Editor’s Note: The Edge is launching a new series focusing on women-owned businesses in the Berkshires this week with Nostalgia Scratch Pastry—a regional wholesale business founded by renowned chefs Amanda Perreault and Cynthia Walton, but more importantly, a model of female partnership and empowerment that is establishing its own priorities and approach.
“Nostalgia is a feeling more powerful than a memory alone;
it is the heart’s way of reminding you of something that you love,
a place where you wish to visit again and again,
a brief moment, a single instance where you experience
all the memories that you once held for something.”
—Nostalgia Scratch Pastry
“This is the way we always wanted to do it,” Amanda Perreault and Cynthia Walton explain, referring to Nostalgia Scratch Pastry, their wholesale business located in the industrial-sized kitchen at Greylock Works in North Adams.
Long admired for their high standards, impeccable taste, and classic designs, the partners launched their business last June—but have been working toward their goal for years.
Two venerated women in a predominantly male industry
Here is a story of a savvy business founded on experience-honed expertise and female partnership and empowerment blended with intentionality, clear priorities, carefully cultivated relationships, and plans for strategic, managed growth that honors its partners.
It starts with a 40-year friendship between two women who met in preschool, were still friends in their high school home economics class, and have worked together off and on ever since.
But it also starts with 40-plus years of combined experience working with many of the top chefs in the best restaurants and shops in the Berkshires—including Shirley Gard and Peter Platt at The Old Inn On The Green, whose training using classic recipes and French methods helped Perreault and Walton develop their own technique as pastry chefs.
And it starts with the strong relationships and business connections they created through their previous roles—attracting clients who respect their talent as much as their values.
Finally, it starts with a post-COVID vision of creating a sustainable business (without a brick-and-mortar shop) that would allow them to make their own choices about how to run their business and their lives.
Nostalgia—past memories and simple tastes
“The first chef of the family, and also the memory maker, is often the mother,” Walton points out. “Here in New England, learning to bake with our mothers and grandmothers is almost a childhood rite of passage.” Remembering those experiences is part of the inspiration behind the name ‘Nostalgia’ (which Perreault conjured up when they first conceived of the business).
“We weren’t thinking of it in the bittersweet way that many people think of home movies,” she clarifies, “but more as the positive feeling you get in relation to a specific sensory memory.” The nostalgia they want to evoke with their creations is based on “really simple tastes,” according to Walton. “Things like chocolate cake, blueberry muffins, chocolate chip cookies—the food from your heart.” Only made with perfection.
Their sense of nostalgia for growing up in the hills of Berkshire County, with its tight communities, strong family ties, and warm, aromatic home kitchens, gives added significance to the name and their decision to build their business here. “We chose to live here and raise our families here, so it feels vital to raise our business here as well,” Walton explains.
Perreault adds, “The Berkshires is a special place, rich in agricultural history, creativity, and the arts. We want to be part of transforming this region into a premier culinary art scene—a destination for food that can be treasured by our hometown friends and a locale our city transplants can envy, too.”
Two decades of developing their art form
Both partners spent many years cooking and developing their careers, working in restaurants predominantly run by men. “It’s so ironic that in the home, women are often assumed to be in charge of the cooking, but in other settings—from kings’ and queens’ courts of old to high-end restaurants today—it’s a man’s world,” Walton notes. Even the term ‘brigade kitchen’ (from the French, who formed their back-of-house restaurant teams like army brigades), connotes a male-led, military-like hierarchy or chain of command.
Beyond the intricate artistry, the role of pastry chef requires precision and science (one minute or a few degrees off can ruin an entire batch), intense organization, patience (for all of the repetitive tasks), and a lot of heavy lifting. “It’s very physical, down-and-dirty work that requires a lot of stamina,” Perreault says, dispelling the “dainty female persona” some associate with pastry chefs.
“We were very fortunate to train in some of the best places you could learn—like The Old Inn On The Green,” she acknowledges. “We’re super proud that our expertise came through experience and hands-on training.”
Neither woman regrets not attending culinary school (where each culinary art form is taught for a limited time); instead, they value their in-depth expertise as pastry chefs and note with irony that they have trained many interns from the CIA (as in Culinary Institute of America) over the years. “The most valuable learning comes from trial and error,” both maintain.
“Amanda and Cindy are an amazing team,” Peter Platt affirms. “We were fortunate to have them for many years at The Southfield Store and The Old Inn On The Green producing the best pastries and desserts in Berkshire County. I am so happy to see them successfully run their own pastry business!”
A pandemic slump and new opportunities
“What’s happened to the restaurant industry as a whole has been hard on everyone,” Walton shares, referring to the COVID experience. “Salvatore Perry and Karla Rothstein [owners of Greylock Works, a 240,000-square-foot architecturally reclaimed former cotton-spinning mill events space with a commercial kitchen] were just set to open The Break Room in 2019,” she continues, “and Brian Alberg, the chef, asked us to come and build a pastry program.”
The pair’s experience hiring and managing employees at The Break Room affirmed what they instinctively knew. “Our workers would do things out of respect for us. People wanted to show up and come together as a team.” That respect was closely tied to their mantra, which is “to always improve on what we know and explore what we don’t—to take the time to be excellent at what we do,” Perreault points out.
Their past executive experience building gainful pastry programs throughout their careers gave them a professional edge that helped them expand into catering weddings and special events as well.
“Our two consecutive seasons providing desserts to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, in particular, showed us that we could efficiently and successfully execute productions on a massive scale, including the most VIP galas,” Walton explains. “We understand event timing and relations, and no matter the size, we recognize the importance of making every exceptional event detailed and stress-free with a memorable ending.”
A growing desire to grow their own business
“Part of the inspiration for deciding to go off on our own was that it was such a pleasure to work with each other and other women. There was a sense of patience in the human interaction, more open communication, and an overriding feeling that it was less about money and control and more about supporting each other,” Walton explains. “We started talking more seriously about the logistics of starting our own business and asked if we could rent the kitchen at Greylock Works. From there, the possibilities started flowing.”
Perreault adds, “As of yet, throughout our journey, we had been unable to find our perfect fit in this industry. We realized there wasn’t anything like this in Berkshire County, and the only next logical step was to create it.” She continues, “Given the small window of time when the quality of our product is optimal, it’s important to prioritize the right things. We found a way to resolve the overhead and foot traffic problems that put many pastry shops out of business.”
Furthermore, because of Massachusetts’ so-called cottage food laws (which put few limitations on the types of food that can be made and sold in residential kitchens), 80 percent of the competition bakes in their homes. The access they are granted by renting Greylock Works kitchen ensures a clean, safe, inspected cooking environment.
In June 2023, the partners launched their wholesale pastry business, Nostalgia Scratch Pastry. “Our focus is on reducing stress and adding value for everyone,” Perreault states. “We’re selling the experience as much as the food.”
Using what they know to build their business model
“We’re as selective about our ingredients as we are about our partners. Our goal is to provide no less than perfect goods, delivered to some of Berkshire’s best restaurants and retailers,” Walton states. Their partners are selected based on proximity to other clients (to retain their special quality) and existing relationships. “Having multiple locations within the county gives us numerous selling locales and our customers a broader region to buy from while spacing it out so clients aren’t competing with one another,” she notes.
“To our partner restaurants, we essentially offer a way to become your ‘pastry chefs for hire,’” she explains, adding that they deliver most orders themselves, except for a few clients who prefer to pick them up. “Everyone is spaced two to three weeks apart, so we don’t have to hit every vendor every week, and many pastries are delivered frozen for maximum flexibility, so clients can bake daily or decide how and when to sell them.”
Christine Kehn, owner of Gipfel Coffee Co. in Averill Park, N.Y., first came across Perreault and Walton’s creations through The Break Room at Greylock Works. “They’re simply the best!” she raves. “When we started offering Break Room pastries at our shop, everyone immediately loved them—in fact, their scratch-made pastries set the bar so high one customer commented, ‘Whoa, this is like Paris!’”
When Gipfel moved to its new location, it coincided perfectly with Nostalgia’s launch. “We love continuing our relationship. Amanda and Cyn are so talented. They understand the importance of small-batch, handmade pastries and are always looking for ways to expand their offerings based on what our customers are asking for,” Kehn praises.
“Most people have come to us so far,” Perreault confirms—including wholesale clients like Blue Vista Motor Lodge, Casita, Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, Gipfel Coffee Co., Landsborough Local, Mezze, Porches Inn, Spoon Cafe, The Country Store at Jiminy Peak, and The W Collective. “As we expand, we envision a quiet approach, reaching out to new clients that instinctively feel to both of us like ‘the right fit.’”
In terms of weddings and events, their years of experience working in hospitality environments have taught them that the customer is always right. Thus, they know the importance of individualized attention—the kind of specialized treatment that understands the 10th email discussing the precise color variant of a simple white frosting. “We’re responsible for their memories,” Walton notes. “The best compliment we get is, ‘Could you please make that same cake for our first anniversary?’”
Getting help to learn new skills
Both admit that going headfirst into the professional world after being behind the scenes for so long was terrifying. “It’s scary to be responsible for your own paycheck, but this is how we always wanted to do it,” Walton says. “Realizing what our business stands for has been a huge confidence boost,” she adds.
They received help with website design, accounting and bookkeeping, grants and loans, and introductions to lawyers and business community members from the North Adams Chamber of Commerce. But most of the vision was there, waiting to be tapped, after years of working side by side and fine tuning their dream together. In fact, when they went (separately) to Home Depot to gather color samples to create their logo design, Walton and Perreault returned with the same palette.
They also met with Amy Shapiro, entrepreneur in residence/professor of marketing at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) and business development director for the Franklin County Community Development Corporation. Her advice was invaluable, both admit.
“They provide such a perfect role model for other women,” Shapiro states. “Two women who’ve been working very hard for other people for a very long time, getting a clear picture of how different businesses are run, now able to design their own model prioritizing work-life balance, rooted in the community of customers and partners they’ve built all those years while creating the culinary art they love.”
What makes her so enthusiastic? “Their depth of experience made them well-positioned to launch this business. They’ve truly perfected their techniques as professional pastry chefs, balancing each other’s strengths and weaknesses to make a stronger whole. Building on their relationship with Greylock Works and the many wonderful bridges from their past, they’ve been able to launch a business on their own terms. And they’re young enough to have the vision, drive, energy, and commitment to make it work!”
Talking to other women business owners also helped. “They were super supportive,” Perreault notes. “You never feel ready, but our advice to other women considering starting a business would definitely be to take the leap and just do it. We spent many years working for other people, and it didn’t take much more than we were already putting in to do it for ourselves.”
As Walton observes, “We ground each other. My strengths are her weaknesses, and vice versa. We celebrate our triumphs together and support each other when we make mistakes.” She stresses, “We feel lucky that our memories, mentors, and moments have allowed us to do what we love with the people we love.”
Planning for the future
Nostalgia Scratch Pastry started last summer with three accounts and now has more than 10. “We’re in a pretty comfortable spot,” Perreault says. “In terms of quality control, we prefer to keep our four hands doing the work.” But, she admits, they may reach a point very soon where they need to hire additional employees to wash dishes, fill flour bins, and make deliveries—or perhaps invest in machines to upgrade their technique.
Long-term expansion goals include “creating the time and opportunity to teach classes in an available space, investing in a delivery vehicle, achieving a status that allows us to contribute to the local community through non-profit organizations, and using green initiatives to increase our sustainability and streamline the conversion to a proximate ‘zero waste’ model,” she shares. Plenty to keep the wheels and conversation turning as they prep pastries each day.
“Money and volume are not our motivation, “ Walton explains. “Our goal is to be able to do our art and make a small living working with each other and building our reputation doing what we love.” She also notes the importance of setting an example for her 16-year-old daughter and 20-year-old son. “For them to see me doing this is the most important thing. We’re trying this, and it’s actually working.”
Are there any downsides to being a women-owned business? “Only the fact that almost all of our past repairmen and delivery men (with the exception of Walt, the refrigerator repairman) looked past us when they entered our kitchen and spoke to whatever male they found, assuming he was the boss,” Walton laughs, adding “It was usually my son.”
Given the attention their business is harnessing, that is less likely to happen in the future.
“We hope our pastries become an everyday luxury—your ‘favorites,’ your ‘must-haves,’” Walton says. That is already the case for many living in Berkshire County, Hudson Valley, and upstate New York. In the future, they hope to also branch into Hampshire County and Southern Vermont.
Nostalgia. Bring back the memories.
