Brandon bakes to perfection(1)
Brandon Trowbridge is the brains behind Cookie's Cookies. [China.org.cn]
Fans of NOLA, the popular Cajun restaurant located near Ritan Park in Beijing's leafy, tranquil embassy district, have a new reason to be cheerful: the restaurant's ex-manager and head chef, Brandon Trowbridge, has launched a new venture featuring NOLA's ever-popular and best-selling cookies.
Mr Trowbridge, a 28-year-old native of New Orleans, Louisiana, is the brains behind Cookie's Cookies, a (chiefly) online shop offering customers a range of freshly-baked cookies delivered straight to their door. The idea for an online cookie store was a combination of the popularity of NOLA's cookies, and the success of Mr Trowbridge's other online business, GreatWallGranola.com, where customers can order granola, made from scratch and delivered the same day.
"Customers at NOLA kept requesting cookies, and they were also the restaurant's best-selling item," said Mr Trowbridge. "I figured, too, that cookies were popular because a lot of people don't have ovens in their houses, and therefore can't make their own. Also, when I opened the granola company, I noticed how many people actually bought into things being delivered directly to them. So the combination of these things basically equaled a delivery cookie company."
A graduate of Nicholls State University's John Folse Culinary Institute, Mr Trowbridge was lured to China in Olympic year of 2008 by a headhunter for Beijing's Hilton Hotel. His motivation for coming offers clues to his need to challenge himself and develop, both professionally and personally.
"I finished my studies at around the time Hurricane Katrina hit," said Mr Trowbridge. "I continued to work in New Orleans for 1 year, but the city wasn't really growing fast enough, especially for someone just getting out of university. So I decided to move to Napa Valley, California, where I did wine training for two years and started work on a sommelier degree, thinking that wine would be my next thing. But then the Olympics came along, and I was contacted by a headhunting agency to work for the Hilton Hotel, located on Beijing's third ring road.
