Greater Patchogue coverage is funded in part by New Village at Patchogue, open-concept rental residences with sleek contemporary design. Click here for a tour.
When Lisa Basini goes to work every day, she is living a dream.
The name of Baking Coach, her cookie-making business, has extended from long-ago visits to libraries, schools and senior centers to online videos and now to a brick-and-mortar studio in Bellport — after it came to her nearly two decades ago in a dream.
“I woke up the next day and said to my husband, ‘Baking Coach,’ and he said, ‘What’s that?” Basini recalled. “I said that’s the name of my business.”
More fun
— Tap to read —
Based out of a storefront in the Bellport Outlets, Baking Coach last week won first prize in a national small business pitch competition ran by SCORE, a nonprofit that helps provide resources for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
More than 2,200 small business owners applied for the contest, which carries a $20,000 top-prize payout from SCORE, an organization founded in 1964 to provide mentoring to budding entrepreneurs.
And she’s now marking a year open in Bellport.
But Baking Coach dates back to 2005 when Basini — a graduate of the Culinary Academy of Long Island in Syosset — began offering baking workshops in schools, libraries and homes. Bringing her passion for baking to others was a natural step for someone who was “probably four years old” when she first baked cookies.
“It was just a way of expressing myself, it was something that was kind of built-in,” she said.
But the onset of the pandemic in 2020 forced Basini to pivot, as she began posting online tutorials and writing baking recipes which helped keep Baking Coach going.
Basini also developed cookie baking activity kits — “all you need to do is add water,” she said — that come with measured ingredients, easy-to-follow guidelines, instructional videos and QR codes for added accessibility.
Stocked with edible cookie dough, the kits are currently available for chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and birthday-sprinkle cookies, with three new flavors set to arrive in November. They are sold in the Bellport store alongside ready-to-eat baked cookies, which are available in sets of four for $9.95.
Basini’s goal, she said, is to simplify baking for all.
“So it’s like telling the kids of America — bake!” said the 59-year-old mother of a son and daughter. “You don’t need a bowl, be inventive.”
Among Baking Coach’s target audience are people with disabilities and the company has plans to add sign language to its instructional videos.
“It’s something that they can do independently and feel good about making the product,” said Basini, who also founded recipes4learning.org, a non-profit that provides job training and employment opportunities for what she calls the “differently abled.”
Baking Coach has plans to double to four its number of employees with disabilities.
The prize money from SCORE will help with marketing, expand the product line and buy manufacturing equipment and eco-friendly packaging.
The first-place finish is the latest highlight for Basini, who also graduated this year from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses course for entrepreneurs at Babson College in Massachusetts.
“I want everyone in this world to have the simple pleasure of baking cookies,” she said.
Baking Coach is located at 10 Farber Drive in the Bellport Outlets.
Follow
Top: Lisa Basini baking cookies in her new store in Bellport. (GLI Photo/Nick Esposito)
