When North Carolina native Scott Pass moved to Missouri 10 years ago, he recalls there weren’t many opportunities to get a handcrafted cookie.
After living here for two years, he decided to try himself.
“There was some trial and error. My first ones were terrible. They looked terrible anyway,” Pass told the Tribune this week.
Fast forward a few years, and thanks to a grant from The Loop’s Como Cooks community kitchen, Pass now has his own biscuit shop called The Biscuit Center.
In fact, Pass was the first grant recipient under the program.
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Pass hosted a pop-up event at Loop’s Community Pop-Up Park on Saturday. He’ll be back in the park when The Loop hosts its Spring Maker Market at 10 a.m. Sunday.
The pop-up event was a learning experience for Pass, who said he has room for improvement. It was his first promotional event, held on National Buttermilk Biscuit Day. Visitors received a free classic cookie, and other flavors were available.
“I think people were generally excited. We didn’t expect such a large turnout,” said Pass. “I’m happy with it. I hope I didn’t disappoint anyone.”
That’s how you get the cookies
Pass takes orders through its website for collection or delivery Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 7am to 12pm. He uses Wednesday to make more cookies.
Once an order is placed, it can be in the customer’s hands within 25 minutes. Pass bakes to order. Eventually, he wants to get to the point where he can continuously bake and bake, such as at places like Biscuitville, a North Carolina staple.
“I take real pride in making everything by hand and from scratch. Everything is my own recipe, even down to the honey butter and frosting,” Pass said. “I eventually want a storefront where people can walk in and see every cookie being made.”
Pass wants to fill a fast-serve cookie niche.
Pickup is at 500 E. Walnut St., the temporary home of the Como Cooks kitchen facility while their new, permanent location is built on The Loop.
Development of the biscuit recipes
Because his family didn’t have a cookie recipe of his own, Pass used the internet to research when he first started developing his recipes.
In doing this research, he found that recipes were often for plain cookies, and the only types that were filled cookies were drop-style cookies rather than sliced cookies. He wanted to make cut out cookies full of different flavors.
It now has three flavor levels: plain, sweet, and savory.
Simple biscuits include the classic buttermilk or cheddah, a cheese biscuit.
Sweet flavors include cinnamon roll, chocolate chips and the recently developed Pink Delight, a strawberry cookie.
The savory cookies include the OG sausage and cheese, the first recipe developed, and a bacon and cheese cookie.
Pass also has crustless quiches with sausage, bacon, spinach, and mushrooms based on his mom’s recipe, which he modified slightly.
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While Pass has a base dry mix for the cookies, each recipe is prepared a little differently based on the batter mixes. When it comes to the Pink Delight biscuit, Pass has to consider the moisture content of the fruit, he said.
“There’s a lot of research and development behind this,” he said, adding that he can now develop more fruit biscuits.
One reason Pass calls his company The Biscuit Center is that he eventually wants to develop a cookie with a savory or sweet injection in the center, such as B. sauce or jam.
“It’s going to be a couple of months,” he said. “I don’t want people to have a container like cookies and gravy usually come. I want people to bite into it and find sauce in it.”
Because of this, Pass injects ingredients into his cookie dough and develops the injected cookies – mobility; the all-in-one, grab-and-go.
“That food was a part of me, and people are willing to embrace it and pay for it,” Pass said. “The food is only part of the whole product. It’s the delivery, the customer service, the thought behind it, the communication behind it.
“You put your whole self out there for one person, two people, or however many.”
Why Pass focused on cookies
When Pass moved to Missouri, there was only the Ozark Mountain Biscuit & Bar food truck and places like Hardee’s or McDonald’s.
However, North Carolina had a plethora of places to get a cookie, including places like Bojangles and Biscuitville.
While his family was cooking, cookies were light and readily available, so they weren’t actually made in his family.
“I learned (to cook) from my mother when I was young. That’s one of the tools she wanted to give me before I started my own business,” Pass said. “I didn’t go to school to cook, I’ve always been there.”
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Pass was pursuing a degree in chemical engineering before life changes occurred.
“I still do chemistry now, just differently,” he says, laughing.
Get the scholarship
Pass heard about the Como Cooks grant late last year.
The program received a boost in March when the Columbia City Council approved The Loop to receive a portion of American Rescue Plan Act funding for workforce development.
Pass was stocking up on ingredients at Moser’s grocery store on Rangeline Street when a local clerk, knowing that Pass was trying to start his own business, suggested he visit Regional Economic Development Inc.
From there, Pass was connected to Sarah Cyr of Central Missouri Community Action and the Missouri Women’s Business Center, who told him about the scholarship opportunity.
“[Sarah]— outside of supporting my family — has been extremely important and influential in helping me get to where I am now,” Pass said.
The Biscuit Center is Pass’s full-time job. The biggest surprise? All business-related costs in addition to purchasing ingredients, he said.
“Even though I have the scholarship, there are still a lot of upfront costs that you don’t think about,” he said. “There are things I know I’ll have to prepare for later that will cost me money.”
He is grateful to his family for preparing for Pass to pursue this business venture.
“I’m building my first business from the ground up,” Pass said. “…My wife and I have been shuffling stuff around on the back end. We’ve made some sacrifices to make this work. We’re hoping this is temporary.”
It was still an enjoyable process, he said.
“I enjoy the business itself,” Pass said. “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a normal 9-to-5 job. I travel, meet people as well as I like baking cookies here. I like being my own boss.”
Charles Dunlap covers courts, public safety and other general issues for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on twitter. Please consider subscribing to support important local journalism.