Hi! I’m Matt Ricotta, and I run Manifold, a cottage bakery in Venice, CA serving plant-based pastry informed by French technique, crafted from California produce, and influenced by the Italian American flavors of my heritage. The goal of Manifold is to inspire positive change in the way we nourish ourselves. Plant-based foods have a vastly smaller environmental footprint than animal products, and I am here to show you that plant-based pastry can be even more delicious. We use only the highest quality ingredients, including organic non-dairy milk, cold-pressed olive oil, and vegan butter made without palm oil.

I have dreamt of opening a bakery since I was a kid, and one of my fondest memories growing up were Saturday “Baking Days” with my Dad, where we’d pick a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen’s The Best Recipe and attempt to make it, only sometimes successfully. A longtime passion, I didn’t train formally in baking until 2021, when I received a Pâtisserie and Boulangerie Diploma from Le Cordon Bleu Paris, and subsequently interned in the kitchens of Eleven Madison Park in New York and Tartine in San Francisco. For the past few years, I’ve also been developing plant-based recipes for my blog Baking Daze, named after those early memories with my Dad. After graduating from business school this year, I decided it was finally time to turn my childhood dreams into reality. I can’t wait to share what I’ve made with you.