Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Bell and Jenny Engel.
Heather and Jenny, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We went vegan close to 20 years ago in college as we were both Environmental Science majors and made the connection between what we put in our body and how that directly impacts our planet. It was soon clear we needed to be vegan for life. We started Spork Foods because we always wanted a sister business, where we could eat lunch together every day. Not only that, but we love the idea of empowering people to feed themselves with nourishing, delicious vegan foods. We wanted to teach because we get to explain not only how to make the recipe, but what the ingredients are doing in your body, and where they come from. For example, did you know that all citrus originated in Asia, or that basil can help cure a tension headache? These are the things you don’t learn if you are in a restaurant setting, so a cooking class is a great way to convey this information and also feed people delish vegan food. We knew that Spork Foods had to combine all of our passions, so we opened up shop – teaching and feeding people vegan cuisine 10 years ago.
When we went vegan, there were very few delicious alternative foods, like vegan cheeses and plant-based meats out there – so if we wanted any of those comforting substitutes – we had to get cooking. We didn’t want to sacrifice the flavors and textures that we loved just because we chose a compassionate lifestyle, so we dove in and started experimenting in the kitchen.
Great, 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 your own business has its set of challenges, of course. With those challenges come many sleepless nights and on the flip side, problem solving. No matter the issue, big or small, what we have is each other. We really count on one another and lean on the other one if someone is having a bad day or isn’t feeling well.
Spork Foods – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We own and operate Spork Foods, a vegan cooking school in West Hollywood. We teach offer live vegan organic cooking classes at our space and also train chefs at hotels like the Four Seasons Beverly Hills and Auberge in Mexico. We do private chef work, cater for small groups on up to 2,000 guests, offer private cooking lessons and parties. We are the authors of Spork-Fed cookbook as well as Vegan 101 cookbook, which are currently in stores and online, with a foreword by fellow fans Emily and Zooey Deschanel. We are Chef Ambassadors for Follow Your Heart and Setton Farms. They teach all over the country and the world reaching over 10,000 people a year.
We are super proud of Rocket Cakes. Rocket Cakes is a food product that will hit shelves in early 2018. We collaborated and partnered with a natural foods company, Follow Your Heart, to put Rocket Cakes, a gluten free, organic, egg free, dairy free, nut free, soy free pancake batter on shelves. We launched at Natural Products Expo West earlier this year and won two Best in Show awards!
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Getting Rocket Cakes into the mainstream!
Pricing:
- $80 per public cooking class.
- $200/hr. private chef work or private cooking lessons.
Contact Info:
- Address: 7494 Santa Monica Blvd.,
Suite 302,
West Hollywood, CA 90046 - Website: www.sporkfoods.com
- Phone: (323) 512-5544
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Spork Foods
- Facebook: SporkFoods
- Twitter: Spork Foods
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/spork-foods-west-hollywood
- Other: https://www
