Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabby Fernandez
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
For someone who hates to wear hats, I seem to wear plenty of them. I’m the associate director, audience at Vox.com, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California (my alma mater), and I run my precious small business: Bestie’s Baking.
It’s hard to remember when I started baking. Some of my fondest childhood memories involved watching my mom run her own small baking business. Our family kitchen always smelled like vanilla and whipped cream, and accompanying my mom to drop off a beautiful quinceanera or birthday cake was part of a normal weekend routine. I always wanted to help – even if I was in the way – and especially if I got to eat some scraps leftover from her leveling work.
In high school, it delighted me to bake cupcakes for friends’ birthdays. After college, I reveled in the challenge of trying vegan recipes. I started baking cookies often and bringing them to every social gathering. I made an Instagram account to document my baking adventures.
Before I knew it, my friends were making requests and would consistently ask me when I was going to start selling cookies. As a full time journalist and part time professor, I was worried about adding on an additional workload and frankly nervous to fail. I started making small orders for friends, and I’ll never forget my first sale! With the continuous hype from my amazing partner Matt and my pals, I officially launched in the fall of 2023.
As of May 2024, I bake cookies for both locations of Crazy Fish in San Pedro. I am always so grateful for my friend Patrick Garcia, who believed in me, and has always trusted me to bake for the restaurants he manages.
It brings me so much joy to add sweetness to people’s lives. Being able to be a part of people’s days, whether it’s to take part in a celebration or to simply end their meal on a satisfying note, is something I’ll never take for granted.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Like any small business, there’s definitely been a learning curve. From figuring out how to properly time manage to testing out different recipes to figuring out the cadence of ordering supplies, there are new obstacles every week, but nothing that can’t get figured out! Scaling to bake more than I ever have before in a home kitchen has been difficult at times. It gets literally messy (love flour’s omnipresent role in my life) and frustrating when things don’t turn out the way I expect them to, but it is the most rewarding experience.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Bestie’s Baking?
Bestie’s Baking is a small baking business in San Pedro, California. You can find our cookies at both locations of Crazy Fish. In addition, you can check out @bestiesbakingla to place orders. We’re best known for our cookies – people love our Oreo white chocolate chip and our peanut Butterfinger chocolate chunk cookies in particular. These are not your average cookies. I am a self trained baker and you can taste the passion and effort I put into each cookie, no matter how large the order is. They are THICK and filling. I do not operate with a cookie cutter approach, which is part of each dessert’s charm. In addition, we’re constantly thinking about which new recipes to try next and love to rotate out our flavors. We love implementing customer feedback into our work and suggestions are both welcome and encouraged!
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
It might be surprising to folks that I juggle so many roles! I am always reminded of the memes of people saying they don’t know what their best friend actually does for work so let me explain. In my journalism role, I own our homepage strategy and on-site packaging, think constantly about our site’s analytics, help launch and maintain newsletters, and work with partners like Apple News. I’ve taught at USC since I was 23, and I’m going on my fifth year. I currently teach a course called “Engaging Diverse Communities,” where we question problematic news frames and discuss how we can create new ones
What I personally find surprising is how much each of my professional roles melds into one another in ways I never expected. Just like in journalism, I learn something new every time I bake. Baking requires the ability to be analytical and creative, something I encounter in my day-to-day. Whenever I’m making cookies, I’m thinking about how to incorporate people’s feedback and questions into something actionable, just like I do in my audience role. Like teaching, it requires patience and adaptability.
Lastly, people may not know how much work I accomplish with my boyfriend Matt, who has been my partner in every sense of the word. He’s behind the scenes with me offering new flavor suggestions, helping me package orders, and motivating me when it is late and I have every urge to turn the oven off and go to bed. It’s a joy to work together.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @bestiesbakingla
