Melina Maza

It all started with cookie dough. At age 5, Melina Maza and her brothers sold their mom’s cookie dough door-to-door so they could buy each other Christmas presents. Those early years in the kitchen sparked a family business that has since become a desert institution, with towering sandwiches, lines out the door, and fans who sometimes drive hours just for lunch.

Maza calls TKB Bakery & Deli “the fun family restaurant,” a place where everyone benefits from their hard work and good food. She led the bakery’s Yelp account to five-star status for five consecutive years, beating out even Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants to claim the No. 1 spot in the country. “I was addicted to it,” she says. “That’s been my drive since.”

The best part, Maza emphasizes, is working alongside her older brothers every day, growing a business they built together from scratch. “It is so much fun.”

And they still make a damn good chocolate chip cookie.