cover image The Secret Ingredient: Recipes for Success in Business and Life

The Secret Ingredient: Recipes for Success in Business and Life

Gigi Butler, with Bud Schaetzle. Howard, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-1-5011-7352-3

Entrepreneur Butler convincingly demonstrates the sass and determination that made her Gigi’s Cupcakes empire a success. Hoping to become a country singer after college, Butler supported herself as a house cleaner, first in her native California, and then in Nashville. Despite her best efforts at singing, Butler found herself making far more money from her cleaning business than her music; she then focused on another dream, to own a cupcake shop. She saved and borrowed money to open her first shop in downtown Nashville in 2007; since then her business has grown to more than 94 locations, attracting celebrity clients (Taylor Swift’s favorite confection is said to be the Scarlett Red Velvet) and everyday folks alike. Butler writes with wit and honesty about her bumpy road to success in life and in love (including a brief marriage and a romance with a Navy SEAL, the father of her daughter) and on the importance of learning from other entrepreneurs. She opens each chapter with a recipe and a story behind it; Hunka Chunka Banana Love, for instance, was “the first cupcake I baked the morning I opened the original Gigi’s.” Butler’s memoir provides an encouraging argument for the value of chasing dreams. (Dec.)