New Pasadena bakeries for pastries and gluten-free and vegan desserts
“We had a cookie, but it didn’t work because it was too gluten-free tasting,” says owner Leah Di Bernardo. “I tasked Helen Cho, our lead baker, with using brown butter to make the cookie, and she did.”
Di Bernardo and her daughter, Gigi, run the Pasadena bakery, where the cookie, and everything else at the restaurant, is gluten-free.
In the bakery case, you’ll find tender, cheesy biscuits made with almond flour, decadent doughnuts topped with passion fruit, mini Basque cheesecakes with almond and coconut flour crust and wedges of vegetable frittata.
Di Bernardo transitioned out of a career in film production in the early 2000s to open Eat Marketplace in Temecula. She grew up on a small farm in Oregon, cooked throughout Europe in the ‘80s and ‘90s and was an early adopter of the slow food movement before it had a name, or a following.
“We choose to not be too preachy, but to gently encourage people to understand the connection of your food and the beauty of your food and what it can do for all of us,” says Di Bernardo.
The Pasadena bakery and coffee shop was mostly gluten-free when it opened near the end of 2023, but after feedback from customers, Gigi and her mother transitioned the business to completely gluten-free in 2024.
The biscuits incorporate almond flour, yogurt and eggs, based on a family recipe developed by one of Di Bernardo’s sisters. For breakfast, they’re split and used to cradle eggs, bacon and cheese.
The doughnuts are baked into small rounds and glazed with chocolate, maple, matcha and seasonal fruit flavors. Recently, a passion fruit doughnut featured a dollop of the sharp, tropical fruit in the center.
“All the baked goods have always been culinary driven, or farm-to-table, before it was cool,” says Di Bernardo. “We built really strong relationships with our farmers and anything that can be upcycled, we do it.”