Stephen & Jill's Bio

Pastry Chef/Owner Jill McClennen feels at home in southern New Jersey. She is returning after more than eight years of cooking, baking, and eating around the world. Jill has always had a special connection to food, growing up in both her grandmother’s kitchen and garden. After working in several local bakeries during her junior and senior years in high school, Jill left for Virginia to attend Johnson & Wales University. There, she earned a degree in Culinary Arts, graduating with honors. During this time, she also
gained valuable work experience in Dedham, Mass at the Hilton during her externship. While at Johnson & Wales, Jill discovered her true passion in the baking and pastry arts.
She decided that after graduating that she would attend the prestigious Culinary Institute
of America in Hyde Park, New York. During her time at the CIA, Jill met her future husband and business partner Stephen, beginning a friendship that would later blossom into love and marriage. After completing the program at the CIA (and doing her externship at the famed Boca Raton Resort in Florida), Jill accepted a fellowship position at the school. During the next year, Jill learned a multitude of new ideas and techniques, and honed the skills she had already learned in school. Her main responsibilities included running the bread and pastry kitchens in the Apple Pie Bakery/Café located on campus, as well as instructing and guiding an entirely new staff of students every two weeks. After finishing her fellowship, Jill worked as a waitress at the Big Apple Diner in Malaga, New Jersey to learn more about front-of-the-house operations. Soon, she and Stephen moved to San Francisco to see the culinary experiences of the west coast…

General Manager/Owner Stephen Wilson grew up in Gainesville, Florida. Like Jill, he felt a special connection to food and has fond memories of eating peas fresh off the vine, picking blueberries in the summer, and eating his great-grandmothers chicken and dumplings. During his sophomore year of high school, Stephen started attending a culinary arts program at his high school and quickly fell in love with professional cooking. His teacher soon helped him get a job working in the kitchen of the only CIA-trained chef in Gainesville. Stephen learned the fundamentals of cooking, and while working on the pastry station, quickly developed a passion for sweets. He stayed at Steve’s Café American for over two years. While working full-time at the restaurant, he got an internship at Uppercrust Productions, a local artisan bakery. The following summer, Stephen took a job at Cakes by Jenny Wagner and Company. Not only did he learn invaluable pastry techniques there, he learned about the intimacies of starting and running a small bakery. After almost a year, Stephen left for the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

There he flourished in the educational atmosphere, earning The Craig Claiborne Communication Award and the Student Council Awards upon graduation of the Bachelors program, and The Katherine Angel Scholastic Achievement Award upon graduation of the Associates program. He was also very active in after-school activities, serving as the Baking and Pastry Representative on the student council, as well as the President of the Bakers Club. The highlight of Stephen’s career at the CIA, was being chosen by Food & Wine Magazine as one of the ‘Top 10 Student Chefs of 2003’ (and the only pastry student). During his time at the CIA, he completed his externship at Citizen Cake in San Francisco. He fell in love with the city, and he and Jill decided to move west after graduating.

This had a profound effect on them, as they learned about the simplicity and freshness of California cuisine, as well as the cultures of organics, sustainability, and the farm-chef connection. After a brief stint at the restaurant Butterfly, Jill worked under pastry chef Marika Shimamoto-Doob at Hawthorne Lane. When Marika left a year later, Jill took over the pastry chef position. Hawthorne Lane was a founding restaurant of California cuisine and was well respected in the San Francisco dining scene. During her time there, Jill developed such popular desserts as ‘strawberry shortcake with rhubarb sorbet and strawberry chips’ and ‘pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon sherbet.’ Jill also gained valuable experience in the managerial side of the kitchen by being responsible for hiring, firing, ordering, and scheduling. Jill also had the opportunity to teach the ever-popular cooking classes once a month at the restaurant, and her famous apple pie demonstration was profiled in the Oakland Tribune after one such class.

Stephen got a job at the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, and worked under pastry chefs Celine Plano and Gillian Baggen during his time there. At the Ritz-Carlton, Stephen learned French pastry techniques, and eventually became skilled and knowledgeable in all aspects of the hotel pastry kitchen. Some of his responsibilities included training new employees, developing menu items, executing brunch service every Sunday and holiday, covering the overnight breakfast pastry shift if needed, and decorating all wedding cakes. Stephen also learned the legendary Ritz-Carlton customer service methods, which
had a profound impact on his perception of how businesses should be run.

After two and a half years, Jill and Stephen decided to open their own business. Before they opened though, they spent saved money to travel through Europe. They visited Spain, Italy, and Austria (actually twelve countries in total) tasting, cooking, and gathering ideas. They concluded their trip by spending over a month in Paris, learning about pastry, food and wine. They visited literally dozens of pastry shops and bakeries in Paris, the gastronomic capital of the world.

Stephen and Jill shared a passion for pastry, so they decided to open their own neighborhood bakery utilizing the skills and knowledge of their collective experience. Together, Stephen and Jill have almost twenty years of professional experience, and they look forward to the challenge and rewards of starting The Sweet Life Bakery.

Please check back often for updated information.
Feel free to contact Stephen and Jill at thesweetlifebakery@verizon.net
or by calling us at 856-692-5353.
Thank you, and we hope to hear from you soon!

601 East Landis Avenue (Rear)
Vineland, NJ
856-692-5353
thesweetlifebakery@verizon.net