Earlier this week, Jordan Rondel, co-owner of the New Zealand company which is based in Los Angeles, took to Instagram to call out Teigen’s new baking kit that was released mere weeks after the two collaborated.
In the post, Rondel said she has no problem with other people releasing baking mixes but said her fans were right to call out Teigen.
"This particular situation isn’t chill, especially because we’re just a small sister-run business."
She later told the Herald, she knew Cravings - Teigen’s baking kit brand - had its own line of baking mixes in the works, but she didn’t know what it would look like - and was “taken aback” by the similarity of the designs.
“Images posted on social media by The Caker team compared the front of our box and the back of their own,” it said.
“The front of their packaging is different from the photographic approach we took, with their design trending to be a solid, bold colour, which is actually a sleeve rather than the traditional box style we have used.”
The representative did not make any further comment.
“Anouk and I plus our amazing designers at @ddmmyystudio specifically designed our packaging to have neither a front or back. [sic] much like a magazine, which has 2 covers.
“In fact, a lot of our retailers display them like this! The photo side is totally the front of you want it to be!”
Rolling Stone also spoke to Rondel who continued to slam Teigen. “The bigger story here is less so about what Cravings or Chrissy Teigen might have done to The Caker, it’s more so how the ‘Big Guy’ can stomp on the small guy so easily and walk away with more rewards than the small guy did in the beginning.”
She posted the extract from the interview on her Instagram story, telling fans she has learned so much from the experience. “I hope other small business owners can take a lesson from it too.”
Rondel and Teigen announced their baking kit collaboration on September 15. Its release was scheduled to coincide with the ninth anniversary of the supermodel's wedding to John Legend.
