Schonert’s is a corporate catering company in Ames, IA, locally owned and operated by Adam and Sophia Schonert.
The business started in the fall of 2017 when Adam was a junior at Algona High School. Adam started selling homemade pies and cheesecakes for the holidays as a way to save money for college. Before he knew it, Schonert’s Patisserie was launched, and holiday sales took off.
Adam enrolled in Iowa State University’s food science program in the fall of 2018. Adam had a passion for food science within the bakery industry. He completed bakery research and development internships at Country Maid in West Bend, IA, Newly Weds Foods in Chicago, IL, and a quality assurance internship at Barilla in Ames, IA.
Adam married his wife, Sophia, in the spring of 2020. That same year, he started his role as Bakery Educator at Rose Farmstead in Norwalk, IA, all while continuing holiday sales in Algona.
In the fall of 2021, Adam started his concurrent MBA in the Ivy College of Business. At the same time, he pivoted his business from holiday sales to offering premium and handcrafted breakfast catering. Breakfast catering grew quickly because of his local connections and the support of the Ivy College of Business. Once they entered the catering industry, they identified a big need: reliable service.
In January of 2023, Schonert’s Patisserie launched its lunch menu and transitioned into an exclusive business-to-business corporate catering company to provide the time, energy, and focus their clients deserve. Adam graduated from Iowa State with his B.S. in Food Science and Master of Business Administration in May 2023 and went into business full-time.
Since then, Schonert’s Patisserie has continued to grow, adding new products, increasing capacity, and growing its team, all with the goal of eliminating stress in catering through reliable, relational, and intentional service.
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