Owner and Baker

Colleen, a New Jersey native, spent most of her childhood cooking and baking alongside her mother and going on weekend trips with her father in search of the best bakeries in the tri-state area. But it wasn’t until the summer before her junior year of high school, when she discovered food blogs and started getting more into recipe testing, that she realized cooking and baking were her true passions.

She then went on pursue a bachelors from Penn State in Hotel and Restaurant Management, while also taking a semester to study abroad at Apicius University (Florence, Italy) in their baking and pastry program, before continuing to study her love of food further in The Culinary Institute of America’s Accelerated Culinary Arts Program. During and after her studies, she took jobs in both France and Australia, traveling often, before finally settling in Chicago for 5 years where she continued to work in a variety of kitchens, switching back and forth between the culinary and pastry sides whenever she could.

Colleen is the one behind all of our baked goods - cookies, pies, scones, to the occasional cake specials. She was also nominated as one of Iowa’s 40 Women to Watch in the Restaurant Industry for 2021.

Owner and Baker

Erick, an Iowa City native, started his career in kitchens at the age of 16 as a dishwasher and worked his way up to a kitchen manager while studying in Kirkwood Community College’s Baking and Pastry program.

After completing school, he enrolled into Apicius University’s (Florence, Italy) baking and pastry program where he studied for 2 years, also earning an additional degree in Masters of Chocolatiering. After school he went on to work as a chocolatier in Australia, before moving to Chicago and furthering his passion for classical french pastries.

Erick is the one behind all the beautiful pastries produced here at Bread Worthy - rolling ad shaping our all of our croissant and cinnamon roll items.