Latest / Chef's PSA Podcast / Inside The Cookie Jar: Lorin Peters Secrets To Success Ep. 102

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Inside The Cookie Jar: Lorin Peters Secrets To Success Ep. 102 · Chef's PSA Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello chefs. This is Chefs PSA Podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm your host, Andre Natera. Today's episode is with guest
• 0:04
  chef Lauren Peters, the chef and founder of Cookie Rich.
• 0:08
  We have a great conversation. She's worked in some incredible
• 0:10
  restaurants including The French Laundry and Abacus.
• 0:13
  And we talk all things from cookies to marketing to business
• 0:16
  strategy to a pumpkin story. I think you'll enjoy this
• 0:19
  conversation. Stay tuned.
• 0:32
  Thanks for the hat. You're welcome.
• 0:34
  What? What's in the bag here?
• 0:35
  These are my cookies, cookie rich.
• 0:37
  So that's what I do these days. Obviously, you know, so these
• 0:41
  are my cookies. I wanted to do like a a new take
• 0:46
  on cookies. So all the cookies out on the
• 0:48
  market are usually these big fat cookies.
• 0:50
  I want. I have a huge sweet tooth, even
• 0:51
  know that a savory chef plus my career.
• 0:54
  So this was like my stake on just something like just a
• 0:57
  couple bites satisfy your sweet tooth.
• 0:59
  But I'm also going to be used by background.
• 1:01
  Looks like a macaroon. Kind of, yes, But I think people
• 1:04
  think they're like, oh, macaroni or cake ball, but it is a
• 1:06
  traditional cookie. So if you take these recipes and
• 1:09
  you make them just in a bigger form.
• 1:11
  Are these all the new flavours or?
• 1:13
  Yeah, so these similar classic. So this is one of our new ones,
• 1:15
  which is oatmeal cream pie, dark chocolate and caramel lemon.
• 1:19
  Definite classic since the beginning.
• 1:21
  Just the coconut versae dark fudge of vanilla, strawberry and
• 1:26
  Elvis. I haven't had the Why haven't I
• 1:28
  had the strawberry one? Can I eat it?
• 1:29
  Oh. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:29
  This one I think in the summer and then Oreo chocolate chip and
• 1:34
  M&M Subaru. So we had 12 flavors at all.
• 1:37
  What's your? Favorite chocolate, chocolate
• 1:40
  chip and dark fudge? I use that Coco Rouge in it so
• 1:42
  it gives it like a really nice fudgy.
• 1:45
  Sounds fancy, Coco. Rouge Coco Rouge is what Thomas
• 1:48
  Fowler uses to make those bouchons, those chocolate like
• 1:51
  brownies and bakery. And so I started researching and
• 1:54
  then we just naturally use that cocoa powder at the restaurant.
• 1:56
  And so I just had loved it for years so.
• 1:59
  That's really good. I could eat dark.
• 2:01
  Chocolate, I'm not a. Huge milk chocolate fan.
• 2:03
  So obviously I know the product, but I can eat a ten of these
• 2:05
  like I'm I'm I hate saying like I have like the spirit of a fat
• 2:08
  kid, so like. I had.
• 2:15
  To do something smaller, like I'm like, I'll just have one,
• 2:17
  I'll have one more. So I, I can't remember the last
• 2:20
  time you, you gave me a box and I remember I was like, I'm just
• 2:22
  going to have one. And then like the day goes on.
• 2:25
  I never told anyone I had any. I ate the whole box and I'm
• 2:27
  like. I'm like 120 calories a piece.
• 2:30
  Oh, that's it. I did some nutritional testing
• 2:32
  on it when I first launched the company because I was just
• 2:35
  curious. I didn't know like FDA rules,
• 2:36
  what I had to get into in the future.
• 2:38
  So I tested them and they're not that bad.
• 2:39
  So I give these to my kids and I don't like, I'm actually a
• 2:42
  pretty big health nut at home, so I don't give.
• 2:46
  Them sugar, you don't give them sugar.
• 2:48
  Like if my kids school, I will go and I'll be like, hey, by the
• 2:51
  way, like my kids don't need process food.
• 2:53
  Like don't give them any sweets. And they're like, don't you own
• 2:55
  a cookie company? I'm like, yeah, they get my
• 2:57
  their sugar from me and then that's it.
• 2:59
  There's like 9 grams of sugar in here.
• 3:01
  So again, life balance. So I I love the I mean, one of
• 3:04
  the things I really like about Cookie Rich is the branding.
• 3:08
  Yes, I love the black and white as thank you for the hat, by the
• 3:11
  way. It's very, it's it's very
• 3:14
  similar to the one that I have. And I made one.
• 3:16
  I designed it because you were like design something black and
• 3:18
  white. So I designed one, Yeah.
• 3:20
  Yeah, yeah. Well, I, I just listen, when we,
• 3:22
  I went to the brand process, I was like, OK, you know, all
• 3:25
  these, if you look at cookie companies, they're very like
• 3:28
  crumble bright pink. Tiff St. has their blue bow.
• 3:31
  I was like, what, what is me in a box?
• 3:34
  And so this black and white like my brain lady was like, how
• 3:37
  about a color? And I was like, how about nude?
• 3:39
  Yeah. Yeah, like they're like the
• 3:40
  colors. Like, sure it is.
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  So this nude is like the only color that we have.
• 3:44
  But it is. The colors in the cookies.
• 3:46
  Yeah, no, the colors in the cookies and then the splatter is
• 3:48
  actually supposed to represent my savory like transition 'cause
• 3:51
  I was a savory chef for 10 plus years before I started this.
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  So in savory it's like a dash of this, you know, splash of this
• 3:58
  where in pastry as such. And that's why I didn't become a
• 4:00
  pastry chef right out the gate. It's like I liked the more just
• 4:03
  hair, a little bit of this, a little bit of this.
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  So this is kind of my savory seasoning.
• 4:09
  It reminds me of the the iPhone box.
• 4:11
  Oh yeah. Right.
• 4:12
  Yeah, that's cool. Do people do people save the
• 4:14
  box? Sometimes, so I can't say it
• 4:17
  'cause I don't know legal wise if I'm allowed to say it, but
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  the same people who make our boxes makes them really big
• 4:22
  jewelry designer boxes that everyone like knows and loves.
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  And it's like nice and thick. And I wanted it to feel like a
• 4:27
  gift. And I want it to be substantial
• 4:29
  enough where if you gave it to ACEO, they're not just like
• 4:33
  getting a bakery box off of like a smart or the website here, you
• 4:36
  know, some random website. So this has like this nice soft
• 4:39
  touch. It's thick.
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  It's it is something you can keep, but also these cookies
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  store for like 5 days in the fridge.
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  You can freeze them for six months.
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  So I wanted something Hardy enough that.
• 4:48
  What's the best way to eat them? How to get them?
• 4:50
  No, eat them. Oh, eat them.
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  I like taking them if they're soft like these.
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  So we keep them cold. Half my customers eat them
• 4:57
  straight out the fridge. So they kind of taste more like
• 4:59
  like how you like these just came out the the fridge.
• 5:02
  So they taste more like raw coquito.
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  This way. If you let them temper like
• 5:06
  we'll wait at the end of this, I'll try one and you can
• 5:08
  literally twist it like an Oreo. But it's nice and soft.
• 5:11
  And so I like to eat it like twist and take a half at a time.
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  That way you can get a little bit of filling.
• 5:15
  But a lot of people go like this, turn sideways and bite it.
• 5:18
  But I mean, some people try to do this, but it's a little bit
• 5:20
  of a much of A1 biter. What's What's your most popular
• 5:24
  flavor? Birthday well, chocolate chip
• 5:26
  and dirt fudge and then birthday So this one has a little bit of
• 5:29
  almond extract in it, sprinkles vanilla sugar cookie.
• 5:32
  But people, people love them. And so I, I know you're a chef,
• 5:35
  so I want to talk about your culinary career a little bit
• 5:37
  before you transition into this. You started as a cook and you
• 5:42
  know you worked under some great chefs obviously, right?
• 5:44
  The legends of the game. But at what point did you pick
• 5:48
  up your love for pastry in your career?
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  So I've always had a sweet taste my whole life.
• 5:53
  I loved ice cream and baking, but that was just a hobby.
• 5:58
  And so, and then when I, my family cooked a lot, so my dad
• 6:00
  grilled out, we were very big and like copycatting some of our
• 6:03
  favorite dishes around town. So cooking was just in my
• 6:06
  family, but it was definitely just a hobby.
• 6:08
  So I went to college. I was nutritional science major.
• 6:11
  I was pre Med totally thought. Putting the nutrition sides to
• 6:14
  use now totally. Thought I was going a different
• 6:16
  direction and the last six months of school I really kind
• 6:18
  of re evaluated what I wanted to do and so right after I
• 6:21
  graduated school I, you know, that's kind of when I went down
• 6:26
  the cooking path. So this whole time I love
• 6:28
  savory. I was like, I'm a savory gal.
• 6:29
  I don't like measuring things. I like to go my flavor and touch
• 6:34
  and all this stuff and I don't know, I just felt the, the
• 6:38
  savory vibe was just more my thing.
• 6:39
  However, I would still bake and like I would make ice cream and
• 6:43
  I, I was at French Laundry. I lived with three guys.
• 6:45
  Two of them were cooks. I'm sorry, one of them was a
• 6:47
  cooking French Laundry. One was a sommelier there.
• 6:49
  And they, I would make ice cream from scratch and they're like,
• 6:52
  you sure you don't want to be pastry?
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  I was like, oh, no, no, no. I just like to eat sweets.
• 6:55
  I don't actually like to make them.
• 6:57
  So my old chef Mark from Abigus in Dallas, he one time I was, he
• 7:03
  may help me or had me help him scoop cookies.
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  And it's for some crazy catering, like 1000 person
• 7:08
  catering. And I'm sitting there and I was
• 7:10
  like, fuck this. I was like, this sucks.
• 7:12
  This is why I'm not a pastry chef.
• 7:13
  Like I get hand cramps like scooping this many cookies.
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  So I think it's funny that that story, like years later, he's
• 7:20
  like, oh, making cookies. Full circle, right?
• 7:22
  Full circle. So.
• 7:23
  So anyway, so 10 year savory, I loved baking at home, I liked
• 7:27
  cooking in the kitchen. But then kind of things happened
• 7:31
  and evolved and it was pandemic hit.
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  So I had worked my way into kind of a niche from working in
• 7:36
  professional kitchens. Then I became a private chef in
• 7:38
  New York. Then I kind of came into the
• 7:41
  media game where I was doing recipes and cooking videos for
• 7:44
  like brands and magazines. Then pandemic hit.
• 7:47
  No one was, you know, paying anybody to do that anymore.
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  I was like, well, how do I kind of level up something that
• 7:52
  hasn't been levelled up in a while?
• 7:55
  And so cookies came to it. And the funny story is we were
• 7:57
  actually on vacation with my sister-in-law or my whole
• 7:59
  husband's family and my sister-in-law.
• 8:02
  I'm sorry, Lindsay, when you hear the story, but she makes
• 8:05
  these cookies. She always makes them for
• 8:06
  holidays. And I was like, these are not
• 8:08
  very tasty. I make such a better cookie.
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  But I clearly want to say that. So I got the kids involved,
• 8:14
  like, come on, kids, let's make cookies.
• 8:16
  So I made these really delicious cookies and I was like, damn,
• 8:18
  you know what? I'm a savory chef, but I I make
• 8:20
  a really good cookie. And that's where totally like
• 8:24
  went sideways and I started thinking about it and I just
• 8:27
  started figuring out like, OK, well, if I don't want to do the
• 8:30
  same cookie that everyone else does, which I did, I started it
• 8:33
  that way. But then, you know, French
• 8:35
  Andre, we use a lot of molds. And so I started playing around
• 8:37
  with molds and then. What was the initial design like
• 8:41
  a donut before this? Like a donut hole, a donut hole.
• 8:43
  So I went for like big fat cookie and then Mac of course,
• 8:46
  being that was like you can do better and like you're right,
• 8:48
  you're right. So I went back to the drawing
• 8:50
  board. I was trying to design like a
• 8:51
  donut hole, but a cookie, the way things bake, right, you can
• 8:54
  even the mold. That doesn't really happen.
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  So then I was like, OK, I can do a half sphere.
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  Played around with that. I played around with like donut
• 9:00
  pans. I played around a lot of
• 9:02
  different things. And then the idea for a filling
• 9:05
  came. Matt and I were just talking and
• 9:07
  throwing ideas. I was like, oh, maybe keep a
• 9:08
  filling in it and then get them together to where they have kind
• 9:11
  of a doughnut hole shape, but they're not solid.
• 9:15
  They have a filling in the middle.
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  And then we tasted it and both of us just looked at each other
• 9:18
  like, Oh my God, this is it. Yeah, what was the?
• 9:19
  What was the first cookie? Chocolate chip, the chocolate
• 9:22
  fudge and then birthday came shortly after that and then the
• 9:25
  dark fudge and vanilla. And then I just was like, all
• 9:27
  right, well, the reason why a lot of these cookie companies
• 9:30
  are successful is they have these rotating flavours and you
• 9:33
  know, more than just 3 classics or three or four classics.
• 9:37
  So I wanted to come up with some and then have some rotate.
• 9:40
  So that's what we do. So we have 12 flavors at all
• 9:42
  time right now. This will probably carry through
• 9:43
  the end of the year, probably have some holiday flavors
• 9:45
  that'll come out, but I like having a variety.
• 9:48
  So people like mix and match their box or they'll just like
• 9:51
  if you send it as a gift, most people get this, which is the
• 9:53
  chef's doesn't. I want to transition the
• 9:56
  conversation into starting your business.
• 9:59
  So you went from like you have this great idea.
• 10:01
  We all have great, I have great ideas and sometimes they don't
• 10:04
  always work out. So how, how do you how do you
• 10:06
  take this great idea, this cookie and you say, OK, now let
• 10:08
  me scale it. Let me start a business.
• 10:10
  Let me start my own business, my first business.
• 10:12
  Where do you start? So.
• 10:14
  What I found myself so whenever like Instagram first came out, I
• 10:17
  was like, oh, this would be great like I can talk on camera
• 10:20
  I like doing that I'm gonna gonna be like a food Blogger or
• 10:24
  whatever. But I would wake up every
• 10:25
  morning and I was like like I just wasn't motivated to do it.
• 10:28
  And so I give all the props that people you know food bloggers
• 10:31
  who get out there and have the content and edit and all that
• 10:34
  but I found that wasn't my thing and so you you'll find ideas in
• 10:38
  life that just click and there's moments in life that click for
• 10:41
  me and one was deciding I wanted to become a chef and it just
• 10:43
  clicked and I move very fast so one was to become a chef.
• 10:47
  I literally talked with Ken out of Dallas.
• 10:50
  He became a mentor of mine and I just picked up and moved two
• 10:53
  weeks. Later for people that don't know
• 10:54
  Kent Rathburn. Yes, Kent Rathburn owns Abacus
• 10:56
  and Dallas, among a lot of other things his wife Tracy owns
• 10:59
  shouldn't say and Daya Lover Seafood Market.
• 11:01
  They are big mentors of mine, which I'm sure we can talk about
• 11:04
  it a little bit, but I just I I find things that click and then
• 11:08
  I lean into that. So I leaned into that.
• 11:10
  Then, you know, meeting my husband was the other one.
• 11:11
  I leaned into that relationship and then cookies was like my
• 11:13
  third moment in life where the idea came and I was like I'm on
• 11:17
  it. So then I just spent every
• 11:20
  waking hour like I would wake up and all I wanted to do was
• 11:23
  figure out this business. So I actually came up with the
• 11:25
  idea in August, like mid August was when we went on that beach
• 11:27
  trip. And by Halloween, we are
• 11:30
  full-fledged business, had full packaging branding, launched a
• 11:33
  website and we're on DoorDash. Well, so, so for someone that's
• 11:36
  listening right now that wants to say, Oh yeah, it's easy.
• 11:39
  You just, yeah, you come up with the idea and then next thing you
• 11:41
  know, you're you launch your business.
• 11:42
  So what were the steps to go from ideation to to life?
• 11:46
  So, so, yeah, so that went very fast for me, but I just, I just
• 11:52
  became disciplined. So I, I came up with the idea.
• 11:54
  I are indeed the product for like a month.
• 11:56
  I was like listen, at the end of the day you can have a beautiful
• 11:58
  product, but if it doesn't taste good, like I was going to buy
• 12:00
  it. So came up with the product R&D
• 12:02
  for like a month. In the meantime, I found this
• 12:05
  awesome brand gal, Wendy Smith who owns Smith Brand Studio and
• 12:10
  Overstory and she was like listen, I am doing this out of
• 12:14
  my house. I don't have some crazy $100,000
• 12:17
  budget like the most people. How can you bring my life to,
• 12:20
  you know, my vision to life? And she really did.
• 12:22
  So she helped me come up with kind of bring what was in my
• 12:25
  brain and this is exactly what was in my brain.
• 12:27
  So doing that at the same time I was R&D ING taking the steps to
• 12:31
  get your website getting, you know, legal.
• 12:33
  I had to get yeah, get my LLC set up.
• 12:35
  I had to get my bank account set up.
• 12:38
  And then I really just made myself checklist.
• 12:40
  I would work and I just eat the elephant kind of one bite at a
• 12:43
  time every single day. It's.
• 12:44
  Something I did by the way. Yeah, it's, it can be really
• 12:47
  overwhelming when you're starting something new and it
• 12:50
  again, you just make your list and you check by check.
• 12:52
  But I do think that that's hard. And I've always chatted with a
• 12:56
  lot of people about wanting to create almost kind of like a
• 12:59
  starting a food business for dummies kind of thing.
• 13:01
  Because I didn't know what I was doing and I, I went at it by
• 13:05
  trial and error with a lot of stuff.
• 13:07
  But you do, it's like you just kind of make your list and you
• 13:09
  go at it. Social media I knew was going to
• 13:12
  be a big part of it because I wasn't going to have some giant
• 13:14
  marketing budget website. I just built on my own with my
• 13:17
  brand gal. So I, that's kind of how I did
• 13:19
  it. But I also wasn't afraid to
• 13:22
  like, not everything had to be perfect.
• 13:24
  I knew that I wanted the brand to be perfect and I wanted the
• 13:27
  recipes and like the product to be perfect, but my systems
• 13:30
  weren't perfect yet. My website was like, it was fine
• 13:34
  for now, but like my website now is 10 times better.
• 13:36
  My social media, I just kind of like whatever, although I still
• 13:39
  run my social media, but I think not expecting everything to have
• 13:43
  to be all buttoned up day one. You just have to like start.
• 13:46
  It's kind of like when you post on social media, they're like
• 13:48
  just be consistent. You'll get better every single
• 13:51
  day and people will pay attention.
• 13:53
  And I think that's what this was, was came up with the idea,
• 13:57
  I did the necessary steps, but then I just slowly made it
• 14:00
  better every day, my systems and my brands and my, you know, all
• 14:04
  of that. And eventually it caught on.
• 14:06
  I mean, the cookie's great, the branding's really good, and, and
• 14:10
  I'm pretty good at branding, by the way, I'm pretty good at
• 14:13
  branding. But a lot of the branding ideas
• 14:15
  that I got, I actually got from you.
• 14:17
  You know, we'd have conversations and you'd say
• 14:19
  something like, oh, did you look at this?
• 14:20
  I'm like, yeah, that's a good idea.
• 14:21
  Like I remember when I first started Chef's PSA you were
• 14:23
  saying go gut on Canva, go look at TikTok, go make sure this all
• 14:26
  looks. The same.
• 14:28
  Yeah, so you, you pointed me in the right direction for a lot of
• 14:31
  things because early when I was trying to figure it out, I had
• 14:34
  ideas, but they weren't like they were kind of clumsy.
• 14:37
  And you pointed me in the right direction like, no, go look at
• 14:39
  this. Go look at that.
• 14:39
  So a lot of a lot of the success that I have on Chef's PSA is
• 14:42
  based on a lot of the direction that you nudged me to go into.
• 14:45
  So yeah. So shout out to you.
• 14:47
  Oh. Well, listen, that's that's the
• 14:49
  thing though, right? Like I'm such a big, like we,
• 14:51
  we're all, I mean, our friend group, right, is a bunch of
• 14:54
  chefs. And I just feel, especially in
• 14:56
  this day and age with media involved and you're not just
• 14:59
  cooking, right? Like not everybody just only
• 15:01
  cooks is yeah. There's so much stuff that you
• 15:03
  don't know until you don't know about that thing.
• 15:06
  So I I love it because I get that back from other people,
• 15:09
  right? Someone will say one thing like
• 15:10
  I don't even remember who brought me on to Canva, but I
• 15:13
  mean I still to this day do all my graphics and stuff for my
• 15:16
  websites and all my menus and I get to do it myself instead of
• 15:19
  pay someone to do it. And had I not been turned on to
• 15:21
  it, I probably would have paid a graphic designer so much money.
• 15:24
  To do it. You know what's even more funny
• 15:25
  about that, as I'm thinking about a lot of the beginning
• 15:28
  stages of chef's PSA started out with a conversation with Matt
• 15:31
  and I, your husband. We were having coffee and he
• 15:34
  says you should just put your beard out there and just do
• 15:36
  stupid videos. And so I made my very first
• 15:38
  chef's PSA video. I sent it to Matt.
• 15:40
  I was like, what do you think of?
• 15:41
  This was terrible. He's like, yeah, post it.
• 15:44
  You did you. Did the your red color right?
• 15:47
  It is. You have to be loud.
• 15:48
  And if you just would have, I mean, granted, I went the
• 15:50
  opposite direction was like no color at all.
• 15:53
  But yeah, a lot of people, you know, you got to like get
• 15:55
  people's attention. You got to do something
• 15:57
  different. And I think that that's what you
• 15:59
  did, and I think that's what you did.
• 16:01
  Speaking of doing something different, 'cause I think your
• 16:03
  social media is really entertaining.
• 16:04
  Like I, I love when you put up a story like it's going to be
• 16:06
  hilarious. But how important is marketing
• 16:10
  and branding in in what you do for your business and also as an
• 16:15
  individual, like creating your own individual brand?
• 16:17
  Yeah. So when I will say that probably
• 16:20
  the hardest challenge I found is before Cookie Rich, I was
• 16:23
  building my own social media following because I was doing
• 16:26
  media. So I was like, Hey, how do I get
• 16:27
  potential clients to want me to, you know, do recipes for their
• 16:31
  brands? And it was more about building
• 16:34
  my own presents. But then when it switches to
• 16:36
  your brand is like my personal social media and has not grown
• 16:40
  much at all over the last couple of years because I've been
• 16:42
  focusing on this. And so I, I wish I had more time
• 16:46
  to focus on that because I do think that they go hand in hand
• 16:49
  with each other. And I've seen a lot of really
• 16:52
  great entrepreneurs be good at both.
• 16:54
  But marketing too is tricky because I have seen people spend
• 17:00
  so much money and then the business fails and he's like,
• 17:03
  well, like as a small business, yes.
• 17:06
  Do you need do marketing? We kind of have to bootstrap it.
• 17:09
  So I mean, a lot of the reasons we have followers is like, I got
• 17:12
  on TikTok and I, I mean, what, that was three years ago.
• 17:15
  So 34 when I got on TikTok, my friends were like, what are you
• 17:19
  doing? I'm like, listen, I could care
• 17:21
  less about being on TikTok. I'm doing it for my business.
• 17:24
  And I did, and I went on and I was just silly and I danced and,
• 17:27
  you know, did funny rap songs and people did that and people
• 17:32
  took to that and it really grew. So now I have found I, I kind of
• 17:36
  went in the other direction where I was like, I'm just going
• 17:38
  to be brand heavy for a while. Just let's just try to sell
• 17:40
  people things. And I felt that that has been
• 17:43
  the opposite of what I was going for.
• 17:45
  And so I feel like people purchase more and really connect
• 17:49
  with your brand if you're authentic and entertaining and
• 17:52
  then like the product, if it's great, will speak for itself.
• 17:55
  Right now. That's a good point.
• 17:56
  I've come to the same conclusions as well for chefs.
• 17:58
  PSA It's like sometimes when you know you're trying to promote
• 18:01
  the product or whatever, sometimes like, yeah, I'm tired
• 18:03
  of seeing the product. I just, I wrote, I wrote a new
• 18:04
  book. Did you did you see it?
• 18:06
  I did see. It what?
• 18:07
  What do you think? It's good, right?
• 18:08
  Well, are you a professional? Writer No, I didn't go to.
• 18:11
  You can tell. No, I, I read it and so I like
• 18:16
  it because it's fiction, because like the first book, it was just
• 18:19
  more about great advice. But this one I'm, I'm, I'm
• 18:22
  excited to read the full thing. When does it?
• 18:24
  Come out June 8th, so probably right around the time that this
• 18:26
  podcast is live, people. So how are you going to promote
• 18:29
  it? First of all, it's a terrible
• 18:31
  book. You shouldn't read it.
• 18:32
  Go get it June 8th like that. That's that's my promotion.
• 18:35
  It's like, it's a terrible book. It's the worst book you're ever
• 18:36
  going to read. Get it June 8th.
• 18:38
  Yeah you should do a TikTok. Do you have TikTok?
• 18:40
  I do. Yeah, that's right, you.
• 18:42
  Know what you did one time you did this TikTok video and I
• 18:45
  remember it was like really cool.
• 18:46
  You got the the bag and you split it with the scissors and
• 18:49
  then you tied it. And I remember watching that was
• 18:51
  like, that's a really cool technique because I'm a
• 18:53
  technique junkie in the kitchen. Like whenever I see something
• 18:55
  new, like flavors or flavors, trends change, whatever.
• 18:58
  But when I see something new, I'm like, that's a very
• 19:00
  efficient way to do that. I didn't realize people didn't
• 19:03
  know that trick and so I did it. So here's the thing, and I and I
• 19:06
  know the PSA is not Tiktok. Do you have a personal Tiktok
• 19:08
  too? Or is it it's kind of.
• 19:09
  All yeah, it's kind of it's all blend you.
• 19:11
  Know so one thing I found out, you know, people go viral is
• 19:15
  because people start interacting with the post.
• 19:17
  So when you do something like that bag trick, which for those
• 19:20
  of you listening is I took a piping bag and you fill it up
• 19:24
  and you take take a bench scraper, you're going to press
• 19:25
  it down and you cut it and like money ears, you tie it.
• 19:28
  And so that way it doesn't come back up the piping bag.
• 19:31
  And I don't, that's just how I learned it.
• 19:32
  I've learned in the French laundry.
• 19:33
  So I just assumed everyone did it that way and I did it.
• 19:37
  People freaked out. I was like, what is that
• 19:39
  technique? I'm like, I don't know, it's
• 19:41
  just how I do my piping bags. And then also what people freak
• 19:43
  out about is I purposely like don't work.
• 19:46
  Like I didn't wear glove for a video because I was like, I'm
• 19:48
  just shooting this for myself. Like I'm not people freak out.
• 19:51
  My hair's down. One time I like cookie fumbles
• 19:54
  and it looked like I just kind of smeared it on my shirt.
• 19:56
  I caught it, but it it did look like I touched my shirt.
• 19:59
  And maybe I did touch my shirt a little bit.
• 20:00
  I don't really know. I don't remember, but people
• 20:02
  were like, that's disgusting. I'm like, you know, you're
• 20:04
  helping my algorithm right now, right?
• 20:05
  Like you, you kill me. So sometimes again, those
• 20:09
  techniques or controversial things can help you.
• 20:11
  Do you know what I used to do? I used to misspell things on
• 20:13
  purpose. Oh, and.
• 20:14
  Then people. Wouldn't starts correcting you
• 20:16
  in the comments like you, you've misspelled it, so maybe I didn't
• 20:19
  misspell it on purpose, or maybe maybe I did.
• 20:21
  I don't know. Maybe I did either way, it's my
• 20:23
  out to makeover my clumsy spelling.
• 20:27
  Speaking of so you know, talking about the technique of the
• 20:31
  piping bag. You worked in a great
• 20:33
  restaurant, The French Laundry and the French Laundry I think
• 20:35
  is really known for having some of the most impeccable technique
• 20:41
  in terms of and in terms of chefs and, and people that come
• 20:43
  out of there. I, I would, I think you can make
• 20:46
  the argument that Thomas Keller may have created the greatest
• 20:50
  legacy as a, as an American chef.
• 20:52
  So many great chefs, you know, your husband Matt, you know,
• 20:54
  people have gone and won the Bocusti or many other executive
• 20:57
  chefs. How much of an impact did
• 20:59
  working at The French Laundry have on you as a chef?
• 21:03
  Huge. It changed changed my life.
• 21:05
  And so when I first started cooking again, I worked for
• 21:07
  Kent. But the difference with Kent was
• 21:08
  that he, I mean, him and his wife like took me under their
• 21:11
  wing and they taught me everything I knew up to that
• 21:13
  because I was a very young cook when I started French Laundry.
• 21:16
  So when I started there, I was very green.
• 21:18
  And honestly, I felt like it didn't belong at first because
• 21:21
  it was like these guys who were felt because when you started
• 21:23
  French Laundry, you started to call me.
• 21:25
  And and it doesn't matter if you're the Matt Peters of the
• 21:28
  world or if you're me. Like you come in, you start as a
• 21:30
  comedy. And the thing with French Andre
• 21:33
  is you have to learn it their way.
• 21:34
  There's a million ways you could choose a bell pepper, but that
• 21:37
  you do it their way because they're they're convinced that
• 21:40
  their way. And most, most of the time it is
• 21:43
  the right way. It's just the most efficient.
• 21:44
  It's the most clean. It's the most, you know, you
• 21:47
  have less waste. So you just kind of drink the
• 21:51
  kool-aid when you go. But some places, I mean, when
• 21:55
  you drain the kool-aid, you just learn so, so much.
• 21:57
  So it taught me how to move quick.
• 22:00
  It taught me to shut my mouth and work hard.
• 22:02
  It taught me to the the techniques I learned there are
• 22:06
  crazy. Some of the stuff you know, like
• 22:08
  used to like Brunwall pine nuts and that's probably the.
• 22:11
  Least. Wait, did you say you're used?
• 22:13
  To brunwall pine nuts. Yes, we all yeah.
• 22:16
  Didn't, did not crumble. No, you would actually get them.
• 22:20
  You put get them real cold and then that makes it easier to
• 22:22
  dice them and so they don't crumble.
• 22:25
  There's lots of techniques that what.
• 22:27
  Would you serve the green one for?
• 22:31
  You'd like they'd put it in like a sauce that's cool.
• 22:33
  And then you know or. But I bet your fucking knife
• 22:35
  skills are badass, yes? Yeah, still to this day.
• 22:38
  I, I do, I, I don't whenever I get out in front of my team at
• 22:41
  cookie rich because like they don't use knife like they're not
• 22:44
  savory chefs. And so I do think I, I cook a
• 22:48
  lot at home because I do love and I miss that part of it
• 22:51
  because I, I am good with my knife even if I don't use it
• 22:53
  every day now. When you were there, so going to
• 22:56
  the French Laundry, obviously one of the greatest restaurants
• 22:58
  ever, what were the biggest things that you took away from
• 23:02
  that that now apply to what you're doing in Cookie Rich?
• 23:05
  Work ethic and like just the systems.
• 23:09
  So that's I, I everything, not the exact systems that I did
• 23:14
  there, but just the idea of having systems and working clean
• 23:18
  and finding better ways. I was telling my staff, is there
• 23:21
  a more efficient and clean way to do something?
• 23:24
  And you know that Let me know. I'm, I'm, I want to improve too.
• 23:27
  I'm not, I don't want to always like you have to do it my way.
• 23:29
  I want to do it my way because typically my way is the most
• 23:32
  clean and efficient way to do it and to get the best product.
• 23:34
  But if y'all, you have something, bring it to the
• 23:36
  table. But also just the work ethic.
• 23:39
  I mean, I used to work 15 hours a day and I, I looked forward to
• 23:43
  it. And so I just, I learned to just
• 23:47
  move quick and listen and, and be observant.
• 23:51
  I think that is one thing that I always teach my girls at cookie
• 23:54
  Rich is like, be aware of everything around you.
• 23:57
  So I'll walk in and I'm like, why is this this way?
• 23:59
  Why is this this way? Why is this this way?
• 24:01
  And they're like, I don't know. I'm like, well, you've been
• 24:03
  standing next to it all day. How did you not pay attention?
• 24:06
  And I think that's what they taught me because Thomas would
• 24:09
  come into the kitchen and you'd be prepping and all of a sudden
• 24:11
  he'd get out like a toothbrush and he'd like starts, you know,
• 24:14
  scrubbing the salamander. And he's like, did you not
• 24:16
  notice that? And I was like, oh, no, but you
• 24:19
  better bet. Every day I would look up and
• 24:21
  I'm like dirty, you know, So, and, and again, it was never in
• 24:25
  like a weird way. It was just always like you can
• 24:27
  always look around you and find to just do better and more
• 24:31
  efficient. So I just think my work ethic is
• 24:34
  probably the biggest thing. One of the things that I, I, I
• 24:37
  believe as a chef and I would practice this is I would always
• 24:40
  look at it is what's the shortest path to get to the most
• 24:43
  efficient or delicious result? Like how can we get there?
• 24:46
  Very efficient, very clean, very, very quick, but it still
• 24:49
  yields the best product. I also like the idea of the
• 24:53
  attention to detail and, and I love the idea of rapid
• 24:55
  prototyping to something I do is like, just keep going and keep
• 24:58
  tweaking it until you get to the ideal state.
• 25:01
  But it's never there, right? It keeps moving forward.
• 25:04
  Yeah. The better you get, the more you
• 25:05
  learn, the more you see you can improve.
• 25:07
  Yeah. Anyway, where were we?
• 25:10
  No. Well, OK, so for instance, for
• 25:12
  my cookies, right? Yeah, I started these cookies.
• 25:14
  I hand rolled every single one of them, like made them in
• 25:16
  batches. I hand rolled everyone.
• 25:18
  I, I did the piping back technique for the very
• 25:21
  beginning. So I would go and I'd like chill
• 25:23
  my fill and I would get efficient that way.
• 25:25
  But we eventually realized that like labor would get out of
• 25:29
  control if I forever would hand roll these cookies, but I needed
• 25:32
  them to be precise. So I went and searched all over
• 25:35
  and I found a cookie machine that now pre portions them and
• 25:38
  then I bake them in my mouth anyways.
• 25:39
  But it's, again, it's those ideas of just finding ways in
• 25:43
  your business that you can just make it better and faster.
• 25:46
  So now, Cookie Richard, by the way, people that don't know you
• 25:48
  ship everywhere. Yeah, yeah, I should.
• 25:51
  Nationwide, Not worldwide, but nationwide, all, all states.
• 25:54
  So Hawaii, even. People haven't tried them.
• 25:56
  Like honestly, they're the best cookies.
• 25:57
  I mean, like who, who, who you're competing with?
• 25:59
  Tiffs, treats, I don't know. Yeah, I mean the tiffs and the
• 26:02
  crumbles are usually like. Not as good.
• 26:06
  I like my cookies, yes. No, I love my cookies.
• 26:09
  I mean, The thing is I love is I like a barely big center of a
• 26:11
  cookie, so I don't like thinning crispy and so these are meant
• 26:15
  to. What is your favorite cookie
• 26:17
  that's not cookie rich? Like?
• 26:18
  What's your gas station cookie? Or like your grocery store
• 26:22
  cookie. Teddy VS is a great one here in
• 26:24
  Austin. It's like I think it's no, I
• 26:27
  don't think it's a half pound cookie.
• 26:28
  I don't know it's they I'll send one, I'll send some.
• 26:32
  And she she sells them in Central Market, but then she
• 26:33
  also has them like around coffee shops, but she does a lot of pop
• 26:36
  ups and they're just this giant fat cookie with a million
• 26:39
  chocolate chips in them. So but I just, I don't eat them
• 26:43
  enough and that's why I created this just because of like I
• 26:46
  don't eat those big fat cookies enough because if I do, I have
• 26:48
  just crazy stomach ache afterwards because they're like
• 26:51
  1000 calories and and. Yours are what, 100 you?
• 26:54
  Said like 130 or something, but I don't do it to be healthy.
• 26:57
  I just do it because like Matt, my husband does is not a does
• 27:00
  not have a sweet tooth. He will never eat sweets, but
• 27:03
  then I'll catch him eating these because he's like, well, I mean
• 27:06
  it doesn't like fill me up. It's just kind of give you
• 27:09
  something sweet and you move on. So.
• 27:11
  But yeah, I would say probably those, but I also like ice
• 27:14
  cream. What kind of ice cream?
• 27:15
  Eat a lot of cookies. Other than my own.
• 27:17
  Yeah. Besame is great.
• 27:19
  Do you remember? I don't even know if it still
• 27:20
  exists. Carvel had those ice cream
• 27:22
  cakes. Do you remember that?
• 27:23
  Who? Carvel?
• 27:24
  They were like famous for their ice cream cakes.
• 27:26
  What? No, you're going to have to send
• 27:27
  me this. I have no idea what.
• 27:28
  Yeah, they would make ice cream cakes.
• 27:30
  Carvel ice cream. You don't know what I'm talking
• 27:32
  about now. It was the best.
• 27:33
  Like you need ice cream cookies? I did do that.
• 27:36
  I did that for a while, yeah. Yeah.
• 27:37
  But then at our location, it's it's a food trailer and the
• 27:39
  freezer space just got crazy in the summer.
• 27:43
  And so we we, we just kind of paired it down and we don't do
• 27:46
  it anymore. But Amy's ice cream is what I
• 27:47
  grew up on. I got, I was talking about ice
• 27:49
  cream cakes. I got ice cream cake every year
• 27:51
  for my birthday. I got to still do just out of
• 27:53
  nostalgia but but yeah. But again, I know I'm surrounded
• 27:57
  by sweet so I don't eat them as much anymore.
• 27:59
  So for someone that's listening right now and is looking to
• 28:03
  become an entrepreneur, maybe they're not doing cookies, but
• 28:05
  maybe they're doing something else.
• 28:06
  What are some things that you look back on and say, I wish I
• 28:08
  had known this? I wish I had learned more about
• 28:10
  business because it's a lot of trial and error and it I mean
• 28:15
  some things have to took me 6 months to learn some of them I'm
• 28:17
  still learning and figure out better ways to do it.
• 28:20
  So I think understanding the model of if you're going to
• 28:23
  raise money and one, I think a lot of people raise money and
• 28:26
  they don't need to raise money. I think people underestimate the
• 28:29
  the value of just bootstrapping it because same thing like when
• 28:32
  you're talking about marketing, it's like if you set a marketing
• 28:35
  budget right at the gate, it takes a lot of money to do that.
• 28:38
  There's a lot of ways you could do it on your own.
• 28:40
  It may not be catapulture. You know, it's not that's just
• 28:44
  'cause you pay for it doesn't mean it's guaranteed anyways,
• 28:46
  right? So I think learning about
• 28:49
  marketing, learning about ads, learning about just basic
• 28:54
  business structure and how to break down labor costs.
• 28:56
  I mean, you'd be surprised how many chefs don't know like what
• 28:59
  percent labor should be at and what food costs should be.
• 29:03
  And you know, like, and so there are things like I purposely pay
• 29:07
  a certain price for these packaging, but then I cut down
• 29:10
  in other ways where I can to to make that experience still be
• 29:14
  there. So again, a lot of that I
• 29:16
  learned on the job, this company specifically.
• 29:18
  So if I would go back and do it again and I'd have time, I'd
• 29:21
  maybe like start some business courses alongside and basic
• 29:24
  accounting, you know, doing stuff that just I was a science
• 29:27
  major, so I never really focused on business and then I went
• 29:30
  straight into kitchens and you certainly don't learn business
• 29:32
  there. So that's what I would say is
• 29:35
  like start, start with that and then move forward.
• 29:39
  So when when do we start again? I know we were talking about the
• 29:41
  pandemic but when did when was cookie rich zero like this is
• 29:44
  the start date? Zero was like August 18th of
• 29:47
  2020 and I launched on Halloween.
• 29:50
  So now we're like four years, give or take, right?
• 29:52
  And in four years you've gotten to this point.
• 29:54
  If you had to start all over again from zero different
• 29:56
  company. So now you're doing, you know,
• 29:59
  Carvel ice Cream cakes. If you had to start from zero,
• 30:01
  how long do you think everything that you've learned now as an
• 30:04
  entrepreneur, how long do you think it would take you to get
• 30:07
  to the point you are now? Probably half the time, yeah.
• 30:10
  I think while I say that bootstrapping is a great way to
• 30:14
  do it, there's a certain point where like just bootstrapping
• 30:17
  forever, it'll just, you know, it's never going to make that
• 30:20
  next jump. So that's kind of where we're
• 30:21
  at. Cookie rich is I've seen the
• 30:25
  benefits to bootstrapping and doing things your own, but we're
• 30:28
  at a point where now it's like, all right, I've carried it as
• 30:30
  far as I can go. It's now time to like pour
• 30:33
  gasoline on it. So we're kind of in a gross
• 30:35
  stage of cookie rich of like, what's that phase?
• 30:38
  I've tried a bunch of things that I thought would be
• 30:40
  gasoline. They ended up not being working
• 30:43
  out, but I, I wouldn't have known that had I not gone
• 30:46
  through the process. And you know, perishable
• 30:48
  shipping, for instance, is a huge hurdle, but I'm trying to
• 30:51
  learn and get over now. So we're talking with lots of
• 30:54
  people of like, what's the next wave in perishable shipping and
• 30:57
  how do we get that to people for low cost, 'cause this is a
• 31:00
  perishable item, I can't just leave it in the mail for five
• 31:02
  days and those cookies will melt.
• 31:04
  So, Oh yeah. So I think knowing the things
• 31:07
  that I know now probably half the time, but depending on the
• 31:11
  product you never. What would be the ultimate
• 31:15
  success for Cookie Rich? Like when, when, what is the,
• 31:19
  what is the thing that you're chasing that you say, OK, when
• 31:20
  we hit this, we've made it. I mean, I have the very start
• 31:27
  when I so I have one investor and one partner and he's Gray.
• 31:31
  He's been a mentor of mine too. And he was like, what is the
• 31:33
  point like when you're I was doing the side of my house and
• 31:36
  he's like, what what is this trying to be?
• 31:37
  Are you just trying to be like a cute local bakery or is this a
• 31:40
  logistics company? And I was like the latter.
• 31:42
  I was like, I sure, great local bakery.
• 31:44
  That's amazing. But I didn't get into this
• 31:46
  business to just, you know, kind of keep it at a lower level.
• 31:49
  So I think in my mind, cookie rich would be nationwide.
• 31:53
  I think growing kind of the amenity and catering leg then
• 31:59
  could then support maybe having locations.
• 32:01
  But I think a lot of people do it the other way where they're
• 32:03
  like, they spend a ton of money up front to get locations, but
• 32:06
  it's a lot of overhead. So I I want to do with the
• 32:09
  reverse. So we've been kind of working on
• 32:11
  like we sell cookies in a lot of different ways that maybe aren't
• 32:14
  just direct to consumer, but it's building this bigger, you
• 32:19
  know, system that can hopefully support some in person locations
• 32:24
  and other areas of the country. I, I, I mean, I love your
• 32:26
  branding and I love, I mean, I love the cookie as well.
• 32:30
  Personally, I think you, like, you should be in every luxury
• 32:32
  boutique hotel, every luxury boutique grocery, like everyone
• 32:36
  should have anyone that's serious about food and offering
• 32:39
  some sort of quality, you know, cookie or croissant or anything
• 32:44
  like that. If you want to be taken serious,
• 32:46
  like in my opinion, that's where this.
• 32:47
  Belongs. OK, well you, you put it.
• 32:49
  So when I first started, I was like nationwide, we're going to
• 32:53
  ship nationwide to every person straight to their house.
• 32:56
  And we do that now. However, there is hurdles that
• 32:59
  come from perishable shipping. It is you got to ship it two
• 33:02
  days. So if someone lives in New York,
• 33:04
  it's like the shipping is almost as much as the cookies
• 33:06
  themselves, right? So that's a hard 1 to get over.
• 33:09
  So now we are switching to more amenities.
• 33:13
  So we're having hotels and big brands and stuff wanting to
• 33:16
  include us with them and the that becomes we're able to jump
• 33:22
  scale a little bit bigger that way.
• 33:24
  But for now it's like I'm trying to bring on maybe like five kind
• 33:27
  of amenity partners because also I went to, so the tip St's
• 33:32
  owners went to UT and so they did the symposium for Texas XS
• 33:36
  that I went to and it was like how to scale a cookie company.
• 33:38
  They were, I mean, that company is valued at $500 million.
• 33:42
  And so there's there's my end goal.
• 33:43
  I would like to be worth $500 million, then I will be gladly.
• 33:48
  I say no, But they said they go be careful about growing too
• 33:53
  quickly. And that was my question for
• 33:54
  them, for the audience is like, how much of it did you were
• 33:58
  those moments of like skyrocket growth versus just one step at a
• 34:01
  time? And they said when you do that
• 34:03
  skyrocket growth, you notice the cracks in your foundation and
• 34:06
  sometimes that then you spend a lot of money and time going back
• 34:09
  and fixing the problems that that's that fast growth cost.
• 34:13
  I won't like talk about it, but there's another big cookie
• 34:16
  company right now that's going through that.
• 34:17
  They expanded fast and now they're closing stores left and
• 34:20
  right. So they it's just you have to
• 34:24
  find that balance of growing enough that we don't just die,
• 34:28
  but also not going too crazy or else you might grow the wrong
• 34:32
  way. So you said something earlier
• 34:33
  that piqued my interest. You're talking about Kent and
• 34:36
  and Tracy being mentors. And by the way, I don't know if
• 34:38
  you remember this. I met you at their house.
• 34:40
  Yes, I know. Yeah.
• 34:40
  So we were doing a dinner. When was it?
• 34:43
  Yeah. Like 27?
• 34:44
  Yes, 2016, Maybe 2017. Yeah, 2016.
• 34:48
  Yeah, 2016 we were doing a dinner at Kenton and Tracys
• 34:52
  House and it was myself, Matt, you.
• 34:54
  I think it was Greg. Greg Backstrom.
• 34:57
  God, who else was there? Travis.
• 34:58
  Travis Travis from Cali. Yeah, and it was fun because
• 35:00
  then after that we went to get like drunk tacos at the gas
• 35:03
  station. Ken took us to some great gas
• 35:05
  station. Big truck, yeah.
• 35:07
  Yes, it was great. It was a good time that.
• 35:08
  Was a good. We drank a lot of good.
• 35:10
  Wine that night we did, it was fun.
• 35:11
  It was, it was a fun event Anyway, so you're talking about
• 35:13
  mentors and you have some great mentors.
• 35:15
  How important is mentorship for someone to to succeed?
• 35:20
  I think. I mean, I think without you
• 35:23
  can't possibly go to school for everything, right?
• 35:25
  And when you're our chef, you don't get I mean, you would
• 35:28
  spend years going to school was to learn some of these
• 35:30
  businessmen. So I think having a mentor that
• 35:32
  can guide you. So they took me from like I knew
• 35:35
  I didn't even know how to hold my knife properly.
• 35:38
  And Kat was like, you sure you want to get into this?
• 35:40
  Like, let me tell you, like, one, you're going to be really
• 35:41
  poor. Two, you're going to work really
• 35:43
  long hours. Three, you're going to be like a
• 35:45
  sweaty mess because it's a hot kitchen.
• 35:47
  You say define really poor defined really poor.
• 35:50
  I can confirm I was really poor and he was like and he's like
• 35:55
  Lauren, you know, you're a girls girl.
• 35:57
  You want to go like be a sweaty mess in the kitchen.
• 35:59
  And for whatever reason, I was like, this sounds fabulous.
• 36:02
  So I had 7/15 an hour when I first started cooking.
• 36:05
  I had three jobs to pay my rent. And this is this is
• 36:08
  transitioning right out of the university of.
• 36:11
  University of Texas and my dad goes so $100,000 education and
• 36:16
  now you're going to go do a career that you make 750 an hour
• 36:20
  and requires 0 education. I was like, yes, dad.
• 36:22
  And then he was like go get him. My parents have always been
• 36:25
  really, really supportive, but they were a little shocked at
• 36:29
  that move. But I was like, yeah, I know
• 36:30
  this is what I love to do. I'm going to do it, but can't.
• 36:33
  I mean, literally on my like half day off, I would go to
• 36:37
  their house and he would have me help prep for caterings.
• 36:39
  And here here's how you break down a bell pepper.
• 36:41
  Here's how you do this every. I mean, just every moment I was
• 36:44
  with them learning. And that's how ultimately I got
• 36:46
  my job at French Laundry was I flew with them.
• 36:49
  They were doing a wine dinner Napa.
• 36:50
  And they're like, come along like, you know, because I told
• 36:53
  them I go, I love Texas. Maybe one day I'll be back,
• 36:55
  which I did. But I was like, I if I'm going
• 36:57
  to be a really good cook, I want to go learn for some of the
• 37:00
  best. How long were you at?
• 37:02
  French Laundry I was I got there in 2011.
• 37:04
  I left in 13 I. Went to New York.
• 37:06
  Yeah, I went to New York. Yeah.
• 37:07
  So. So, yeah.
• 37:10
  So that's kind of how my got my job was flying up there with
• 37:13
  them and dodging around town. And then I stopped Thomas Keller
• 37:16
  in the garden. So you have mentorship there, is
• 37:19
  it? Do you have business mentorship
• 37:22
  also? Yes.
• 37:23
  So I have a kind of a business coach that has come on and I
• 37:29
  just, I met him through meetings with, he actually runs another
• 37:33
  company and he scaled the food business before.
• 37:36
  And then I have another group of kind of new mentors that I just
• 37:39
  met with God. They scaled one of the largest
• 37:41
  CBG companies in the country. And just so happened I went to
• 37:45
  high school with his son. And so I just randomly reached
• 37:48
  out. I was like, this is your same
• 37:49
  number. And he's like, yeah, so he
• 37:50
  brought me in and he runs like a cold chain shipping company now.
• 37:54
  And he was like, you should you need a great product and great
• 37:57
  idea, you should sit down with my uncle and my dad and really
• 37:59
  pick their brains. So now they like gave me their,
• 38:02
  you know, emails and numbers and they're like, let's we think you
• 38:05
  have something great. Let's So between like the my
• 38:07
  chefs that I've worked with, so Keller and Kent Raffman and
• 38:11
  Tracy, his wife, and then between my business mentors,
• 38:13
  which is kind of my business coach and kind of my new mentors
• 38:18
  that have come into play in the last couple of months and also
• 38:21
  like my map. I mean, he's.
• 38:25
  He's pretty good. He's pretty good.
• 38:26
  At what he does. And so I think he has always
• 38:28
  like, when I'm ready for an opinion, he gives it to me.
• 38:31
  And sometimes I'm like, yeah, fuck off.
• 38:33
  But sometimes I'm like, all right, that's actually really
• 38:35
  good, yeah. But the reason I ask is it's
• 38:38
  interesting, like I'm sure a lot of people look at you and the
• 38:39
  success that you've achieved and, and how much Cookie Rich
• 38:43
  has grown and you see it everywhere, especially if you
• 38:45
  live in Austin. Everyone knows Cookie Rich and
• 38:48
  you're still getting mentorship and I and I think a lot of
• 38:50
  people underestimate like you still need mentors throughout
• 38:52
  your life no matter where you are in the game.
• 38:54
  Oh yeah. Well, I want one.
• 38:55
  I mean, I didn't mean to leave him out, but I just kind of a
• 38:57
  natural mentor is, is my business partner.
• 39:00
  I mean, he has, he's actually an architect in town and that was
• 39:03
  his business. And so this is his first food
• 39:05
  business that he's invested in. But he, I mean, we sit down
• 39:08
  every single week and we go where financials and he goes
• 39:12
  over like, you know, teaches me kind of how to judge the
• 39:15
  financials and look at it. And you know, so it's I think
• 39:18
  that's been huge. It's just he's kind of been my
• 39:22
  my business side of like my financial side.
• 39:25
  And ultimately, like without him kind of guiding and putting in
• 39:29
  money was needed. I mean, cookie rich wouldn't be
• 39:31
  where it is. So I'm going to, I'm going to
• 39:33
  switch subjects a little bit. Chef's PSA, the podcast,
• 39:36
  everything that I do on social media is really designed.
• 39:38
  I mean, sometimes there's jokes and people get offended.
• 39:41
  I. Like it, I, I know I like those
• 39:43
  posts, the, the jokes and people need to lighten up.
• 39:45
  I mean, sometimes I, sometimes I'm just bored and I want to put
• 39:48
  up something funny anyway. But the real purpose of chef's
• 39:51
  PSA is to help people that don't have access to mentorship.
• 39:54
  So I want you to put on your chef's hat just for a minute.
• 39:56
  And this is like Lauren's best advice for young chefs coming
• 40:00
  into the kitchen. You're right out of culinary
• 40:03
  school or it's your first job. What is something that you think
• 40:06
  every green cook needs to know before they step into their
• 40:09
  first kitchen? They're right out of culinary
• 40:11
  school, so they already have knife skills.
• 40:12
  They already had the basics I think is starting at the bottom
• 40:19
  and working their way up. I think a lot of people rush to
• 40:22
  get from zero to 60. I think it takes starting out
• 40:28
  is, you know, just this prep cooker is dishwasher and really
• 40:31
  observing and learning and having those mentorships from
• 40:34
  other cooks around you instead of just like I, I always it
• 40:38
  baffles me when someone gets out of culinary school and like is a
• 40:40
  sous chef out the gate. Like I don't like that you
• 40:42
  haven't cooked for very long, you know, and it's not about
• 40:44
  your skill. You can have great skills, but
• 40:46
  there's so much that goes. So I think to me, don't, don't
• 40:51
  be such a rush, especially if you're coming out of culinary
• 40:53
  school at a young age. Like I mean, I, I didn't start
• 40:56
  my business till mid 30s. Like Matt's opening his first
• 40:59
  place at 40, Thomas Keller open, you know, at 40, like there's so
• 41:05
  there's such a rush. And so I would say slow down and
• 41:09
  learn and like absorb as much as possible.
• 41:14
  Take practice your skills. Obviously you're going to go
• 41:16
  nowhere if you said like, you know, like practice it, but
• 41:19
  don't be afraid to just, you know, I mean, I lived in some,
• 41:22
  you know, shitty apartments and, you know, guest rooms of people
• 41:25
  so that I could take the job that I wanted and then maybe
• 41:29
  didn't pay as much, but I that's where I learned the most, so.
• 41:33
  Now, if you want to accelerate your career so someone is good,
• 41:36
  you recognize that they have the potential in them and that they
• 41:38
  could really go places, but they just need someone to steer them
• 41:41
  in the right direction, what advice would you give them to
• 41:44
  accelerate their career? Get involved like so there's so
• 41:49
  many ways now to reach out to other chefs.
• 41:51
  There's Instagram, you know, there's, there's all the social
• 41:53
  medias, there's LinkedIn where you can go, I also think.
• 41:57
  That and can I stop you just right there, sorry.
• 41:59
  So for a lot of people that DM, because I get a ton of DMS.
• 42:02
  I mean, I probably get like 50 to 100 DMS a day and I try to
• 42:04
  respond to all of them that are questions.
• 42:06
  I don't respond to them that are like just hearts or whatever.
• 42:08
  But I I think LinkedIn is underrated because no one DMS on
• 42:11
  LinkedIn so you can't get a hold of someone.
• 42:14
  Like someones DM ING me for a week on Instagram and I don't
• 42:16
  see it but they DM me once on on LinkedIn I see it right away.
• 42:19
  So anyway I think LinkedIn is very underrated to get ahold of
• 42:22
  someone. I did mean.
• 42:23
  To so with that, if you know like Realtors, there are big
• 42:26
  things like they're low the totem pole.
• 42:27
  It's like door knocking. Don't be afraid to show up where
• 42:31
  the chefs are. I mean you.
• 42:32
  How did you get involved with Mentor?
• 42:33
  Yeah, I don't know, just started showing.
• 42:35
  I just like, hey, what are you doing?
• 42:36
  I want to be involved. I think you read them Omni Yeah,
• 42:38
  in. Greek.
• 42:39
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Started you, like, hosted a
• 42:40
  dinner? Yeah.
• 42:41
  And then you just started showing up and now you know all
• 42:45
  those chefs in that circle. It's kind of like I'm Matt
• 42:49
  Sterling. He just DM Matt was like, you
• 42:52
  want to grab a beer and they just started cooking together.
• 42:54
  And then now he travels with Matt all over and ultimately
• 42:56
  they cook together now. But that's, I mean, I told you
• 43:00
  my story about how I got my job at Fresh Laundry, right?
• 43:02
  Yeah, yeah, you just. Like I literally no, I did the
• 43:04
  garden. Maybe I know this story.
• 43:07
  Oh yeah, so this is this is like my don't be afraid to just show
• 43:11
  up. I, I went to the garden while I
• 43:14
  was in there. I stalled just some other
• 43:15
  restaurants, but I was like, well, I'm not just going to
• 43:17
  like, how do I, how do I meet Thomas?
• 43:19
  How do I, like, give my spiel to him about how I want to get a
• 43:22
  job? Because you can e-mail and DM
• 43:24
  them all day long and they get thousands of people, right?
• 43:26
  So I just, I went on that trip with my old boss, went and did
• 43:29
  some stages and I showed up in the garden and I kind of stalked
• 43:33
  the gardener at the time. And I pretended like I hadn't
• 43:36
  stalked him, but I was like, oh, you're the gardener.
• 43:37
  Oh, yeah, here's why I'm here. I'm trying to get a job.
• 43:40
  And he was like, oh, you're in luck.
• 43:42
  Chef Kelly's about to walk across the the road.
• 43:44
  I was like, what? And so sure enough, he there's a
• 43:46
  camera crew in the garden. And so here comes Thomas and his
• 43:49
  assistant. And I was like, all right, now
• 43:51
  is the time to have some balls. And so I just walked straight up
• 43:55
  to him. Give me a job I was.
• 43:57
  Like I walked up, I kid you not, I was.
• 44:00
  And I just took up my hand and my name is Lauren Grant at the
• 44:03
  time. And I was like, I'm Lauren
• 44:04
  Grant. I was like, I'm a young cook
• 44:05
  from Texas. I've only been cooking for a few
• 44:07
  years, but I would love to come work for you.
• 44:10
  And he stopped, told the camera crew just to hold off.
• 44:14
  And he sat there and talked to me for 20 minutes.
• 44:16
  And he's asked me all about like what I went to school for.
• 44:19
  How did I get, did I go to culinary school, which I did
• 44:21
  not. And so how has that been?
• 44:23
  How have I learned? And I was like, I've been
• 44:25
  working with my chef. And so he just sat there,
• 44:27
  chatted, gave me his card that has like where to send his
• 44:30
  resume or my resume. And then that was it.
• 44:34
  So had I not showed up and obviously.
• 44:36
  Yeah, show up. Flying out to Napa, it might be
• 44:39
  a little bit of a, you know, a big move for people, but you
• 44:42
  like when you go to restaurants, how many people just show up to
• 44:44
  your kitchen and be like, hey, chef, I'm so and so versus just
• 44:47
  emailing you a resume. Yeah, I mean, if you show up and
• 44:49
  you're professional and you shake your shake my hand, I'll
• 44:51
  and this is like a good tip because this I was stupid and I
• 44:54
  fell for this, but it was a good trick.
• 44:56
  It's like you nothing's worse than when you're interviewing
• 44:59
  someone and then you say, do you have any questions?
• 45:02
  They don't even know who you are.
• 45:03
  Like, like you wait a minute, you want to work for me, You
• 45:06
  want to work in my restaurant, but you don't know who I am.
• 45:07
  And and I know it's like an ego flex, but it's like, do some
• 45:10
  research. Like everyone loves their ego
• 45:11
  getting struck. Everybody like no one wants to
• 45:14
  feel like, wait, there's plenty of other people that want to
• 45:16
  hire, that want to work here, who know me and want to work and
• 45:20
  you don't even know who I am. Well, there's a reason why
• 45:23
  people want to work for you, right?
• 45:24
  And I think it's because they've known your past.
• 45:25
  Yeah. Yeah, but I I think just being
• 45:28
  respectful during the interview, show up, shake hands, be
• 45:30
  presentable. Don't be, don't be weird, right?
• 45:33
  That's another. That's another one.
• 45:35
  Yeah. I mean, I could get into weird
• 45:36
  stories, but I won't because maybe they're listening.
• 45:38
  No, I love weird. Stories.
• 45:39
  No, no, I'm not going to. Well, here's a here's a weird
• 45:41
  question, because you were talking about the garden.
• 45:44
  Matt told me to ask you something about a pumpkin.
• 45:46
  Oh my God. Yeah.
• 45:47
  So there's a story. So Matt.
• 45:50
  OK, so for those listening, my husband is chef Matt Peters.
• 45:53
  He worked, he's one of Thomas Keller's proteges.
• 45:57
  He worked for Thomas for eight years.
• 45:59
  He then went and competed in Boku store, ultimately won it.
• 46:01
  Lot it up. You talked to him.
• 46:03
  He's one of the most humble guys.
• 46:04
  So I'm like his cheerleader from the sideline on all of that.
• 46:06
  But he was my sous chef long before we ever went on a date
• 46:10
  and I hated the guy for like 8 months.
• 46:13
  Like came in, He was very stern. He never partied with that.
• 46:16
  Like he never went and got like got beers with people after
• 46:18
  after their shift. So he just, he was like always a
• 46:20
  mystery and he would just yell at people.
• 46:22
  But we all respected him because he was the best, one of the best
• 46:25
  chefs in the kitchen. So we're like, all right, all
• 46:27
  right, he can yell because we respect him and it's fine.
• 46:29
  But I, it was like my first week and they bring in from the
• 46:33
  garden. It's like most of Provence
• 46:34
  pumpkin, which is giant nose. I mean, I'm a small girl.
• 46:38
  Like if you're not watching this, like 5 three, I think I
• 46:41
  was like 100 lbs at the time. And I got this giant pumpkin
• 46:44
  that was like the size of myself.
• 46:45
  And they gave me some hacksaw. They're like juice this pumpkin.
• 46:49
  It's like what, like juice it? I mean, and at that point I
• 46:51
  hadn't learned all the procedures of like, you know,
• 46:54
  this is the French Laundry way of how you do things.
• 46:56
  I'm like, all right, here's me and this pumpkin.
• 46:58
  So I just, it's at 5:30 in the morning and I just go at it.
• 47:02
  I'm listen, I'm juicing the pumpkin.
• 47:03
  However, Matt walks in and like barrels around the corner and
• 47:07
  he's like, what the fuck are you doing?
• 47:09
  I was like, oh, he's just like just this pumpkin.
• 47:12
  It is everywhere, Andre. Like there's ceiling that has
• 47:17
  exploded on the ceiling. It was all over the back
• 47:21
  kitchen. He's like, why are you hiding
• 47:22
  back? I'm not hiding.
• 47:23
  This is where you gave me the pumpkin.
• 47:25
  I physically couldn't lift it to any other prep.
• 47:28
  So I stayed here in the back. It was and then so he started
• 47:31
  yelling at me and was like, what the fuck?
• 47:32
  Like, why are you doing it this way?
• 47:34
  This is this is the biggest hot mess I've ever seen.
• 47:37
  And then he's like, why? He's talking to me, realizes
• 47:39
  there's pumpkin on my face that had like splattered back.
• 47:44
  And he says it took everything inside.
• 47:46
  I'm not to just laugh at me, but he's like, I had to keep my
• 47:48
  composure to like have that intense moment with you.
• 47:51
  He's like, look at you. It's on your fucking face.
• 47:54
  I was like, yeah, so then I just like spent an hour cleaning up
• 47:58
  his pumpkin. Story goes, I juiced the
• 48:01
  pumpkin. It's just getting there was the
• 48:04
  most non French Laundry way and you could have ever juiced the
• 48:08
  pumpkin. Well, well, what's the French
• 48:09
  Laundry way to juice a pumpkin? I'm very I'm very curious.
• 48:12
  There is a way of like you had your deli tray and then you had
• 48:15
  your pans and you had to like juice it a certain way with your
• 48:18
  strainer in this. And like, you know, I probably
• 48:22
  tried to attack the pumpkin. I should have broken it down
• 48:24
  into smaller pieces and then started taking off.
• 48:26
  I probably just was like just going at it.
• 48:30
  So that was anyways, that was a funny story.
• 48:31
  He tried to like do it as a toast for our wedding.
• 48:34
  And I was like, he changed his mind.
• 48:35
  I was like, thank God. If I ever figure out and I'm
• 48:37
  pretty close, pretty soon I will have animated videos for chef's
• 48:40
  PSA. Like I'm I'm very close with my
• 48:42
  AI skills where I could I'm going to turn this into an
• 48:44
  animated cartoon. Have you juiced the pumpkin at
• 48:48
  the French lottery? Listen, I could tell you my
• 48:50
  whole story. We can write another fiction.
• 48:52
  Book if you. Want We'll make it anonymous.
• 48:55
  I can tell like my real funny stories I don't really want to
• 48:57
  talk about. That's that's too funny.
• 48:59
  That's too funny. Anyways, that's my pocket story.
• 49:01
  OK. So last question, 22 parter,
• 49:05
  Chef's PSA, if you have a billboard out there and it's
• 49:10
  something in that people need to stop doing Chef's PSA, stop
• 49:13
  doing this or Chef's PSA, start doing this or both, what are
• 49:17
  they? Stop being so sensitive.
• 49:20
  I I feel I'm a very compassionate boss and I feel
• 49:23
  like my girls are probably not very sensitive but I feel like I
• 49:26
  don't know. I just feel like a lot of people
• 49:28
  are just really sensitive in life, specifically cooks these
• 49:30
  days I feel. Like if I was bad sensitive.
• 49:33
  Be open to jokes A. Long time ago, I really would
• 49:35
  have just gotten fired at the kitchen because you couldn't
• 49:37
  handle it. Start doing is just move your
• 49:42
  ass like work a little faster. I feel like that's something
• 49:45
  that unless you've worked in a kitchen that has that sense of
• 49:48
  urgency and everyone around you is showing you that.
• 49:52
  I'm surprised at how many people just kind of puts around.
• 49:55
  And I feel like that if I, if someone works like comes in
• 49:58
  interviews with me and they are not running around like an
• 50:01
  idiot, There's there's there's you can be two cents of urgency
• 50:04
  and it look like an idiot, but like you just put your head down
• 50:07
  and you work hard and you go fast.
• 50:09
  I I'm that impresses me probably the most is just not pets in
• 50:13
  around. I, I've worked with a lot of
• 50:15
  chefs and usually when I work with someone who's come from,
• 50:18
  from French Laundry or Thomas Keller's group, you can usually
• 50:21
  spot them because they work very efficient, like, and, and fast
• 50:23
  like they have a certain, there's a certain pace that they
• 50:26
  have that is different from other chefs that I've worked
• 50:29
  with. And I I can't really put my
• 50:30
  finger on it, but. It was drilled into a sense of
• 50:33
  urgency under every clock. The kitchen and I mean they
• 50:36
  would, they would time you and you'd, I mean they would let you
• 50:38
  know if you weren't doing things fast.
• 50:40
  Like I, I used to be able to time myself.
• 50:42
  They'd like Chuck 22 dozen oysters in an hour, Chucky and
• 50:45
  trim. 22 dozen. Yeah, but then not just
• 50:48
  chucking. Yeah, trim the but.
• 50:49
  Then you had to trim them, like, yeah, I mean, because at French
• 50:52
  Lodge you don't use full oyster. Yeah, yeah, you get oysters and
• 50:55
  pearls. Very.
• 50:55
  Very important dish exactly so, but I use I mean, we would, but
• 50:58
  that's like I still remember that what however many years
• 51:02
  later, because it was just drilled into me of like I would
• 51:04
  tie myself to get faster every single day.
• 51:07
  Well, how do you approach work life balance, especially not not
• 51:12
  just with cookie rich, but how did you also approach it as a
• 51:14
  chef? Honestly, I think understanding
• 51:18
  that kind of like what we said earlier about the taking, like
• 51:22
  eating the elephant one bite at a time, I think is important
• 51:25
  because people, people ask me a lot because I'm a mom of two
• 51:27
  kids. I'm married to a chef.
• 51:29
  They're like, are you guys both idiots for both being
• 51:31
  entrepreneurs? Like, I mean, they, I get asked
• 51:33
  that question a lot. Now if that's open, they're
• 51:35
  like, why are you both entrepreneurs?
• 51:37
  Like, why didn't one of you go be out of the corporate job?
• 51:39
  And I was like, because we love what we do and like we're here
• 51:41
  to support each other. So I don't do it all.
• 51:44
  I don't, you know, I'm I see my kids, We do, I think a great job
• 51:48
  at just keeping it. Do I get as much downtime or
• 51:51
  relaxation? It's not ever personal time.
• 51:53
  Maybe not, but I like to think of it as a phase in life.
• 51:57
  Honestly, right now is growth. Like I'm growing my kids, I'm
• 52:01
  growing our businesses and as long as we know, like our house
• 52:05
  might be totally upside down half the time, but I'd rather
• 52:09
  leave it like that so that when I am with my kids, I'm like
• 52:11
  spending quality, you know, making them good humans and, you
• 52:14
  know, just to having good quality time.
• 52:16
  Like we'll go peace out and go up to the restaurant just to go
• 52:19
  see daddy for dinner. And we'll just go pick up some
• 52:21
  food versus cooking at home. And then I'll come home and I'll
• 52:24
  crash. I'm not a late night.
• 52:25
  Like I don't come home and like work, then like put my kids down
• 52:28
  to keep working. I use that time just to chill.
• 52:31
  How do? You handle burnout, I mean, and
• 52:33
  where do you fall on burnout? But that's where I think that's
• 52:35
  how I don't burn out is that I know I can always do more.
• 52:38
  Like sometimes I like think to myself, I'm like, gosh, like
• 52:41
  maybe if I would just like put my kids down to work for like 2
• 52:43
  hours a night on, you know, my marketing plan or answering
• 52:47
  emails or, you know, doing some of the stuff that I, I didn't
• 52:50
  get done during the day that day that I give myself a hard stop
• 52:54
  and I say when I get home that if there's something really
• 52:56
  important, I'll be like, all right, kids, let's throw in the
• 52:58
  movie. I got to get this out.
• 52:59
  But I, I spend time with my kids, I put them down and then I
• 53:04
  chill. And then I don't, I'm not like
• 53:06
  an all lighter kind of person because I think.
• 53:09
  That yeah, you ended the party earlier the other day.
• 53:12
  I like to. Energize your Bunny.
• 53:14
  If you can't tell, I'm very high energy.
• 53:16
  I talk fast and I go, go, go, go, go and then I crash.
• 53:20
  That is just like a constant. Like you meet him, he's a pretty
• 53:23
  chill. Guy.
• 53:24
  But he he could go 24/7, all I mean for and he never burns out
• 53:28
  me. I go really hard and then I
• 53:32
  crash. I just allow myself to crash
• 53:36
  every day, a little bit every day and then I get up and I do
• 53:38
  it all over again. But it's not in a bad way.
• 53:40
  Like I'm not one of those people who like drink 5 cups of coffee
• 53:43
  a day or drink energy drinks or do anything to keep like I'm
• 53:47
  just I just. Do what I can.
• 53:50
  You have that natural high. Yeah.
• 53:51
  I just want to just do what I can and know that like I'm
• 53:54
  always trying to achieve more like I will burn out.
• 53:57
  So I just, I let life happen and I'll get there.
• 54:01
  It may take me maybe a couple more years to grow the business
• 54:03
  versus working 24/7 on it for a couple years, but I'm OK with
• 54:07
  that because I enjoy my life, hang with my friends, see my
• 54:10
  kids. There you go.
• 54:10
  Yeah. Lauren, this was fun.
• 54:12
  Where can people find you? Where can people follow you?
• 54:14
  Where can people? All right, get cookie rich is
• 54:16
  pretty much everything. Get cookie rich.com Get cookie
• 54:18
  rich on Instagram. Yeah, you can order online, you
• 54:24
  can do local delivery and come pick up.
• 54:26
  See us at our in person location in Tarrytown or you can ship
• 54:29
  nationwide. Awesome.
• 54:30
  Well, it's great to. See you.
• 54:31
  I know. Good to see you too.
• 54:32
  Thanks for having me on. Well, I hope you enjoyed that
• 54:33
  interview with Lauren Peters. If you want to go find out more
• 54:36
  about what she's doing, go to Get Cookie Rich.
• 54:38
  You can follow her on Instagram, go get her cookies.
• 54:40
  They're amazing. But also, if you want support
• 54:42
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• 54:54
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• 54:59
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• 55:02
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