Chosen Chefs: Sarah Levy of Sarah's Pastries & Candies, Chicago
23.02.70
Chicago native Sarah Levy has been a chocoholic since birth. “Growing up I’d have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and a chocolate bar for dinner,” she said. Now, as the owner of the Windy City’s popular Sarah’s Pastries & Candies , she can have as much as her heart desires.
“But I have to be careful,” the bubbly Levy told us with a laugh. “I think I gained about 30 pounds during the first three years we were open.”
Levy, 30, started her Oak Street business, which specializes in morning pastries, specialty cakes, tarts and chocolate gift baskets, in March 2004, when she was just 22 years old.
She got her start while an undergraduate at Northwestern University, where she did an independent study on Jewish cooking. “I worked on some of my grandmother’s recipes — I remember her noodle kugel specifically. I wanted to explore how food brings people together,” she said. After graduating, Levy attended a six-month program at the French Pastry School and started making chocolates out of her mother’s downtown Chicago home.
Source: Forward (blog)