ABOUT
Chicago native Sarah (Levy) Imberman developed a passion for cooking, eating and feeding people at an early age. In 2004, her passion became her profession when she launched Sarah’s Pastries & Candies, making chocolate candies out of her mother’s kitchen.
In 2005 Sarah opened her first retail store in Chicago and soon expanded her offerings to include pastries, specialty and wedding cakes, chocolate gift baskets and more. She later moved her shop to a larger location nearby and opened a second store inside Macy’s on State Street in 2007.
Sarah showcases many of her bakery’s popular recipes in her cookbook Sweetness: Delicious Baked Treats for Every Occasion (Surrey Books) – the second edition was released in the summer of 2016. In 2011, she competed on Food Network Challenge and won the show’s $10,000 prize for her 3-feet tall moving dinosaur-shaped cake (you can watch it here).
Sarah expanded her business beyond pastry and entered the airport food concession space in 2011. Sarah’s passion for food thrives as she helps to bring “real food” that reflects the local market to airports. Sarah is a proud joint-venture partner of SSP America and has since grown to operating restaurants in John F. Kennedy, San Diego International Airport, Sacramento, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Chicago Midway, San Francisco International Airport and San Jose International Airport. In 2016, Sarah partnered with Hudson Group to open Sarah’s Candies at O’Hare International Airport - Terminal 2 and also at Chicago Midway Airport - Terminal B. Sarah has been an active member of the Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC) since 2015, serves as Vice Chair of the membership committee, and was the 2023 Inclusive Leadership Catalyst Award recipient. For more information on becoming an AMAC member please click here.
Sarah was featured in the Entrepreneurship section of the New York Times in March 2017. Sarah’s Pastries & Candies was named one of the nation’s Top Ten Candy Stores by USA Today and was the only Chicago bakery to be featured in BRIDES magazine’s Most Beautiful Wedding Cakes issue. Sarah has also been featured on numerous television shows including ABC7’s Windy City Live and 190 North, WGN’s Lunch Break, NBC5’s News Today and CBS2’s Eye On Chicago, as well as in print publications such as Better Homes and Gardens, Elegant Bride, Complete Woman Magazine, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine and Time Out Chicago, among others.
Sarah is the 2019 winner of SSP America’s “JV Partner Hall of Fame” award and was a guest on the Airport Experience News Podcast. Sarah was also the dining editor for Today’s Chicago Woman magazine from 2006 until the publication ended in 2014. Sarah was nominated for the Jean Banchet Award for Celebrity Pastry Chef and was honored with the YWCA Promise Award in 2007. She has trained at several of the country's top restaurants and bakeries, including Spago Beverly Hills, where she apprenticed under the James Beard award-winning pastry chef Sherry Yard, and Bittersweet Bakery in Chicago. Sarah is a graduate of Northwestern University, and the French Pastry School of Chicago.
Alexa Sindelar, our Chief Operating Officer, attended Michigan State University, and is a graduate of the Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago (now Le Cordon Bleu of Culinary Arts in Chicago). Alexa was the very first employee that Sarah hired to help her make chocolate in her mom’s kitchen back in 2004. Alexa has since worked her way up through the company to become the chief operating officer. She is an integral part of Sarah's Foods’ success due to her attention to detail, passion for great food and customer service, and all around “get it done” mentality that she brings with her to everything she does. Alexa is based in Chicago but is constantly traveling to oversee operations.