My Story

My name is Denise Assad. I own Bountiful Foods, a small baking company based in Laguna Beach.

I began baking my Grandmother's recipes over the 2008 holiday season to earn income after losing my job. I used my unemployment checks to buy ingredients, then went to work selling to parents at my son's preschool. Word got around and, by the holidays, I was literally baking around the clock.

In January 2009, I earned enough to join the Brentwood farmers market, where the business really took off. Since then, I’ve been expanding the business to new markets, began a made-to-order business and, in 2012, the first Bountiful Bakery retail store opened.

The crazy initial success of Bountiful is no bigger surprise than to me. I never baked for a living. I was a serious Fashion / Advertising / Design girl; Advertising in New York, at Kirshenbaum Bond Partners, then graduated Art Center College of Design, worked in the Automotive Industry at BMW Advanced Design in Munich, Germany.

So when the time came to support myself and my son, without a full-time job, I found my Grandmother's old tin recipe box and a few old Farmer's Journals and went to work. I've always loved it as a hobby, I just never thought it would produce an income. I'm amazed every time I sell-out and now I wouldn't think of doing anything else.

My pies are both sweet and savory; mostly old-fashioned fruit; some 2-crust lattice, some streusels; always local, seasonal farmer's fruit. My best-sellers are currently a savory Chicken Pot and Shepherd’s Pie, Leek Quiche; for sweet, the Apple Cranberry Galette and Three-Berry Streusel. I also make cream pies; the Coconut Cream, Banana Cream and Key Lime pies are gone as soon I display them at the market. My Coconut Cake, Old-Fashioned Chocolate and Carrot Cakes are among market favorites along with my best-selling (Gluten-Free)Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons and enormous free-form Meringues.

Since I bake in vintage glass pie plates I find at thrift stores, I don't charge deposits to customers buying whole pies. They’re asked to follow the Bountiful Circle of Trust policy of returning the plates when they’re done, just like Grandma! Do you know they ALWAYS return them? They go out of their way to bring them back.