Meet Ashalah Michelle Wright

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashalah Michelle Wright.

Ashalah Wright began her journey with a simple dream, at the age of 12, of becoming a pastry chef specializing in diverse pastries from all around the world. In her pursuits of becoming she began to notice the need of many kids, and that was the need to be inspired to dream as well. Ashalah is the owner and celebrity pastry chef of Cook Me Up A Notch: Cookies, Cakes, and Other Culinary Creations, an online bakery she founded in February 2016 which specializes in southern desserts. She is also an author, youth empowerment leader, and Bakeologist. She is the co-author of the City of Dreams: Atlanta. She is also Co-Author of BakeOlogy 101 and Light Up Your Dreams: Paris which will be released in 2018.

Within two years time, Ashalah has won numerous awards for her delicious desserts, entrepreneurs efforts, as well as leadership skills. She’s been interviewed and seen on various radio stations, tv programs, magazines, and podcast such as V-103, WAOK 1480, Atlanta LIVE Channel 54, The Rennie Curran Podcast, The Raising Entrepreneurs Podcasts, My Time Magazine, The Kids News Maker Magazine, Chione Magazine, JoJoPersonaliTV, The Ask Faris Show, and Dr. Nilda Perez Foresight Strategist Show. Ashalah uses her platform to inspire kids all around the world. In that effort, she is not only the President or Greater Giving Ministries, Inc Youth Services program where she supplies food and cooking lessons to kids in need during the holidays, she partners with various community organizations and nonprofits to effect change on a broader scale. She has partnered with The Black Chefs Network advocating for Black culinary excellence, Young Mogul Market, Morning Star International, Spark and Hustle with Aprille Franks-Hunt, Taste and Tell Expo benefiting mental health awareness, The Village Market ATL, H.Y.P.E 2016 & 2017 Youth Empowerment Summit, Girls Who Brunch Tour Ambassador, 2018 Young Chef Assistant Instructor of the Ultimate Sugar Show & as a Young, Wealth, Genius Ambassador amongst many more! Ashalah continues to teach classes to empower boys and girls to pursue S.T.E.A.M careers in her BakeOlogy 101 Classes where she teaches kids to bake while introducing them to science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.

Chef Ashalah is 2017 and 2018 Young Chef Winner where she’s prepared dishes for 2017 and 2018 Chefs of the World Benefit at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, 2017 Youth in Business Award, 2017 HersOwnly Top 3 out of 100 Business Pitch Contestant, 2018 Rice Awards Nominee, and 2018 Innovation Award winner for her S.T.E.A.M BAKING KIT where she offers them within her baking parties and Bakeology 101 workshop packages. Ashalah has stood the course in business and philanthropy. Facing many difficult times and losses. She has continued, since the age of 8 in given her time to initiatives surrounding child hunger and youth empowerment. She started her business from scratch as she taught herself to bake from YouTube. She credits her grandma for being her true inspiration. Now at 15 years old, her dreams have stretched beyond borders as she now strives to CAKE HER WAY TO PARIS, assigning a percentage of all cake sales toward traveling abroad to learn from a French Pastry Chef as well as teach kids there to dream their biggest S.T.E.A.M dreams as well. Today, her brother and now sous chefs credit her dreams for inspiring him to dream.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ashalah’s goal is to inspire other young people to fight for their dreams. That means to fight within to accomplish even what may seem like the impossible. She tells the story of her mom being a single mom and financially not having the means to invest in her dreams initially. Her mom would say that it just wasn’t the time to pursue a business. Ashalah didn’t give up. Ashalah continued to practice her craft and train herself to bake from Youtube and recipe books that were gifted to her. She earned money by selling her goods at school. Two years later her mom caught hold of her vision and knew it was a God assignment for her to support her daughter. There have been many sacrifices. Ashalah’s brother decided it was okay if he didn’t play recreational sports for a while to help his sister with her business. Taking care of Ashalah’s grandma who passed from cancer earlier this year and losing her childhood home due to financial hardship was other loses that came into place as Ashalah’s family put in all of their resources to pursue what had become a family dream. This has not stopped Ashalah and her family from giving back through their business and most importantly these hardships have not stopped any of them from believing in their dreams!

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
My company is Cook Me Up A Notch: Cookies, Cakes, and other Culinary Creations. My desserts are inspired by the southern style of baking but I am known for taking it up a notch. All of my desserts are made from scratch and people love that aspect of my business. Many people call me The Pastry Princess of Atlanta because not only am I a native of Atlanta but my desserts are “surprisingly’ delicious. I have heard some many times that they can’t believe that I am this young and can bake so well. I believe that I have so much more to learn in the world of pastries but I am beyond ecstatic about being able to put a whole lot of love in people’s bellies at this stage of culinary expertise that I have reached.

My company was founded by a tween to inspire other tweens and teens to BELIEVE in themselves and their God-given gifts.

My signature strawberry red velvet cake is like no other cake you’ve ever tasted and I love to share my lemon-glazed pound cups because most people never had a southern pound cake in cupcake form.

I am most proud of the resilience that each and every person on the Cook Me Up A Notch Team has demonstrated. I could have never imagined, starting with a dream of just becoming an aspiring chef, would transform to actually sharing the kitchen and stages with renowned chefs, such as Kamal Grant of Sublime Doughnuts, serving my dishes at the 2017 and 2018 Chefs of the World at Hyatt Regency Atlanta with the Atlanta Ice Cream Festival, etc. I would never have imagined books, and baking kits, teaching baking and entrepreneurial classes, traveling to empower the youth in different states, or even sharing the stage in other amazingly gifted people. I am so proud of the personal and professional growth of all of us.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would have been a bit more patient with myself. I believed that I had to figure everything out in my life so young and so fast. Once my business was released to the public, things happened so fast, I couldn’t think about what I was experiencing. I couldn’t enjoy it the way I did when I was only baking for fun. We were learning at a fast past and we were working so hard to keep the dream alive. I am now taking a step back to revisit the reason I started my business in the first place, tapping back into that passion, and connecting with other business coaches and mentors to help me refocus my business on what matters to me most. I love to give love to others through my sweet treats. I love to see their faces and how inspired they are to know that as a kid I had the courage to believe in something that was real in me. My prayer is that the love and the inspiration connect somehow to change their lives in a special way, just as it has done for me!

Pricing:

• PREORDER SIGNED COPY OF BAKEOLOGY 101: RECIPE BOOK AND STEAM GUIDE $20
• COOKIES, CAKES, OH MY ARE AVAILABLE TO ORDER ON MY WEBSITE.
• STAY TUNED FOR ONLINE BAKEOLOGY CLASSES BY SUBSCRIBING TO MY MAILING LIST

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cookmeupanotch.com
• Phone: 678-829-2355 Management
• Email: cookmeupanotch@gmail.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/cookmeupanotch
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/cookmeupanotch
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/cookmeupanotch
• Other: Youtube: Cook Me Up A Notch

Image Credit:
Terrel Antoni Photography, Jus 4 Love Photos, Chasity Hampton of Whimsical Designs, Karen Calver Photography, Bob Mackey Consulting, U Source Me Publishing

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.