Life and Work with Amaris Riddle

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amaris Riddle.

Amaris, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My love for food started when I was very young because my mom was a cake decorator at a bakery. She worked nights/early mornings so I would go in with her and sleep in the office until it was time for school. I started working for a well-known delicatessen company when I was in high school, and then from there, I began working for a local butcher shop in McKinney, TX. This somewhat began my journey to veganism because it started to make me connect where my food came from. I stopped working with food for some time and started working as a leasing agent, but eventually ended up working with food again when I was hired as a baker at a local vegan bakery. I was there for only about seven months when we parted ways, and I was hired at Sugar Fang Vegan Bakery the next day. I started working for S.F. in December and was officially asked to run the bakery in February. It has been a stressful, wild ride, but I am absolutely loving it and hope to be there for a long time.

I’ve now been vegan for about three years, and am currently transitioning to a zero-waste lifestyle to do my part to help fight climate change. I consider myself an activist of many things (animal rights, climate change, human rights, etc.) and don’t plan on ever-changing that about myself.

Has it been a smooth road?
Not at all! I have faced many obstacles along the way, including pay discrimination, not being taken seriously due to my age/gender, being told that I am being too emotional or being “negative” when I bring issues to light, and of course, sexual harassment. I can actually remember an older male employee popping my underwear one time while I was bending over to clean the floor. I was 17 and he was probably in his late 50s. At the time, because of how I was raised (to be submissive, etc.) I laughed it off, but now I think I would probably slap him and immediately report him. The best advice I think I could offer to young women is to not back down and to speak out/up if you are being treated poorly or inappropriately in the workplace. (Even if you lose your job because of it.) The more woman who stand up for themselves, the more quickly change will happen.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Sugar Fang Vegan Bakery – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
I am the head pastry chef and manager/operator of Sugar Fang Vegan Bakery in Deep Ellum Texas. We are located inside BrainDead Brewing where I am the vegan chef. We specialize in vegan sweets, and our most popular items are probably our Skullettes and our Pop-Tarts. I am proud of so many things we’ve done, but a few of the stand outs would be: 1. We have only been open for one year as of this month (November), and have already been featured in multiple magazine articles. 2. We were on Good Morning Texas to do a vegan baking demo a few months back. 3. I was personally nominated for Dallas’ Pastry Chef of the Year award this year. 4. We got to bake for Billie Eilish last month while she was here for her world tour! 5. I would say above everything, I am proud of the difference we are making for the animals/environment by not using animal products in our baked goods.

Outside of Sugar Fang, I have a True Crime/Baking Podcast called Baking a Murderer with my decorator, Susana Soto (bakingamurdererpod.com), and a food blog called My Riddle Kitchen (myriddlekitchen.com).

We have only been open for one year as of this month (November), and have already been featured in multiple articles, including a recent one by PETA, naming Sugar Fang as one of the places to visit if you’re in Dallas.

What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
Keep your head up. Be strong. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do whatever you set your mind to because of your age or gender.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2625 Main St. Dallas, Tx 75226
• Website: sugarfang.com
• Phone: 2147490600
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sugarfangtx/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SUGARFANGTX/

Image Credit:
Skull picture/Rainbow Pop Tart picture: Farmers Market Grapevine Instagram (@farmersmarketgrapevine)
Stacked donut picture: Donut Digest (@donutdigest)

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