Calverton's My Big Fat Cookie Bakes Up Big Business from Coast to Coast

‘Tis the season for holidays, candy canes, ginger bread and, well, cookies. The bigger, some people might say, the better, which is one reason why My Big Fat Cookie’s business is in full swing. The Calverton-based company, selling through a wide range of East End locations as well as farther west and nationwide, does business with product at places such as Goldberg’s in the Hamptons.

They also sell along Montauk Highway, at the Bayshore ferry in the summer, as well as into Manhattan at Taste of New York in Grand Central Station. You can buy their cookies at JFK International Airport, as well as across Long Island, and they sell and ship nationwide from Virginia to California, Florida and Texas.

“A lot of people frequent the Hamptons,” Christopher Canestro, who with his wife Nicole founded the company, said of East End sales including tourists as well as residents. “It’s a good quality customer and name, and high foot traffic.”

My Big Fat Cookie, now based in the Stony Brook University Food Business Incubator at Calverton, is a company that people turn to all year long, as well as during holidays. But this is a time of year when sweets might seem seasonal, even if East End tourism is quieter.

The Canestros launched and built My Big Fat Cookie, making big chocolate chip cookies and other similar baked goods, about five years ago. It’s a story of a culinary couple, courage, COVID and kitchens, as well as turning a passion into a profession.

“I started at home during COVID. We had people coming over,” said Nicole Canestro. “We get young, old, kids, adults. We have people in their 60s, 70s, 80s. They’ll cut the cookie into smaller pieces, have a bite one day and a bite another day. And we have younger people who eat the whole thing at one time.”

Many things came out of the pandemic, but chances are you didn’t realize that, among the results of COVID culture, was a better, bigger chocolate cookie.

“I made cookies at home, posted them online,” Nicole said. People started to inquire about buying them from us.”

Building a better cookie

My Big Fat Cookie launched as a business out of a home kitchen, as do many businesses toward Long Island’s East End. A physical therapist, Nicole baked at home for pleasure, family and friends, while Christopher worked in insurance.

“She’s always been an at-home baker. She loved baking,” Christopher added. “The cookie craze was starting to come about when COVID was happening.”

She began making cookies during the pandemic, but when COVID restrictions were lifted, decided to make cookies for visitors. “The people we had over loved them,” Nicole said. “I posted on Facebook. People inquired, ‘Can we buy them? How much are they? Are you selling them?’”

Nicole got a cottage baking license, allowing her to bake and sell baked goods out of her home. They launched in March, 2021, out of their house, selling at the Patchogue farmer’s market in the train station parking lot and by summer of 2021 moved into Stony Brook’s incubator, where they got clients such as Orlando International Airport, their first large account outside of New York State.

“In the beginning, people thought it’s just a silly cookie company. It’s a hobby. It’s not going to amount to much,” Nicole said. “Once we got an airport in Florida and we started getting more and more, it was like, “Oh, wow. So it is something.”

Nicole handles day-to-day bakery operations, inventory, how much and what to make, while Christopher handles the back end such as paperwork and sales, accounting and local deliveries.

“We’ve just been growing,” said Christopher, who left insurance in June of 2023. “We sell around the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii.”

Commercial kitchen

Micro-bakeries in general caught on after the pandemic, and sometimes expanded. They work out of a commercial kitchen at the incubator, regulated by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets.

They use a full kitchen, large refrigerators and freezers, double rack commercial ovens and storage rooms, so they’re able to mass produce. They ship through FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service, primarily wholesale to retailers.

Accounts range from Koho Coffee in Patchogue to Knott’s Berry Farm Theme Park in California, some Six Flags amusement parks, Splish Splash water park, Hudson News and a wide range of locations via Door Dash. “We have some pretty large accounts,” Nicole said.

They make about 40,000-plus cookies (typically 4–4.5 inches wide and 1–1.5 inches high) monthly with their large chocolate chip as the most popular.

“The large cookie craze has taken off since COVID,” Nicole continued. “A lot of companies started doing larger cookies.”

They use a cookie base that is not filled with the “junk” in some other cookies, adding premium ingredients in terms of chocolates, organic peanut butters, and non-GMA sugars.

“It’s a fresh baked cookie with no preservatives,” Nicole said. “Our cookies last three to four weeks at room temperature. You can freeze them up to a year.”

The company name is memorable and, they believe, good for marketing, both helping get accounts and make sales. “People laugh when they read it,” Chris said. “It’s definitely something people remember.”

Most marketing is by word of mouth, referrals and social media, as well as getting the brand to wholesale clients where customers help spread the word. They give clients signs and some marketing materials to display at their stores and some influencers online on Instagram and elsewhere get the word out.

“Our cookies have been somewhat viral for the last year on TikTok,” Nicole added, noting one post got more than 10 million views. “Somebody sells them online through TikTok who gained a lot of publicity.”

Through an affiliate program, people with a social media following sometimes get a commission and they develop new products.

Cookies range from $6.50 and up for just shy of half a pound on their website, and 6.4–7.3 ounces for s’mores. And they sell marshmallow treats, brownies, banana bread, lemon blueberry bread and more.

Inflation increased costs, with chocolate probably up about 30% in the last year and 50% over two years, and the cost of eggs is rising.

“We kept everything level,” Christopher said. “We didn’t feel it was right to pass on and increase the cost of our cookies and make them not economical for people to purchase.”

Holidays boost sales, with Halloween (complete with pumpkin flavors) leading to a bump, but Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s are even bigger. And My Big Fat Cookie donates to charity.

Their son, diagnosed with cancer at four months old, is doing well. They recently donated some proceeds in September to childhood cancer groups, and their cookies were used to fundraise for schools such as the Sachem and Rocky Point districts.

“It’s long hours,” Christopher said of running the company. “Up early, to bed late. It consumes your conversations. You do live, eat and breathe your business.”

The couple work together, raising a family as they bring their business to others’ lives. “We were going in two separate directions in work. It’s nice to be able to work closely and be together,” Nicole said. “We split it up that way and it works well. We communicate during the day. It’s nice working with your spouse.”

Christopher hopes they are building something that could be a legacy for their children as they age. And Nicole likes that they built a business out of something they love, and adults and children get a kick out of as well.

“I love that people are enjoying it,” she said.

Visit mybigfatcookie.com for a complete list of cookies and to order.