This bakery now serves some of the best breakfast food in LA

The heady smell of fried chicken and waffles fills the mid-morning air at Blossom Market Hall in San Gabriel. At 10 a.m. it's still dark for most of the other vendors, but behind the counter at Baking With Ish, Ishnoelle Richardson and her husband, Jeff, have been standing at their new stand at the market for hours, preparing waffles, pancake batters and dozens of pieces of fried chicken.

“I just really needed people to try my fried chicken,” says Ishnoelle, who first opened his bakery in the market in 2023. He's best known for his pandemic pop-up bakery-turned-bricks-and-mortar bakery, with a dough case full of ube-infused cakes and pandesals, chock-full of even more ube and melted cheese. But after moving from his 1,100-square-foot space at the market to a larger, adjacent stall in April, he's using the extra space to serve breakfast.

“I went to school for savory cuisine, so I don’t just bake sweets,” he says. “I love fried chicken and have been making it since I was a kid. I might as well share it.”

Ishnoelle was born in the Philippines and spent his childhood at the hips of his aunt and grandmother in the kitchen. He moved to the United States as a teenager and pursued a career in entertainment, but he always longed to think back on the years he spent cooking with his family. After visiting Le Cordon Bleu and various stints at restaurants in LA, he used the familiar flavors of the Philippines (and his mother's recipes) to open his own bakery during the pandemic.

He still fills his pastry case with ube donuts, cookies, cakes, rolls, custard tarts and pandesals, but now he serves a sweet and savory breakfast of chicken and waffles, egg and cheese pandesal sandwiches, pancakes and fried chicken sandwiches.

“I’m very picky about waffles because I love them,” says Ishnoelle. “Max and Helen's is so good. Mine had to be really good.”

He makes his dough with Sonoran wheat from the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project and flavors it with cardamom and cinnamon. They come out of the iron perfectly golden, every ridge clearly defined, delicate and crisp. The waffles are soft and tender in the middle and have a rich, nutty, almost buttery flavor. They're good enough to eat plain, but even better with a touch of cinnamon and cardamom honey butter. And topped even more decadently with two fried chicken thighs.

Ishnoelle's aunt taught him how to make Filipino fried chicken, simply seasoned with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and a little MSG. The trick, he says, is taking the time to massage the spices into the chicken.

“After I massage it, I just let it sit and marinate for about 30 minutes,” he says.

He then coats the chicken in seasoned flour and deep-fries it. The feather-light coating bursts and the chicken underneath oozes juices and tastes like it's been brined and marinated for hours.

For the fried chicken sandwich, he uses the same chicken but adds some dried chili de árbol for seasoning and drenches the chicken in calamansi honey butter. The chicken thigh is piled on one of Ishnoelle's brioche buns with Mornay sauce, garlic and chili oil, pickled onions and a handful of potato chips made from Weiser Family Farms potatoes. It's unlike any other fried chicken sandwich in town. And it should be eaten as is.

“Some people will ask if I can take the potato out, but I want you to eat it the way I imagined it and the way I serve it,” says Ishnoelle. “My grandma told me to eat whatever's on the table. So I have that mentality unless it's an allergy.”

His pancakes are dark with wavy edges and taste like you would imagine a pancake to taste: warm, fluffy and a little spongy. Ishnoelle blends blue corn from Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project with rice flour from Koda Farms and Poolish (yeast, water, and pastry flour) to achieve the distinct purple hue and light consistency. Instead of syrup, Ishnoelle mixes ube flan into a thick topping that she pours over the pancakes. The deep purple sauce is custard-like and sweet with a distinct vanilla flavor. A pinch of Maldon salt on top helps balance the sweetness.

If you're craving a breakfast sandwich, you'll need to plan your visit wisely. While the rest of the menu is available all day, he only makes breakfast sandwiches until 11 a.m. or until he runs out. The sandwich starts with a split pandesal bun slathered with Mornay sauce and a garlic sauce flavored with yuzu that comes from a tree at an uncle's house. Then he adds a sunny side up egg and a piece of spam fried on the flat surface.

Breakfast is just the beginning. Once Ishnoelle and Jeff hire a few more people, the couple plans to expand the shop's sandwich offerings and make their own longanisa. And although Ishnoelle says, “Every day is Pride Day,” he plans to offer a rainbow cake on Father's Day to celebrate Pride Month in June.