Today we’d like to introduce you to Catie Cohen.
Hi Catie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Demeter’s Kitchen started back in the summer of 2019 when we moved to Denton. Previously, I worked in restaurants and bakeries around the country where my love and curiosity for whole grain, naturally leavened breads grew. Once we moved here, I wanted to see if people were into the kind of bread and baked goods I loved. While I searched for organic, local flours, potential customers and developed recipes, I worked at a goat dairy as an assistant cheesemaker.
Demeter’s Kitchen started as a part-time venture in an apartment, creating a bread and spread menu for a local brewery. That was an amazing way to get to know the community and to develop recipes involving beer and its byproducts. Once the pandemic began, we switched from an eat out menu and offered fresh sourdough for pre-order and delivery out of our apartment. The demand grew quickly, and baking four loaves at a time wasn’t cutting it. So we found a free and partially broken home oven online that we had on our porch, plugged into our dryer’s plug via a long cable. We doubled our capacity and continued to meet the demand for our sourdough.
Once farmer’s markets opened back up, we began selling our breads, spreads, spice mixes, scones, and kits there. With consistent presence at local markets with our loaves and complimentary spreads, we saw the number of our regulars grow and demand from cafes and restaurants start to pop up. I would buy used restaurant/bakery equipment on auction and online, slowly increasing the scale at which we could produce our bread.
The business soon outgrew both the apartment and my two hands so we bought a house and brought on an employee (who still works with us to this day!). Since then, we have grown to offer Thursday pre-orders for pick-up and delivery, attendance at four farmers markets/week, five employees and nurtured local partnerships with Denton area makers and creators.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I would not call the road smooth, but without the forced personal growth brought on by running business, I doubt I would still be doing this. I certainly wouldn’t be as engaged and driven to keep going.
Some of the biggest struggles have honestly been my own perception of the standard challenges and obstacles that a business owner encounters. Things like finding the best ways and places to offer our breads, a freezer or oven on the fritz, keeping good track of spending, not letting single data points be perceived as trends, working with limited amount of energy and limitless ideas and interests, trying to be a good leader, having employees, finding new employees, getting up super early in the morning and so on.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Demeter’s Kitchen?
Demeter’s Kitchen is a cottage bakery in Denton, Texas that stands for nutritious food, connection with the community and purposeful employment opportunities. We aim to recreate people’s relationship with bread by making whole grain, naturally fermented sourdough with organic, locally grown and milled non-gmo grains. We utilize the products and byproducts from our North Texas producers in our breads and spreads to create nourishing food with unique flavor. We aim to cultivate a workspace that allows for purposeful employment to flourish. This ensures that our employees, as well as our customers, are enriched through experiences with our foods.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I wish I knew that one bad day, one less than ideal decision, one bad bake wasn’t going to break me or the business. When just starting out, everything is so new and the amount of data we have is so small, so everything seems significant! I would get caught up easily in single instances of perceived failure or success. I logically knew that things are constantly changing, but when things went well I expected them to always go that well or when things went badly, I thought they would never get better. It controlled my morale and energy levels.
Now I bounce back much quicker from perceived failures, I celebrate success without clutching onto it and am easier on myself when I’m tired.
Contact Info:
- Email: demeterskitchendtx@gmail.com
- Website: demeterskitchen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demeterskitchen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/demeterskitchendtx
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKxWbuQEmTPZARlP9vSlV3rCyRRxWCSHx
