Alice Cherng is the co-founder and CEO of Dear Bella Creamery. Cherng’s approach to the creamery is driven by an emphasis on authenticity, which is found through Dear Bella’s genuine hospitality and incorporation of high-quality plant-based ingredients.
At the age of eight, Cherng immigrated to Los Angeles from Taiwan with her brother and parents in pursuit of a better education and a secure career path. A few years after their arrival, Cherng’s father lost his business, fell severely ill, and became bedridden. To aid her father’s health, the family adopted a vegetarian diet in accordance with her mother’s Buddhist beliefs, which would ease Cherng’s transition into a vegan diet as an adult. Her mother took a job in accounting to provide for the family, which influenced Cherng to pursue a secure career in the same field. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Cherng became a Certified Public Accountant, and moved to Western Massachusetts. While she kept an accounting job, Cherng slowly fed a burning passion for food by attending New York’s Natural Kitchen Cooking School on the weekends, where she studied nutrition, macrobiotic cooking, and formed a deeper understanding of vegan cooking.
Upon returning to Los Angeles, Cherng landed a role at Cafe Gratitude, where she climbed the ranks from a hostess to line cook, and to bartender, before becoming a restaurant manager, all while retaining work as an accountant to make ends meet. Cherng formed her culinary ethos at Cafe Gratitude, renowned for its emphasis on food as a source for physical and mental wellbeing. Cherng was invited to attend Landmark as part of a professional workshop series sponsored by the restaurant. Landmark inspired Cherng to find deeper and more authentic connections in her life, which today guides her approach to Dear Bella.
During one of her first dates with her husband, Cherng discovered how ice cream could yield moments of authenticity and greater presence with others. She found that the standard act of enjoying ice cream side-by-side, as opposed to opposite sides of a dining table, allowed for greater intimacy and connectivity. While she was at Cafe Gratitude, Cherng crossed paths with Belinda Wei, and instantly formed a friendship that would transform into a business partnership. Together, the two women created Dear Bella Creamery, to fulfill the most imaginative cravings with better-for-you ingredients. Cherng is a Cool School graduate of Sweet Ritual Ice Cream in Austin, Texas, where she learned how to operate a vegan ice cream shop, from producing the ice creams to running the operations. In addition to ideating and taste-testing new flavors, Cherng oversees business development, marketing, and finances at the store.
Cherng lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two-year-old daughter, Skye. In addition to running Dear Bella, she still practices accounting, servicing small business restaurants.