Sister Act: The Butcher and The Baker: Cara Nicoletti ’04 and Ande Nicoletti ’00
Colleges: NYU (Cara) and Colby College (Ande)
Current: Butcher at The Meat Hook (Cara) and Cake Decorator at Sweet Tooth Boston (Ande)
Current: Butcher at The Meat Hook (Cara) and Cake Decorator at Sweet Tooth Boston (Ande)
Q: What have your post-Rivers paths been like?
Cara: I studied English Literature in college. I also worked in restaurants and coffee shops as a way to support myself. Eventually a couple of (very brave) chefs took a chance and let me into the kitchen. I immediately gravitated toward pastry and began working as a baker and pastry chef. After graduating from NYU with a degree in English literature and Latin (bet you didn’t see that coming, Mr. McVey), I briefly considered getting a Ph.D. in Victorian literature, but I had fallen too in love with my life as a chef to leave it behind. I was working as the pastry chef at Colonie in 2011 when the chef decided to start getting whole animals to be butchered in-house. None of the cooks knew how to butcher so I took on the task, knowing a little bit from my grandfather who owned a butcher shop. Now, I do whole-animal butchery at a butcher shop called The Meat Hook.
Ande: I majored in studio art and art history, then graduated and went straight into teaching art in the charter public school system in Boston. After a few years of teaching, I moved to New York City where I planned to wait tables for a year before going back to teaching. But I fell in love with the restaurant/food industry. I started looking at the pastry chefs in the restaurants I was working at and noticed they were doing something I knew I could be good at. I wound up getting an internship at a cake shop in Tribeca. I said I’d take a counter position and within a few weeks they were letting me bake. I graduated with high honors from a professional degree program in pastry and baking arts at the Institute for Culinary Education in 2010 and completed an externship at Daniel Boulud’s DBGB. Now, I’m a Cake Decorator at Sweet Tooth in Southie. In the meantime, Cara, who I lived with in Brooklyn, was following a similar path.
Cara: We would come home after 14-hour shifts, covered in flour and absolutely exhausted. Having a sister who understands the hardships and high-points of the industry has made it that much more bearable, and having someone to bounce ideas off of and inspire me is invaluable. Ande is my best friend in the whole world.
Back
Cara: I studied English Literature in college. I also worked in restaurants and coffee shops as a way to support myself. Eventually a couple of (very brave) chefs took a chance and let me into the kitchen. I immediately gravitated toward pastry and began working as a baker and pastry chef. After graduating from NYU with a degree in English literature and Latin (bet you didn’t see that coming, Mr. McVey), I briefly considered getting a Ph.D. in Victorian literature, but I had fallen too in love with my life as a chef to leave it behind. I was working as the pastry chef at Colonie in 2011 when the chef decided to start getting whole animals to be butchered in-house. None of the cooks knew how to butcher so I took on the task, knowing a little bit from my grandfather who owned a butcher shop. Now, I do whole-animal butchery at a butcher shop called The Meat Hook.
Ande: I majored in studio art and art history, then graduated and went straight into teaching art in the charter public school system in Boston. After a few years of teaching, I moved to New York City where I planned to wait tables for a year before going back to teaching. But I fell in love with the restaurant/food industry. I started looking at the pastry chefs in the restaurants I was working at and noticed they were doing something I knew I could be good at. I wound up getting an internship at a cake shop in Tribeca. I said I’d take a counter position and within a few weeks they were letting me bake. I graduated with high honors from a professional degree program in pastry and baking arts at the Institute for Culinary Education in 2010 and completed an externship at Daniel Boulud’s DBGB. Now, I’m a Cake Decorator at Sweet Tooth in Southie. In the meantime, Cara, who I lived with in Brooklyn, was following a similar path.
Cara: We would come home after 14-hour shifts, covered in flour and absolutely exhausted. Having a sister who understands the hardships and high-points of the industry has made it that much more bearable, and having someone to bounce ideas off of and inspire me is invaluable. Ande is my best friend in the whole world.
Q: What are your proudest post-Rivers accomplishments?
Cara: Getting a mention in the 2012 Michelin Guide for my salted caramel donuts, breaking an entire cow by myself in 45 minutes, and finishing my book proposal.
Ande: Completing culinary school in a city like New York was a huge accomplishment for me.
Cara: Getting a mention in the 2012 Michelin Guide for my salted caramel donuts, breaking an entire cow by myself in 45 minutes, and finishing my book proposal.
Ande: Completing culinary school in a city like New York was a huge accomplishment for me.
Q: You each have a venture you pursue outside your full-time job. Tell me about them.
Cara: I create recipes for literary food scenes on my blog, Yummy Books. After college, I was missing my academic life terribly, so three of my friends and I started a book club. Whenever we would discuss the book we had read I would cook a meal from the novel. These literary dinners quickly took on a life of their own, and soon people not connected to the book club were reserving spots in my tiny kitchen to eat the words of their favorite authors. When I could no longer keep up with the demand, I started Yummy Books as a way to keep the tradition alive. Yummy Books has been written up in The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, Very Short List, The Daily Beast, Animal New York, The Kitchn, and various other publications. In March, I signed with a literary agent and officially submitted a book proposal to publishers as of September! My hope is that there will be a Yummy Books Cookbook in stores sometime within the next two years.
Ande: Butterprint Bake Shop is my freelance company where I do cakes for people outside Sweet Tooth. A lot of the cakes I do are vegan or gluten free. My long-term goal is to open my own bakery and I’ve already started drafting a business plan. I would love it if Cara would move back to Boston so we could do something together.
Cara: I hope someday we own a butcher shop/bakery together.
Cara: I create recipes for literary food scenes on my blog, Yummy Books. After college, I was missing my academic life terribly, so three of my friends and I started a book club. Whenever we would discuss the book we had read I would cook a meal from the novel. These literary dinners quickly took on a life of their own, and soon people not connected to the book club were reserving spots in my tiny kitchen to eat the words of their favorite authors. When I could no longer keep up with the demand, I started Yummy Books as a way to keep the tradition alive. Yummy Books has been written up in The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, Very Short List, The Daily Beast, Animal New York, The Kitchn, and various other publications. In March, I signed with a literary agent and officially submitted a book proposal to publishers as of September! My hope is that there will be a Yummy Books Cookbook in stores sometime within the next two years.
Ande: Butterprint Bake Shop is my freelance company where I do cakes for people outside Sweet Tooth. A lot of the cakes I do are vegan or gluten free. My long-term goal is to open my own bakery and I’ve already started drafting a business plan. I would love it if Cara would move back to Boston so we could do something together.
Cara: I hope someday we own a butcher shop/bakery together.
Q: How has Rivers prepared you for this work?
Ande: Rivers taught me how to be independent and how to be a leader. Everyone had my back at that school and everyone wanted to see me succeed.
Cara: I would never be where I am today without the incredible English teachers I had at Rivers. Not only did they prepare me academically for college and beyond, they fostered my love of literature and made me hungry to keep learning and pushing myself.
Ande: Rivers taught me how to be independent and how to be a leader. Everyone had my back at that school and everyone wanted to see me succeed.
Cara: I would never be where I am today without the incredible English teachers I had at Rivers. Not only did they prepare me academically for college and beyond, they fostered my love of literature and made me hungry to keep learning and pushing myself.
© 2025 The Rivers School. All Rights Reserved
Rivers admits academically qualified students and does not discriminate against students or families on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or ethnic or national origin in the administration of its educational programs, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic programs, and other school-administered programs.