Sara Brook
CEO, Founder & Award-Winning Pastry Chef
For Sara Brook, life has been sweet. “What can I say? I was born loving desserts, especially chocolate,” confesses the fifth-generation Houstonian and the youngest of three children. “I have always had a passion for baking. There’s a reason I have an Easy Bake Oven in my office! My fondest childhood memory is as a 4-year-old in preschool, taking turns mixing cake batter in class. After 25 years in business, I still love looking at pictures in cookbooks and coming up with new recipes, or perfecting others.”
But she didn’t start out as a chef. After graduating first in her class from The University of Texas with a degree in computer science and sociology, Brook was working at a law firm and studying for the LSAT when she glanced around the room one day and decided that everyone in the law office seemed a bit too serious. “I was determined to come up with a plan to spend days doing what I loved,” she said. Bye-bye law.
At the age of 21, Brook launched her first dessert business, and hasn’t looked back since. “The Executive Sweet,” which flourished from 1979 until 1988 before she sold it, was a hit. One week later, without skipping a beat, Brook launched “Sara Brook Desserts,” a dessert catering company she operated out of the River Oaks Grill. When customers repeatedly asked for a chocolate sauce she had created, Brook decided to devote full time to marketing and selling her sauce, “The Great Chocolate Cover Up,” nationwide through specialty and gourmet food stores. In 1992, Brook sold that company and continued working with the new owners as a consultant for two years. In 1995, Brook founded her third (and favorite) dessert company: Dessert Gallery Bakery & Café, Houston’s premier dessert bakery. Since opening, Dessert Gallery has consistently been recognized for “Best Desserts in Houston” by a wide variety of publications. In 2001, Brook received the prestigious “Award for Culinary Excellence” as “Pastry Chef of the Year” from My Table ~ Houston’s Dining Magazine.
Today, the enterprise is certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise by the City of Houston, the State of Texas and the WBEA Women’s Business Enterprise Alliance, and includes two Dessert Gallery locations in Houston. She now has over 60 employees and ships her desserts nationwide. “It’s always been a family affair, first with help from my grandmother and now from my daughter, Jen, who grew up alongside the business,” said Brook. That family also extends to Brook’s employees, many of whom were hired through the YMCA refugee settlement program and have been with her for 5, 10 and even 15-plus years. Her kitchen manager, Danny Jackson, has been with her for 23 years this summer.
Brook is appreciative that she has made a career out of her passion. And even with daily headlines warning Americans of the need to count calories and watch fat intake, she has watched her sales climb steadily over the years. “We can only go so long denying ourselves desserts. So, when it’s time to indulge, Dessert Gallery is here to satisfy the cravings,” says Brook, whose email signature declares, Save the Earth...it's the only planet with chocolate!
Dessert Gallery is located at 3600 Kirby Dr (77098), 713.522.9999; and 1616 Post Oak Blvd. (77056), 713.622.0007.
To see a menu and for more information, visit www.dessertgallery.com or follow on Twitter @DessertGallery.
