Lauren Ko came from a family of “phenomenal eaters.” She grew up watching her mother and grandmother make cakes and cookies, but to her recollection, nobody in her family ever made a pie. She had seen beautiful pies on Pinterest and wondered whether she could make pies, but the floral, rustic designs that were popular just weren’t her style.
It was two years ago that she decided to make her first pie. Instead of sticking with the current trends, she wanted to create pies with geometric patterns, straight lines and contrasting colors. She started baking more and posted photos of her creations to her personal Instagram account. In fear of becoming “that friend,” Ko started a public Instragram account, @lokokitchen, in August 2017. She had no idea that her work would soon go viral. At the time of this writing, Ko had 214,000 followers and only 108 posts.
With a background in social work and nonprofit administration, Ko had been working as an executive assistant before she quit her job to focus full time on creating pies and tarts. She now teaches workshops and classes throughout Seattle, flies to food events in other cities, and even got the opportunity to bake with Martha Stewart on her show “Martha Bakes.”
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