We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Del Rosario a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ashley, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

Legacy…sounds powerful, which it is. I love it though because I truly believe that everyone has their own journey, path, and legacy. As for me, I’ve always been someone who wants to take care of others, makes others laugh and gives good company, I’m someone who worries about others, and someone who just wants to see others happy and thrive! I’ve always said that I hope I leave some sort of impact on others and that they would remember me for my character/personality  – unique, funny, entertaining, humble, loyal, brave and loving. Someone that they know they can confide in with comfortability and trust. And that our convos had meaning and the energy is powerful. Also, I hope that they’ll remember how passionate I am when it comes to food and cooking. I want my food/desserts to speak for me whenever it’s eaten. I want them to remember the stories I tied in with these dishes and why that dish meant a lot to me while making it.

My food, my humor, and my resilience would be what I would like to be remembered by.

Ashley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hello everyone! My name is Ashley and I am a home baker/cook and also a Pastry Cook at most widely known, Animae, located in Downtown San Diego.

I started with baking from home during the pandemic, to going to culinary school, and then becoming a Pastry Cook as my first job in a kitchen. *takes a deep breath* I am so honored, blessed, grateful to have landed this as my first job because not only is it a Modern Filipino Asian American restaurant, the culture and the people are what makes it an amazing work environment. I love being at work. I love learning and observing.

Not only am I pastry cook, but I started as baking from home and creating my small business like others did during the pandemic.I have done numerous bake sales, fundraisers, and events by myself without knowing what I was really doing! I just did it. That was definitely a lesson and experience.  But to see myself now, the struggles, the growth, the network/community I created for myself, I am proud and excited for what’s to come!

I can’t wait to share with you all my future plans! Stay tuned!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Oh the good ol’ social media. You know as much as people can tend to hate it, it really is the new platform for business owners. We are our own advocates and advertisers. Funny, because before I even started putting my business out there, I took a break from social media for a year and a half, until I realized, I need to start a food account for my food.

Social media takes a lot of energy and time and yes it can get discouraging at times, but you have to be active in order to build. Like they say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”. I would be embarrassed sometimes and think people wouldn’t like what they see, until ONE person commented and asked if I were selling my products. She was my very first customer and she still supports me til this day! I started taking lots of pictures of my work (also I wanted to see the improvements) and posted daily! More traffic came about and next thing you know I was at 1000k followers and while I doubted myself, I had to really sit back and think “people really want to see you thrive! Keep doing it!”

Take those millions of pictures, post them, be active and socialize with your supporters. Meet them, collaborate with them, and just put yourself out there and share your work! I no longer call them “followers”, they are my supporters and I love interacting with you all! With that being sad, don’t be afraid of what others think! Do it for yourself and you will see those who will support you from day 1!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @oneteaspoonofyum
• Facebook: www.Facebook.com/oneteaspoonofyum