Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Katelyn Kucirek. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Katelyn, thanks for joining us today. What’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?
I strongly believe in maintaining your mental health! This means working reasonable hours, taking time off, and listening to your body. The expectation in the food industry is that you will work long, grueling hours and if you don’t, you can easily be replaced. I’ve worked at many bakeries where we have been expected to work 10, 12, 14, and even 16 hour shifts. Some of those bakeries wouldn’t even allow us to sit while we worked or provide us with floor mats to alleviate back and joint pain from standing and lifting for over 12 hours. I’ve gone into work at 5am and left around 9 or 10pm. All I can say is that it is an unsustainable way of life. I’ve experienced the wear and tear on my own body and have heard horror stories from my peers of their own experiences. This is a cycle I want to break for my own business.
With Petal & Pear, I want to ensure that our work environment is healthy and happy for all involved. This means not overworking my employees. I want them to work a reasonable shift and still have time outside of work for activities that fuel their soul – such as working out, spending time with family, cooking, etc. We take for granted the little things in life until we no longer have them. I was working so much that I didn’t have time for any of my relationships. My physical and mental health were suffering because all I did was work, and when I wasn’t working, I was recovering and too tired to participate in activities I enjoyed. A lot of my friends in the industry have shared similar sentiments, but unfortunately there has always been the expectation of “that’s just how it is”. I hope that we can be the exception to the rule and start to shift that expectation so that every member of the P+P team feels valued, heard, appreciated, and cared for.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My journey into cakes started with watching a lot of Food Network Challenges growing up. Then I started watching Cake Boss & Ace of Cakes and marveled at all of the amazing things they were able to create. I decided to give it a try and started to make cakes at home for fun and gifted them to friends for their birthdays. Word got around that I made cakes and soon people started to order them from me. A few years later I earned a degree in Baking & Pastry Arts and soon after began my formal career working at various bakeries in SoFlo. My career was born out of a hobby which transformed into a passion and is now a driving force behind everything I do.
My business specializes in bespoke cake design, but we also offer other desserts including cake pops, cookies, mini tarts, dessert shooters, & more. I curate entire dessert collections, often working with other vendors, so that we can capture the aesthetic each client is hoping to achieve. Through the design process, I help alleviate some of the stress for my clients by helping them select the perfect elements for their dessert table and coming up with on-trend designs that will be a focal point for their event. An eye for design, coupled with a background in pastry, allows me to create desserts that not only look amazing, but taste amazing as well! Each pastry is baked from scratch using the highest quality ingredients; this is something that has been important for me to maintain even as ingredient prices continue to increase. Once everything is baked, I then change gears to bring my vision to life through edible design elements. It is so gratifying to see the reaction of my clients and their guests when they see my work, and then when they taste it. I am honored to be able to be able to play a small part in helping my clients celebrate some of the most important moments in their lives – whether it’s a wedding, a baby shower, a first birthday, or a 50th anniversary.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I think the fact that I can produce a quality product that not only looks great, but tastes great is something that has helped me build my reputation as a cake designer in this space. Not only am I trying to push the boundaries of design and introduce trends to SoFlo that I have seen overseas, but I am also extremely deliberate in the production of each cake or dessert; from the ingredients I source to the recipes I use. I have a large base of returning customers who know that they will receive a cake that exceeds their expectations in every way. I also work with a lot of vendors and creatives who have come to trust that my product will match the aesthetic of the event or shoot they are styling and that their clients and guests will be obsessing over the flavor as well. I think that sometimes people are apprehensive when they see a dessert or cake that is so over the top beautiful because they think that surely it can’t taste as good as it looks, but hopefully when they taste my pastries they realize that yes, they absolutely can!
How did you build your audience on social media?
The biggest thing that has helped me build my audience on social media has been collaborating with other creatives. Every time I work on a styled shoot or networking event I see a huge increase in activity on my social media pages. The vendor community is so close-knit and we are always there to support one another, and during these events we share the content we created together and tag each vendor in our posts. In sharing our collective work and tagging one another, we grow our audiences to include the audience of each person who shares our work – that means there’s more exposure for each of us. More people see our work and the more they like it or share it or comment on it, the more it boosts our pages. It’s a lot of fun for each of us and a great way to not only make quality content, but to share it in a way that benefits all of us and allows us to support one another. If you are just getting started, my advice would be to find other talented, like-minded individuals and look for opportunities to collaborate.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shop.bakesy.app/b/petal-pear
- Instagram: petal_and_pear
- Facebook: petalandpear
- Other: [email protected]
Image Credits
Lena Howard Photography/Content Wayfarer, LV Photography, Charmed Photography, Sabina Procacci Photography, Melanie Zehner Photography