We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ahlem Kechrid. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ahlem below.

Ahlem, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Being successful means achieving many small goals or small victories each time.
At La Cosette, we keep high standards and a great love of what we do! Those two points are essential in order to be successful. Loving what you do allow us to show up every day ready to go with the biggest smile and having high standards allow us to maintain a strong work ethic on the day to day activities.

Those values coupled with our multicultural background gives us that authenticity in what we do!

Ahlem, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Ahlem is the chef of La Cosette, Artisan French pastry shop located in Locust Point, Baltimore.
Born and raised in Tunisia (former French Colony), Ahlem went to French international school and was immersed into French culture since birth.

Formerly a biology teacher, Ahlem always had a love for French cuisine and especially “La Patisserie Francaise” (French pastries). After retiring from teaching, Ahlem attended many workshops focusing on pastries around the world. She then focused on the French specialities even further.

Her love for what she does allowed her to open a catering company focusing on working with wedding venues and work events in Tunisia. The catering company did savory and sweets delicious treats and was successful.

Few years later, the desire to join both of her sons in Maryland triggered the idea of having a store front in Baltimore named La Cosette, an Artisan French Pastry Shop ! Ahlem takes great pride in serving some of the best French pastries in Baltimore and in Maryland.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After retiring from teaching Biology, I had to turn my attention into different hobbies since I started to have lots of free time. I started making handcrafted purses and beach bags while attending many creative workshops on French pastries and other pastries around the world.
The love for cooking continued to grow to a point where I founded a catering business overseas serving authentic Dessert and savory items. That allowed me to do what I loved. The business grew and I started catering for big parties and weddings focusing more on French Authentic Desserts and classic Savory treats like the quiche.

The rest was history as it led me to my current shop in Baltimore, La Cosette Pastry Shop.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being Authentic has been key to build our reputation within the current market. All our products are freshly homemade the authentic way. French Pastries is a speciality that is hard to find and master so once you are authentic and consistent at it, it can become very successful

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lacosettepastryshop.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lacosettepastryshop/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaCosettepastryshop