Story by Alexandra Mortati | Photos courtesy of Pizzeria Coco
This article is part of PMQ Pizza’s “12 Women to Watch“ series, in partnership with Women in Pizza and in celebration of Women’s Pizza Month. It’s an expanded version of the profile on Emily Kwak and Christina Cord featured in PMQ’s March 2026 issue.
Emily Kwak and Christina Cord, owners of Pizzeria Coco, first met while working in the tech industry, never imagining that their shared path would eventually lead them to pizza.
“I always knew I wanted to start my own business,” Cord says. “I loved studying business in college but ended up working in tech at a friend’s suggestion. Since we met, Emily and I talked for years about wanting to start a business together, but we could never quite decide what it would be. Pizza—or anything in the food world—was never even a thought.”
For Kwak, her first brush with the food industry came during a summer job at a golf course. “I grew up playing golf and even competed for years before transitioning into tech,” she says. “My first job was actually a mix of both worlds—I was flipping burgers and hot dogs and helping out wherever I was needed around the course. That job combined several things that I love: food, working with my hands, and being outside.”
But, as Kwak will explain later, it took a whisper from her ancestors to give her the nudge—towards pizza—that would change her life. Now she and Cord are partners in Pizzeria Coco, a mobile pizza catering service making memories for customers in the Washington D.C. area, Virginia and Maryland.
‘Harder Than It Looks’
Technology provided a good living, but it wasn’t a passion for either woman. “Growing up, I never knew what I wanted to do or be,” Kwak recalls. “My parents told me, ‘You’re going to be a golfer,’ and coming from an immigrant household, you’re usually encouraged into [pursuing] certain careers. Luckily, I love golf, but I never chose what I wanted to do until becoming a part of this pizza world. I am so grateful that both of my parents have been extremely supportive of me as an entrepreneur.”
Inspired by top pizzaiolas like Ann Kim and Sarah Minnick, Kwak started teaching herself the craft as “the itch grew to make pizza from scratch.” Cord, meanwhile, was having her own pizza-making adventures. “When I made my first pizza, I don’t know if I even threw flour on the peel,” Cord recalls. “It came out all squished, but we both thought it tasted great! I knew I needed to do it again and wanted to make the next iteration even better.”
When Kwak bought a Gozney Roccbox, it turned out to be a game changer. “That’s when Christina suggested we actually turn this into a business.”
Cord was the first to recognize Kwak’s talent. “Emily was making pizza that I knew people would pay for, but she didn’t believe me,” Cord says. “I recruited people to taste-test and give her feedback to prove it to her. I told her that we should at least try this as a business and promised that if making pizza as a business took the fun out of it, then we’d stop.”
“Christina started looking into what it would take to start the business, and I kept watching any pizza and bread content to continue to learn,” Kwak adds. “I wanted to know everything about it. I was very particular about how I wanted it to taste—even the bite and structure. I was completely obsessed with it.”
Cord picks up the narrative: “I could see how happy Emily was making pizza and her drive to keep improving, which also motivated me. We were both having so much fun. No matter how exhausted I was after my 9 to 5 job, I was so excited to get the dough going. I went into pizza thinking it would be easy, but that first pizza quickly made me realize that it’s a lot harder than it looks.”
Kwak embraced the learning curve and dove right in after losing her job at the end of 2023. “I was in Korea with my friends, and I got an email because no phone calls were coming through. There were a lot of tech layoffs happening at that time. Even though I was laid off in the middle of my vacation, I still wanted to make sure I enjoyed the rest of my time there. I knew pizza was something I wanted to explore in 2024, so I thought, ‘I’m going to go all in and do this.’ That day, my friends and I were at a Confucius Academy in Korea. Standing there, a gust of wind hit me, and I knew that was my ancestors telling me that everything would be OK and not to worry.”
Learning from Nicole Bean
When Kwak returned home, she reached out to the Women in Pizza organization looking for a mentor. That mentor turned out to be Nicole Bean. “Until Christina and I reached out, I was self-taught. I wanted to learn technical skills,” Kwak says. “I had imposter syndrome and wanted to learn from someone, even though Christina would constantly tell me, ‘Emily, be confident in what you know so far.’”
“When we had our first call with Nicole, it did not turn out how I thought it would, but I mean that in the best way possible,” Cord says. “We told Nicole the idea was for Emily to be the sole pizzamaker at the pop-ups while I would manage the business and take orders at events. Nicole immediately said, ‘Christina, you need to come train, too.’ For me, it was totally unexpected. With my business background, I knew I could help with the business side of things and Emily loves to cook, so I thought the split of responsibility made sense. But I didn’t hesitate before saying yes, I’d come out to train with her too.”
“I knew Nicole was a big deal and was so excited that we’d get to learn about pizza and business from her,” Cor added. “She is the best because she knew I was coming into this with zero experience, and she taught me in a way that was easy for a beginner like me and still pivoted easily to teach at a more advanced level with Emily.”
Learning from another woman meant a lot to Cord. “Nicole made me feel comfortable and believe that I could do this. I owe her so much. It was a great experience. Nicole dropped us off at the airport, and we all hugged. We told her, ‘We’re going to make you proud.’ When Emily and I left her, we were so amped. We got home and got to work immediately.”
‘We Bet on Ourselves’
Kwak and Cord didn’t waste any time. “Without a mentor like Nicole, Christina and I would have been delayed figuring everything out,” Kwak says. “We met her in April, came home, found a kitchen, got licensed, and launched Pizzeria Coco in June. It helped that we both were working from home [at this point] and could multi-task.”
Before they knew it, it was time for their first pop-up. “We started with pop-ups to make sure we actually love doing this,” Kwak says. “After the first one, we were hooked. We loved it. After each event, Christina and I talk about what went well, what didn’t go well, and where we can improve, which is a practice that comes from our tech backgrounds.”
“After the first event, we had so much fun and just kept going from there,” Cord recalls. “To be 100% honest, Emily and I have fun at every single event. Being a mobile pizzeria and having to set up and break down all of the equipment can be physically exhausting but is always so rewarding. We always go home energized and excited.”
Both women plan to transition to Pizzeria Coco full-time in 2026 along with a new mobile pizza oven. “We always try to be forward-thinking when it comes to our future and scaling,” Cord says. “We bet on ourselves [in 2025] and invested in a few things to make our lives a whole lot easier. I’ve been joking with customers since last year that Emily and I would be getting our ‘big girl’ oven soon, and we were able to make that happen thanks to their support since day one.”
Kwak loves to get creative in the kitchen, especially with toppings. “I’m Korean American, so when I saw Ann Kim put kimchi on pizza, I knew I wanted to as well. My goal was to put it on our menu. I made so many iterations of it, but it wasn’t until after my trip to Korea, where I took notes on all the things I ate, that I came back and immediately made a pie that became our Seoul Street Pizza. It took that trip for me to figure out what I wanted in our kimchi pizza.”
“It was important to me that when you take a bite, it tastes like authentic Korean food with a street food twist,” she continued. “It’s now one of our most popular pizzas, and it means so much to me when people come back after eating, just to tell me how much they loved the Seoul Street and its bold flavors. This year, I also started making my own kimchi, which is very important to me and makes me feel connected to my ancestors. I’m proud to carry on that tradition.”
“Being in a farmer’s market setting usually means the people there are open to trying unique pizzas,” Cord points out. “So Emily’s been able to stay creative by offering unique pizzas as LTO seasonal specials at the market.”
When it comes to pizza, visuals and flavors are everything. “Emily knows it has to be pretty,” Cord says. “The specialty pizzas are all Emily’s creations. I did challenge her to make the specialties [easily served in vegan format] because I hate going to pizza spots and having limited options. Even though her specialty pizzas are unique, she manages to still keep things simple so that the flavors really shine.”
In Loving Memory of Coco
Cord and Kwak are “people people”—they genuinely love meeting and getting to know their customers—but they’re also pragmatists. “Don’t be scared to reach out to people with a bunch of questions,” Kwak says. “Christina reached out to people even if we thought something was a stupid or silly question. For anything we weren’t sure of, like a HACCP plan, we asked around and people were always willing to help. We also believe in the idea from the book Big Magic: When an opportunity presents itself, just snatch it, and go for it before it moves on to someone else.”
Cord adds, “People tend to think you need to have things perfect before you start. You don’t! You should change and improve things as you go. Everyone started somewhere, and the people you look up to worked hard for years to get where they are. Emily and I always remind ourselves of that. We’re still relatively new, but we try to pay it forward by telling others that we’re always happy to help them any way we can. Reach out to us any time!”
They’re dog people, too—and how can you not love people people who are also dog people? Pizzeria Coco, in fact, is named after Cord’s beloved dog, Coco, who passed away in early 2024. “I was devastated,” Cord says. “She was with me for 16 and a half years, throughout the most important times of my life. When we first went to see Nicole, I was having such a hard time [coping with Coco’s passing]. We got on the plane, and I burst into tears. Training with Nicole and throwing myself into starting the business helped me with the loss of Coco. We named our business after her because of how much she loved Emily’s pizza. I know she’d be proud of us.”
Alexandra Mortati is the marketing director for Orlando Foods and founder of Women In Pizza, a not-for-profit organization that empowers women in the pizza industry to share their stories, display their talents, inspire innovations, and connect with one another and the world. The article has been edited from the original version that appeared on the Instagram account for Women In Pizza. Click here to learn more about the organization.
