New York native Tiara Bennett has spent many years of her life in the kitchen. “I grew up in the kitchen and my grandma made everything from scratch,” the Brooklyn-born chef told the Legal Defense Fund. “It was always a joy to be in the kitchen with her. My lifelong dream was to open a bakery.”
In 2023, that dream came true with the opening of The Pastry Box, which became the first Black-owned restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village in 25 years.
But the road to launching her own bakery was not smooth sailing. While in her 20s, financial difficulties led her to abandon college without earning a degree. It was during this moment that she decided to pursue her dream.
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Her love of combining food with art, adventure, culture, love, and family inspired her to attend the International Culinary Center (previously known as the French Culinary Institute), where she graduated with honors and began working at high-end restaurants in New York City, honing her skills.
In June 2020, when cities were brought to a halt due to the coronavirus pandemic, Bennett started selling her handcrafted pastries outside of her BedStuy apartment to bring joy to her community.
As soon as restaurants began reopening following the pandemic, Bennett was hired to create and manage a pastry program for a cafe near Central Park. Her employer took notice of her talent and dedication to her work and suggested helping her open a bakery. That led to The Pastry Box, located in the East Village neighborhood of New York City.
“People in my neighborhood who knew me from passing out fliers and selling cookies before I had a shop were excited for me, but I was the first Black person to open a business on this block in decades, so there were some challenges,” Bennett noted.
She, however, overcame those challenges and today, her bakery is highly welcomed in her community. She recently shared how a feature from Eater about her bakery’s chocolate chip cookies changed the face of her business.
“I’ll never forget that weekend,” she said, according to Food52. “Our sales were like insane. We like made rent in a weekend and I never had seen it. And that was like the beginning of the change where we actually started to be in the green.”
Bennett currently hopes to begin community programs that will educate young people on kitchen etiquette, baking techniques, and the intricacies of starting a business.
