KANSAS CITY, MO — Season 8 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast, sponsored by Oakes, starts Sept. 3 and features Marc and Elana Schulman, president and director of special projects, respectively, of Chicago-based Eli’s Cheesecake.
Throughout this season, Joanie Spencer, editor-in-chief of Commercial Baking and podcast host, joins the Schulmans, a father-daughter bakery duo, to dive into the history of the family-owned bakery, how Eli’s defined the “Chicago-style” cheesecake, what it means to innovate on a classic, best practices for workforce development, the bakery’s vision for the future and more.
“Throughout my career in baking industry media, I’ve had the privilege of knowing Marc and Elana,” Spencer said. “Having the opportunity to learn so much about their family and how they built this business on making a quality product and Eli’s foundation of ‘Charity will never break you’ — and how they came through the pandemic with incredible growth — is something the industry won’t want to miss.”
Eli’s Cheesecake is a third-generation business started by Marc’s father, Eli M. Schulman, in 1980. The baking company is known not only for its signature Chicago-style cheesecake but also its humanitarian workforce practices, philanthropy and love for making giant cheesecakes for community milestones in the Chicagoland area.
Before the first episode debuts, tune in to the special live recording taken at American Society of Baking’s BakingTECH 2023.
Troubleshooting Innovation is available on the Commercial Baking website and on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
