With Love and Quiches

A Long Island Housewife's Surprising Journey from Kitchen to Boardroom

Susan Axelrod
The deliciously informative story of Love & Quiches Gourmet—and the lessons one woman learned from her accidental business. 
When Susan Axelrod started selling quiches from her kitchen in 1973, she was armed with little but a lifelong passion for food. She had no inkling that the tiny, haphazard enterprise would, over four decades later, be competing with the giants of the industry. But as Susan got Love and Quiches off the ground, she discovered that her passion was propelling her ever forward—and into the role of full-fledged entrepreneur.

In With Love and Quiches, Susan brings her journey to life, imparting decades worth of life and business lessons to readers. She describes the hilarious chaos of the early days, rife with cluelessness and novice mistakes (giving readers a clear picture of what not to do). But she also explains the steady expansion of Love and Quiches—as it moved from selling a few quiches and desserts to New York–area restaurants to shipping its products around the world; as it went from a loose and wasteful operation to a lean, effective, multimillion-dollar powerhouse; and as her husband, son, and daughter joined her one by one as leaders in the company.
 
Brimming with colorful anecdotes, a deep love of good food, and the incisive wit and wisdom of its author, With Love and Quiches pulls back the curtain on a business success story—from baking sheets to balance sheets. It’s a story full of laughter, heartache, and hard-won knowledge that will inspire anyone with a good idea, a bit of ambition, at least a few resources and a healthy dose of passion.

Susan Axelrod, founder of Love and Quiches Gourmet, has taken her company from its humble beginnings in her kitchen and turned it into a global brand, establishing herself as a well-known and respected entrepreneur within the foodservice industry. Today, the company is a leading manufacturer of bakery products, with a vast variety of offerings catering to the foodservice, institutional and retail trades worldwide.

As a respected industry leader, Susan has been honored with many awards throughout the years, including those from Long Island Business News, the Small Business Administration at New York University, and the Roundtable for Women in Foodservice. She also regularly speaks at industry and public functions, recently those of the National Association for Women Business Owners, the Bloomberg Administration (NYC), and Women Economic Developers, and appears in local and national media, including recently Newsday and MarketWatch Radio Network. She blogs at SusansSweetTalk.com.