I’m like, “Put some of that here, mix a little of that in there, put it in the oven”. It’s my total creative freedom. I’m putting crazy flavors together, for example I make a rosemary pine nut chocolate chip cookie. I originally thought creativity was through art because my mom’s an artist. But then I realized it’s my own type of creativity.

What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far with your company?

Myself. It’s been myself. You are your greatest enemy. I doubt myself a lot. I don’t think I give myself enough credit for what I do. I set my standards and expectations incredibly high. So when I wasn’t in 600 stores I was like, “How do I get there? What do I need to do? Am I good enough? Are people going to like this?”. Which is a whole flooding of negativity and I’ve really worked hard on taking the negativity out in my work space and in myself.  

Do you have advice for people feeling the same way?

I actually just heard this quote that someone’s mom said to her, “Stay in your lane. Focus on what you’re doing”. Just try and be positive. Focus on yourself. Focus on what you’re doing and be confident in it. The more confident you are, the better off you’ll be. 

Coco Bakes LA

What is the most unique out of all your baked goods?

I make a pumpkin bread for the holidays. Then all my customers were telling me that pumpkin is not seasonal and that it needs to be there year round. It is kind of seasonal if you’re going that way but people just demand it so I make it. But I didn’t have a vegan alternative to that, so I made a sweet potato bread. I don’t know why I thought of it, but it’s so good. It has all the spices that you’d want in a seasonal Thanksgiving cake. I think right now that’s my most special item.

How did you come up with the idea to make fruit roll-ups?

I was testing a recipe for Thanksgiving and had so much cranberry sauce left over that I didn’t want to go to waste. So I popped it in the over and dehydrated it. They are so yummy and so much healthier than the pre-packaged grocery store brands. These are made with cranberry, apple, beet, and spinach. I’m working on a ginger, lemon, & apple one and a green juice one. 

What was the biggest challenge when you started Coco Bakes LA?

I’ve come up with a theory. When I first started, I had no idea how this was going to go. I just knew I had to do it. So I made a really large push and got into maybe 4-6 stores. My theory is that I got lost in those stores because I’m basically the only one doing this. It’s just me and my boyfriend will help out where he can but he also has a full-time job. In order to stay in stores and have people buy your stuff, you really have to make the conscious effort and put aside time for each store. Which I honestly just couldn’t do. I didn’t have the time to do it. 

What all is involved in selling in brick-and-mortar stores that makes it so difficult?

You have the baking, the accounting, the social media, and the in-store demos. You really have to do it all to take care of the stores and and I really fell behind with that. And then I lost those stores. So my theory now is that I’m just kind of letting things happen as they happen. I’m not really pushing to get into more stores right now. 

How has your business approach changed?

I have started to walk into things as they come. I think that’s the most natural path and how good things start to happen for me. I’m extremely lucky (*knock on wood) to be where I am now. So that’s really where I sell. I sell online on Summerland, Good Eggs, and Farmbox which are all really great sites. And then I’m here at Groundwork Coffee on Montana and the Mar Vista Farmers’ Market.

Why do you prefer to sell more online?

Online is much better for me because it’s much fresher. Because I’m a baker, I can’t have my stuff sitting on the shelf for days at a time without the product moving. That just doesn’t work. So, if someone orders it online, it’s really fresh. It’s far better for me and for the customer. 

Coco Bakes LA Cookies
Coco Bakes LA

What’s your favorite thing you make?

It has to be the classic chocolate chip banana bread. It smells so good when it’s in the oven. Forget making it, the smell is just the best. It’s definitely my customers’ favorite too. I’ll take 3 whole loaves to the farmers’ market and it’ll sell out. 

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