Art & Soul: The Culinary Arts - Family Is The Key Ingredient To Local Cheesecake Business

"My passion for baking began after my mother told me that girls love a guy who can bake. Baking was something I really loved to do. Soon later, realizing my cheesecake recipe was a hit, I went to almost every restaurant in Ann Arbor and asked them to taste it. I am a firm believer that proving what you can do is better than just saying it. I could not be happier about joining my mother and grandmother in the business. I emphasized the importance of working with a close-knit family I can trust completely, which to me is a somewhat of a therapeutic business structure. I decided against going by the tradition route of acquiring a bank loan to start this business. Even though my personal funding was substantially less than what restaurants normally need to get started, we did not want to give up any control of our company. I emphasized that investors are decision-makers. To me, the underlying reason to all of our business decisions came down to loving who you work with, loving your job and loving what you do, which trumped everything."