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

Kelly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I started out in the fall of 2019 in NYC under the name “Chi Desserts”, which meant “eat desserts” in mandarin. However, that didn’t really catch on because every one thought it read “chai” desserts and asked if I sold chai. After a couple of not-so-successful night markets, I realized things needed to change. I didn’t have a good enough ‘hook’. Nobody knew what my product was, I mean, I don’t even think I knew what my product was.

So in early 2020, I decided I had to rebrand and start fresh. One day, it just dawned upon me that putting the first two letters of my first and last name created a pretty catchy and cute word–Kemi. Thus, Kemi Dessert Bar was born!

It took a while to really get to where I am now, though, in terms of my product. When I first started selling my desserts during the pandemic, I was very conscious in not creating items that were specifically “American” or “Asian”. I didn’t want to put myself in a box. Everything was quite random. But then the more desserts I created, the more I realized that being Asian-American was something inherently quite unique.

I started to be more conscious of that and began creating desserts that merged the two–like my rice crispy treats! I used to love eating those as a kid, but really wished there were some with really incredible Asian flavors. My first ever rendition was my brown butter black sesame rice crispy treat. Everyone loved it so much, I just knew I had to keep going. Now I have rice crispy treats in a bunch of different flavors–jasmine fruity, mango sticky rice, and even brown sugar boba!

I’m proud of what I create and I’m proud of my American-ness and my Asian-ness. Even something as simple as my cakes are rooted in the two. I grew up eating grocery store butter cakes, but they were never creative enough. So now I create cakes reminiscent of my favorite grocery store cakes but am heavy handed with asian flavors–like my blueberry, yuzu, and jasmine cake or my strawberry daifuku (strawberry, red bean, and mochi) cake. After 4 long years, I finally feel like what I’m doing is right and tells the story of many people that grew up just like me.

Kelly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been baking for 20 years, which feels crazy to say because I can’t believe I’m old enough to have done anything for 20 years. My love for baking began when I was ten. I would watch Ina Garten every day after school. It started as just something fun to do, but very quickly turned into my greatest passion. Ever since then, my goal has been to open my own bakery!

My first real kitchen job was in 2015, where I worked as a pastry cook at Dominique Ansel Bakery. I took a gap year from college. It was, without doubt, the toughest year of my life. But I also learned so much about baking and about myself–it just fueled my passion and drive.

I continued to work in the industry for another 5 years, until I realized that it just wasn’t fulfilling me creatively. I was incredibly apprehensive about leaving a “stable” lifestyle and going off on my own. It took a lot of encouragement from my family. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to continue without their support.

I don’t think I necessarily solve any problems for anyone with what I create. However, I do think I make a lot of people’s lives just a little bit sweeter. I think I create desserts with a lot of really fun, creative, and very unique flavors. I get a lot of positive feedback about how unique my items are, which makes me really happy and proud. There are so many moments of self-doubt and feeling like I am not doing enough, but then I get customers that continue to come to my pop ups and that makes me feel like maybe I’m doing something right.

I just want people to feel excited and happy when they eat my desserts. I want them to feel excited about Asian flavors! My slogan is “make life sweet!”. Even if it’s just in that singular moment when you first bite into one of my creations. We all know life can get pretty tough sometimes, so all I want to do is to provide even just one moment of pure delicious happiness.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I moved from NYC to Seattle last April and had to completely start fresh in a new city. It’s been a challenge and a big mental adjustment because I built a really good following in NYC and had really loyal and incredible customers. I had lines out the door and my pop ups were selling out in an hour regularly. I am gaining a bit more traction now, but when I first started in Seattle, things were quite slow and people were hesitant to try my products at first. It’s been a slow growth, but I am certainly seeing my efforts being paid off!

My best sellers in NYC are also quite different from Seattle, so it took a couple of pop ups to understand the difference in demand. I also had a few pop ups where I only sold 50% of my inventory, so I also had to adjust my method of advertising. The menus I used to post on IG only had the items listed in words, so people weren’t able to visualize what I would be offering. However, I soon realized that wasn’t going to cut it, so now I post full visual menus. There are photos and the names of each item I’m offering so people know exactly what they’re coming for. It’s also much more eye-catching. I’ve found that’s really aided in convincing people my pop ups are worth their time.

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

I think a lot of it has to do with my products being true to their appearance and description. I try my best to not “over hype” anything and provide an honest product. If the dessert has black sesame in it, you’re going to taste the black sesame. For my blueberry, jasmine and yuzu cake, you will be able to taste all those flavors in harmony and the photos I post of it are exactly what you are going to get.

I get a lot of comments about how my flavors are really accurate. One of my current best sellers is my mango sticky rice rice crispy treat and people are always so surprised that you can really taste the creamy coconut and fresh mango flavors! Offering products that are true to their description is so important to me. I think it creates trust in my brand and my product and that gives me a good reputation. People know I’m not playing around.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kemidessertbar.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kemidessertbar
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Kellyhmiao

Image Credits

Photo of my husband and me courtesy of Gai (https://www.instagram.com/lifeofgai)