Flourishing in Flavor: Stories From Global Food Artisans

Odette D’Aniello is the Founder and CEO of Celebrity Cake Studio, a family-owned and operated retail cake boutique. The company has received numerous awards, including winning Best of Western Washington several times. With experience in the food industry, business strategy sales, and marketing, Odette has obtained additional skills in product design and brand development, event management, and team building.

She is also the Owner of Dragonfly Cakes, the wholesale sister company to Celebrity Cake Studio, which designs, develops, and manufactures delicious handmade and clean-label petit fours, tea cakes, and mini desserts. Odette is involved in various other ventures, including being a US West Accelerator Expert for the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, the Owner of True Nature Distribution LLC, and a Managing Partner for 26th St Holdings.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[2:23] Discover what’s new at Celebrity Cake Studio and Celebrity Gourmet Ventures
[3:49] The value of exploring cultural heritage through culinary and business ventures
[5:22] Unique traditional food products and their impact on modern cuisine
[14:30] How a love for cooking can enhance personal happiness and business success
[21:10] Reflections on how contemporary art can influence and inspire culinary artistry

In this episode…

Entrepreneurship can be an art form that extends beyond personal gain, encompassing community, culture, and storytelling. Hear how one mother-daughter duo has crafted a legacy that transcends professional success.

Throughout the year, Odette and Milana D’Aniello attended prestigious food events, presenting their unique creations and exploring the latest culinary trends and innovations. These experiences fueled their passion and inspired new recipes that blend traditional flavors with contemporary techniques. Their culinary journey is about more than food — it’s a celebration of heritage, art, and the joy of creation. By connecting with their cultural roots and embracing the art of baking, Odette and Milana have crafted a distinctive identity that resonates with their audience, demonstrating how passion, innovation, and cultural appreciation can lead to remarkable achievements.

Join Odette D’Aniello on today’s episode of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast as her daughter, Milana D’Aniello, Director of Marketing at Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, interviews her about their eventful year. Reflecting on their shared experiences, the mother-daughter duo explores a journey enriched by their Filipino heritage, love for cooking, and dedication to transforming their entrepreneurial ventures into a canvas of delectable experiences.

Resources Mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments

“But we’ve been talking to a lot more people in just general CPG and specialty foods.”
“Identity is super important.”
“We need to learn more, and I think that our listeners could do well learning from people in the industry.”
“It was also really good that we had a set date to work up against because we just kept talking and talking about the menu.”
“We’re artists. We’re not just bakers. We express our art through food.”

Action Steps

Attend industry trade shows to connect with distributors, showcase products, and draw inspiration: This is effective for networking and keeping abreast of industry trends.
Explore and embrace your cultural heritage as a source of unique flavors and products to differentiate in the market: Understanding your roots can foster authenticity and innovation in your offerings.
Incorporate personal passions like cooking into your business approach to enhance satisfaction and bring authenticity to your products: Personal passion translates into product quality and customer connection.
Leverage the power of storytelling in marketing to share the journey behind your brand and products: This creates an emotional connection with the audience and strengthens brand loyalty.
Seek inspiration from other creative fields, such as art, to innovate in your culinary creations: Exposure to diverse forms of creativity can instill new ideas and perspectives in your work.

Sponsor for this episode…

Today’s episode is brought to you by Celebrity Cake Studio, a family-owned and operated cake boutique.

Celebrity Cake Studio has been baking joy into all of their artistically designed cakes and desserts for 21 years.

They are proud to work with a vibrant team of cake designers and bakers that help you celebrate the sweet moments in your lives.

They have received numerous awards, winning Best of Western Washington for many years in a row and various small business accolades.

To learn more about how you can celebrate yourselves or the ones you love, visit www.celebritycakestudio.com or email them at info@celebritycakestudio.com.

Episode Transcript:

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, where we feature top a bakery and specialty food entrepreneurs from around the world and share stories and tips on how to create a successful life in the baking world.

Milana D’Aniello 0:16

Hi, I’m Alana D’aniello, this special guest host of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast, where we interview awesome folks in the bakery industry and specialty food industry to hear how they live creative lives and share their adventures in running their bakery and CPG businesses. So, I want to encourage you to go back and check out our past episodes with Megan Wagstaff of Lady Yum in Seattle and Bronwen Weber from Bronwen Cakes in Dallas and Becky Palermo of Creative Cakes in Chicago. Here, today, I have my very favorite special guest Odette D’Aniello, actual host of the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast. And we’re here to talk about a little bit about what’s been going on for us in Celebrity Cake Studio, Celebrity Gourmet Ventures, and what Celebrity Gourmet Podcast is going to look like in the next few months.

Odette D’Aniello 1:20

Great! Don’t forget Dragonfly Cakes.

Milana D’Aniello 1:22

And Dragonfly. Yes. Today’s episode is brought to you by Celebrity Gourmet Ventures Inc, Celebrity Cake Studio, and Dragonfly Cakes, a family owned and operated specialty bakery in Tacoma, Washington. At Celebrity Gourmet, we have been baking joy into all of our artistically designed cakes and desserts for 25 years. We are proud to work with a vibrant team of cake designers and bakers who help you celebrate the sweet moments in your lives. We’ve received numerous awards winning “Best of Western Washington” for many years in a row, and various small business accolades. To learn more about how you can celebrate yourself or the ones you love, visit us at http://www.celebritycakestudio.com and http://www.dragonflycakes.com or email us at info@celebritycakestudio.com. Alright, are you ready?

Odette D’Aniello 2:13

I’m ready.

Milana D’Aniello 2:16

So, let’s start with what have we been doing this year in 2024?

Odette D’Aniello 2:23

Oh my gosh. What have we been doing? Like a year has gone by? So let’s start with January. Okay. So and you and I have had such an adventure because we started out with a Fancy Food Show, didn’t we? In Las Vegas.

Milana D’Aniello 2:48

Started out with the Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas. No, we started out with a wedding show.

Odette D’Aniello 2:55

Right? Yeah. Right. We are opening up a venue in Tucson, Arizona. So Milana and I,

Milana D’Aniello 3:04

I’m here

Odette D’Aniello 3:06

There you are. And she’s sitting there. And that was construction zone for most of December and half of January. And at the very last moment. It became pretty because we worked a lot on it. Much. Yeah, it changed the floors we painted. You know, we basically decorated our friend Janice has made all the paintings. And we also we participated in the Tucson wedding show, which was great fun. And at the show, we gave away a lot of dragonfly cakes. I don’t know 15 boxes of them. Yeah, so let

Milana D’Aniello 3:49

me drag a bike if people really likes Dragonfly In Tucson, so definitely something to think about for us. But we had so much fun at the wedding show. And then immediately we packed up. We put everything in the car, we dropped it off at Himaya’s. And then we got on a plane.

Odette D’Aniello 4:09

Right? We went on a plane to Las Vegas for the Fancy Food Show, and we had a whole lot of meetings at the Fancy Food Show. For our listeners, our products can be found in beautiful grocery stores all around the country. One of them is Whole Foods. And we are also in Metropolitan Market, PCC market in Seattle. So we sell our products via our distributors through our amazing broker partners. And we had a lot of meetings with all of our partners in how to discussing how to bring Dragonfly Cakes to more locations, so that you can buy them and enjoy them for your specialty specialty events. But we did fly to Las Vegas, and we walked around and met a whole lot of different people. And do you have anything that anyone that was like that stood out was quite amazing.

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