She Kept Going, Even When It Was Hard

The story of Eliana, founder of The Lady Baker.

Eliana arrived in Australia from Colombia in 2007, as a student. She started studying English, then Hospitality Management, and then completed a Patisserie course. She worked hard and she wanted a career in food.

Afterwards, her personal commitments as a mother didn't allow her to keep working in the hospitality industry, so she moved to a different industry that gave her the flexibility to manage family life. But the passion for cooking never left her.

It was always in the back of her mind.

A leap of faith

Last year, Eliana decided to open the business she had long dreamed of. She started a market stall.

She wanted to share Colombian cuisine and new recipes from her traditional Colombian background, making her own dough mix — handmade, gluten-free products using local ingredients like white and yellow corn, feta cheese, milk and eggs.

As The Lady Baker, she's converting customers to Colombian-style cheese bread "pandebono", flatbread "arepas" with tasty toppings and empanadas — savoury specialities that are gluten-free. People loved them.

But when she tried to turn it into a real business, she found out how much was involved. Insurance. Food safety certification. Access to a commercial kitchen. There is a big gap between having a food idea and being able to sell it legally. Nobody tells you how much work that gap takes to cross.

That's when she found FoodLab.

"When I was looking for a kitchen, FoodLab came up in my search. I went to the website and I saw the program. I said, what is this? So, they have a commercial kitchen. I started reading and it said it's for entrepreneurs. I said, really!"

She applied for our training program and completed it in late 2025.

The moment that changed things

Eliana is a pastry chef in Australia but she didn't have any specific training in how to make traditional Colombian cheese bread. In Colombia she took a course to learn how to make Colombian cheese bread, arepas and empanadas. There are around 100 varieties of handmade products.

In Colombia the tradition is to make the dough, rest it for 7 hours and bake it fresh the next morning. Eliana asked her trainer a question: Is it possible to freeze the cheese bread "pandebono" dough? It would help her to prepare greater quantities and start to grow her business but her trainer said: "No. It's impossible, you know the tradition".

She asked our Head Chef, Miles Blackledge, the same question. His answer? "You must find a way."

So, she did. She tested different methods. She adjusted her recipes because Australian ingredients work differently to the ones she used in Colombia. She rested the dough for 12 hours. She froze it. She kept testing until it worked.

"I did my samples, I rested the dough for 12 hours, I froze them, I put them in the oven and it worked! They came beautifully round in shape, brown colour and were delicious!!! I was so excited when I got my first batch the way how I wanted."

This wasn't just a nice cooking tip, it was the beginnings of a new business being born.

Still building

Eliana is honest about the challenges.

"Sometimes I'm very worried wondering if I am spending too much on ingredients? How can I pay for the kitchen? How can I pay the market rent? If I don't recover that money, it's going to be a struggle for me because I'm on my own building my business."

She keeps going. She is working out how to grow — how to hire help, how to use digital tools, how to reach more customers. She is not only selling to the Colombian community. She is reaching Australians who want good food that is also gluten-free.

"A lot of people I sell to don't have allergies, they just don't want to eat gluten. I'm getting information from the people I want to reach. That's why I did the markets."

You can find Eliana as The Lady Baker at Marrickville Organic Markets every Sunday from 9am. She brings her "pandebonos", "arepas" with toppings — Spanish chorizo and eggs, chicken with Spanish salsa, empanadas with slow-cooked meat.

The testing never stops. Her daughter is already asking her to add cheese bread waffles to the menu — and by all reports, they're delicious.

What support actually looks like

For Eliana, FoodLab gave structure, access and professional support from people with experience in this industry to work through all these questions to find the answers to keep growing the business.

"I feel lucky. Without a commercial kitchen, how can I run a business? So, the kitchen is a great place to be around the facilities and people trying to do the same as me."

"I have this support. I am not feeling alone on this journey, before I was by myself."

When she thinks about the people who donate to FoodLab, she has something direct to say:

"This kind of help, we need it in an early start. I cannot afford it, but I am excited to do it. Many people are in same situation as me who want to start their own business but find difficult to start without capital or a business structure."

Australia is a different concept — if you need help, everybody comes together.

That is exactly how this works. People who have built amazing businesses come and help people who are starting out because they know how hard it is to get started.

The kitchen gets used. The knowledge gets shared. The business grows.

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Eliana Silva Vega is the founder of The Lady Baker. You can follow her on Instagram and Facebook at @theladybakerlatina, or find her at Marrickville Organic Markets every Sunday from 9am.

If you want to support the work that makes programs like this possible, find out more about donating to FoodLab here.

If you are a food entrepreneur and want to know more about our training program, find out more here.