Van de Kamp's Bakery
Van de Kamp's Bakery was a favorite of Southern California residents for many, many years.
Van de Kamp's Bakery was sold by the Van de Kamp family to General Baking Co. in 1956.
The company was then sold to private investors in 1979, and closed in bankruptcy in 1990 .
Theodore Van de Kamp founded the bakery and the seafood company, and he also was one of
the co-founders of "Tam O' Shanter Inn", Lawry's Prime Rib Restaurant, and Lawry's Seasoning Company.
The seasoning company was sold to Lipton/Unilever in 1979, then sold to McCormick & Company in July 2008.
It appears that the only connection the family has with any of these is with the Lawry's Prime Rib Restaurant
in Beverly Hills, CA.
There is a history of Van de Kamp's here: KCET
When Van de Kamp's Bakery closed it's doors in 1990, the owners must have collected all of the recipe books and
either locked them up or destroyed them, and they must have sworn all the employees to secrecy. In all the years
that I have been doing this site, I have never found any recipes that were verifiably from the bakery, nor have
I ever been contacted by a former baker from Van de Kamp's. The original recipes would have been commercial
recipes for making commercial quantities of cookies using commercial ingredients. Even if they were found, it
would be difficult to convert them to small-batch home kitchen recipes.
The recipes linked below are the only recipes that I have been able to locate on the Internet, and they
are just attempts at re-creating the recipes. They are not actual Van de Kamp's recipes. After 1929, many, if
not most, of Van de Kamp's pastries were made at a central production facility located at Glassell Park in
Los Angeles. The pastries were then delivered to the retail shops. That reduces the likelihood of finding
any actual recipes.
From what I have read on message boards, it appears that the recipes and the rights to use the name
"Van de Kamp's" are now owned by company called "InterAmerican Products"
A few(very few), packages of cookies with the name "Van de Kamp's" have appeared for sale in Ralph's and Kroger's
supermarkets, with InterAmerican Products given as the producer. The bakery division of InterAmerican Products
appears to be "Columbus Bakery".
There is a Facebook page devoted to Van de Kamp's Bakery. However, there has been very little activity there
in recent years. Van de Kamp family members and former bakery employees would be attracted to the page:
Van de Kamp's Bakery on Facebook
There is some activity, including some posts from Jody Van de Kamp, granddaughter of Theodore Van de Kamp,
co-founder of Van de Kamp Bakeries, on this page:
Chowhound
Kelly's Kookies has a sugar cookie that, I am told, tastes
similar to Van de Kamp's Holiday Sugar Cookies.
No luck with these:
- almond icebox cookies
- angel cake with milk chocolate frosting
- any icing or frosting
- bran muffins
- brown sugar cake
- cheese bread
- cherry shortbread
- chicken pot pie, frozen
- chocolate cake filling
- chocolate chip cookies
- chocolate cookies
- coconut cake
- crumb donuts
- French Coffee Cake
- gluten free bread
- holiday cookies
- honey bran muffins
- honey luncheon cake
- maple pecan cookies
- milk chocolate cupcakes
- mocha cake
- molasses cookies
- orange breakfast rolls
- orange cake
- orange chiffon cake
- peanut butter cookies
- pineapple pie
- prune Danish ring
- rye bread
- slivered almond coffee cake
- spice cake
- sugar cookies
- VDK Restaurant spaghetti sauce
- white birthday cake
- windmill cookies
