Crumble & Whisk – Charles Farrier
#038 – Today we visit with Charles Farrier, the owner and operator of Crumble & Whisk, an Oakland Patisserie, specializing in cheesecakes. Charles’ love for baking was inspired by his father. As a young boy he was drawn to the kitchen to watch his father work.
Though he went to culinary school he was working in an office job in 2013. There, a co-worker challenged him to a cheesecake bake-off. Oddly rough, the co-worker knew he went ot culinary school. The office loved it and one of them even offered to help him with the business aspects of launching his dream.
He soon joined La Cocina, a nonprofit that helps food entrepreneurs of color and women cultivate their food business by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities.
“La Cocina is an organization that helps people of color – people that don’t know how to run a business, don’t have any knowledge. And so they helped me, gave me the groundwork of basically figuring out what kind of license you need, how to do a patent and trademark, what kind name, what kind of name that really fits for the brand that you’re doing for.”
Charles really hustled to get his business off the ground. He started by walking up and down MacArthur Blvd, selling to barber and beauty shop customers. At first they did not know what to make of him, but once they tried it, they were hooked. He later graduated to selling at farmers markets and during the pandemic, he added to-go meals to accompany his desserts.
On being an Oakland based business, Charles says…
“For me to be a Black-owned business – well, first of all, I’m giving back to my community. I’m also starting where I started from, for me, as a Black-owned business. I feel like I give inspiration to all the young black boys to show them that they can do it, they can.”
Charles’ secret power is he offers unique flavors – flavors you can’t find anywhere else. Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear about his best seller – Beet & Berry Cheesecake!
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