Hi there! I’m Bri – wife, mama and former pastry cook with a side of health nut!
My love for delicious food and wellness lead me to create the perfect food life balance! Now I’m diving in to share my passion with all of you!
From a young age it was clear that food would become my first love. Whether I was helping prep calamari for Christmas Eve or pretending to be on the Food Network- my parents couldn’t keep me out of the kitchen!
Coming from a big Italian family food has always been at the forefront. My parents love for entertaining with food influenced me early on. This paired with my teenage job waitressing fostered my passion for the food industry. College led me to the banks of the Red Cedar, Michigan State University where I studied Hospitality Business.
Upon graduation my itch to be in the kitchen pushed me to go to pastry school. In downtown Chicago I learned from the best at The French Pastry School co-founded by chefs Sébastien Cannone, M.O.F., and Jacquy Pfeiffer.
Following the French…
With my certificate in L’Art de la Pâtisserie and L’Art du Gâteau I worked under Chef Pierre Zimmerman at La Fournette Bakery for nearly 2 years. Side note if you’re ever in the beautiful Chicago neighborhood of Old Town check it out, the croissants are heaven!
Although I loved working in the bakery, my desire to spend more time with family lead me to switch gears. I started working at a design agency that specializes in food packaging, go figure I couldn’t leave food out of the equation! This job was such a fun experience for me. Working with the most creative, talented people was truly rich and something I’ll never forget!
In December of 2018 my life changed in the most amazing way. I became a mom to our beautiful baby girl Giuliana Grace aka Juju! Enter career change #2, I left my job (that I loved) to be a stay at home mom! A title I hold dearly and is without a doubt the most rewarding job I’ve had.
SO NOW WHAT IS MY DAY LIKE?
It starts with a workout followed by a cup of joe and a bottle for Juju! Yes that’s right before my little love opens her eyes I get my butt out of bed and hit the ground running. Since I love to cook, bake and eat the most delicious food I had to come up with a way to still keep my health. I’ve always struggled with weight and now after kicking myself into gear post baby I can finally say I won the battle.
It’s all about balance, everything in moderation is a mantra I live by.
I enjoy the sweet, the savory, the indulgent and the light. Try my recipes and tag along to see how I live my best life with kale in one hand and cake in the other! Oh and if it’s not cake it’s definitely a glass of Prosecco!
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you’ll visit again!