Baker Roxana Jullapat, a Los Angeles native of Costa Rican and Thai descent, pursued a degree in journalism before turning to cooking. While taking a break after graduating from college, Roxana found herself baking a tarte tatin in the kitchen of Café Figaro in the bustling neighborhood of Los Feliz. Her fate was sealed. Over the next ten years she held tenures at nationally acclaimed restaurants including Campanile, Bastide, Lucques, AOC and Clarklewis. In May of 2017, she opened Friends & Family bakery, where she has fully manifested her appreciation for ancient grains and California’s seasonality in her breads and pastries. She’s an advocate for garden-based education, and volunteers often at school gardens around town. Her first cookbook, Mother Grains: Recipes for the Grain Revolution (W.W. Norton), was released in April of 2021.