full interview

Shahada Issa, a senior student at AUC, shares her journey of starting her own baking business. She was inspired by her grandmother's tradition of baking every Friday. Baking became a therapy for her after her grandmother passed away. Shahada's bakery stands out because she uses unique ingredients and personalizes her creations. She faces challenges with different ovens and time management. She plans to expand her bakery in the future by selling more items like cupcakes and banana bread. Hello everyone and welcome to the first episode of Tasty Talk Podcast. With me here today is Shahada Issa, a senior student at AUC majoring in CMA who started her own baking business where she transforms simple ingredients into delicious creations. Hi Shahada. Hi Jana, how are you? I'm good. I'm happy to have you. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Can you share the story of how you first became interested in baking? That's a very long story, but let me tell you, it started with a tradition I had with my grandmother. We usually used to bake every Friday after prayers, so it was just something I used to do every week. I didn't think of it often, however, after she passed away, it became a type of therapy for me. As a tradition, I wanted to continue and as well, I felt like every time I fell down, I just wanted to bake something because of the joy that people feel when they taste your creations. So that's just how it started. It was like a tradition and then just became a habit and I just did it every time I fell down. So I'd say your grandmother is the one who inspired you to become a baker? Yes, mainly because it was her tradition that made me want to continue after. But now I just do it for me and for other people as well to feel the joy they feel. What makes your bakery stand out? I'd say maybe the ingredients. I feel like I have unique ingredients, the type of recipes I use. I try to make also the decorations around them. If I'm doing something for someone, I'd ask what they want, so it's usually uniquely made for you. So it's different in a way because I just want to do it for this person. I personalize it. Can you tell me more about your favorite ingredients that you find essential in your baking? It depends on what I'm baking. If I'm making brownies, the cocoa powder is essential. I can't use just any random brown because after I've tried a couple of browns, one brown makes it more efficient. Same as the chocolate because these are the ingredients that stand out when you're making for example brownies. But if you're making cupcakes, it's the icing itself and how you lay it out and stuff like that. What's your favorite creation? There's something I recently started doing, but it's not the best. This is the one I enjoy the most and I feel like I accomplished something. I started doing Leche de Leches. If you know KVs, it was very known and lots of people started buying from them. I felt inspired that I wanted to do their Leches at home. I felt like it would be very difficult, but after a couple of tries, I feel like I'm getting better. That's my favorite one till now. Can you please tell me some of the challenges you faced in your baking career? Some challenges would be if I'm in a different location, the ovens are usually very different. How to not burn them or how to not get them undone. Sometimes if I'm doing brownies for myself personally, I'd like them a bit fudgier, so I'd get them out of the oven earlier. However, some people just like them very firm. It's that process of knowing when the baking good is done in the oven and if I'm trying different ovens, to know the difference between each of them. How do you overcome the challenges of the different ovens in different places? It's like trial and error, basically. Every time I bake something, I see the different outcomes and stuff like that. It's very annoying over time because every time I burn something, you're getting excited for the outcome. But in the end, it comes out burnt or something like that or not done yet. That's the annoying part. By trial and error, you get through it. How do you keep up with both your studies and your baking business? You have to. It's all based on time management. I have Tuesdays off and the weekend, so I usually start baking. I have to wake up early to finish my studies and then work on if I have orders and stuff like that. It's just based on trying to manage your time. I'd have to order ingredients earlier so when I wake up, everything is there, everything is in room temperature. But if I don't do that and if I don't manage my time well, which happened before, everything just gets in the way and nothing is done efficiently in the end. What future plans do you have for your bakery? I'm selling now just cookies and brownies, but I want to start selling more stuff I do at home. A challenge is I know how to sell the goods, but I just don't know how to do them yet in quantities. That's what I want. I want to start selling more cupcakes, banana bread, stuff like that. But the quantity and the finance behind it is still a challenge that I'm facing and I don't feel like I'm able to do this now, but in the future, I want to start doing it. Thank you, Shad. It was a pleasure having you here today, sharing your inspiring journey with us. Thank you, Jenna, for having me. Thank you, everyone, for listening to this episode and stay tuned for many more to come.