Good morning.

I'm Rosey Alvero, and today on SoCal Wanderer we are in Sherman Oaks.

It's that hour in the morning where it's more likely I rolled out of a party than rolled out of bed, but for Kristine de la Cruz, it's just another day at her bakery, Crème Caramel LA.

Here she's developed her passion for baking while mixing in her Filipino roots.

Let's go meet Kristine.

[music] -Hi.

Good morning.

-Hi.

Good morning.

-I'm Rosey, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you, Rosey.

It's really early in the morning.

-Do we shake hands?

-I find it crazy that you do this regularly.

I'm very impressed by that.

-I appreciate that.

Well, I have a little hair accessory for you.

-I actually know your bakery.

-Oh, you do?

-Your ube brownies are some of my favorite.

-Oh, that's awesome.

-I love them.

-Well, thank you so much.

-Can I help?

-Yeah, that'd be great.

-Kristine put me straight to work because we need to deliver these pastries to businesses across town before 7:00 AM.

How long have you been baking?

My whole life I enjoyed baking, but I liked more the idea of running a food-based business.

-Interesting.

Well, you must've grown up in the kitchen like me.

-Yeah.

-Any Filipino woman, that's their start.

Well, at the same time it's the whole culture of wanting to feed people.

-Absolutely.

-Wanting to make sure that they're all-- -Well-fed.

-Well-fed.

-It's our way of sharing love.

-Yes, exactly.

-I can put these in here?

-Yes.

Those can go in there too.

-How long have you had this business, actually?

-We've had it since 2010 and actually Sean, who I haven't even introduced you to.

-No.

-I'm so sorry.

[laughs] This whole time.

Sean is my partner in life.

-Hi, Sean.

-She goes home and realizes I still exist.

-[laughter] -Don't worry about it.

-Oh my God.

I always say he's the catalyst.

The person who told me like, "Yeah, you can totally do this."

With my family, they were like, "Oh, you have a really good job.

Why would you want to go into something like that?"

-Such a Filipino thing and an immigrant thing too.

-It is.

-Keep the secure safe job.

-Yeah.

It's not even so much they're trying to squash my dreams, but they're just trying to make sure that security is there, but at the same time I feel like the struggles and adversity is what makes you grow.

-It's inspiring to see how hard Kristine and Sean work every day to continue their dream of running a small business.

The fruits of their labor are coming fresh out of the oven.

These are all stuff pandesal, which I love.

-Me too.

-Well, what made you think of stuffing pandesal?

I grew up here.

I was born here, but I still had Filipino traditions, but I also grew up with American traditions too.

Culture affects me as a person, but it's also, the tastes are also affected by that.

Pandesal isn't the only thing they make.

-Kristine and her crew bake hundreds of pastries and custards every day for dozens of clients across Los Angeles.

They've changed their business model throughout the years from a storefront bakery to a wholesale baked goods distributor to keep up with the changing business climate.

-It feels like the world is changing in general.

This feels like there's a whole bunch of things that we are used to doing pre-pandemic that we're okay not doing now.

We've been able to survive and thrive during this pandemic because we did adapt.

I think that's another immigrant personality trait where you have to make work as best as you can.

-In order to make it work, we have to make these deliveries on time.

As the sun is rising, it's time to pack the car and head out.

We have to go and put that there.

I'm going to grab my bag and then we're going to take off.

-Kristine's clients include coffee shops all over LA that sell her fresh baked goods.

-If you want to grab those two.

-Good morning.

-Good morning.

-Thank you.

-Enjoy your pastry.

-Thank you so much, Steve.

-Thank you.

-All right, I'll see you later.

[music] This network of small businesses gives customers access to Kristine's pastries all over town.

-Here.

Hello.

-Good morning.

-Bye-bye.

-Thank you so much.

-Bye.

For our last stop we meet with Justin, a friend who works at a local hospital.

With Justin's help, Kristine and Monique have been making pastry and coffee donations to medical staff working on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic.

-How has the pandesal and coffee, how is that received at the hospital?

-The morale during the pandemic was just super low.

Just dressing up to go to work was a chore.

You just think about all the possibilities that can happen during your whole day just like times that by how many family members you have, and your children and things like that.

You know what I mean?

That's very heavy.

We would team up with Mo and Kristine and they're like, "Wait, don't you work at a hospital?"

[laughter] "Would your staff want some pandesal and coffee?"

I'm like, "We would love some."

It helps so much because the gesture to know that somebody is looking out for us, is thinking about us means so much.

[music] -After a long day of baking and deliveries, we make it back to Crème Caramel for some well-deserved custards.

Thank you for making a selection for me because I'm a typical [speaking in Tagalog] you feel me?

I have our most popular dessert, the Ube upside-down pie.

-It's a ube custard with a bruléed graham cracker Greek yogurt crust.

-It's so good.

-We also have our Calamansi Cheesecake.

Calamansi is the Philippine lemon, and then also our Lady Grey, which is Earl Grey tea steeped with our custard and lavender leaf.

-Then this must be ube.

-It is.

It's our Ube Horchata.

It's coconut milk, almond milk, rice milk, cinnamon, cane sugar, and Ube flavoring.

-I love Ube.

I'm sure this is going to be good.

-Yes.

That one's vegan too.

-Mm, what a fun mix.

-Throw some Boba in there.

-Yes.

-I know.

When it comes to food, it's the ultimate thing that people can agree on, that we all eat.

We all eat.

-We can all come together and say, "This ube leche flan is pretty good," and agree to that.

-Thank you so much.

I already had so much love for Crème Caramel, but learning more about Kristine and her ability to adapt and change herself and her business has given me a whole new insight into one of my favorite LA institutions.

A lot of her experience resonates with me as a Filipino American with an immigrant upbringing.

I know what it's like to have your family push you to have a stable nine-to-five job.

To take the risk and follow her passion is admirable.

I look forward to seeing her delicious baked goods in stores all over Los Angeles.

[music] SoCal Wanderer is made possible by the Wurwand Foundation's