Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to take you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today us Charlotte Neuville, former very famous fashion designer and current owner of the Fashion Chef in New York City. Charlotte, welcome to Women Mean Business.

Charlotte: Thanks so much Leisa.

Leisa: I’m so glad you’re here. Tell us about the Fashion Chef; what is it? What do you do? Who are your customers? Anything you want to tell us.

Charlotte: Yeah, sure. The Fashion Chef is an extraordinary custom business that we do – they’re celebration cakes; it’s all about happy occasions frankly. From weddings to christenings to bat mitzvahs to huge birthday celebrations and most exciting, huge museum parties that we really are growing into these extraordinary, extraordinary events. And then we just opened up our first store, a patisserie that’s located in Brooklyn and we sell both savory and sweet items so we’re excited about kind of dipping our toe into the savory waters and a small online business as well.

Leisa: So you’re just doing everything it takes to have a couture cake and at the same time publishing an extraordinary book called Stylish Cakes; congratulations.

Charlotte: Thank you, thank you.

Leisa: What n undertaking, I’m just honored to have you here.

Charlotte: Thank you. Well the book was insane. I mean basically my business partner Michael Coffindaffer and I were approached by Harper Collins and of course we wanted to do a book. And it took us the better part of about a year and a half to do the book from start to finish and concurrently looking for larger space and growing the custom business. It was insane but well worth it.

Leisa: That’s why you’re here. Thank you for being here.

Charlotte: Thank you.

Leisa: There you have it another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland-Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile design and development company. You can find me at ContentActive.com or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.