Emily Williams is hitting the road delivering baked goods to customers in various cities around Denton through her food truck, The Messy Chef.

Williams said her parents shaped her to be a businesswoman who goes after her goals - and she took the steps necessary to do that.

“I always knew I wanted to be baker,” Williams said. “I have wanted to go to culinary school since I was eight years old.”

Williams attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte in 2012 and returned home five years later. Her parents were both entrepreneurs and her dad was a very goal-minded person. “I moved back (with her parents) during the summer of 2017 and we started to figure it out.” Williams said.

She found the truck last December and in April she was able to do her first event. There is a process of getting the truck, of course, and also acquiring all of the necessary permits in order to be able to get it rolling.

Williams found an office with enough room to bake goods before bringing them on the truck and went on to later get the logos finalized.

Sitting in her office behind a computer with sticky notes reminding her everyday to stay inspired and keep dreaming, Williams operates the behind the scenes work of operating the food truck, including scheduling, accounting and much more.

“I think a sign you might want to open your own bakery is when you look at things [at a bakery,] and think that’s neat but also, how would I do things differently? I’ve always had a general vision of it being a homemade goods food truck,” Williams said.

Williams does it all. She is the owner, founder, baker and creator for The Messy Chef Bake Shop. She makes sure things are going well with her accounts, drives the truck and even works a second job at Chick Fil A to make sure that everything is going smooth.

When starting up, The Messy Chef Bakeshop originally offered items like brownies and cookies. Now the truck offers breakfast items, as well, which has helped her business. It gave her the opportunity to stay open longer at events because of the wider variety of items. In the morning she could open up at an events location, and offer the breakfast items then later transition to the cookies and other baked goods.

“It’s nice to be able to got to events and have different options,” Williams said. The Messy Chef Bakeshop truck does events at places like Handmade Harvest. Williams operates both the truck and its social media presence. You can see more on Williams and what the truck is up to by going over to her instagram at @tmcbakeshop.

Images by Robert Warren
Header image design by Sara Button