Local bakery owner says baking is science, SpaceX agrees

By Christina Soto | Broadcast Managing Editor

Wacoans love Lula Jane’s chocolate chip cookies. Nancy Grayson, the store’s owner, said she frequently gets recipe requests for her cookies and piecrust.

“It’s chemistry, it’s about heat, it’s about ingredients, it’s about process and so it’s very mindful of us, very deliberate to make sure that we use each of those components of chemistry and baking and pleasing customers,” Grayson said. “We put all of that together because what we make is not about us, it’s about the people who are coming in and making sure that they can’t get what we have anywhere else because ours is better.”

On Valentine’s Day, SpaceX asked Grayson to do a presentation on the chemistry involved in baking her cookies at their McGregor location. She gave the presentation to a team of scientists and after, decorated cookies together.

“They called us for Valentine’s cookies and when they did they said, ‘We’d really like for you to come and talk about the chemistry of baking cookies,'” Grayson said. “It fits in well with SpaceX and the use of STEM and science, and I think most people don’t think of bakeries as being scientific reporting.”