Gist: Home-based, gluten-free bakery of flourless fruit-and-nut cakes
Who: Dietician-turned-baker Theresa Bergida, 59, of Front Royal
Started: “I really should have died,” says Theresa Bergida. After a car accident in 2005, Bergida, a former registered dietician who was then a stay-at-home mom of seven, decided to take better care of her health.
She read Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s “Eat to Live,” lost 40 pounds and, tapping into her previous work helping heart patients, started inviting friends over and teaching them nutrition basics.
“That’s when I started thinking,” says Bergida, of the candy-laden Christmas fruitcake she made for the previous 30 years of holidays, “this recipe is awful.”
Inspiration: Bergida won Dare to Dream, a grant for area women sponsored by Front Royal Women’s Resource Center, and took that $700 as entrepreneurial inspiration. “It gave me enough courage to make that step. I had a little zip to get going with.”
Details: Adapted from a family friend’s recipe, Bergida replaced the candied fruit with dried ones and experimented with different types of nuts and loaf pans for a gluten-free dessert. “It’s a healthy dessert. But it is dessert,” says Bergida. She works almost 40 hours a week out of her home kitchen, which is USDA-certified.
Next: Open for seven years, Twin Hearts now sells in three states and the District of Columbia. Her son, who lives in England, and her daughter, who is moving to Canada, both want to help expand the business internationally./ twinheartsbakery.com —Stefanie Gans
(February 2015)
