Exploring Life & Business with Joy Nomorosa of Mana Bakery

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joy Nomorosa

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?
Baking has always been a passion of mine ever since I took my first baking class when I was 9. Our family used to own a small bakeshop by the church somewhere in the Philippines, and I remember summers when my mom would allow me to sell some of my baked goods in the store to earn some pocket money. While I dreamed of going to culinary school, I took the practical route and went on to become an IT professional instead. That passion never really left, though, as I continued to learn new techniques and to do baking side hustles even with a full-time job. Being away from the Philippines for work and study led me to appreciate the flavors of my home town even more, pushing me to experiment on combining favorites in Filipino cuisine with more western techniques and influences. Friends and family both in the Philippines and here in the US loved my creations, and encouraged me to open up a small business offering them for sale. This is how my current business, Mana Bakery, was born.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Operating a business has its fair share of struggles, but starting a business as an immigrant adds another layer of complexity that I wasn’t anticipating. I realized I had to learn the laws here in terms of starting an enterprise (some I’m still figuring out), and though I have some family in the area who have given incredible support, I didn’t have a vast network of people I could tap to help me market my products.

When I was contemplating starting the business, I had a notebook full of my own tried and tested recipes that people loved but that I realized was not acceptable for a home bakery to make. Honestly, this was a huge setback for me, one that discouraged me from even attempting to start. But I looked at the mirror, gave myself a pep talk, and decided to change my mindset. I then took it as a challenge, and started adapting my recipes to conform to regulation. Constantly giving myself that challenge and coming up with new and creative recipes is still one of my favorite parts of the job.

While I enjoy the baking part of the business a lot, being a small business owner also means having to do the marketing and selling of the products. As an introvert, this was really something that I struggled with, and something that I need to psych myself up for every time I join a popup or food fair. But people have been so kind and have been so open about learning more about my culture, so the load gets a little lighter every time.

The next challenge for me is to grow the business by joining more fairs and popups so that people get to know Mana even more.

We’ve been impressed with Mana Bakery, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Mana, the Filipino word for inheritance, offers up baked goods inspired by Filipino culture and heritage. We offer cakes, cookies, and breads all with unique flavor combinations. Some of our best-selling cake flavors include Tsoko Latik (chocolate cake with coconut caramel), Ube S’mores (purple yam cake with purple yam jam frosting, graham cookie butter, chocolate fudge, and toasted marshmallow frosting), and Turon (banana cake with candied walnuts and jackfruit frosting). We offer all our cake flavors in a regular 8″ size, a smaller 6″ size, and as a cake in a jar. Our best selling cookie is the melt-in-your mouth brown butter polvoron snowball cookie, inspired by a milk cookie called polvoron that is a childhood favorite of mine from the Philippines. Breads are our newest offering, a babka-like knotted version with ube (purple yam) jam filling. As a home-based bakery, all our products are for pre-order and for pickup. Some customization is available, as well as custom packaging for events and bulk orders.

While Filipinos are one of the largest immigrant populations in the US, our cuisine is really not very well known in the global stage. And so apart from the baked goods, my mission with Mana Bakery is really to introduce all of these amazing flavors from the Philippines to anybody who is interested, and to present them in a way that people will appreciate and enjoy. This has been my driving force for starting my business and my motivation for keeping it fresh with new products and offerings.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I love how LA is such a diverse and multi-faceted city, thus inspiring creativity in everything from street art to food. The city is always alive with new activities, like artistic performances, art installations, food fairs and popups, exhibitions, and festivals. So for such a big and populous city, you always feel a sense of togetherness, and you always find a community to call your own. I love how because of its diversity, people are so open about learning from different cultures and trying new things.

The worst part of LA is the traffic!

Contact Info:

• Website: http://manabakery.shop
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manabakeryla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Mana-Cakes-Pastries-61552283968088/