Conversations with Salpy Bedrosian

Today we’d like to introduce you to Salpy Bedrosian.

Hi Salpy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m a LA native and a proud product of Armenian & Egyptian Immigrants. I grew up in the valley, with two loving and extremely hardworking parents, but spent most of my childhood in Santa Monica with my grandparents while my parents were working. I have always been surrounded by powerful and hardworking women who could throw down in the kitchen like no other (amongst other things).

I don’t know the exact moment my life became food-centric, but I can remember that food and feeding people have been my love language for as long as I can remember. Whether it was my mom’s, aunt’s, or grandmother’s cooking, food always brought us together. It always represented love, family, and togetherness. Watching my grandmother and mother in the kitchen baking different kinds of cookies, cakes, and dishes all from memory was always so beautiful and mind-blowing to me. In high school, I found myself reinventing traditional recipes with a modern twist. Baking became like therapy. I would bake to get my mind off things, destress, or see what new boundaries I could push with food. The dope part about that was sharing all the goods with the ones I loved. The reaction I would get from people was always a little shocking to me. I made this…and you…love it? You want more? I was so confused. It never struck me as something that I could do for a living. My two childhood best friends fought over an oreo cheesecake I made once because one ate the other’s piece when they weren’t looking.

As I grew older, I continued baking goods and sharing them with family, friends, and coworkers. I would post pictures on MySpace (That ages me, doesn’t it?) and Facebook, and people would reach out and ask me to make them things. I still never entertained baking as more than anything than a hobby. As life went on, I did the responsible thing and worked “stable” jobs. I worked for LAUSD for almost ten years, and then in corporate America in the travel industry. I hadn’t been unemployed since I was 17, and then Covid-19 happened. I found myself without a job for the first time in my adult life and had no idea what to do with myself. Like many others, I did some significant soul searching and found myself baking and cooking like nobody’s business with all my newfound free time. While I tried to keep quarantine interesting, I started scrambling to figure out what I would do with the rest of my life. I had applied to jobs, wasn’t hearing anything back, and couldn’t continue on unemployment forever.

With a brother in the restaurant industry and a boyfriend who was pushing his agenda on how I needed to pursue this hobby, I fought their constant suggestions until one day in June, my aunt found my grandmother’s handwritten Armenian recipe book and gifted it to me – a book I never knew existed. It felt like it had a golden aura and like angels starting singing when I opened it. Something that had been so unclear to me for so long suddenly made total sense; I took this as the ultimate sign and decided to stop flirting with the idea and see it through. I spent most of my savings buying supplies, reading on what I needed to do to make everything legit, and spent day and night perfecting all my recipes. In July, Got The Goods Los Angeles was born. I now have a website where I fulfill client orders and work with Craft Services on different movie & TV sets, providing them with goodies for the cast & crew.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Is there such thing as a “smooth road”? Haha… I mean, no, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. I don’t think anything with a beautiful outcome ever starts with a smooth road. To be honest, I’ve always been the main problem, my own worst enemy, if you will. I fought something people had been pushing me to pursue for years because I was programmed to believe that chasing your dreams or pursuing your passion didn’t pay the bills. Baking was one thing I would give as an answer when someone asked me what my ultimate dreams were made of. Losing my job shook me and came at a terrible time. Aside from Covid-19, I was having the worst year of my life. Before Covid, I thought to myself, could things get *any* worse? And the universe said, hold my beer. It took me a really, really, long time for things just to start making any real sense. I was basically waking up every day totally miserable and unsure, feeling like there had to be more to all this. Aside from the curveballs life kept throwing, I was full of crippling self-doubt and fear. I couldn’t even imagine anybody giving my desserts the time of day, given LA’s saturated market for amazing food. After all, I was just a girl with a dream.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I do all things sweet. I want everything to feel like the home-baked goods you grew up on, but elevated. I’m all about keeping things authentic, fresh, and delicious, and want it to feel like a little bit of home for everyone. I never wanted to be the traditional cookie-cutter sort of baker. I try to keep things OG and add my own flare. I am super adamant about keeping a home-baked vibe. I was most nervous about that because it leaves a lot of room for judgment. I didn’t want every cookie or cupcake to look the same. I wanted it to feel like a real-life person made this especially for you, and put so much love and thought into it, and for every good to be unique. I see someone eating something you made as a super intimate experience. I think the fact that people are trusting you with their taste buds is the highest honor. I have to say I’m probably best known for my cookies. I am fortunate enough to be currently working with craft services on different film and tv sets, and my cookies opened that door for me. The amount of love I’ve received for them is so overwhelming.

When people started telling me it was the best cookie they’ve ever had, I would ask them if they were sure just about 100 times and then cry because I couldn’t believe it. People would tell me they were dreaming about them, or how they would eat them, warmed up in the microwave, with ice cream, etc… It’s so cool for me to think that I get to be a part of that and make someone happy. Working with craft services has been beyond my wildest dreams. For my cookies to be good enough for Hollywood? I still can’t believe thats even a thing. Every cookie is like a little love letter, and when that’s well-received, there is no more incredible feeling. I’m most proud of being able to give back and help out my community. When I started Got The Goods LA, I had a vision of donating to charities monthly and baking cookies for events that would help raise funds for causes near and dear to my heart. Even though I’m just getting started, I have already been fortunate enough to contribute to a few meaningful social justice causes and events.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
To be honest, Covid has made it super challenging to network in the traditional sense of the word. I’ve also been very focused on launching that I haven’t had much time to focus on anything else. However, I am fortunate to be surrounded by an incredibly supportive group of friends and family who have helped make the difficult circumstances a lot easier to deal with, not just by placing orders but by spreading the word and driving business my way.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: gotthegoodsla.com
• Instagram: @gotthegoods.la