From Warm Flavors to a Warm Welcome an interview with Jenneh Kaikai of Pelah Kitchen, the Bedstuy-Based Micro-Bakery Specializing in Cakes by Jordan Perez Why did you decide to start your bakery? [Baking] is something I’ve always loved, almost like a hobby. It’s something I’ve always been really passionate about. My background is urban planning. I was working at City Hall at the time, and with the pandemic and being at home, I just needed a creative outlet. And when I got a lot of positive reception to my baking, that’s what led me to want to actually start to sell items and make it a business. You didn’t go to business school? Tell us about that. Yes, 100% I didn’t go to culinary school. I didn’t go to business school. I literally learned from YouTube University. Skillshare was another app, another website that I used a lot to learn technique. But really, a lot of it is trial and error, you know, and experience does tend to be the best teacher. If someone gave me a blank check to go to culinary school right now, I probably would [go] because I think there’s some things that are beneficial to learn. But, so far, it’s just me learning on my own…TikTok, and so many other things. You’re originally from Massachusetts, but now you live and work in New York. Can you talk to us about that cultural shift, and what it’s like to be in a place like Brooklyn? I’m from a town called Lowell, and it’s a really diverse town. After school in New York, you know how people get dollar slices? For us [in Lowell], we’re getting empanadas from the Colombian spot. We had Brazilian communities, we had a lot of Southeast Asian communities. Because of that exposure, it really opened my eyes to different flavors. I was always adventurous with trying new things. I didn’t grow up with a lot of Caribbean people... now being in Brooklyn, I have [a better understanding of] the differences [between those cultures]. When I was growing up, I knew of Jamaican food, but I didn’t really know Trini food and culture, or Guyanese, or so on and so forth. I’m definitely inspired by Caribbean culture. I’ve done a collaboration with a
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friend of mine who has a pop up—she’s a chef—and we did a Caribbean and AfroCaribbean dinner and brunch together last year. That was really great. I’m just inspired by the people that I meet here who also love food. How does your own heritage inspire your flavors? I’m from Massachusetts, but my family’s African...from Sierra Leone. Granted, I’m making baked goods, so I wouldn’t say [all] the flavors are necessarily inspired by that part of my culture, but I think there’s certain flavors I’m drawn to because of that. I really love to work with warm spices: nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, things like that. I do love working with cardamom. It’s so good. It’s so versatile. I just love it. My signature cake is a cardamom-spiced carrot cake that people love. It’s really good. Speaking of your bakery. It’s right here in New York, right? Yeah, I live in Bed-Stuy. I have what they call a micro-bakery, which means I take orders online and I work out of a kitchen, depending on the size of the order. I was a finalist in a pitch competition with Hot Bread Kitchen. Through that program, I was awarded kitchen space at Nimbus Kitchen, so I have access to commercial space. But, I’m also friends with a lot of people in the industry. For example, I’m doing an event on Thursday, and I’m renting my friend’s studio for some hours to bake out of there and store things. I don’t have an actual storefront you can come to, but you can email me or you fill out an order on my website and then we coordinate pickup. Do you plan to have a storefront? I would love to, my dream is to have my own little (nothing crazy) place. I have a niece who’s seven and came to visit last weekend. We were walking around the neighborhood and I was like, “You know, it’d be so nice to just be able to go somewhere and get a fresh pastry, a piece of cake.” That’s my dream. My
friend that I rent from has a studio where she does her baking. Customers come and do orders. It’s a really cute space. Sometimes she does classes and things there. I would want something just like that. I think the only difference is that I would want it to be where people are able to come in and purchase more in the cafe. I’ve always had a sweet tooth. But I’m someone who will go out of their way for a piece of cake. You know what I mean? When I used to take the train to Massachusetts, I would make sure I would go to Magnolia [Bakery] and get a slightly bigger slice of cake. Having a background in terms of urban planning and working with small businesses, did that help you manage your own business? Did that knowledge and experiences that you had from your prior jobs help you be successful in your company now? Yeah, for sure. When I was at City Hall, I worked a lot in economic development, and I was working with small businesses with recovery in the pandemic. I think that definitely inspired me, because I saw just how resilient the food industry was. So I started my business in 2020, but I started my role at Hot Bread Kitchen this year in January. I already had been running my business for a but Hot Bread Kitchen is helping me so much in refining my business. What I’m doing, basically, is building a program to help other women entrepreneurs with their business planning. As I’m putting the curriculum together and thinking about tools and resources, I’m putting myself in the shoes of the entrepreneur and thinking about what could be helpful, what I’ve needed to navigate their challenges. And that’s been really, really great for me. Because as I’m learning, I’m also taking those things back and implementing some of those tools in my own business. Where do you see yourself in your business in five years? Ah, asking me the hard questions! I definitely see myself working out of my own cake studio. I also want to refine my brand. One thing that I’ve been
