Johanna Vandorf ’93 said her Aunt Mimi was not amused. But what could be better than calling a line of gluten-free baked goods “defloured”?

“My friend Mark came up with the name. It’s just brilliant, though I knew it would turn some people off,” says Vandorf, owner of Chicago’s defloured bakery. “I love to hear people’s reactions to it, and now it’s become more of a verb, too. As in, ‘I defloured my favorite recipe.’”

Whether an adjective, noun, or verb, the term has a consistent meaning for Vandorf: the manifestation of a dream.

"People ask for the Bomber Bar by name. I can’t bake enough of them."
 

After graduating in 1993 from Ithaca College with a degree in communications, Vandorf worked for a while in magazine production. She did marketing. She waited tables. She earned an M.B.A. from DePaul University. It wasn’t what she wanted.

“I always wanted to have a bakery,” she says. “I wanted to work for myself, and instead I was working for a marketing firm, putting in late hours. It was horrible. I never felt comfortable in the corporate world.”

So she developed a line of gluten-free goodies in her spare time, and she would take the treats to work for her coworkers to sample. Then, in August 2010, Vandorf was laid off. It was the push she needed to really get rolling—and mixing and baking.

In September 2010, Vandorf incorporated her business, defloured. That December, she started taking her products to market. Then, in February 2011, while offering her sweets at a farmers’ market, Vandorf met the Midwest buyer for Whole Foods Market Inc. “I said to [the buyer], ‘I think I should be in Whole Foods,’ and [the buyer] said, ‘I do, too.’”

Vandorf was invited to do something of a “casting call” at the Whole Foods flagship store in Chicago and was given 15 minutes to “wow” a sales person and the bakery manager. She wowed them all right—perhaps a bit too much.

“I made a big mistake,” Vandorf says. “I brought nine items to Whole Foods, and I had no background in large-scale production.”

Fortunately Vandorf’s a fast learner. She found a way to meet the demand and provide Whole Foods with the products they wanted. Now, more than four years later, her products are still in stores around the Chicago area, at farmers markets, and in area coffee shops and grocery stores.

In addition to gluten-free gems, Vandorf also creates vegan and dairy-free items. She’s branching out into wedding and birthday cakes, hoping to grow that side of her business. And she takes care to cook up goodies that are more than just delicious.

“From the beginning, it was important for me to be affordable,” she says. “I try to use the best ingredients I can get for a reasonable price.”

“I do have to combat the idea that gluten-free is not good,” Vandorf says. “It’s a constant battle. But, the proof is in the pudding.”

That’s something a group of about 15 IC alumni discovered earlier this year. Vandorf opened her kitchen, giving alumni a tour and a chance to try their hand at her trade. They split into small groups for a little friendly competition: to see who could make the best-tasting “Bomber Bar.” The winning confection joined Vandorf’s product line. And now?

“People ask for the Bomber Bar by name,” Vandorf says. “I can’t bake enough of them.”