Meet Nicholas Lodge of International Sugar Art Collection in Norcross

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Lodge.

Nicholas is originally from just outside of London, England and began traveling to the United States at the age of 26 in 1988. In 1989 Nicholas taught his first class in Atlanta and fell in love with the city and decided to relocate to Atlanta and open his school for professional pastry and cake decorating classes.

Why move to Atlanta?
The answer was simple once Nicholas decided to move to the United States. Atlanta was the number one choice due to being able to get a direct flight to almost anywhere in the world from the Atlanta International Airport. Nicholas was still involved with business in the UK and was considering opening a school in Tokyo, Japan, which happened in 1996.

In the pastry arena, he is considered to be the “Julia Child” of cake decorating. He in internationally known for his unique style of sugar flowers. At the age of 19 he and two other colleagues were selected to create one of the official wedding cakes for the marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles in 1981. Soon after he was selected to create the christening cake for Prince Harry and the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday cake. All this publicity came in a short two to three year period, making him well known for his cake decorating skills.

At this time a leading UK book publisher approached him to write his first book on cake decorating. When completed, he began his first world tour publicizing his book. Since then he has gone on to write more books on cake decorating than any other person, (over a dozen,) plus 19 instructional DVD’s, and many on-line instructional tutorials.

Nicholas and his business partner Scott Ewing opened The International Sugar Art Collection in Atlanta in 1992 and has just celebrated the company’s 25th anniversary.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
An early plan was set to travel extensively, taking the instructor and the class to the students for the first 10 years, then focus more on classes at the home-based classroom in Norcross. This plan was working until 9/11 occurred. We went from having full classes with a waiting list to no students due to everyone being afraid to travel by jet plane. So, we had to continue to travel for many additional years than planned, taking the classroom experience to the students’ location.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Cake decorating classes taught by Nicholas Lodge are a “benchmark” within the industry. We constantly set the bar higher and higher for ourselves, never being please with “just-good-enough.” We strive to make every class an ultimate learning experience for the student while a gust at our school.

Nicholas is internationally known for his botanically correct gum paste flowers which are created using an edible sugar dough, as well as his rolled fondant and royal icing decorating techniques.

Chef Lodge was one of the original judges on the Food Network “Challenge” series, and is recognized as a top leading judge at many domestic and international cake shows.

We are very proud of our customer service and the attention we pay to our students. While attending a Nicholas Lodge class, hopefully the student departs feeling a little bit “spoiled” eagerly awaiting the opportunity to attend the next learning session.

Customers walking into our retail gallery are greeted with a friendly “Hello,” and assisted by an understanding, knowledgeable staff.

What were you like growing up?
I grew up in an environment with a mother who cooked and prepared everything we ate from scratch, using only the freshest ingredients. We did not eat fast-food or processed foods. My grandmother was always involved with some type of craft, always encouraging me to help and be involved. All of this led me to culinary school where I found my true passion for baking and pastry.

Contact Info:

• Address: 6060 Dawson Blvd
  Suite F
  Norcross, GA 30093
• Website: Www.nicholaslodge.com
• Phone: 770-453-9449
• Email: customersvc@nicholaslodge.com
• Instagram: Chef Nicholas Lodge
• Facebook: Chef Nicholas Lodge
• Twitter: Chef Lodge

Image Credit:
All photos taken by Nicholas Lodge business partner, Scott Ewing

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.