In March, chef Lorin Peters was enjoying a successful career running culinary events for Juniper and working as a freelance recipe developer and making culinary videos for brands. When the pandemic hit, however, Peters found herself unemployed alongside so many others in her field.
Over the summer, with a family to feed and the pandemic raging on, the entrepreneurial chef wondered how she could use her impressive skillset — Peters has worked as chef de partie at the three Michelin-starred The French Laundry, among other big-named gigs — to do something entirely new.
"I began thinking about how I could level up something that we eat all of the time, but I didn't know what that was yet," Peters says. "I ended up making big fat cookies for my husband's family this past August, and they were such a hit that I was like, 'voila, how do I level up the basic cookie?'"
So that's exactly what she set out to do.
After graduating from the University of Texas, Peters had spent 10 years working as savory chef working in New York and California before returning to Austin. Though the chef had always preferred cooking savory in the kitchens at work, she says she enjoyed experimenting with sweet treats at home.
"While I loved cooking savory day in and day out, I have always had a huge sweet tooth," she says. "I have always been known in my family for making better versions of the classic baked goods — you should taste my cinnamon rolls — but I set aside time to make those as a form of relaxation, not for my daily job. However, something about creating this new type of cookie struck a chord, and I have just kept going full force towards my goal of getting Cookie Rich in everyone's hands."
On December 10, Peters took one step closer to that goal with the launch of Cookie Rich, a gourmet cookie company that really does reinvent the classic treat. Two bite-sized, dome-shaped cookies sandwich a specialty filling, creating what one recent taste tester described as "part cookie, part macaroon, part cupcake."
"I tell [people who haven't tried them] to imagine a big bite out of the softest cookie with a dollop of filling and that's what you will get. The dome shape allows me to capture what I love most about a big fat cookie, the soft texture in the middle," Peters explains.
Cookie Rich is launching with 10 flavors that will rotate quarterly. To begin, customers can order Funfetti + Sprinkle Cream Cheese, a funfetti sugar cookie with a rainbow sprinkle cream cheese filling; Chocolate Chip + Dark Chocolate Fudge, an upgraded chocolate chip cookie with a dark chocolate fudge filling; or the seasonal Gingerbread + Orange Zest, a soft gingerbread cookie with a whipped cream cheese filling with fresh orange zest.
After an in-depth taste test (for research and reporting, of course), one of our favorites was Toasted Coconut + Salted Caramel, toasted coconut sugar cookies filled with a coconut cream and sandwiching a dollop of salted caramel.
Cookie Rich is currently available in Austin for delivery via DoorDash or for pickup at its headquarters at 2201 N. Lamar Blvd. As for the future, Peters is getting one step closer to getting Cookie Rich into "everyone's hands." Statewide delivery should launch in the coming months, the chef says, and nationwide delivery will follow in spring/summer 2021.
Now if only we get ahold of those cinnamon rolls.
Cookie Rich has 10 seasonal,rotating flavors.
