The Loop's Como Cooks scholarship provides opportunity for owner of The Biscuit Center

When North Carolina native Scott Pass moved to Missouri 10 years ago, he recalls there not being many options where he could get a handcrafted biscuit. 

After living here two years, he decided to try his hand at making his own. 

"There was some trial and error. My first ones were horrible. Horrible-looking, anyway," Pass told the Tribune this week.

Fast forward a few years, and thanks to a scholarship through The Loop's Como Cooks shared kitchen, Pass now has his own biscuit business called The Biscuit Center.

In fact, Pass was the first scholarship recipient as part of the program.

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Pass held a pop-up event Saturday at the Loop's Community Pop-Up Park. He will be at the park again when The Loop holds its Spring Maker Market starting 10 a.m. Sunday.

The pop-up event was a learning experience for Pass, who said he has room for improvement. It was his first promotional event, held on National Buttermilk Biscuit Day. Visitors received one free classic biscuit, and other flavors were available.

"I think people generally were excited. We were not expecting that much of a turnout," Pass said. "I am happy with it. I hope I didn’t disappoint anybody."

How to get the biscuits

Pass takes orders through his website 7 a.m. to noon Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for pick-up or delivery. He uses Wednesdays to prep more biscuits. 

Once an order is placed, it can be in the hands of the customer within 25 minutes. Pass is baking to order. He eventually wants to get to the point to where he can continually make and bake, such as at places like Biscuitville, a North Carolina staple. 

"I am really prideful in making everything by hand and from scratch. Everything is my own recipe, even down to the honey butter and the icing," Pass said. "I want eventually a storefront where people can come in and see every biscuit being made."

Pass wants to fill a quick-service niche for biscuits. 

Pickups are conducted at 500 E. Walnut St., the temporary home of the Como Cooks kitchen facility, while its new, permanent location gets built out on The Loop. 

Developing the biscuit recipes

Since his family didn't have its own biscuit recipe, Pass turned to the internet for research as he started to develop his recipes. 

In doing this research, he realized recipes often were for plain biscuits, and the only types that were stuffed biscuits were drop-style, rather than a cut biscuit. He wanted to craft cut-out biscuits full of a variety of flavors.

He now has three tiers of flavors: simple, sweet and savory.

Simple biscuits are the classic buttermilk or Cheddah, a cheese biscuit.

Sweet flavors include cinnamon roll, chocolate chip and the most recently developed Pink Delight, a strawberry biscuit.

Savory biscuits include the O.G. sausage and cheese, which was the first recipe developed, and a bacon and cheese biscuit. 

Pass also has sausage, bacon, and spinach and mushroom crustless quiches, which are based on his mother's recipe that he slightly tweaked.

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While Pass has a base dry mixture for the biscuits, each recipe is prepared a little bit differently based on the dough mix-ins. When it comes the Pink Delight biscuit, Pass has to consider the fruit's moisture content, he said. 

"There is a lot of research and development behind this," he said, adding he now can develop more fruit-forward biscuits. 

One reason Pass calls his business The Biscuit Center is he eventually wants to develop a biscuit with a savory or sweet injection in the middle, such as gravy or jam. 

"This is a few months out still," he said. "I don’t want people to have a container with how biscuits and gravy normally come. I want people to bite into it and find gravy in it."

This is why Pass puts ingredients into his biscuit dough and is developing the injected biscuits — mobility; the all-in-one, grab-and-go. 

"This food has been a part of me, and people are willing to accept it and pay for it," Pass said. "The food is just part of the whole product. It’s the delivery, customer service, the thought behind it, the communication behind it.

"You are putting your entire self out there for one person, two people or however many."

Why Pass put his focus on biscuits

When Pass moved to Missouri, there was only the Ozark Mountain Biscuit & Bar food truck and places like Hardee's or McDonald's. 

In North Carolina, however, there was a trove of places to get a biscuit, including places such as Bojangles and Biscuitville. 

While his family cooked, biscuits were easily and readily available, so they weren't really made in his family. 

"I learned (to cook) from my mom at a young age. That is one of the tools she wanted to give me before I went out on my own," Pass said. "I didn’t go to school for cooking but have always been around it."

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Pass sought a degree in chemical engineering before life changes occurred.

"I’m still doing chemistry now, just differently," he said with a laugh.

Getting the scholarship

Pass heard about the Como Cooks scholarship late last year.

The program got a boost in March when the Columbia City Council authorized The Loop to receive a portion of American Rescue Plan Act funds for workforce development. 

Pass was stocking up on ingredients at the Moser's grocery store on Rangeline Street when an employee there, who knew Pass was trying to start his own business, suggested he visit Regional Economic Development Inc.

From there, Pass was connected with Sarah Cyr of Central Missouri Community Action and the Missouri Women's Business Center, who told him about the scholarship opportunity. 

"(Sarah) has been — outside the support of my family — extremely vital and influential in helping me get to where I am now," Pass said. 

The Biscuit Center is Pass' full-time job. The biggest surprise? All the business-related costs on top of just buying ingredients, he said. 

"Even with me having the scholarship, there still are a lot of upfront costs you don’t think about," he said. "There are things I know I have to prepare for down the road that are going to cost me money."

He is grateful to his family because of how they have adjusted for Pass to pursue this business venture. 

"I’m building my first business from the ground up," Pass said. "... My wife and I shifted stuff around on the back end. We have made some sacrifices to make this work. We hope that is temporary."

It still has been an enjoyable process, he said. 

"The business itself is what I enjoy," Pass said. "I don’t think I ever wanted a normal 9-to-5. I’m traveling, going to meet people as much as I like being here making biscuits. I like being my own boss."

Charles Dunlap covers courts, public safety and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Please consider subscribing to support vital local journalism.