From her grandmother’s kitchen in Argentina to her own commercial kitchen in Oakland, Andreas Ozzuna has taken a long and unpredictable journey to success as an entrepreneur. Ozzuna, 45, moved to Oakland seventeen years ago and was missing Argentinian food such as empanadas, alfajores, tangos y maté.
Traditional pastries from Argentina and other South American countries, alfajores are made of two short bread cookies joined with dulce de leche (caramelized milk). Ozzuna’s grandmother, and the alfajores she made, is the main inspiration for the business Ozzuna launched.
“It is from her that I inherited my love of cooking,” she says. “I remember being next to her at our wooden table and baking every weekend.”
With her grandma’s recipe for alfajores, Ozzuna launched the Wooden Table Baking Company in 2011. After being laid off from her geology job in 2010, Ozzuna decided to focus on doing what she loved. She enrolled in classes at Women’s Initiative to write a business plan and started selling alfajores to local coffee shops.
“I went to each coffee shop and left samples,” she says. “I grew the business mostly by offering our alfajores to stores, giving samples, being persistent and respectful at the same time.”Ozzuna’s persistence paid off. Today, Wooden Table produces more than 12,000 alfajor cookies per week and has distribution in specialty stores, cafes, and high-end supermarkets such as Whole Foods and Mollie Stone’s. Ozzuna expects Wooden Table to have sales of more than $400,000 this year. Customers rave about the high-quality ingredients and the fresh-baked taste.
As with any successful entrepreneur, Ozzuna’s faced many challenges to realize her dream but remained determined.
“People were saying that starting a business is hard but I did not allow that to bring me down,” she says. “I was very determined to give it a shot. I always wanted to have my own business - I always felt it inside of me.”
Selling to coffee shops is how Ozzuna started.
“You don’t need a huge capital,” she says. “Just buy ingredients, rent a kitchen and get a permit. One day of cooking and the rest to sell.”
Four years later, Wooden Table Baking Co. plans to double the size of its business to satisfy the growing demand for its delicious alfajores. The company is renovating its newly-acquired, 5000 sq. ft. commercial kitchen, distribution center and office headquarters in the Oakland Coliseum area.
Ozzuna is clear about the keys to her success.
“Everything is about the opportunity - give yourself the opportunity and take the opportunity yourself,” says Ozzuna, who is a wonderful example of creating one’s destiny through self-determination.
“Give it all, all of yourself, and see the best in other people.”