For Sara Brook, life has been sweet. “What can I say? I have loved desserts since the day I was born,” confesses the fifth-generation Houstonian and the youngest of three children. “I have always had a passion for baking. I even have a special anniversary edition Easy Bake Oven in my office! My fondest childhood memory is as a 4-year-old in preschool, taking turns mixing cake batter in class. After 40 years in business, I still love looking at pictures of desserts and coming up with new recipes.”

But she didn’t start out as a chef. After graduating first in her class from The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in computer science and sociology, Brook was working at a law firm and studying for the LSAT when she glanced around the room one day and decided that law seemed a bit too dull. “I was determined to come up with a plan to spend days doing what I loved,” she said. Bye-bye law, hello baking!

At the age of 21, Brook launched her first dessert business and hasn’t looked back. The Executive Sweet, which flourished in Houston from 1979 until 1988 before she sold it, was a hit. One week later, without skipping a beat, Brook launched Sara Brook Desserts, a dessert catering company she operated out of the River Oaks Grill. When customers repeatedly asked for the chocolate sauce she had created, Brook decided to devote full time to marketing and selling her sauce, The Great Chocolate Cover Up, nationwide through specialty and gourmet food stores. In 1992, Brook sold that company and continued working with the new owners as a consultant for two years.