Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Wong
Hi Ashley, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My name is Ashley and I am the owner of Ashley Wong Sweets. I have been in the culinary industry for 20 years now and started when I was 16 years old. My first food service job was at In N Out Burger. While working there, I went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco and earned my AOS degree with high honors in culinary. Once I graduated culinary school, I worked at Paula Le Duc Catering for 2 years where we did events for high profile clients and built and broke down kitchens. From weddings, to holiday parties and large plated events, we did them all. Once I left catering I got my first pastry job at The Madera in the Rosewood Sandhill Hotel in Palo Alto. There, I worked under Olympic pastry chef Mellisa Root and learned to make plated desserts in the restaurant. We made intricate desserts using different techniques like gastronomy, and had 12-14 components per dessert. We even made detailed Christmas Gingerbread Houses, Halloween displays, and Easter displays that took 2-3 months to make. After working there 2 years, I left and went into corporate at Oracle in Redwood City. There I was in charge of the Conference Center and putting out desserts daily with a rotating menu. It was just me and 1 baker and we managed to get out over 600 desserts a day while planning and prepping for the next rotations. After having my daughter, I moved over to the bakery and learned to make cakes, laminated doughs and breads. From focaccia, to challeh bread, to dinner rolls and crossiants, I became very well rounded in breads.
After I had my son, I decided to leave and find work closer to home. While on maternity leave I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do and had a hard time deciding. I thought about starting a home bakery but was so hesitant and afraid I wouldn’t be able to. With all of my family support, I took a leap of faith and started my business 7/2/2018 and it has been a success since. We have several corporate accounts we do consistently, from Microsoft, to Intuit, to Workday, we were on Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship season 7 and finished top 5, we expanded into a commercial kitchen, we started doing festivals, we’ve had a handful of publications, we partnered with the city of Fremont and started a Baking Program, we’ve had 2k cookie orders and so much more! After being in business for 6 years now, I think going out for myself was the best decision I could have ever made.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As an entrepreneur, you have to learn how to roll with the punches. Things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes you have to pivot and figure out what the next move will be. For me, there have been many obstacles and the road has not always been smooth, but I’ve gotten through it.
The obstacles seem to get a bit harder and bigger as time passes, for example, I had my biggest order of 1600 macarons for a large corporate event. I was excited to take this one, but had a lot of obstacles thrown my way. To start, the kitchen I rent out caught on fire about a week before I needed it. Luckily, my landlord was super on top of it and she brought in portable kitchens so we could all still run our businesses. We had to clean our area from the fire and luckily, not much of our stuff was damaged. When we were baking our macarons, the oven had some hot spots and some of them baked fine for us and others did not. We had to throw away a lot of macaron shells. Fortunately, my husband is also a chef and we were able to use his kitchen to bake off the rest of the shells which came out beautifully. I had ordered some mats to put my mac shells on to print logos on them but they didn’t come in time. So I had to go with my back up plan. I have a bakery friend who also has the printer I use and I was able to borrow her mats. We got everything done a day early with no more hiccups. On the day of the event, everyone absolutely loved our macarons and they were gone in 1.5 hrs!
Sometimes the obstacles that get thrown our way are in our personal life. During all that adversity with the macarons, I had found out my mom’s breast cancer came back in the other breast. Fortunately it was caught early, but planning for the next steps was heavily on my mind. Not only were we going through the worries of that, but I had also suffered a miscarriage a few weeks later. These were some dark times I was going through, but the only way out for me was to stay busy. Everyone deals with adversity and grief differently, and for me, it was to stay busy. The following month I hit my max number of cookies I ever did, which was 4k, and I hit a quarter of my sales goal. I completely poured myself into my work and hit goals I didn’t even think would be possible in a short amount of time.
What I have learned through my entrepreneur journey is that life happens, and it happens at the most inconvenient times. Sometimes it knocks you down, and breaks your heart. Sometimes it makes you feel like it’s not the right time to make moves and test you. It makes you hesitant, and unsure of yourself. I think while those are the hardest times to get through, it’s also the times that show you how strong you are. It shows you that you can overcome so much and still preserve. Of course, none of this is easy, and at times, you even want to give up, but don’t. The struggles, as hard as they’ve been, have made me a stronger person. They’ve made me who I am today, and I feel like no matter what gets thrown my way, I know I will not only get through it, but I will rise up.
As you know, we’re big fans of Ashley Wong Sweets. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We have been in business for 6 years now. Our brand is all about nostalgic sweets and making special moments memorable. Nostalgia has been an important piece of our brand because it all roots from baking with my Nana. As a kid, visiting her was always exciting. Not just because I would see her a few times a year since she lives in Southern California, but because we spent a lot of time together in the kitchen. I loved watching her bake and of course, loved eating the batter. She taught me how to bake family recipes that have been passed down to me, and to this day, we still bake together when we see each other.
At Ashley Wong Sweets, we offer a variety of desserts. From homey classic cinnamon rolls, pies, and cookies, to custom decorated cookies, custom cakes, and dessert bars, we do them all. We have been a part of engagement parties, weddings, baby showers, birthdays, celebrations of life, graduations, corporate events, festivals and more. While we make all these delicious treats, we are known for our decorated cookies and custom cakes. The designs have been countless, and every event has been a special one.
What sets us apart from others is the nostalgia we bring to our customers. While some of our items bring our customers back to a time of being with loved ones, the celebrations we are a part of will be forever remembered. We have done couples weddings, to their baby showers and baby’s first birthdays. It means so much to help everyone not only celebrate these special milestones, but to have them come back and continue celebrating with them. They tell us how much everyone enjoyed previous desserts, and how much it’s meant to them and their families. We are so grateful to bring so much joy to those around us with our nostalgic sweets.
Brand wise, I am most proud of bringing nostalgia through my family recipes. The recipes my Nana has taught me are items I’ve made for special events such as Black History Month and Juneteenth. These holidays are important to me as a black woman, but they’re also important because I’m sharing the nostalgia my Nana gave to me with everyone. I’m sharing the moments I fell in love with baking, and how baking has been such a big part of my life. Not only am I sharing the joy it brought me, but also giving my customers a taste of my culture and southern comfort through food.
We not only offer our nostalgia through our desserts, but also through our Baking Program. We have done Parent and Me classes which stemmed from where my love of baking began and making memories, we’ve done fresh baked cookie classes, breads classes, and so much more. Our Baking Program has been growing fast and we’re excited for all the classes we are offering along with inspiring others who also have a love for baking. Not only do you learn how to bake, but you also get a chance to see the creativity and love that goes into it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ashleywongsweets.com
- Instagram: @ashleywongsweets
- Facebook: @Ashley Wong Sweets, LLC
