“From the time Dr. Shica (Dr. Shica’s Bakery, Los Angeles) got her first Easy-Bake Oven, she knew that she loved to bake. Growing up in South Carolina, she baked with her grandma and learned that the best desserts come from using the best ingredients. When Dr. Shica founded her bakery, she committed to using only high-quality, premium ingredients to create her gourmet signature desserts.”
“From a small town in the South to Southern California, Dr. Shica now delivers her Southern-style treats to Hollywood executives and actors. Garnering praise from renowned chefs, producers, and on-air personalities, her rich and fudgy "Almost Famous Brownies" have created quite a stir - several producers even have a standing weekly order.”
“Dr. Shica knew she needed to expand her baked goods to meet the growing demand for vegan treats. She developed a line of mouth-watering, plant-based desserts that satisfy those sweet cravings and allow her customers to maintain their vegan lifestyles.”
Dr Shica’s cookies are currently available nationwide at TJ Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods. Select area Costco stores (Culver City) for Roadshows are on the immediate horizon. “Known for her optimism and warm personality, Dr. Shica’s home-baked flavor will brighten any day.”
“Dr. Shica’s new Plant-Based cookies are dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free and low calorie but still very delicious and highly craveable. Each bag is shelf stable and resealable so you can enjoy them now or later. The product comes in 4 flavors (Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Lemon and Sugar Confetti).”
Dr. Shica briefly puts down her rolling pin to join u
Hi, I'm Carla Hall of ABC's The Chew. You're listening to The SoCal Restaurant Show on AM830KLAA. Pretty who? And welcome back. It is The SoCal Restaurant Show, and we're here with you every Saturday morning from 10 AM until 12 noon right here on AM830KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024. And it can also catch us on the AM830 Angels app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show. And we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce. And again, listen at 11.30 AM this morning, because we're going to be talking about the very short hatch pepper season. But all our listeners have a chance to get in on a very easy Instagram opportunity to win a hatch pepper gift tray, which is really a great item. I can tell you that from personal experience. One thing we really enjoyed doing on The SoCal Restaurant Show is following entrepreneurs that grow and achieve good levels of success. But we met them when they had very humble beginnings. And if you've listened to The SoCal Restaurant Show at all over the last few years, the name of Dr. Sheikah Little, and Dr. Sheikah's bakery will be familiar to you based right here in Los Angeles. And very humble beginnings with a very small bakery with a satellite operation in Westfield Culver City, that now is a much bigger entity. And I had a chance to catch up with Dr. Sheikah at the recent Natural Products Expo West Convention in Anaheim. She's got a lot to say. And I wanted to get Dr. Sheikah back on the show. And with that as background, it is a pleasure to welcome Dr. Sheikah Little of Dr. Sheikah's Bakery back to the show. Dr. Sheikah, good morning and welcome. Good morning, Andrew. Thanks for having me again. Dr. Sheikah, again, it's been fun to watch your ride, and from where you came from, to where you are now, to where you're going. It's just one of these fun entrepreneurial success stories. Dr. Sheikah, let's share a little bit. How many years ago was it that you had that tiny little kiosk in Westfield Culver City, where I came to know you from your almost famous brownies, which listeners probably also know. I have a particular affection for brownies, and I taste a lot of them. And yeah, you know, they're okay brownies, they're good brownies, but they're very few that fall into the category of greatness. And Dr. Sheikah's almost famous brownies do fall into that category of greatness, and Dr. Sheikah, as you can tell our listeners, I'm not the only one that feels that way. So, please go ahead. Yes, Andrew. So, well, our story goes back to starting this in 2020, and you're right. We started off with a tiny, tiny kiosk in Westfield Culver City Mall, and you came by and tried our brownies. And wow, I mean, we've had a relationship, business relationship every since then. But Sam's here question, well, we started this business back in 2020. We started going pop-ups around Los Angeles, and one of the people that we met that was very instrumental in helping us get the word out was Doug Allen. And so, if you know Doug, he's the creator of the TV show on pariah, and he actually tried our brownies, and really just went ballistic, telling all of his celebrity friends and everybody about the brownies. And that's why we got this title almost famous brownies. Well, Dr. Sheikah, I appreciate your modesty, but again, it is really a high quality product. And I also really appreciated your cookies, and I like that it was a family affair. Your daughter has moved on to other things, but she actually worked the kiosk that you had there in Culver City. So it was a real family affair, and what I really liked about it during the time that you were there is there are a lot of chains and franchises that are in that particular mall, and that's all good. But I would love the expression of people that would smell the aromas that were coming from your kiosk, because you did bake some things off there and heat things up there. In the glory days of Mrs. Fields, she actually vented the aromas from her ovens out into the mall to attract attention. And you know, fresh baked cookies, Dr. Sheikah, as you well know, that is one of those aromas that brings back childhood memories that, you know, your nose follows the scent there. But the point I was making was, is you know, these people would approach a little kiosk, and they'd see all these little goodies, and your colorful kiosk, you like yellow in particular. And you know, they had very puzzled expressions on your face, and you always tasted. So your counterpeople would engage the guest with a taste, with conversation, and more times than not, Dr. Sheikah, you know, they would walk away with an order. So I love it. But that was a long time ago. And one thing you got into early on in the game is there a lot of plant-based folks out there that want something delicious and sinful, but it's got to taste good. So how did that whole aspect of your transition occur? Because, you know, you wouldn't exactly expect a lot of plant-based people to be running around Westfield Cauver City. Yes. And so now that you mentioned that, when we had the kiosk at the mall, we noticed that it was about maybe like a 60/40, you know, split, where, you know, 60% of people would come in that were traditional 40% plant-based. But, you know, the plant-based market is growing so rapidly. So a lot of times what we would do is, again, we would sample products every day, just like you said, and we would just give a sample to everyone who was walking by. But a lot of times what we did is we sampled our plant-based cookies. And so we would listen, try the sample, and, you know, they would say, "Oh my gosh, this is delicious. I love this. What is this?" And then we're like, "Hey, I got this. You didn't know that it was a plant-based cookie." So it was amazing to get the reactions of the people when they taste their plant-based. And that's when we really knew that people who were not plant-based enjoyed it just as much as people who were plant-based. So with that indication, you know, we were like, "Wow, we must be honest, I'm from here." And Dr. Shika, you know, you understood as you developed your plant-based line of snack cookies, that the plant-based aspect was fine. But people that were not necessarily plant-based had to enjoy them too. And as you like to say, it had to be absolutely delicious. So tell us a little bit more about that thinking. Yeah. So first and foremost, I've always made sure that everything that we sell is, first off, has a lot of flavor and it must be delicious. And so I carried that same thought along to our plant-based cookie line. And focusing on flavor and focusing on being delicious has taken us so far. And we should mention in terms of your line of plant-based cookies, which we're going to discuss in a lot more detail, they are dairy-free, egg-free, nut-free, and also a little lighter on the calories than the fully-letted variety. So in addition to the plant-based folks, there are a lot of people that are lactose intolerant and also some people that are allergic to eggs. And of course, a lot of people allergic to nuts. So here's an opportunity for them to enjoy what I call Dr. Sheikha, a properly decadent cookie, but be safe, which, you know, hey, it's great to have alternatives. Yes, absolutely. So we use premium ingredients in every product that we have. Again, we focus on delicious, we focus on flavor. And just because someone's plant-based doesn't mean that they have to sacrifice flavor. There's so many products that are coming out every single day in the plant-based. I mean, there's like the most growing category out there. But what a lot of people don't do is focus on flavor. But if you want someone to come back, you know, you got to focus on do I want to do I crave this, do I want this again. A lot of times when people buy their product, they'll go home and they'll share that their family or share with their friends. And, you know, before you know it, the bag is gone and then happen and they're like, oh my gosh, that was plant-based. So we really wanted to create a private where it doesn't matter if it's plant-based. It's just delicious and you enjoy it and that's all that matters. I definitely like that philosophy. Now, Dr. Sheikha, before we take our first break and come back and pick up the conversation, and we'll specifically talk about the variety of your snack cookies that are plant-based. And then, of course, also where people can get them besides going through your website. But before we do that, you still have a local opportunity for LA-based people that you still do catering from your original items that you did at the original Dr. Sheikha's bakery. Can you just give us a little insight into that before we pause and come back? Yeah, so for anybody who likes yourselves, who wants craving, knows the almost famous brownies or any of our other desserts, we are on Easy Cater. So a lot of companies and individuals can go on to Easy Cater and place an order. We have all of our traditional and plant-based desserts on Easy Cater.com. And you can expect that link from our website or directly on Easy Cater.com. Now, before we go to Break Dr. Sheikha, what is that website? Our website is Dr. Sheikha's Bakery.com. And that's S-H-I-C-A-S, just so there's no confusion. We are speaking with Dr. Sheikha Little. It is Dr. Sheikha's Bakery, a wonderful entrepreneurial success story that has started small but is now available nationwide. We're going to pick up the conversation on the other side. It is the SoCal restaurant show. We're proudly presented by Melissa's World variety produce. We'll be right back!
