The sweetest dreams are the ones you dive into. Just ask Lucie Franc de Ferriere. Starting small was the secret to founding her tiny butter-yellow bakery in NYC, which fast became the neighbourhood gem.
How does an art gallerist become a baker?
“You get laid off.” Lucie says, with refreshing honesty given it’s the first time we’ve spoken. “It forced me to really think about my life and what I wanted to do with it. I had the opportunity to ask myself: ‘What do I truly love to do?’ And baking was the answer.”
Lucie’s love story with baking began in her home kitchen with her mother in the mid-90s in Bordeaux, where she was raised. Together, they magicked up cakes for the guests at the b&b the family ran on their vineyard’s property, taking notes from the earthy flavours and quality ingredients that surrounded them. When her career got turned upside down, she made a return home—not in the physical sense—but by reigniting her childhood passion for the splendor of sweet treats. She started From Lucie on small scale, baking cakes from her husband’s café ‘Sunday to Sunday’ in the Lower East Side. “But I had to share an oven with the chef, so I moved the business to my apartment.”
With their just-out-the-oven shape and too-pretty-to-eat decoration, Lucie’s bakes live and breathe ‘French countryside’. It’s no surprise she studied Art History and worked in galleries because each one is a handmade work of art. Perfectly puffed sponge serves up the canvas for her painterly hand. She dresses her creations in rustic icing (never fondant!) and finds seasonal flavors at the farmer’s market. Think rosemary, lavender, elderflower, lemon curd, sticky toffee date—it’s all extremely good enough to eat. For the finale, she tops each bake with locally grown flowers, whose stems are too short for a florist to use.
“I took the LEAP. It's been a delightful whirlwind ever since.”
Pen and paper can be found in Lucie’s apron-pocket. “I draw my cakes to visualize them. They can be very different in my head—the paper drawing is that good in-between-moment to see if I’m on the right path.”
Her cakes (did I mention she makes brownies and the world’s best cookie, too?) garnered a chic and hungry crowd on social media. The orders grew and grew, and eventually she opened her East Village storefront in January 2023.
“I like to call it the smallest bakery in NYC,” she says with an elegance I’d like to bottle up for myself. Though humble in size, the bakery is big on heart, bustling with conversation, cute interiors and homemade smells that make your soul swell.
Forget words to live by, Lucie’s approach to things is more: the proof is in the pudding. Dive in headfirst, give it a go and see how it feels. For us, she’s certainly proof that beauty’s not just in perfect art—it lives in daring to simply start.
