July 22, 2022 – Chef Susanne is preparing the next generation of culinarians as thoughtfully and skillfully as crafting the finishing touches on one of her classic French pastry creations. With Executive Chef experience, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Coe College, three associate degrees in Baking Pastry Arts, Culinary Arts, and Professional Catering from Sullivan University, and French Pastry Certification from École Grégoire Ferrandi, Susanne began teaching 10 years ago. “It’s still feeding my soul. When it stops dong that is when I know I should leave teaching,” Susanne, a member of the Indianapolis Bailliage, said to Chaîne during a May 4 telephone interview.
Susanne was drawn to culinary arts at a young age. She would come home from school and watch a PBS chef series. “I was obsessed with it,” Susanne said. Inspired to emulate chefs, the bug to bake would bite her late at night. Her parents began calling her “the midnight baker.” “In the morning, the kitchen would be a mess but there would be fresh muffins,” she said.
After her father was transferred to Colorado, they moved to Evergreen, near the Rocky Mountains. Of course she wanted to learn to ski so her father told her she had to get a job to buy her own skis. If she had to work, it was going to be a culinary job. She convinced a local catering company that also operated a restaurant to hire her as a dishwasher. It was the first time they had hired a female dishwasher so her job performance was under a microscope. She delivered. As is the case with many great chefs who begin at the dishwasher, Susanne watched the pastry chef closely and asked question after question. Soon Susanne was a prep cook and then a line cook. Finally, the head chef told her she needed to go to culinary school.
“That’s not a real profession,” her father told her. He insisted she attend a small liberal arts college in the Midwest, the best kept secret in his opinion. So Susanne enrolled in Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa majoring in Fine Arts with a focus on ceramic sculpture. In addition, she declared a minor in K-12 education so she would be certified to teach, a career path her father supported.
But the hospitality industry was never far from her heart and to earn money during college, she became a bartender at a local restaurant. “I always had my foot in the hospitality industry,” she said.
Upon graduation in 2000, she moved to Cincinnati, her hometown, where her parents had returned after her father was transferred back home. Following her heart in the hospitality industry, she took a job as a bartender and waitress at a high-end Cincinnati restaurant.
That sealed the deal. It was time to go back to school to earn culinary credentials. After reviewing her options, she enrolled in Sullivan University in Louisville, Kentucky in their night and weekend culinary arts program so she could keep working. There was just one logistical issue to solve. Louisville was a two-hour drive from Cincinnati. No problem for the free spirit who had unbridled energy to embrace a schedule that some would say was impossible – and insane.
Sullivan University
She enrolled at Sullivan and also took another job as a pastry cook for Aramark at Proctor and Gamble. She was quickly promoted to Sous Chef and Executive Chef for Aramark at Humana and then CitiBank.
For one year, Susanne would drive two hours each way on Thursday night to attend class. On Friday, she would have her bags packed in the car. After working until 3 p.m., she drove to Louisville for class. With her father’s career in sales and marketing, which involved plenty of travel, he had a lot of hotel rewards so he would book a hotel for her each Friday evening. On Saturday, Susanne would attend her lab class until early afternoon and then drive home so she could report to work for dinner at the Cincinnati restaurant, her second job. “I don’t know how I did that the first year,” she said.
But it’s easy to explain. Of Sullivan University, she said, “It felt like home.”
Soon Louisville was her home after moving there to complete her program. She graduated with three associate degrees in Pastry Baking Arts, Culinary Arts, and Professional Catering. Paris, France was the next stop on her educational journey. In summer 2005, she earned a French Pastry certification at École Grégoire Ferrandi.
Bursting with pride, her father paid off one of her student loans. “I’m proud of you finding your way. I wish I had supported you wanting to go to culinary school,” her father told her. Susanne graciously reassured him that she would never trade her four years at Coe because the experience made her a well-rounded person. Her culinary arts students today think of her as a “Swiss Army knife” because she knows the answer to anything they ask. “I’m just a curious person. I like to learn,” she said.
The call to teach has been a “running monologue” in her life as she describes it. As she was completing her student teaching in Arts Education 20 years ago at Coe, Sheri Black, her teacher leader, said, “If you don’t teach, you’re doing a disservice to children.”
But first she notched more experience as a chef after graduating from Sullivan in 2007. For two years she was the Pastry Chef at 10 Wilmington Place, a senior living community in Dayton, Ohio. “I think working in healthcare is fascinating. You are people’s relationship with food,” she said. “If I didn’t serve pie twice a week, hell hath fury on my soul.”
Seeking to broaden her horizons, in 2009, Kroger hired her as an Executive Pastry Chef for their new Fresh Fare concept at stores. “It’s like Kroger and Whole Foods had a baby,” Susanne said with a chuckle. Chefs, sommeliers, cheese mongers, and cake decorators collaborated to offer customers an experience instead of merely a mundane trip to the grocery store. Without realizing it, her culinary education career had begun.
Now married, she moved to Indianapolis in 2011 and through serendipity while attending an American Culinary Federation (ACF) Gala, she was hired to create all of the pastries for the NFL Honors portion of Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. She made 2000 sliders, 150 cake pops and 500 mini cupcakes. “It was a lot of fun – baptism by fire,” she said.
Chef Educator
Her running monologue became a force to reckon with as she evaluated her career options while balancing marriage and family. Ivy Tech Community College hire her in 2012 as a Chef Instructor where she developed core curricula for the Baking and Pastry Arts program and was instrumental in developing a Bakery Merchandising course. She continues teaching there today as an Adjunct Instructor. She recommends high school seniors interested in a culinary career consider community colleges. “Students can earn a two-year degree for $12,000. That’s insane,” she said.
Five years ago she left higher education to have an impact on high school students, a vitally important yet often overlooked cohort of future culinarians. From 2017 to 2020, Susanne was the Chef Instructor at the J. Everett Career Center where students could enroll in a Dual Credit program with Ivy Tech. At the Career Center, Susanne’s broad experience in the industry was invaluable. Students ran a restaurant at which 80 percent of the menu was scratch cooking and through student organizations that Susanne coached, students gained experience by competing in SkillsUSA, Prostart and FCCLA. She made a difference in their lives. Realizing that some of her students were going home hungry, she sent food home with them to practice.
Although shorter than her drive from Cincinnati to Louisville, her 40-mile drive each way to the Career Center began to take its toll. In 2020, she traded her 40-mile drive for a 4-mile drive when she accepted a position as Chef Instructor at Center Grove High School, a traditional high school in the same school district where her daughter is enrolled.
It did not take long for Susanne to make her mark there. Her students competed in SkillsUSA this year with three of them placing in the Top Eight at a regional competition so they qualified to advance to the state competition. There they placed in the Top Ten, the first time ever. “I was tinkled pink,” she said. But as much as she was thrilled about winning, it’s what her students demonstrated at the competition that made her heart sing. A student from another school buckled under the stress of competing and broke down. Susanne’s students sprang into action hugging him and offering supportive words. “That right there is excellence in action. We need to be better humans to each other,” she said. For the upcoming year, Center Grove High School has 350 students enrolled in their Culinary Pathway program. With school starting in early August, Susanne is prepping her classroom as she would for any major culinary event.
Educators and chefs have recognized Susanne’s excellence. In 2019, Susanne was named the Indiana Prostart Teacher of the Year and in 2020, she was the recipient of the Dan Ryan Award of Excellence by SkillsUSA.
These awards followed recognition by the culinary profession. In 2016, she was named the Greater Indianapolis ACF Chef of the Year and in 2014, was named the Greater Indianapolis ACF Pastry Chef of the Year. Paving the way for other female chefs, Susanne was the first female chapter president of the Indianapolis ACF, serving now as its Board Chair.
Stay tuned as next week Chef Susanne will attend the National ACF Convention in Las Vegas so there could be additional lines needed on her resume.
With her very busy schedule, Susanne cherishes the opportunity to share her passion for food and wine with fellow Chaîne members. She loves being able to converse with Sommeliers at dinners, still in awe of their ability to sip a glass of wine and know instantly all about its origins. “I love sitting with foodies and for lack of a better term, winos. When you can be with people who appreciate wine and food, the balance of it, and the magic that can happen at the table, it’s something special,” she said.
Susanne’s monologue is now a dialogue with scores of others, a beacon for her students and an ardent ambassador for Chaine and the culinary arts profession.
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