About us
Discover our story and feel closer to us.
“BUNA began with care for my loved ones and the desire to create desserts that taste great, look beautiful, and are good for the body. Today we keep that promise: clean-made products that are vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, and free from white sugar, with no additives, for mindful choices.”
Natalia Zolotсo, fondatoarea BUNA și administratoarea Zolotco Bakery SRL
Natalia Zolotco on creating the BUNA brand
Everything started with my interest in healthy eating. I experimented for my family: my husband and my son, and one day I decided to post on social media that I was taking orders. For the first year and a half, the desserts were made in my home kitchen. During that time, we made so many friends who came to love our products.
After a year, we were invited to the Ecolocal local producers’ fair. That gave us the push to start thinking about our own production space. Demand for our products was outpacing what we could make. We began looking for a location and, in parallel, we won two grants that allowed us to buy the equipment we needed to get started.
In 2022, we rebranded with designer Iana Miheeva, and our pastry shop was named BUNA. For ourselves, we came up with the following explanation for our brand.
Buna – este despre ceea ce este bun la gust, arată bine și este bun pentru corp.
This is our main message, the one we strive to share with our customers. When we talk about the associations with the word BUNA, there are three.
First: it’s a greeting, a gesture of goodwill, which connects us with our customers;
BUNA comes from the word “bună” (“good”), and we strive to make a healthy product that doesn’t harm your health.
Third: it’s a warm, pleasant association with something beautiful from childhood, memories of cozy family gatherings.
Our principles have remained unchanged from the very beginning. We make desserts without gluten, white sugar, lactose, or eggs. Of course, there are no artificial flavorings or harmful additives. All our products are vegan, suitable for those who have given up dairy, gluten, and sugar but haven’t given up the desire for something sweet as a dessert. We started out with sweet items, but over time the menu has grown: we also offer savory options, seasonal specials, and products for celebrations.
Our desserts include cakes, pastries, cookies, chocolate bars, and pies. Our savory selection includes vegetable tarts, grissini, and bread. We have around 20 permanent menu items; depending on the season or holidays, that number grows to about 30.
I communicate with customers quite a lot personally; we meet at fairs and talk. Our customers can be described as people who make mindful choices. Buying a dessert from BUNA is rarely a spontaneous decision; it’s a niche product, and our customers study the ingredients very carefully and know what our pastries are made from. These are people who don’t have medical dietary restrictions, but who choose the cleanest, healthiest products for themselves.
Another part of our customers are those who, for health reasons or on a doctor’s recommendation, need to eliminate certain foods from their diet. There are many therapeutic protocols that exclude gluten, eggs, lactose, or white sugar. I followed these protocols too for health reasons, and I know how hard it is to find tasty pastries that also meet the right ingredient requirements. About 30% of the population experiences discomfort and unpleasant symptoms from consuming gluten, and around 1% of people have a serious condition called celiac disease. In addition, gluten “feeds” inflammation in our bodies, which is why avoiding it is recommended for people with certain inflammatory conditions. For this audience, choosing the right products is extremely important, because their health depends directly on it.
We also frequently receive orders for children’s desserts. Little ones especially love our marshmallows, bars, caramels, and grissini. The new generation of parents is increasingly mindful of what their children eat, especially when it comes to the amount of white sugar, so our cakes and desserts become a healthier alternative.
Our products can be ordered on our website, at the Eco Local fair, or from our café partners.