Do you know what happens to people who come from the families of phenomenal eaters? Well, they too become one! But, not Lauren Ko, who grew up in a family with huge appetites. She, instead, became an expert at baking and cooking. And she’s been doing this her whole life, simply because she loves art, designing and baking.
Incidentally, she baked her first pie in September 2016, when she had moved to Seattle, Washington, and had extra time on her hands, while she looked for a job. Her inspiration for baking were the beautiful pictures of pies that she saw on Pinterest and wondered if she could bake one like these. This is what led to her first plaid lattice pie. From then on, there was no looking back for her.
Incidentally, Lauren is not only a self-taught baker, but a writer and an artist as well, having her roots in sun-soaked San Diego, California. Currently, she resides in Seattle and runs her own confectionary – Loko Kitchen. What sets this baker apart from the rest is her unconventional designs that she creates out of fruit and dough, as also her intricate and artistic desserts. And she keeps getting better!
Lauren specializes in creating straight lines and geometric patterns in contrasting colors and textures. Her amazing color sense is quite evident in her work. And the flavors she churns out are something quite out of this world. Seeing her work, it becomes hard to believe that she hasn’t received any professional training in cooking or culinary designing or even art. She’s completely self-taught.
Asked why she chose pies as her specialty, she replied, “Pies didn’t immediately become ‘my thing’. I started the @lokokitchen Instagram account in August 2017, simply as a holding place for my food photos, but by some stroke of wild internet magic, it went viral and now I’m deep into the pie world and having a blast!”
However, baking a pie Lauren-style isn’t easy. It takes her anywhere between two to six hours to construct a single creation from beginning to end. This, of course, includes the dough chilling time in the fridge between each stage.
Lauren’s baking expertise has not gone unnoticed, in fact, it has been popularized through social media platforms. She has figured in prominent magazines, such as Vogue, O Magazine and Buzzfeed. On Instagram alone, she has a following of over 235,000 fans and counting.
Lauren Ko
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