At 48, I quit my corporate job and took a big leap of faith to follow my passion.
I started baking biscotti cookies when my two sons were little. It was our Holiday cookie. We would give them as gifts to family and friends. Before long, I was asked to make the cookies through out the year. People loved them! I would create new flavors and take them into my office for co-workers to test. I have always loved to cook and I found it a great way to relieve the stress of my daytime job as a corporate executive in the financial industry. In 2007, a coffee shop in my building asked if they could try selling the biscotti. That lead me to seek out other customers and before long, I had several local coffee shops selling my product. Each biscotti is handmade and we create all the recipes. We have about 26 flavors at this point.My family and I decided to form our company, Uncanny Biscotti. We quickly obtained more and more customers, both wholesale and retail. I was still working at my day job and was very unhappy. I really wanted to concentrate on the family business fulltime. In 2008, my husband and I decided I should leave my 25 year career and make Uncanny Biscotti my full time job. It was very scary taking that leap of faith, but at 48, I decided it was time to cultivate my true passion. In April of 2008, I met Chef Andrea Rosenblatt, owner and operated of A. Chefs Cooking Studio. She invited me to use her commercial kitchen to produce the biscotti. So, my reinvention began. My oldest son, Michael created a website. My younger son, Patrick (also a Chef) began assisting in the production, pricing and packaging. We now have customers nationwide! Our business continues to grow and prosper and I could not be happier.
A few weeks ago, I was asked to prepare biscotti gift baskets for a local company's training event. Although, I have always loved to cook, I have never been very crafty. While I was making tissue paper flowers for the baskets, I just started laughing thinking of how my life has changed. From the executive wearing the expensive suits, heels and hose to the girl in the kitchen in shorts, t-shirt and tennis shoes making gift baskets! The next week, I was making biscotti gift bags for a wedding in Ohio. I am getting better at making bows! We are also fortunate to be invited to participate in many local charity events where we donate biscotti samples.
