Vegans and vegetarians!?!
Vegans and vegetarians!?
I am starting up a animal product free baking business and i need help making a shopping list. i hear that i have to get things like soy cream cheese ,and certain types of tofu. What brand names of these kinds of products do you use? Do you have any tips on finding and identifying these kind of product in a large grocery store?
Answers:
I used to have an animal product free 100% vegan bakery.
Obviously you'd better do your homework.
What you need to do is contact wholesalers. They'll have all sorts of things that stores don't even carry. Baking ingredient wholesalers usually have all sorts of non-vegan (although still pretty gross if you ask me). From really interesting glazes etc. to whatever you can imagine or never knew existed. You can even just forget all that and buy mixes. There are a tonne of companies out there that you can purchase organic, vegan, gluten free, or whatever mixes for bread, muffins, bagels, you name it. Mixes are definitely a good way to go especially if you are small scale and don't know very much about what you are doing. Just add water, follow directions, throw it into your $10,000 mixer, then into your $30,000 proofer, then into your $100,000 oven, and there you go. Yes, equipment does cost that much, if you really want to make a profitable business. If you are going small scale, expect to make small scale money and very little -- likely break even money for the first few years.
Jeeze, it's a huge undertaking, even with my small scale bakery I had. Took all of our time, energy, and money. In the end, forget retail, think manufacturing, think wholsale, think, non-perishable, think sit-on-shelf for 2 years and it can still be sold.
What kind of bakery are you doing; you have some strange questions? Looks to me like you are still a few years away from starting your business, so do your homework.
Source(s):
Read the book Bread Alone by Daniel Leader.
Read the chapters from back to front, I think he got them backwards. As far as I know, he's the most successful person at what he does. I envy him very much (in a positive way).
Here's his company:
http://www.breadalone.com
If this is what you want to do, read the book, go visit him and other like him, and... on you go.
You will probably have to stick to specialties stores, at least at first. Once you get established, you can probably find some sources to buy directly from, if you order enough product at one time.
A good source to start with would be the Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/ You might be able to find some sources from there. If nothing else, find one of the stars that do similar dishes or use the ingredients that you supply, and write them for advice.
Although, I am personally a member of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals), I enjoy all types of food and wish you only the best of luck!
Save a cow eat a vegetarian
toffuti makes vegan cream cheese
http://www.tofutti.com/btcc.0.asp...
and tofu you should be able to get at any asian market.
You'll save a lot of money buying your own soy milk maker and tofu press. I make my own. It's DE-lish!
You'll need all kinds of tofu.
Also flax seeds to substitute as eggs.
Go right out now and buy yourself a copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. That is the BEST shopping list you'll ever get. And recipes too.