Dan Guarino
Starting a business is not easy, but the Rockaway Peninsula offers a unique combination of factors that make it a great place to start a business, especially for many entrepreneurs.
“Living in the tranquility of Rockaway’s beaches while still having access to an industrial city is a great combination for balancing the entrepreneurial spirit,” says Dana Humphrey, entrepreneur, yoga teacher, professor and author. Humphrey, co-founder of Rockaway Creates, which helps Rockaway businesses and creatives network and grow, says, “Walking the boardwalk and feeling the ocean air makes me more mindful and present, which sparks new ideas and is the perfect recipe for creativity, which I think you need as a business owner.”
Marianne Bertini, gluten-free baker and owner and founder of Love, Marianne, agrees. “I think Rockaway is a community that supports cooking,” Bertini says. “It’s a very diverse community. People here are willing to try different things. You can try and experience everything here!”
So Bertini, an Auburn resident, decided to start her own culinary business. Love Marianne serves up a colorful array of cakes and sweet treats, as well as veggie dishes, starters and appetizers, all made fresh to order, with names like Brown Butter Brownie, Salted Caramel Bites, “18 Carat” Cake and Cat in the Hat Cake, as well as Choi, Roasted Pepper, Franklin and Moxie.
Love, Marianne’s Facebook page is filled with images of all kinds of new kitchen creations, including mouthwatering cakes, pies, tarts and creative dishes using fresh vegetables from the garden.
“I also do catering,” says Bertini. “I come to your home for parties of 2-24 people. I’m the server, chef, cleanup, everything — I make sure you enjoy your party!”
But what sets Love Marianne apart is what’s in — and what’s not in — all of her creations. “I’m a gluten-free baker, and you never know when an allergy or tolerance might explode, and it’s amazing what’s in there: salad dressings, sauces, soy sauce.” She also points out that how food is prepared matters: French fries may be gluten-free, but flour- and breaded mozzarella sticks fried in the same oil are not.
“Five years ago, the same thing happened to me while I was eating a peanut butter pretzel. I felt my stomach pop out.” Her immediate thought was, “Oh no! I’m allergic to peanut butter!” The next night, while eating a plain pretzel, the same thing happened. “It wasn’t a peanut allergy, it was a gluten allergy!”
“Going gluten-free takes patience and practice,” Bertini says, “but my house, my baked goods are gluten-free.”
Although she is not vegan, she works on creating vegan sweets, dishes and lactose-free products for her clients.
Flour and other gluten-free products weren’t readily available until just a few years ago, but even now, “I still have to make my own dough,” Bertini says. Working with a variety of ingredients requires creative calculations to perfect the taste, appearance and texture of each dish.
“There’s a lot of math involved, and I think that’s what makes it fun,” said Bertini, who has been a high school math teacher in Central New York and New York City for 22 years.
Her other experiences also helped her set up her own business: “I worked for Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, for seven years, where I learned a lot about marketing and how to present things. My degree is in marketing. I worked in the hospitality industry – bars, hotels, restaurants.”
He started cooking at a young age: A Facebook photo shows a young Bertini “standing in front of a Kenner Easy-Bake Oven, waiting for the 100-watt incandescent bulb to heat up.”
In the 1980s, she says, “I was cooking on a dive boat in the Caribbean. We’d take people away for a week. It’s not like you run to Stop and Shop. If it’s not on the boat, you can’t get it. I found a recipe called ’18 Carrots’ cake. I’ve been making it ever since.” The cake, along with her other desserts, is featured in a special section on the Bungalow Bar menu.
Her Caribbean Rum Cake recipe currently uses King Arthur gluten-free flour, tapioca flour and rice flour with xanthan gum. “The gluten in the wheat is what makes the cake stick,” she says. Bertini is constantly having to find creative ways to adapt recipes. “I enjoy the challenge,” she says.
After retiring, Bertini used her business and kitchen acumen to start her own business, and, learning from her parents who had lived through the Great Depression, she began serving meals to those in need, labeling each container with “With Love, Marianne,” and thus the name of her business was born.
“I want to offer something really great, but I don’t want to put a strain on the wallet,” she said, citing an $80 gluten-free chocolate cake someone bought in Brooklyn. But locally, she said, “I’m not competing with other bakeries, because they’re doing what they’re good at. I’m doing what I do.”
“Every day I learn a better way to do something,” like bringing an extra box to put cakes in when traveling so they can be displayed without getting dirty.
“My name is on my business,” Bertini explains, so she works hard to ensure “my products are properly labeled and I’m doing the best I can with what I can control,” like picking her own blueberries in season. “Oh, sure, you can always buy blueberries and strawberries at the supermarket, but that’s a no-no.”
She’s also constantly tweaking and testing her offerings, citing the New York Dippers, who dive into the Rockaway waters year-round, as her best tasters. “I try things over and over and if I’m not happy with something I don’t even give it to the Dippers.” They and her husband have been incredibly supportive, providing her with many networking connections for her business.
“My real goal is to find a small place where I can operate commercially, a place to bake bread. I don’t want to open a bakery. I just need a place with commercial ovens and refrigerators and where I can store my products. That’s the next step.”
“I love taking care of people. I love feeding people,” Bertini says, and all of the labels are still signed, “With love, Marianne.”
Love, Marianne can be found on Facebook, at www.lovemarianne.com, by phone at 607-745-5883 or by email at lovemarianne61@gmail.com.
Photo courtesy of Love, Marianne.
