How Chicago Pastry Chef Aya Fukai Turned Disaster into Success

This past March, Aya Fukai, like so many other business owners, found herself at a crossroads. She needed to make some decisions regarding the future of Aya Pastry, her two-and-a-half-year-old Chicago bakery. While retail was always part of Fukai’s business plan, at the time of the shelter-in-place announcement her shop was primarily doing wholesale business, with 70 percent of its baked goods, cakes, and breads going to restaurants, hotels, and markets. “...