When her then 3-year-old son asked her for cookies one day in 2019, Despina Giampilis decided to make the best ones she could.
She followed an online recipe to make the first batch, but they came out flat as pancakes. As a self-described perfectionist, Giampilis said she was determined not to let this first failure stop her.
The mom of three spent every day for the next six months in her kitchen perfecting her chocolate chip cookie, with a binder to track the changes to her recipe and her son by her side.
“We would tweak something — we would either add something or remove something like a little more flour, a little less butter,” Giampilis said. “My son was with me the entire process.”
The treats are now sold at her local bakery, La Madame Biscuit, at 716 E. Fourth St.
Giampilis studied finance and marketing in college but later realized she wanted to pursue something through which she could embrace her creativity instead.
What started as a hobby for her soon became a passion. Cookies are Giampilis’s focus, as she said she doesn’t know how to make anything else, not even cookie cake.
Giampilis said she was motivated to start a business because her green card application process prevented her from getting a job to help support her children.
She said her children are her first priority, and the three cookies in her logo represent each of them.
After fine tuning her chocolate chip cookie recipe but before opening her bakery, Giampilis began selling them to her neighbors. She said they became popular, and a friend suggested she sell and ship them nationwide. This allowed her business to grow despite the COVID pandemic.
Many of the orders she shipped included cookies with messages on them, such as “Get Well” and “I miss you.”
“It started getting crazy at home,” Giampilis said. “I was baking 500 to 600 cookies in my kitchen oven, and I needed to get out of there.”
Giampilis’ husband, Michael, suggested opening up a storefront, and in October 2022, he purchased a vacant building for her to make and sell her cookies.
Challenges with getting city approval for renovations lengthened the process, but the store finally opened this year on Oct. 29.
Although chocolate chip cookies are her specialty, the bakery also sells flavors like Funfetti and salted toffee.She said protein cookies are her latest concoction, and they satisfy her sweet tooth without added sugar.
“I go to the gym a lot, so I wanted to make something that would satisfy me, because I can’t be eating cookies all the time,” Giampilis said.
Along with these staple flavors, Giampilis also offers three rotating weekly flavors. She said she tries to gauge her customers’ favorite flavors to determine what cookies to add to her rotation.
She said her cookies and cream flavor is especially popular, and she featured cranberry white chocolate cookies for Thanksgiving.
Angelina Pierce, ‘28, enjoys frequenting the bakery as a local student. She said the store’s welcoming atmosphere and rotation of new flavors each week is what makes La Madame Biscuit special.
“The owner is very personable and wants to get to know you,” Pierce said.
Bethlehem resident Michelle Melcer also once enjoyed visiting the bakery as a customer. She said she became friends with Giampilis when their children began at the same preschool.
The friendship evolved into a partnership, and today, Melcer is the store’s media manager. She works in the bakery each day assisting with marketing, social media, online orders and shipping.
Melcer said Giampilis is an amazing person and business owner.
“I have been buying her cookies for years,” Melcer said. “When my grandfather passed away, she dropped off cookies at my house. She’s just a wonderful person.”
Store manager Giota Taktikos is also friends with Giampilis and helped her through the process of starting her business. Taktikos said they also originally met at their children’s preschool five years ago and have been friends since.
Taktikos also said the pair baked cookies together in Giampilis’ kitchen before opening the storefront, and they are the only two people who know her recipe.
“Now, (Giampilis is) not my boss, she’s more my friend,” Takikos said. “We’re like sisters.”
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