Koa Duncan’s sweet life includes online store
Coming from a family of artists, Koa Duncan always thought she’d be a studio artist. But she also comes from a family that loves to cook. So after studying fine arts in college, Duncan decided to go to culinary school. Now her professional credentials include time at Delfina, Water Grill and Bastide (under Alain Giraud and Ludo Lefebvre), her recipes have been in numerous publications, she was on the James Beard Foundation’s shortlist for top pastry chef in 2006 and was named pastry chef of the year by Angeleno magazine in 2005. When the 41-year-old chef isn’t developing recipes or consulting, Duncan runs CakeBoxVintage, her Etsy store devoted to vintage aprons, cookbooks, china and jewelry. We caught up with Duncan on a recent morning to chat about her projects and her inspiration.
Both culinary and fine arts seem to run in your family. On my dad’s side, both my grandparents were fine artists. My grandmother was more of a printmaker, but my grandpa was a watercolorist. He started out as a jazz drummer when he was in his teens, and then he quit it all to raise a family, and did the war and then did art school. He was amazing, and such a character. I went to Orange County High School of the Arts [now known as Orange County School of the Arts], and I just thought that was it. I was going to be an artist and that’s the way it was. I went to community college for fine arts, up in Oakland. I was working as a nanny for extra income, and I happened to see a commercial for culinary school. It was showing pictures of cakes, and I thought, “I do all that stuff.”
Who were your culinary influences? I worked at One Market as my first gig in San Francisco. And the pastry chef — she was really fantastic. I just wanted to be her when I grew up. And I worked for Donald Wressell at the Four Seasons, which was a huge influence on me. He did all the pastry competitions. We got to see him practice, and it was so inspiring — to really think outside of the box and make stuff up. He would meet the team from Spain and come home with notes on what they were doing, and throw some of that into the mix of our stuff: chocolate sculptures, super high-end wedding cakes.
Is culinary school necessary for someone trying to break out in the industry? I think depending on the school and the individual, it can be really helpful — in the right circumstance and with the right person. Go and offer your time for free, to get your foot in the door, with somebody really big before you spend all that money on culinary school. If you come out of high school and you have a burning desire to cook, go impress somebody, and be their dishwasher for a while and slowly work your way in. Not a lot of kids are willing to do that. I think too many times schools just churn them out and these people think they’re going to have a cooking show or something glamorous. And they come out and they make hopefully a little more than minimum wage, working as a cook.
How did you get into vintage, and where do you find so much cool stuff ? I’ve always gone to thrift shops with my mom and found really cool stuff to wear. So I just would collect stuff that looked pretty and caught my eye. I don’t know what it is — some people love it, and some people just don’t get it at all. It’s personality and substance and history. I don’t know exactly how [CakeBoxVintage] happened. I’d heard of Etsy, and I was looking at it. And they have a vintage shop, and I was thinking, well, maybe. And there wasn’t a huge buy-in: You don’t have to buy a store or deal with rent. I have an excess of stuff from years and years of collecting. So I put a few things on and I got a pretty good response. I’m not in a retail store, and I can reach more people. I’m like, “Oh, that went to Nebraska, or Arkansas.” I just sold a couple of aprons and a couple of cookbooks to a woman in Utah, and I was like, “Oh, I haven’t done Utah before.” [Laughs] I enjoy that part of it.
Tips for the home baker? Take your time. And don’t be scared of stuff. Sometimes people get so intimidated about doing something. “Oh, I could never cook” or “Oh, I could never bake.” I say, “What are you talking about?” If you can measure ingredients, then you can actually follow a recipe. You’re not just winging it.