{"id":1937,"date":"2010-11-10T10:50:37","date_gmt":"2010-11-10T15:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=1937"},"modified":"2015-07-07T20:18:57","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T20:18:57","slug":"the-right-ingredients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/the-right-ingredients\/","title":{"rendered":"The Right Ingredients"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1864\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1864\" style=\"width: 670px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1864\" title=\"Tasha Ross (left) and Lindsay Beckner offer a variety of vegan and gluten-free baked goods at FiddleCakes.\" src=\"https:\/\/magazine.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/legacy\/2010\/11\/fiddlecakes.jpg\" alt=\"fiddlecakes\" width=\"670\" height=\"448\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1864\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tasha Ross (left) and Lindsay Beckner offer a variety of vegan and gluten-free baked goods at FiddleCakes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;Baking is all about chemistry,\u201d says Lindsay Beckner, who co-owns FiddleCakes, a Nashville-based bakery, cafe and catering business that can accommodate box lunches for 30 or cupcakes for 500. \u201cYou have to be very exact. There\u2019s little room for error.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beckner may be referring to what determines a successful recipe for, say, a muffin or a scone, but she could just as well be talking about what determines a successful business, like the one she and fellow co-owner Tasha Ross have built during the past year.<\/p>\n<p>The idea of opening a bakery started with Ross, but the pieces did not fall into place until Professor of Accounting Germain B\u00f6er introduced her to Beckner, a fellow Vanderbilt alumna who was working in finance and catering on the side. Ross and Beckner clicked, and their business plan came together quickly: They opened FiddleCakes just five months after their initial meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cComing from an HOP [human and organizational performance] background at Owen, I knew one of the toughest things would be building a team,\u201d says Ross, who previously worked for a startup software company. \u201cFortunately we found that we share the same vision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An important part of that vision is providing customers with tasty vegan and gluten-free meals. Demand for the latter has grown in recent years as more doctors prescribe restricted diets for those suffering from conditions like autism and celiac disease, the autoimmune disorder caused by gluten proteins in certain grains.<\/p>\n<p>Forgoing eggs and traditional flour makes Ross and Beckner\u2019s task of operating their bakery all the more challenging. \u201cThe recipes are much more temperamental than they would be otherwise,\u201d Beckner explains. \u201cSometimes the mixes don\u2019t rise, and you have to start over again.\u201d The challenge, though, as they see it, is well worth the effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes all the difference when, for example, a parent whose child suffers from celiac disease thanks you personally,\u201d Ross says. \u201cRunning a successful business is rewarding, but having a social impact on top of that is even better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Baking is all about chemistry,\u201d says Lindsay Beckner, who co-owns FiddleCakes, a Nashville-based bakery, cafe and catering business that can accommodate box lunches for 30 or cupcakes for 500.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,4],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-1937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-departments","category-personal-assets","tag-fall2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8846,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1937\/revisions\/8846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}