With names like Rejuvenation (chai ginger chunk), Enlightenment (espresso with lemon zest and chocolate chunks) and Excitement (coconut key lime cayenne), you’re not quite sure what to expect when you bite into an Inspired Cookie. But, after the first bite, you should expect to feel happy, satisfied or maybe even excited, especially if you are on a gluten-free diet.
When Sarah Gill, founder and owner of The Inspired Cookie, decided to start her own business, she knew what she wanted to provide; a vegan, gluten-free treat made with natural, real ingredients. Sarah has been vegan (by choice) and gluten-free (for allergy reasons) since she was 14. She was always in the kitchen experimenting with rice flour, potato flour and tapioca starch because those were the only alternative flours available at the time.
After college and a successful career in Washington, DC, her father encouraged her to follow her dream, which was to attend culinary school. Sarah chose The School of Natural Cookery in Boulder, Colorado. After going to a vegan holistic culinary school, she discovered “whole foods” and decided to make the line of cookies with whole fats and sugars and simple ingredients.
But after she graduated, her father became ill. Although there had been plans to open a bakery together, she found herself taking care of him. Sadly, he passed away before that happened but Sarah knew what she wanted to do. In 2009, she moved out west, to San Mateo, California, and started to work on her dream, The Inspired Cookie.
Gill says, “Being a chef, I get to pick the best possible ingredients that are whole and offer healing properties to the body”. When asked what inspired her to make such delicious cookies, her answer was she wanted to create something good for people who have allergies, to replace the food they can’t eat any more.
The first launch was at a breast cancer foundation dinner. They asked her to make 400 cookies and her first thought was “How am I going to do that?” But she was excited with the opportunity. That gave her the confidence to go forward.
Today, she is selling her cookies in Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco, Philz Coffee in San Francisco, Palo Alto and San Jose (and soon in Berkeley), Draeger’s Markets, Harvest Urban Market and Harvest Ranch Market in San Francisco, and Crissy Field’s Warming Hut. Keep a look out; she's adding new locations all of the time.
The obvious question is what’s the future for The Inspired Cookie? Gill says she wants to be nationwide, in schools and hospitals, for people who want a true, real cookie, which also happens to have no gluten, dairy or eggs.
And in case you are wondering where the names came from, she says she feels people should have intention with their food, being present when it’s being made and eaten. Take a deep breath and have some rejuvenation. It works for her.
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