Kathy Mangham is a baker who cooks.

In the culinary world, it isn’t often you will find a chef who can whip together a raspberry chocolate truffle cake, or a baker who has a signature cold shrimp Parisiane.

But Mangham, owner of Gourmet Girls catering, has made a life out of all things kitchen-related. As we talked, she was mixing a fresh batch of brownies from scratch, being certain not to miscount the cracked eggs.

“With baking, you can’t just eye it. You have to be very precise,” she said. “But cooking is more about tasting as you go.”

Mangham graduated from LSU with a degree in fine arts, giving her the eyes to make all of her food “pretty.”

“I’m such a perfectionist,” she said. “Things need to be perfect in looks and taste. They must be clean, with attention to detail.”

Degree in hand, she skipped on culinary school and jumped right into the food scene. Her first endeavor was a gift basket company, where she made and sold her own jams and preserves. From there, she had a tearoom in an antique shop. And then, the ladies who lunch noshed at The Silver Spoon, a kitchen full of Mangham’s creations.

But today, Mangham alone is in the Gourmet Girls’ kitchen, one that takes up nearly the entire house-like building. It’s difficult to believe this is the same kitchen providing boxed lunches of roasted chicken and shrimp pesto pasta by the tens and twenties.

“I’m going back to my roots and making dainty food,” she said. “I’ve been cooking since I was a child, and I’ve taught myself along the way.”

Aside from her work at Gourmet Girls, Mangham’s food is in the corners of the city. Marcello’s Wine Bar and Café features her chicken curry salad (with raisins and pecans) and smoked Gouda pimento. DiGiulio Brothers sells the chocolate raspberry truffle cake, along with her key lime pie.

Perks Coffee & Tea was home to Mangham’s cupcakes, blueberry bars, pound cakes, and Italian cream cake. The baked goods will be in the new shop, Garden District Coffee, when it reopens.

“I would love to have a little pastry shop,” she said. “Right now, it’s a little awkward when customers walk in.”

Mangham makes everything to order, and also creates custom menus for catering events.

“Brides will call and want a package and that doesn’t exist with me,” she said. “Something that limits what I can make and limits what I can offer you.”

While the Gourmet Girls website, www.GourmetGirlsBR.com, features menus for catering and lunches, Mangham encourages customers to call for additional selections.

“I get tired of making the same things,” she said. “I try to work with local products and use organic ingredients as much as possible.”

“When things are in season, they taste so much better. Think about how a tomato tastes in the summer, even from the grocery.”

In honor of the season, Mangham is putting her creativity into cookies, cupcakes, and cake balls for Easter basket treats, which will be sold at the shop (provided there is a chalkboard sign outside) and at the Farmer’s Market.

The sugar cookies, flavored with Framboise, are hand-painted with characters from Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The vanilla cupcakes are iced to look like flowers, complete with white nonpareils in each center.

The Easter holiday will kick off Mangham’s monthly visits to the Farmer’s Market, selling baked goods along with frozen portions of her shrimp Creole etoufee.

“I love what I’m doing,” she said, looking up from whisking the chocolate batter. “And I’m blissfully happy in this kitchen.”