How this vegan baker became another Miami pandemic success story

With a scarlet knife gripped in her right hand, Amira Chomiak chops pieces of dark chocolate for some special brownies she makes for friends. She jokes as she mixes the cannabis butter in a stainless steel bowl that these are seriously some plant-based brownies. And although you cannot find them for sale on her Instagram, what you will find is a variety of 100 percent vegan, artisanal, gluten-free, and soy-free baked goods for purchase — from piña colada cupcakes to vegan lasagna.

“I feel grateful for all of you,” Chomiak told her Instagram followers in a post the day before attending her first Vegan Block Party, a plant-based festival held in Virginia Key last month, as a vendor. “Thanks to all of you, this dream began and continues.”

The dream she refers to is her pandemic-born business, Vegan Moon Kitchen. While COVID-19 thwarted the prospects of many small businesses, Chomiak has grown hers by curating mouth-watering Instagram posts and spending Saturday afternoons at the Coconut Grove Saturday Organic Farmers Market.

Hosted by Glaser Organic Farms, the market has served South Florida for over two decades. Chomiak credits the market with allowing her to expand her clientele and to learn and collaborate with other vegan business owners.

She brings in around $2,000 a month in sales at the market alone and in less than a year and a half has accumulated more than 4,600 Instagram followers.

Chomiak attributes the birth of her business to her upbringing in Caracas, saying that baking is “in [her] blood.” She spent much of her time as a young girl with her grandparents, who fled to Venezuela from Ukraine during World War II. Helping her grandma Nadia replicate Ukrainian breads and taste-testing her grandpa Tato’s fruit jams, she first fell in love with baking in her grandparents’ kitchen.

Chomiak, 32, became an “overnight vegan” in 2016. Out of the blue, she replaced cow milk with plant-based milk and cut out red meat completely. “One day I just realize[d] I didn’t want to keep eating animals,” she said. “I just switched overnight. I had a bunch of stuff in my fridge and then just gave it away. Like, ‘Hey do you want some fish?’ ” she laughs.

Prior to starting her business, Chomiak began making chocolate through an online workshop with a chocolatier from England. In 2018, after learning to create and bake with vegan versions of the stuff, she received an online certificate verifying her status as a chocolatier. From there, she created a brand called “Choco lune.” She discusses the time-consuming process of creating chocolate from scratch this way: “I wasn’t putting all of my effort into the chocolate,” she said. “So, I got kind of frustrated.”

It wasn’t until after she returned two years ago from a long trip to Europe, where she was inspired by the number of vegan restaurants, that she came up with the idea to start making sweets other than chocolate. From there, she launched the business, Vegan Moon Kitchen, on Instagram. That was around the time the pandemic struck.

“Instagram worked really well for me because I started doing live streaming from home,” she said. “I had a good audience by that time because people were stuck at home.”

After a successful launch on Instagram, Chomiak premiered her website, which allows users to place orders, either through pickup or delivery. Among the top sellers on her site is the box of six gluten-free doughnuts. The cost is $40, which allows customers to pick from her 14 flavors, including pistachio, guava, peanut butter choco chunks, and blueberry. Also available for purchase is her signature E-book, which includes 14 vegan recipes for breakfast and small bites.

She hopes to one day expand her business into a vegan and allergy-friendly restaurant and bakery. “I see a place and it’s going to be cozy and all homemade food,” she says. “That’s what I want to have.”

Vegan Moon Kitchen

Purchase products at https://www.veganmoonkitchen.com.

Find Vegan Moon Kitchen every Saturday at the Coconut Grove Saturday Organic Farmers Market, 3300 Grand Ave.

Also for sale at Manna Life Food in downtown Miami and Under the Mango Tree in Miami Beach.

This story was produced in conjunction with FIU’s South Florida Media Network.

This story was originally published November 25, 2021 at 6:00 AM.