Francesca Torello didn’t begin lockdown thinking she’d start a business. She had a dream of owning her own vegan bakery, creating space for intersectional feminist discussion. But, as with many dreams and plans, Covid-19 had other ideas.

Rather than resign her goals, Francesca adapted, literally baking feminism in her sweet treats by bringing her politics into the ingredients themselves. She found producers with similar goals to pay women fairly and provide empowerment and education.

What Francesca has achieved is a unique business that is loved by her customers and influencers and bloggers alike. I caught up with Francesca to chat veganism, feminism and most importantly, who gets to try all the new recipes.

How would you define what The Female Glaze does?

Francesca: The Female Glaze was born from an idea I had about a year ago. The original idea was to open a vegan café where we could host workshops, events, classes, anything that could empower women and that could encourage intersectional feminist discussions.

Of course, I couldn’t do that. I started with a home-based vegan bakery. What I tried to do was incorporate the feminist aspect in another way. The main one was to source the ingredients from businesses that are either run by women or support women in empowerment programmes in different ways.

We have divine chocolate. It’s the first chocolate company co-owned by the farmers. Most of the farmers working with chocolate are women. They also have empowering programmes for women and educational programmes for them. I really like what they’re doing and the chocolate is just the best.

We have some different ones, like Girls Who Grind. They do coffee. It’s again, two women running a very small business, but they source the coffee beans directly from women producers. So there’s no third party in the middle to be paid. They’re very honest about how much they’re paying for their coffee and I really like that too.

I try to give a percentage to some charities, feminist charities or LGBT+ or anti-racist charities, that I give a percentage to from some products. I did it for Christmas, we gave a percentage to Made in Hackney. The one from the products we did for valentine’s day we’re going to give a percentage to Refuge, and they’re working for victims of domestic abuse.

It’s mostly that, how I’m trying to incorporate the feminist aspect into the business. Then it’s the name, that’s the fun part. I like to name the products after famous women in history and some are more famous like Michelle Obama, Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, Frieda Khalo but some are not so well known.

So it’s fun to tell their stories and getting people to make more research about them. for example, we have Milletta Bentz, she was the inventor of filter coffee. She was German and she used a piece of paper from her son’s book to make the filter for her coffee.

Then there’s Carolina Beatriz Angelo, she was the first woman who voted in Portugal when women weren’t allowed to vote. But she was 21, she was the legal age to be able to vote. She was head of her household because everyone else was dead. She just showed up and managed to vote because technically on paper she could.

That’s such a cool idea to bring storytelling and baking together. Was this an idea you always had for the products?

Francesca: Not really. The main idea was to have this place for women to gather. Like a safe space for women to like chat, do some work, meet their friends and also have the event part. That was just fun.

I don’t remember how it started. I think I was chatting to my girlfriend. Yeah, that was my girlfriend, she just got very excited about the naming part. I think it was her idea, not mine.

“I don’t necessarily think to be a good feminist you have to be vegan” – Francesca Torello, The Female Glaze

What gave you the idea to bring feminism and veganism together in a baking brand?

Francesca: I don’t know. For me, they’ve always had a lot in common. Maybe it’s because I got to know more about them at the same time.

I was in my first year of uni when I went vegan and I went to this very multi-cultural university, where I got to speak to a lot of different people and learn more about them and their culture. I think that was the time where I got into feminism as well.

I don’t necessarily think to be a good feminist you have to be vegan. I think that’s not something everyone can do. It comes from privilege first to choose what to eat and also you need to do your research.

Being vegan became part of my intersectionality of my feminism. So I just started to see it as another form of oppression to fight for.

I think what they have in common is the way they fight violence and body autonomy and objectification, like animals reproductive systems have by systemically exploited by humans for ages. Animals can’t fight for themselves. They can’t decide what to do with their babies. They can’t decide if they want to have babies or not.

I think as a woman I can relate to the oppression of animals and I have to do my part to avoid that. I don’t think it’s just veganism. I think when you approach intersection feminism, you realise how political your food choices are.

It’s not just avoiding meat or dairy, it’s avoiding businesses that exploit farmers, exploit the land. That they don’t pay the workers properly. It’s a lot of small things that you can decide who you give your money to make a small difference. You’re still trying to do your part if you can.

“I always say is I don’t even know how it is to run a business without a global pandemic” – Francesca Torello, The Female Glaze

You launched your business during a pandemic. What was that process like and how did it feel when you realised you couldn’t open the bakery you envisioned?

Francesca: I launched right in the middle of the pandemic. I opened in July. It was a bit tricky at the moment cause I didn’t know which way to go. I had to keep both my options open, doing both deliveries and markets.. It was very intense to do deliveries twice a week, markets twice a week. I didn’t even know what I was doing at the time

Then we went into lockdown again. All my markets got cancelled and so I had to go back to just deliveries. Now, some markets are open, so I can do a little bit of both. It’s still mostly on deliveries.

What I always say is I don’t even know how it is to run a business without a global pandemic cause I started in the middle of it. I don’t know how it’s going to be in the future. The original project is something I’d love to do in the future but right now, it’s my small kitchen.

How has delivery worked, because you have a big reach?

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Francesca: I do both deliveries in London and I do them myself. And then I ship stuff in the UK. I can ship most of the cookies, pretty much half of the products I sell on the website I am able to sell everywhere in the UK.

Things like tarts, more delicate products, I deliver them myself, which is nice cause I get to see my customers in person. I get to build a relationship with them. Most of the time it’s me with my bags, going around London.

It was nice cause I got to see a lot of places I’ve never seen before. A lot of areas of London I didn’t know about. It’s nice. It’s not nice when it’s raining.

“Take a deep breath and keep going” – Francesca Torello, The Female Glaze

How do you stay motivated to keep with deliveries even when the weather is bad or you’re having a bad day?

Francesca: I don’t know. I have a bad day and I still have to work; I just have to push myself and keep going. Cause nobody else is going to do it if I don’t. I stop for five minutes, I have a little cry, I get back to my work. I still do that. I used to do it a lot when I first started. Now it’s getting a bit better.

But you just have to face the things that go wrong and go from them. See what’s happening, try to find a solution as fast as you can. Take a deep breath and keep going, cause nobody else is going to do it. I have to do it.

To keep motivated when I’m having a bad day, I usually go for a walk. If I’m not too busy, I take some time for myself. Play some music and just go for a walk around. At the beginning of the lockdown, it was easier. There wasn’t a lot to do.

I lost my job before the lockdowns and I wasn’t planning on the business in the first couple of months. So I had a lot of free time to like learn new languages or move the furniture around.

But now I’m busy with the business most of the time, so that’s keeping me motivated. When I need some time for me I just go for a walk or I have a nap. I realised I love to have a nap.

Since starting a business wasn’t the original plan, when did you decide to go for it?

Francesca: It was after a couple of months into lockdown. I was working in a restaurant before, and I knew the restaurants weren’t going to open any time soon and I needed to do something to keep me motivated.

It was just the right time to do it. I didn’t think too much about it. One day I just applied to register my kitchen as a food premise. Five minutes later I was like it’s done. What do I do now? I need to plan everything. I don’t even have a name.

I took a couple of months to build the website, to get the recipes done and I decided to take it very slow and take it very easy and not jump into it too much. Just let’s see how it’s going to go. I might look for a part-time job if I need that.

There’s definitely no time for a part-time job, that’s for sure.

How did you decide on the recipes and who gets to be your taste tester?

Francesca: My taste tester is my girlfriend. She lives with me. I think she was very excited when we started, but now she’s just bored of everything. Cause even if I’m not testing them, I have leftovers from the market.

The way I go with deciding the products. I try to get inspiration from things around me, flavours I like, flavours I liked when I was a kid or that I know that my family likes or things I baked in the past. Maybe they were a complete failure but they had something good that I want to work on.

Sometimes it’s ingredients that I know I want to use. So maybe I see a nice producer that I like and I want to use their products and I build the recipe around the product.

What I like to do is playing with contrast. So different textures, different flavours. Just playing with contrast and sometimes it’s a mess and I fail, and it doesn’t taste nice.

I’m trying to learn how to not get too mad when these happen. Understand what went wrong, try again, improve the recipe.

“I had to work a lot on it but I’m very happy with the final product” – Francesca Torello, The Female Glaze

What was your favourite product to create?

Francesca: I think it might be the lemon meringue tart. I originally made it as a custom order for one of my customers and I love it because I failed so much when I was trying the different parts that go into the final product.

The lemon curd was way too sour the first time I made it. It wasn’t setting properly inside the tart. The meringue was a disaster. I had to work a lot on it but I’m very happy with the final product. Cause, first of all, it looks very pretty.

It’s got all the contrasts that I like. The tart is quite crunchy, the curd is very creamy and then the sour coming from the lemon curd. The meringue is very sweet and fluffy.

“I haven’t seen them in a long time.” – Francesca Torello, The Female Glaze

What are you most looking forward to when lockdown is over?

Francesca: Going to the restaurant. Other than that, to go home. Home is Italy and I haven’t been there for more than six months now which is a lot for me. I always try to go every two or three months or my family is able to come here. I haven’t seen them in a long time.

The first thing I’m going to do is go out for dinner and then go home.

In terms of business, what I want to do as soon as I can is have a pop-up. I’d like to have a place where people can find me maybe not permanently but for a few months, they will know that I’m there every day and they can come to buy my food there. That’s the business plan for the future, but before that, I’m just going to go home for a week.

What are you proudest of achieving with The Female Glaze?

Francesca: I’m proud of so many things. I think I’m prouder of the way I’m running the business. Cause I never thought I was going to be able to do it.

Day one was one of the busiest days I’ve ever had cause I got a lot of promotion from bloggers and influencers, so I had way too many orders coming through and I wasn’t ready for that. I thought I was just going to panic and quit. But I didn’t!

I cry a lot but I kind of feel like I know what I’m doing for like the first time. I’ve got this! So I think that’s the thing I’m most proud of. I didn’t know I had this in me.

Another thing is the support I’m getting from my customers and people who try my food. It’s just the idea of having people coming back and buy from me again. Its mind-blowing. Having recurring customers that’s the best feeling.

I didn’t know I was going to like that the thing of building a relationship with them. I’ve always loved working in a kitchen because I could be by myself and not have to deal with people too much. I didn’t know I was going to like that, but I miss it a lot.

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Written By Lauren Waugh

@_LifeofLKW

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