Chef Elle

Elle Cowan is the owner and Pastry Chef behind SoDo Donuts and EC Confections. A Northern California native now based in the Bay Area, she has spent nearly 15 years managing pastry and chocolate programs across Los Angeles, New York, and Bangkok

Her love for baking started young — from birthday cakes and apple pies to cake walks at her elementary school. After moving to Los Angeles at 19 and working front-of-house, Elle enrolled in culinary school in 2010 with dreams of opening her own cake shop. But what began with a focus on cake quickly expanded into a deep love for chocolate, bread, and the structure of classical European-style desserts.

While she still enjoys making custom cakes for friends and clients, her work now centers around slow-fermented doughs, confections, and ingredient-driven sweets. During school, she balanced a full course load with early morning pastry shifts and late-night serving jobs — a rhythm that instilled the discipline and work ethic that continue to shape her career.

After graduation, Elle took her first Pastry Chef role at a fine dining restaurant in Beverly Hills. When the restaurant closed and a wrist injury sidelined her from kitchen work, she pivoted — moving to New York in 2013 to pursue chocolate full-time. At NuNu Chocolates in Brooklyn, she became Head of Production, overseeing bonbons, bars, and hand-dipped confections while managing the back-of-house team.

In 2016, Elle moved to Bangkok and joined the opening team at Bunker, a modern American restaurant focused on seasonal Thai produce. She spent over two years there leading the pastry program — developing plated desserts, breads, ice creams, and petit fours for both à la carte and tasting menus. After Bunker, she joined Think Beyond Group, contributing to pastry programs for several concepts including Roots Coffee, Ocken, and Roast, where she created seasonal menus and refined existing offerings.

In her final year in Thailand, Elle worked simultaneously for Jim Thompson and Farandole Group. She helped open Jaew, a fine dining Thai restaurant under the Jim Thompson brand, while also overseeing desserts at Funky Lam, Quince Bangkok, and Luka Cafe — designing menus, launching to-go pastry programs during the pandemic, and training staff across multiple kitchens. Elle lived in Bangkok from 2016 to 2020, returning to California as the COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread change to the restaurant industry.

Back home, she began recipe development work with Cairnspring Mills, contributing over 30 original and adapted recipes. In 2021, she launched EC Confections from her home kitchen under a Cottage Food License. By 2022, SoDo Donuts was born, inspired by her Bangkok sourdough donut recipe and rooted in California’s seasonal produce. In 2024, she moved production into Berkeley Kitchens, where both brands now operate side-by-side.

Today, Elle continues to craft small-batch chocolates and donuts with a focus on technique, storytelling, and seasonality — and is working toward opening a storefront and full production kitchen in the Bay Area.