Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gabby Sanchez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Gabby, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

In March of 2021, my boyfriend and I were very unhappy at our current jobs. We were living right outside of Chicago and our lease was almost up. We had finally realized that we wouldn’t be happy until we started working for ourselves. One day we were watching the Jon Favreau movie “Chef” and had looked at each other and my boyfriend said ” I haven’t had fun in a kitchen in a while, and that actually looks fun.” and that was what ignited our ideas to start our own business. Our initial goal was to save up our money and move to Denton, TX, where my boyfriend grew up, and run our own food truck. Once we were all packed up and moved, we started noticing how difficult it was for us to obtain a food truck. We ran into so many obvious scams online, and trucks that were way too expensive for what they had in them and didn’t have in them. We had to regroup, and thought maybe we could run a stall in a food hall.

Originally we thought we had found the perfect spot. It was a virtual food hall up in Garland, TX but that spot as well as other food halls and ghost kitchens were OUTRAGEOUSLY priced. it was upwards of 5K a month, and there was no feasible way that we could produce that much right off of the bat. Which was very disheartening, knowing that all of these corporate chains were encouraging these places to raise their prices because they could easily afford it; however, small business owners like us could not and got pushed out.

We went back to the drawing board. As we were brainstorming, we had made a trip out to the Denton Community Market one Saturday morning and were amazed at how many small businesses were there and how many people had shown up for them. We had regained some hope! Coming home that day we were inspired to start selling my bakes at the market as a cottage bakery. Our first day at the market was June 12, 2021. I just kept baking cupcakes and other sweet treats as we gained a following and tried to figure out what else we could do for Insurgent. I was, and still am, making custom cakes and desserts for Cookie Thief Cake Co as we run Insurgent as well.

One day, Sam found this trailer company also by Garland that built custom food trailers for a reasonable price. It was too good to be true! It was actually what we wanted to start, besides it not being a truck in itself. We had signed our contracts and put a hefty deposit down and all that was left was to wait. The company, which I do not recommend, was called The Fud Trailer but they have since changed names due to the high rate of complaints. They had told us 8-12 weeks to get it built out, but after the 12 week mark they never updated us. So we had to call almost every other day just to get a mediocre response of “It’ll be done soon..” The company was very unresponsive and hard to reach, but finally after about 18 weeks of waiting for our trailer we finally got it!

Finally, we could start doing everything else that we needed to do. From then, we had to get a truck to tow the trailer, had to get a health permit, and have our opening day. Once we had everything for our health permit and actually got it, it was all came together. We received our trailer in October and had prepped to open in January at a Armadillo Ale Works in Denton, TX. Since then, it’s been a crazy ride and a dream come true. It’s been a road full of obstacles but we’ve overcome them pretty well and have been making smart calculated choices along the way that helped our business as well.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Pastry Chef that has worked all over the country in states such as Wyoming, Chicago, New York and even overseas in a country in the Caribbean, Grenada. I grew up in Westchester, NY about forty minutes north of the city. I graduated with my Associates Degree in Baking and Pastry from The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. From there I took a leap of faith and started working seasonally for a luxury guest ranch in Saratoga, WY. In the off season my boyfriend and I had moved to California as he started a job at The French Laundry and I started working at Bouchon Bakery. We had done an event for the luxury boutique award collective called Relais & Chateux at their Gourmetfest in Monterey, with our pprevious chef from the ranch. He invited us both back for the following season shortly afterwards. We worked there for a season, flew over to Grenada and worked for another luxury boutique hotel, and came back for our final season. After our third season, we helped the company that owned the ranch on their Task Force team helping them open hotels in Austin, TX and Louisville, KY while training their staff. In my time in Louisville, I actually got to fly back home to New York to film my episode of Food Network’s “Chopped Sweets” and that was one of the best experiences of my life. After that, Covid happened. I’ve started to notice that’s where everyone’s story starts to change. My boyfriend had accepted the position of Corporate R&D Sous Chef for the company we were working for and we moved right outside of Chicago. I had done a tasting before the pandemic and I was signed on to become to Corporate Pastry Chef of a restaurant group in Chicago. Unfortunately, my boyfriend’s position was so new that he was one of the first to get furloughed during the pandemic, and I was on hold. After a couple months we were ready to start working again. I was able to finally get in the kitchen of my corporate job and Sam took up a job as a butcher to learn more about the process. After about a year, we were pretty drained and unhappy with our jobs and finally came to the conclusion that it would be best if we worked for ourselves. Now we run two small businesses called Cookie Thief Cake Co and Insurgent.

Cookie Thief Cake Co is an online bakery that creates custom cakes, and elevated desserts for any occasion. Insurgent is a food trailer that specializes in New American cuisine highlighting local produce and farmers. We change our menu almost every time we are open based off of what the farmer’s have.

Growing up, I loved drawing and painting so I think that’s what sets me apart from other cake and cookie decorators in the area. I specialize in hand painted decorations as well as hand painted royal icing cookies. It’s super challenging and takes a lot of time but I love it. My favorite part about making custom cakes is adding all of those personal touches to every order.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I actually met Sam, my business partner and significant other, in culinary school at The Culinary Institute of America. We were in the same start date and he was getting his Associates Degree in Culinary Arts and I was getting my Associates Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. Since then we’ve gone all across the globe working with each other.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think the fact that I was on Food Network’s “Chopped Sweets” helped me grow in my community. It is definitely a talking point which is really nice, and people say I’m pretty cool, but I’m actually pretty boring other than my work! I love meeting people, creating art and supporting other local small business owners. Luckily enough for me, Denton is a great community for small businesses, everyone is really here to support them!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/cookiethiefcakeco
• Facebook: facebook.com/cookiethiefcakeco
• Other: My books are typically always open! I prefer to book with a 2-3 week notice. If you have would like to inquire about a custom order please feel free to email me at: [email protected] !

Image Credits
Gabby Sanchez