The Women’s Warrior
Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez
Hot Bread Kitchen | New York City
Sweet Mexican conchas, crispy Armenian lavash, and flaky Moroccan m’smen are only a few of the fresh breads that emerge daily from the ovens of the Hot Bread Kitchen (HBK). In 2007, Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez quit her job as (the first female) bread baker at New York City’s Daniel restaurant and launched HBK from her home, training immigrant and minority women in artisan bread baking to help them secure better jobs in the city’s competitive food industry. Today, participants of the nine-month program make and profit from the authentic breads of their homelands while honing their culinary chops.
What she’s up to now: Jessamyn is consistently empowering immigrant and minority women through artisan bread baking to help them secure better jobs. She recently hosted the Citi Market Challenge kick-off event for Harlem EatUp!
The Cookie Dough Entrepreneur
Omar Mamoon
Dough & Co. | San Francisco, California
Members of #teamdough (our Editor-in-Chief’s dream come true) rejoice over Omar Mamoon’s egg-free cookie dough, a dough that you can finally eat without the risk of getting sick. Dough & Co. is one of the country’s only purveyors of handmade, safe-to-eat cookie dough in the country. Since founding Dough & Co. from his apartment in 2013, Omar has singlehandedly mixed and packaged each batch. Instead of adding eggs, Omar uses a mixture of whole white chia seeds, pure Madagascar vanilla extract, and water, giving his cookies a nuttier taste.
Omar’s relationship with cookie dough began while dating a girl who was health conscious with a weakness for fresh-baked cookies. “Being the good boyfriend I was, I made her cookies often,” Omar says. “I had to run to the store weekly to grab an extra stick of butter or baking soda, to the point where I figured I could just make a bunch of cookie dough at one time.” When dough kept disappearing from the fridge (his girlfriend was sneaking bites), he realized he should create egg-free dough that could be consumed raw. Dough & Co. offers brownie and chocolate chip flavored cookie dough packaged in what he calls “doughritos,” cookie dough shaped and sized to the dimensions of your average burrito. There’s nothing like unwrapping that gloriously gold foil to chomp down on some rich, gooey dough. For $49, you get four doughritos, which bakes 40-48 cookies—that is, if you can stop yourself from eating all the dough.
What he’s up to now: Omar and his company DOUGH & CO are growing, one cookie at a time. In his free time, Omar has been writing and contributing to Huffington Post and Esquire.
