Meet the Culinary Entrepreneurs: Amy Scherber

Every year, ICE’s Culinary Management program hosts a one-of-a-kind series of lectures called Meet the Culinary Entrepreneurs, during which a wide range of successful culinary business leaders and luminaries share their expertise with students and guests. Yesterday, Amy Scherber of Amy’s Bread came to ICE to discuss her experience founding what is now a nationally recognized bakery specializing in handmade traditional breads with the Culinary Management students. After attending the New York Restaurant School, Scherber worked at Bouley. She called it an incredible experience, “I was a sponge after culinary school and it was a great place to be since it had only been open for a month. I learned so much.”

Scherber then trained in France in three bakeries before returning to New York to pursue bread baking. She baked bread and pastries at Mondrian where she worked closely with Tom Colicchio to perfect the texture and taste of her bread recipes. While working there, she would take her one day off each week to work on her business plan for her bakery and going on the hunt for a suitable space for her project. Scherber launched Amy's Bread in 1992 in a small former fish market in Hell’s Kitchen with five employees. Since then, the business has grown immensely. Now, she has two production kitchens and three retail cafes in New York City, plus she recently acquired a new production space in Queens. The staff has grown to 190 and the bakery delivers to over 200 wholesale customers daily. In addition to running the business, Amy is the co-author of The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread and her recently re-released cookbook, Amy's Bread.

For the next Meet the Culinary Entrepreneurs lecture, including Howard Greenstone of Rosa Mexicano and Jennifer Baum of Bullfrog & Baum, check out our Culinary Career Development class listings.