Usually this time of year, Leon Buford-Kelly would be ramping up his summer catering business. But over the past year, he has found a sweeter calling.
Buford-Kelly is an assistant principal at Leestown Middle School and has lived in Lexington about 10 years. He loves to cook and typically spends summers catering weddings, baby showers and other functions. That is, until 2020.
“When COVID hit, of course there were no gatherings, of course I couldn’t cater,” he said. “So, I thought to myself, ‘I want to share my food, but how can I do that and in what form?’”
Leon Buford-Kelly
The answer came when he shared a batch of cookies he’d made with a neighbor. They were so well received that Buford-Kelly decided to post about them on social media, and that’s when an idea began to form.
He decided to offer a dozen generously sized cookies for $20, starting out with his “Not Your Granny’s Chocolate Chip Cookie” recipe. He sold 100 bags in the first month, even shipping to other states, and the momentum kept growing.
Since August, he’s been selling BK’s Cookies nonstop, even taking time off in December to work on perfecting new varieties, which he introduces monthly. He now has a website at www.bkscookies.com, formed an LLC for the business and moved operations from his home kitchen into Southland Commissary Kitchen, a commercial shared kitchen on Southland Drive. He also hired two staff members to help keep up with demand.
While chocolate chip remains his top seller, other flavors include red velvet white chocolate chip, cookies with candy bar bits mixed in, bourbon chocolate chip, strawberry cheesecake, snickerdoodle, #BLM Triple Chocolate Cookie and more. There are even cream pie sandwich cookies, gluten free and CBD -infused varieties. Buford-Kelly introduced a new birthday cake-flavored cookie in May, in honor of 25,000 cookies sold.
His cookies are available in two packs at Total Wine at Lexington Green, Southland Bagel and Leestown Coffee House, as well online and for in-person pickup. They’re available for shipping, and for a $5 fee, can be delivered locally.
Buford-Kelly said despite the temptations, he doesn’t eat his own cookies past taste testing recipes, because eventually it numbs his palate. Before he debuts a new flavor, he makes samples to give to teachers and friends to gather feedback. He also contacts regular customers to let them know when new cookies are available.
TaQuoya Shegog jokingly calls Buford- Kelly “Satan,” because he got her hopelessly hooked on his sinfully delicious cookies.
“There’s really no comparison,” she said. “I think the biggest thing between his cookies and store-bought cookies is they’re not hard; they’re chewy. And if they last longer than a week at my house, they’re still not hard.”
One time she says she bought some red velvet cream pies intended for a Thanksgiving dessert to share. She admits they were gobbled up before Thanksgiving, and she had to buy a replacement batch.
It doesn’t hurt that Buford-Kelly’s winning personality makes him the ultimate salesman.
“To know him is to love him,” Shegog said. “You can be in a bad mood, and you justhear his voice and it’s instant entertainment!”
Alicia Wilson is a Lexington resident and mother of three boys who knows Buford-Kelly from his middle school role.
“My boys fight over BK’s Cookies. They try to get their hands on them first.” —Alicia Wilson
“My boys fight over BK’s Cookies,” she said. “They like to hide them. They try to get their hands on them first.”
She said she tried chocolate chip and lemon varieties initially, and between the large size and pleasing filling texture, she’s given up trying to resist the red velvet cream pies. “From there it was game on,” she said. “It was, I’m telling you.”
Marvin Washington is a school resource officer at Leestown Middle School, who happily tries test batches. The oatmeal cream pies are his favorite.
“I think mainly it’s the texture,” he said of the cookies’ appeal. “The flavor’s pretty good. When he makes those cookies, it’s his version ... you can tell that they’re homemade, just the texture and the flavor of it.”
Don’t even try getting hints about Buford-Kelly’s ingredients or methods — those are trade secrets. For now, he’s doing so well at cookie sales he doesn’t expect to fully jump back into catering when the pandemic completely wanes.
He said baking cookies is simpler than catering both financially and practically, and he enjoys the creative process of inventing new flavors.
“This is the magic I was looking for, absolutely!” he said.
He said in the future he may try to have a storefront location or expand into offering the cookies at more locations but for now is content with his current business model and modest goals.
“I just want to put a cookie in everybody’s mouth across the United States: that’s it!” he said, laughing.