Sydney Gavin

Owner of PREP Cooking Classes

As a native of Los Angeles, culture, food, and community are at the core of Sydney’s personal values and interests. She has been working full time since the age of 14, was in college by 16, and spent her young adulthood as a single mother.

At a very young age, Sydney discovered the therapeutic benefits of baking and eventually began a small side business in her early 20s (Tatie Lush Cupcakery), crafting baked goods for fellow locals and small businesses. While this venture was fun and rewarding, her tiny apartment kitchen wasn’t well equipped to keep up with the demands of The Great Cupcake Craze of the 2010s. Around this time, she moved to Seattle and fell deeply in love with the food and coffee scene. And while Seattle was lovely, it was gray. And cold. And wet. All the time. So she came home and eventually ended up in one of California’s last little beach towns- Seal Beach. 

Her first love will always be coffee. She started her coffee career at 17 and forged her way up the corporate ladder across 15 years, on a mission to get closer to sourcing and buying green coffee from small, family-owned farms worldwide. Coffee, like food, was a vehicle to engage with humanity and provide a community where others could feel connected and valued. It’s well known and celebrated that food and drink bring people together, and this is what Sydney strives to do every day. 

Over the years, Sydney oversaw people, operations, and sales for over 15 coffee shops across Southern California and was integral to company growth, infrastructure, and new store openings. 

In February 2018, she met Lisa, the founder of PREP Cooking Classes. Lisa was in the process of selling her business and had planned on moving to Italy later that year. The two hit it off like kindred spirits, and Lisa knew that Sydney was the perfect person to take over the business. Sydney took over PREP in May of 2018, and over the past few years, she has built a full-service boutique wine bar that also features local craft beer and added virtual experiences and live e-classes to PREP’s offerings. She has also launched personalized food kit distribution across the US, featuring chef-curated meals and ingredients to coincide with classes emphasizing education, zero-waste cooking, traceability, and her most favorite of all: poking holes in pretentious theories.

She is madly in love with the store, its customers, and the incredible team that is the company's pulse. She has big plans for the future and can’t wait to share all that PREP is with more of the world. She still lives in Seal Beach with her husband, 3 girls, and too many pets.