Bunny Bark, vegan tacos and Million Dollar chicken: Kentucky’s kitchen entrepreneurs

When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, Kentuckians used to eating out turned to takeout in droves.

While many restaurants were quick to accommodate the shifting demands with family meals, take-and-bake dinners and even cocktails-to-go, there was another option that was new to many: Home-based businesses.

Coincidentally, the state had begun permitting home-based bakers, caterers and other food processors to start selling their goods in December 2019. More than 400 signed up before the pandemic took hold in March 2020, and dozens more launched throughout the year.

By January 2021, there were almost 1,000, offering a wide variety of goodies from cupcakes to full meals, made in small commercial kitchens or even in homes. The businesses usually have no brick-and-mortar “storefront” and rely on web sites and social media to reach their customers.

Whether you want a decadent dessert, a home-cooked meal or have a craving for some flavorful vegan, there’s probably someone out there in Central Kentucky who wants to cook it for you. Here are a few.

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Milk + Cocoa

Milkandcocoa.ky on Instagram and Facebook. Amber Baldridge never intended to make Lexington-based Milk + Cocoa a successful business. She started off just doing some baking in her spare time as a brief respite from her job working at the Hopebridge Autism Therapy Center in Lexington.

In a Facebook group for Lexington moms, Baldridge noticed several asking about where they could get hot cocoa bombs, chocolate balls that contain hot cocoa mix, marshmallows and other ingredients that you melt with hot water or milk to produce an extra decadent version of the popular drink. So, she started making them herself and let her Facebook group know about it.

“In less than 12 hours, I received more than 50 messages,” Baldridge said. “It was crazy.”

The requests kept coming. In less than three weeks, Baldridge had made over 800 homemade hot cocoa bombs. Seeing the demand, she officially launched her hot cocoa bomb business as Milk + Cocoa in December, making gingerbread and cookies and cream cocoa bombs for the holiday season. For Valentine’s Day, she also sold chocolate covered strawberries and slowly realized what she was tapping in to.

“I realized there was a lot of demand for homemade chocolates and sweets,” she said. “If I was going to say, ‘I’m going to dip pickles in chocolate,’ someone somewhere would probably buy it.”

When the pandemic arrived, so did Baldridge’s business partner Rachel Keeton. Keeton, Baldridge’s good friend who was a manager of Fan Outfitters in Lexington, didn’t want to go back to work and put her daughter in daycare; instead she wanted to come help business grow. Baldridge she hopes to move out of just being a home-based business and find a physical location to cook from or a storefront in the near future. She also wants Milk + Cocoa to keep expanding its offerings to treat tables for kids’ parties, social gatherings and weddings.

More than anything, she’s just grateful that her sweet side project is growing into a full-time passion thanks to the city’s support.

“So many people want to support small business. They want to go local,” Baldridge said. “They want to keep the money in Kentucky because it helps our economy.”

BeBe’s Kitchen

BeBe’s Kitchen, private group on Facebook. Many children take after their parents. In the case of Bonnie Winfrey of Jeffersonville, she took after her daughter, Breonna, when she started a home cooking business.

“Breonna started it and then I thought, well, maybe I could do that, too,” Winfrey said.

Winfrey, 67, spent time working as a social worker in development districts, was an assembly line worker at Toyota and was retired for 12 years before she started BeBe’s Kitchen in May 2019. She was making home-cooked meals and desserts for local families before she was forced to shut down in October 2019 when she was reported to the health department for not having the proper business license. But she knew based on the response, it would only be a minor setback.

“A month before I got shut down, I was starting to sell out and having to turn people down because it was a word-of-mouth thing,” Winfrey said.

Not only did BeBe’s Kitchen open back up after she acquired the proper license, she moved the business out of her home kitchen. She bought a small building that used to house Jeffersonville’s Sherry’s Pizza from her brother and opened Bebe’s Kitchen in the location on April 1, 2020.

“I thought, OK, we’ll see how it goes ... and just immediately, immediately, it just went crazy,” she said.

Winfrey said BeBe’s Kitchen serves working families in Jeffersonville and nearby cities like Stanton, Mt. Sterling and Camargo. She even has some travel from as far as Winchester to pick up meals and her group Facebook page has approximately 1,900 members. Meals are on a rotation every six weeks to two months. She typically has two ready-to-eat entrees with a side each week (15 of each, $25 feeds a family of four) and two freezer entrees each week (30 of each, $15 feeds four), along with one dessert. Once she releases the menu, members of the Facebook group make their claim. And once they are gone, they are gone.

“Once they see it, within 5 to 15 minutes, I sell out completely,” she said.

While she will serve a lot of country-cooking staples like meatloaf and chicken pot pie, a menu in early February featured pizza casserole, Cajun shrimp and sausage pasta and something she calls “Million Dollar chicken bake” and a chocolate cobbler.

Even during the pandemic, BeBe’s Kitchen hasn’t just succeeded, it’s been able to give back. She said net proceeds from her frozen chicken pot pie meals go to local organizations. She also hired two part-time employees to help keep up with demand and gets a little help from her granddaughter, Jeleisa Kelley.

Winfrey said her business has been her way to give back while giving busy families one less thing to worry about.

“According to my husband (Bill), I cook for everyone in Montgomery County but him,” she jokes. For parents who have to come home from work and they have to help their kids, this provides a service.”

The Brownie Bae

Thebrowniebae.com, Lexingtonbrowniebae on Facebook & Instagram. Erinn Foglesong began her path to a home baked-good business thanks to a combination of confidence and a craving.

Growing up in Pee Wee Valley in Oldam County, Foglesong vividly remembers cooking and baking with her Nana, picking up some knowledge and a serious sweet tooth.

“I’d rather eat sweets versus real food, which is horrible,” she said.

Back in the summer of 2019, she realized the treat she wanted wasn’t readily available in Lexington.

“I was craving a good brownie and somewhere around here has to have a good brownie,” she said. “I just couldn’t find a good brownie, so I just tried to make one. My cookies are bomb, so brownies can’t be that hard.”

That successful attempt led to opening The Brownie Bae in fall 2019, which Foglesong proudly touts as the only brownie company in the Bluegrass State. When she isn’t running her handmade decorative items and calligraphy business Lexington Lettering, she is making triple-layered brownies and blondie loaded down with toppings in a wide variety of flavor combinations.

She releases a new flavor every week and can have them ready in 48 hours for scheduled pickup.

An example of the types of brownies The Brownie Bae creates is the Midnight Party Animal she released on Valentine’s Day. This chocolate version of her popular Party Animal Brownie is a chocolate, chocolate chip brownie stuffed with Hot Fudge Sundae Pop Tarts, layered with birthday cake-flavored Rice Krispie Treats and topped Birthday Cake Oreo-infused chocolate cake batter frosting. Each brownie is approximately half of an 8x8-inch brownie pan, with single brownie/blondie costing $8.50, four-packs for $32, eight-packs for $64 and a 12-pack of brownies or blondies for $95.

“The response I was getting on my social media was completely overwhelming,” Foglesong said. “Literally, every time somebody buys one, they are like ‘this is my new favorite.’”

Fogelsong said she hopes to get a bigger kitchen and possibly hire some help with orders to keep up with the demand of her business ... and her ideas.

“My mind is always, constantly turning and thinking about things,” she said.

Taco Queen Catering

TacoQueenCatering on Facebook & Instagram. Indego Wilson has spent years specializing in making vegan food delectable and accessible in Central Kentucky. Originally from Richmond, she first started Blu Sol Electric Kitchen in 2017, doing pop-up restaurants on Sundays and creating weekly vegan meal preps for personal clients.

This eventually led to her starting Taco Queen Catering in the spring of 2019, applying a vegan twist to the Mexican food staple. Breakfast tacos are made with egg substitutes. The texture and flavor of barbecue pulled pork and Philly cheesesteak is replicated with shredded jackfruit. Tacos also include options ranging from falafel and “Chikn’” parm or a variety of options featuring fried avocado as the primary taco filling. The Taco Queen also offers more than tacos, including vegan mac n’ “cheez”, sandwiches, cookies or grain options like quinoa, baked beans and rice.

But no matter what Taco Queen Catering is creating, Wilson said they all feature one intangible.

“I think the key ingredient is love. I know that sounds funny,” she said.

Wilson said she loves finding ways for people to connect emotionally with her food through the unexpected appeal in vegan ingredients. She herself became a vegan 11 years ago.

“It’s more about capturing the taste and texture in certain foods,” she said. “It kind of bowled me over. After a while, I didn’t miss the meat or the dairy or anything like that.”

Taco Queen Catering was doing pop-ups and she was getting more requests for catering ... until the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into those plans. She said the business had to shift but she has still managed to do pop-ups at breweries as establishments began to re-open.

In addition to having her food available for delivery through call or text, Taco Queen Catering has helped distribute free meals through local nonprofits like Black Soil and collaborates with other vegan businesses in Lexington like Woke Junkfood Vegan and Bakd in what is known as The Black Vegan Collective. Whether it is in more normal times or in the middle of a global pandemic, Wilson said she likes knowing that she is doing her part to adding another dimension to Lexington’s food businesses.

“I think more than anything, it’s really being able to provide healthy food and healthy alternative options,” she said. “It’s really awesome to see the evolution of vegan food to come up on the scene.”