Today we’d like to introduce you to Katinka Bencs.
Hi Katinka, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My business was born out of my own needs – via looking for answers for my own health challenges. As I was getting close to my milestone 30th birthday, I wanted to be excited but was just exhausted and burnt out. I was losing my zest to life and during a low-key celebration with my friends, I almost ended up in the ER with the worst stomach pain in my life. That was the last drop in the bucket. I had a demanding, high-stress job with 16-hour workdays, burning the candle of both ends when I was off, jet setting on weekends. It had to end. I took a 180 change with my nutrition and lifestyle, took a six months sabbatical and enrolled back to school to study Integrative and Culinary Nutrition – in 2013 and 2014. As I cleaned up my diet and lifestyle I started to feel better and better and wanted to shout from the rooftops how much better you can feel if you just change a few things up! (not everyone needs crazy changes like I did.) I started with one-on-one health coaching that evolved into cooking workshops.
After my daughter was born, I felt the calling to leave my corporate world and focus on what matters to me: my family and my passion for helping others heal. My business evolved over time with me and as I was learning how I can help families the best to become and stay vibrantly healthy. During my cooking classes, I always baked and served the bread I came up with for my own healing journey. A grain-free bread, full of protein and fiber, low in carbs. I shared the recipe, super simple, six ingredients, make batches and just whip up fresh bread when you feel like it – by adding eggs, oil and water. Well, the reaction was always the same: “Would you please sell the batches you have made for yourself?” And the idea was born – creating a line of clean, nourishing baking flour blends that are super easy to make and every single family member can enjoy. I still struggle with some ups and downs, but they are way less in amplitude and more and more spread out. Throughout the years of my now quite long healing journey, I finally discovered the root cause and most contributing factors -chronic Lyme disease coupled with a few co-infections and other related ailments. I learned to tune into my body, read the signs and prevent deeper crashes. Eating clean is definitely one of the key elements in this! It has to be super delicious though, so I keep experimenting with newer and more nutritious recipes so that I can inspire my audience as well!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Where is a smooth road in entrepreneurship? 🙂 We want to evolve and grow constantly. That comes with challenges, obstacles, pain, tears… all just to better ourselves and the people we serve. My passion to educate, empower and inspire people to live a healthier life hasn’t changed since I changed my lifestyle. The way I think how, I can get to people to make lasting changes has. This is why I shifted from one-on-one coaching to cooking workshops and eventually to a product. As the first phase, I created a stamp with my logo, got paper bags from a craft store and tested my flour blends at farmers’ markets. I LOVED people’s surprised faces as they sampled: “Is this REALLY grain-free?” I even got accepted to the Beard at Baldwin Food and Wine festivals as a vendor! The happily sample sneaking kiddos, grateful parents of picky eaters and super excited foodies confirmed that I should pursue and take the next step to make my flour blend line into my full-time business and start selling online.
To be able to sell online, I had to leave the cottage industry and take the next step: I had to get a commercial kitchen. Commercial kitchens are full of allergens. There is no certified gluten-free kitchen in Orlando. Even if there was one they would probably be processing dairy products, soy, corn or other allergens, I want to avoid in my blends. So I had to get creative! I was trying to figure out where kitchens are that don’t process much food… ehem… yeah… right? Then it came to me! Juice Bars have a kitchen and they process fruits and veggies only – nothing else!! My first farmers market happened to be the Collage Park one, which was organized by the sweet Stone family, owners of Grounding Roots Juice Bar. I reached out to them and now I have a commercial kitchen that is just so pristine clean!!
My other continuous challenge is time and where to focus my best energy. I am a homeschooling mom (this year) with a husband who is very supportive, yet with a schedule that is all over our calendars (evenings, weekends), while I still need to put lot of focus on my health care. We discuss schedules and responsibilities on a weekly basis and plan out our work and self-care times with great detail. Last year was especially hard with a lack of child care for many, many months. I am a planner and love structure. As probably most people realized, the ability to execute on plans has been out the window since the pandemic hit. I have been mastering the lessons in flexibility, gracefully shifting plans and reprioritizing. 🙂
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I formulate and hand make organic, grain and key allergen-free baking flour blends that are not just highly nutritious but also delicious! Being originally from Hungary, where bread is a staple, I missed good, comforting bread when I embarked on my healing journey. But most gluten and grain-free breads on the shelves were and sadly still are full of awful ingredients, fillers, preservatives and empty starches. So I decided to put my studies to work. I created an anti-inflammatory bread that is not just nourishing but also has no key allergens, sugar, fillers or yeast, just clean ingredients. Since then I have expanded my offerings – keeping the same high standards – and have some breads, rolls, bagels, pretzels and charcoal waffles now.
For the holidays, I offered Cinnamon Bread Rolls and Gingerbread Cookies. Moms from all over the US sent me happy emails how much they enjoyed making cookies with their kiddos again – without worrying about the ingredients and the super high sugar contents. There are so many families nowadays where family members have different dietary choices/restrictions. My products check most boxes – gluten-free, grain-free, some paleo, some keto, all lower carb, can be made vegan – so they can enjoy them together! I believe that food has healing powers. I believe that for optimal health and healing, we need to fuel our bodies with clean, real, whole foods. This is where my passion and talent comes in. I am passionate about healthy, sustainable living, but I love good, flavorful food. A good meal with friends fills my heart! My friends know that I can turn most healthy foods into something mouthwatering that people would normally think “tastes like cardboard.” It took me lots of cooking classes and cooking for friends to realize I have a gift – make healthy wildly delicious!
My products are different because I use 100% organic ingredients, while use my Culinary Nutrition knowledge to create the blends with the highest nutrient content possible. This is key because we eat to get nutrients. My motto is “every bit counts.” I pride myself in providing the highest quality flour blend on the market – all hand-made with love, from the best ingredients available. Lastly, my blends are super easy to whip up. I am a working mom. I realize most families don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen. I do think though, that cooking/baking in a wonderful opportunity to educate our children about where food comes from (ideally not from a box) and how to fuel our bodies in an optimum way. So I created my blends that they are simple enough to make with kids yet take just a few minutes to whip up – before you put them to the oven. Not much clean-up, very few ingredients. For example, for my Chickpea or, Better than Whole Wheat bread, you whisk together eggs, oil and water, pour in the flour blends, mix and bake. Hope, I get to nourish you one day!
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I have several favorite childhood memories related to one topic – gingerbread! 🙂 I would try different flavors during trips to Austria and Germany (it’s called lebkuchen there), sample them at my great aunt’s house with huge enthusiasm while also baking gingerbread cookies starting as early as I could bake during the holidays. There was something so magical about it for me! I admired these little cookies with the white icing! When I got older, I adventured into baking gingerbread houses. I gifted them to family members. I even gifted one to my boyfriend – now my husband! :). To all my surprise, it just started to fall apart a few years ago and his mom asked me if she could discard it – after holding on to it for 15 years!! 🙂 I perfected the recipe, yet I got stuck when I went gluten-free 10+ years ago. I was ecstatic when I managed to adjust the recipe to grain and all allergen-free perfection – still using my signature spice bend from cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger. Same flavor, same consistency, no sugar, no cringing when my daughter devours it! 🙂 Sweet memories flowing back as the scent lingers in my kitchen.
Pricing:
- One blend $18
- Two blend bundle $34
- Four blend bundle $60
- FREE shipping on all orders above $50
- 15% off your first order
Contact Info:
- Email: hello@knkitchen.com
- Website: www.katinkasnourishingkitchen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katinkas_nourishingkitchen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katinkabencs
Image Credits
Branded Boss Lady https://www.instagram.com/thebrandedbosslady/
