Meet Lori Vaughn of Lo’s Kitchen in Broomfield

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lori Vaughn.

Lori, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been baking ever since I was big enough to pull flour out of the cupboard. Starting in Middle School, I sold bread out of my home to family friends and it soon spread to ‘friends of friends’. I called it “Bell’s Bakery” (my maiden name). Every Friday night was filled with fulfilling orders and then Saturday morning was filled with doorstep deliveries. While it was extremely tiring and my feet were dead sore, somehow, I still loved it.

I went off to college and earned a degree in Communications. I didn’t have a ton of time or money to bake my heart away, but I was casually the roommate that would bake a cheesecake for a roommate’s birthday, and always wished I could do more. I graduated and got a full-time job using my degree and actually really loved it.

Then, a change happened. About two years ago, I delivered our baby boy. I wasn’t sure what work would look like after I had a baby, but I intended to at least give it a try. During my maternity leave, I found myself spending every nap time in the kitchen, testing and testing, and going back to my root bread recipes – trying to make them better. While my employers were very kind and accommodating, once I returned to my office job, it just didn’t feel the same. First, I felt like I was missing out on time I wouldn’t get back with my baby. And second, I missed that free time where I controlled how to spend my time and doing things that REALLY fulfilled me. I missed “Bell’s Bakery”. So I left my employment, and with the encouragement of friends and family, started to post my baking on Instagram and tried to figure out what I wanted to do with it all.

Since then, I have loved the direction it’s evolved. I knew I wanted to make amazing recipes accessible to people, but I also knew I wanted to have a stronger connection than just my website, so I began teaching classes and started offering custom orders. Today Lo’s Kitchen supports all of those things from my own home – from helping a larger universal audience to offering one on one orders. My favorite part is being able to own my time, which also comes with a large personal responsibility. But I love being able to focus on raising my little guy while feeling like I can still do what I personally love and make amazing bakes more accessible to people.

In the future, I would love to have a cozy bakery on the corner somewhere that serves gourmet bread and desserts and offers custom services on the side. Until then, I’m loving growing Lo’s Kitchen in continuing to make fresh, affordable, and quality gourmet bakes more available to my community.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Yes and no. It’s been smooth in that looking back, it’s been neat to see how it’s all worked out. I feel like I use my degree every day, even though it’s in a way I couldn’t have predicted. I would have never been able to guess that my teenage years of bread making as a side gig would transform into a full time hussle for me today.

We’ve recently moved to Colorado and while we’ve loved the move and the reset has been positive for Lo’s Kitchen, it made me ask a lot of questions and reevaluate my game plan in terms of building a fresh new audience for all of my in-person things like classes and orders. As it’s growing, I feel like I’m constantly in decision-making mode, which can be tiring and sometimes more of a “learning experience” than you’d like, but again, it usually has resulted in getting better and better.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Lo’s Kitchen – what should we know?
Lo’s Kitchen offers several services:

– Baking classes: I teach at a kitchen store in Utah called Orson Gygi (yes, I fly back monthly because they feel like family!) as well as local classes in home kitchens.
– Free Recipes & Tutorials to support my online audience.
– Catering services: I cater to small-medium parties (last year, I did my first wedding and LOVED it!)
– Holiday orders and custom orders (birthday cakes, gift baskets, pies for Thanksgiving, etc.)
– Occasionally you’ll see me pop up at your local fair or market.

My overarching theme is gourmet bakes (including cakes, cookies, breads, etc.) but my specialty is with yeast based doughs (raised donuts, pretzels, bread, etc.). Using quality ingredients are extremely important to me.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Prioritization. Like I said, I feel like I’m constantly in decision-making mode. Especially with trying to grow a business that is so weaved with my family life, it means I have to make decisions with balance, business investments, how/when to grow parts of my business. Trying to execute all those decisions means I have to rely on prioritizing so that all the scales in my life and business stay balanced. It also comes into play with the actual baking. Making sure I bake the right thing, at the right time, in the right step (for all orders, but especially large ones like catering), is critical to the timing and success of the outcome.

Contact Info:

• Website: loskitchenco.com
• Email: loskitchenco@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loskitchenco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/loskitchenco/

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.