With more than 20 years of experience in the culinary and food service industries, this expert specializes in pastry arts, bakery operations, culinary education, food entrepreneurship, and hospitality consulting. Her background includes work as a pastry chef, culinary instructor, startup advisor, and food industry consultant, with expertise spanning recipe and product development, bakery startup strategy, food safety practices, operational management, and hospitality industry practices. She has also provided consulting services to food entrepreneurs and emerging businesses, assisting with product viability analysis, manufacturing solutions, vendor sourcing, operational efficiency, financial forecasting, and business planning.

Recognized as one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America by a national culinary industry publication, she has held leadership and instructional roles in professional culinary education for more than 25 years. Her experience includes teaching professional pastry and baking programs, restaurant management courses, and recreational culinary instruction to hundreds of students annually. In addition to classroom instruction, she managed chef instructor teams, oversaw curriculum development and professional evaluations, and developed culinary education programs domestically and internationally. Her expertise further includes hospitality training, culinary program administration, and mentorship of scholarship recipients and aspiring culinary professionals.

Her consulting practice encompasses a broad range of food business operations and startup services, including cost analysis, production planning, packaging evaluation, market positioning, vendor sourcing, business plan preparation, and operational assessments for bakeries and food product companies. She co-founded a food business consulting organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs launch and scale food businesses, and also developed educational materials and online training resources for food product development and commercialization. Her industry work includes experience with manufacturing solutions, profitability studies, project budgeting, and investor presentation support for food and hospitality ventures.

In addition to her culinary and consulting background, she possesses earlier professional experience in management consulting, finance, and business analysis, including work involving project management, financial modeling, systems analysis, and process improvement. This combination of culinary expertise and business operations knowledge supports her work evaluating food industry practices, hospitality operations, bakery management, and commercial food ventures.

She earned an MBA in Finance with honors and also holds a bachelor’s degree in Art History and Economics, in addition to completing a professional pastry program with honors. Her professional affiliations include leadership and committee roles with Les Dames d’Escoffier and involvement with culinary history organizations. She is also ServSafe certified and holds food handler, alcohol service, and instructor certifications through the National Restaurant Association. Her accomplishments include authoring multiple cookbooks, serving as a reviewer for leading food industry textbooks, and acting as a judge for the James Beard Book Awards.