While Amy Emberling wishes her calling had been something more practical, like finance, she has come to realize that it will always be food. She has been an avid foodie and baker since her childhood in Nova Scotia, Canada, with some of her earliest memories involving melting ice cream underneath heater vents and her parents loading all four kids in the back of their car every Sunday after skating to go out to eat. Sometimes it would be Dairy Queen, and sometimes it would be a nice French restaurant in town—she loved all of it.
After moving to Massachusetts and receiving a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, she decided to follow her passion for cooking in a formal setting. She pursued a culinary education at L’Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. There, she observed professional bakers and chefs’ dedication to perfection, process, and precision, honoring the beauty and flavor of food in a commercial environment. This experience opened her eyes to the possibility of maintaining a heightened level of thoughtfulness even while producing high volumes, a lesson she still carries with her today.
Back in the U.S., she went on to work in various restaurants in Michigan but quickly realized it wasn’t for her. The problem? She’s not a night owl.
“I thought I wanted to be a chef, and I had some great experience working in a variety of restaurants, but I realized early on I’m a severe morning person. I also wanted to have a family … so I thought a bakery setting would work for me. Even as a child, my nickname was ‘Baker Woman,’” Emberling says.
While visiting family in San Francisco and having bad experiences working in restaurants, she met a chef whose advice was to look for a startup to make her mark. However, she left the interaction feeling more confused about her path than ever.
It wasn’t until she met one of the founders of Zingerman’s Community of Businesses that her trajectory started to take shape. Zingerman’s is a network of unique businesses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, committed to staying in the community rather than franchising, instead adding new businesses to the fold. Today, there are 10 concepts, with over 700 employees and $75 million in annual revenue.
But this was back in the early 1990s, and there weren’t many artisan bakeries or startups at the time. When the founder pointed her in the direction of Zingerman’s Bakehouse—which was artisanal, local, and a startup—it caught her by surprise. But in 1992, she immediately took the opportunity to have an impact and make a difference as one of the original bakers on a staff of eight. She quickly became the first manager of the bread bakery, then the manager of the pastry kitchen. She eventually ascended to become an official Zingerman’s Bakehouse partner in 2000 alongside the founders.
“When I started at the bakery, I never thought I would be there for very long, much less be an owner. My husband was in graduate school, and I thought we would be leaving,” Emberling says. “But I stayed … and [cofounder] Frank Carollo helped us to see the difference we made in the community because we were making food that wasn’t readily available. I felt like we collaborated and worked together in a way more traditional restaurants weren’t, and I loved it. I was learning an incredible amount, and as I started to want more responsibility, I realized there was plenty of it to share.”
Today, Emberling is a vital leader within Zingerman’s and has remained deeply involved with the Ann Arbor community over her 33-year tenure. She says that while the brand has sacrificed financial gains by declining to franchise, its mission is not to maximize profit but to optimize it—ensuring enough money to pay fair wages, buy new equipment, and maintain a cushion for economic downturns or worldwide pandemics.
Above all, it’s about being a “nice neighbor.” One of the brand’s purpose statements is that they are a neighborhood bakery, but that doesn’t mean they have been voted No. 1 in the community. It means participating in people’s lives in a positive way.
“We are here to serve the community. We are mindful about how loud our trucks are, how we’re managing our garbage, how much we give back to our neighbors. I think if you decide you are truly a part of something, it changes how you relate to it, and that’s a big part of our philosophy,” Emberling adds. “Not franchising can limit your financial success, but we’re willing to do that and focus more on caring about great food and great service.”
While she might not be spending hours on end in the bakery with her hands in the dough anymore, Emberling’s role has evolved to teaching hands-on baking and business skills and developing her teams. In addition to teaching BAKE!, a virtual baking class, she is also a presenter for ZingTrain, which offers training, seminars, workshops, and more for aspiring business leaders. Her passion is guided by another one of Zingerman’s core philosophies.
“We’re incredibly dedicated to the act of learning, teaching, and developing. In fact, seven different bakeries around here have opened from people who used to work for the bakehouse, and I think that’s a testament to our training. They obviously felt prepared and inspired,” Emberling says. “We encourage people to go for their vision. Every community can benefit from its own local bakery … we engage with the spirit of doing something good for people; it’s not just about profits or competition.”
While Zingerman’s is rooted in traditional baking methods, Emberling’s vision for the future includes innovation in the form of what she calls “spontaneous bakes.” If something inspires a baker and there’s time in the day, she encourages them to make and sell it. The idea is to make work more playful—whether by experimenting with extra dough and ingredients or a Turkish employee sharing a recipe from his culture with customers.
As Emberling prepares to pass the torch to the next generation of leaders, her impact is felt not just within the bakery’s four walls but in the broader community.
“I feel teary saying this, but the most rewarding thing about my career is that there are people out there who feel as though this is the food of their memories. Of their childhood, of their life. They grew up with Zingerman’s Bakehouse, and it brought joy to their everyday life,” Emberling says. “On particular holidays, like Thanksgiving, they’ll always think about pecan pie from the bakehouse. We brought joy to people.”
