Pastry chef offers a recipe for starting a new business

Inside the Vanilla Moon Bakery on Laurel Street, owner Christie Perego sat smiling, draped in a white apron, as she delighted in the sounds of dozens of San Carlans chatting over her pastries.

"It's so great," she said with a slight giggle. "We started with just some cupcakes, a scone here and there. And here we are. It's been amazing."

The Vanilla Moon Bakery opened in San Carlos two years ago. The interior, designed by Perego, is somber and elegant; the walls are black raspberry, the dozen tables small enough for two. But it almost didn't happen.

Perego never set out to be chef. Her parents wanted her to be a lawyer. A San Carlos native, she left her quaint surroundings and sunny weather for the brisk winters of upstate New York, where she studied political science and international policy at Colgate University.

After school she travelled to London where she worked in marketing with Elizabeth Arden. But she knew she had always wanted to be a chef.

"My parents were not so happy when they found out I wouldn't be going to law school," she said laughing. 

Perego left London, moved back into the Bay Area, and attended the California Culinary Institute, where she fell in love with baking and pastries. Her passion and talents led her an externship at the world-renouned Chez Panisse in Berkeley, where she worked long, arduous shifts for $10 and hour making ice cream, cakes, scones and pastries.

Money was tight. Hours were long. And Perego started to doubt her future in the food industry. So she left it behind, moved to Austin, TX, and took a job in the financial department of Michael Tosky, an Italian shoe retailer. 

And then one day, several years after she thought she had hung up her apron for good, she decided to make some cupcakes. Her mother, Marla, took the cupcakes to her job at Caldwell Bank. The next day, Perego said, she began receiving orders for more cupcakes.

"Everything happened so fast," she said. "Before I knew it I was running a small catering company out of my house. And then I just realized how much I loved it. So I thought I'd give it a shot."

With a $300,000 bank loan in 2008 - just before the economic downturn hit the country - a and the encouragement of some close friends, Perego decided to open this adored bakery. 

Today, she says business is good enough that she is considering expanding. She imports her coffee, Denasi, from Rome, and is considering starting a wine list. Mom and Dad have come around. And her little brother Aaron supports her as long as he gets to be the first to try out the pastries 

"San Carlos is growing," she said, "and so are we. I love it. It's been so amazing. And not something one person can do all by themselves. That's for sure."

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