Sugar Sketching with Martina Nardo
Remember that taco cake at #TACOSHOWDOWNNYC that had you like “OMG”, “How The Heck!”, “I need to take 2381 photos of this phenomenal piece of culinary art!”. You can thank Sugar Sketch for the masterpiece to the left.
The Pastry Chef behind this wonderful taco-licious cake is a Roma-born creative and extraordinary Pastry Chef by the name of Martina Nardo. We connected at the Taco Showdown, chatted it up and decided to do something different from the #eatkomeeda norm. And viola! Sugar Sketch hosted their first Komeeda gathering by ways of a tummy filling, dinner-negating pastry tasting experience in her cozy and bright Lower East Side bakery.
Martina’s story is an enjoyable one! Moving to NYC at the age of 16 (solo), she came across her life’s passion by accident and eventually made her way over to culinary school in NYC. Since then, she became the awesome pastry chef that she is today! You can hear her story as shared to our partners at Beyond The Eats. She was once asked to bake a huge cake for Katy Perry’s California Gurls music video. “It was as tall as me, and it took three days to make this cake come to life”!
As the experience approached “eat-time!”, she was getting excited and knew how to handle her first #eatkomeeda gathering. Martina’s contagious energy welcomed the Kommunity as they filtered into the bakery. She shared her story with the attendees, and served up a choice of Sugar Sketch’s unique lattes. Kommunity member Jazmine (inset left) got herself the Marocchino, made up with a thin layer of nutella at the bottom, followed by two shots of espresso and topped with a dollop of whipped cream.
Sugar Sketch featured a robust menu of their favorite sweets and their favorite savory Cheese Clouds. This is Martina’s take on the Brazilian cheese bread, with prosciutto and truffle. Light, tasty, and the texture of this cloud is heavenly. I could eat these all day and Martina agreed, but I’m working on my summer bod; so I stayed away after one.
With Martina’s love and devotion to her business and craft at Sugar Sketch, it was evident that she’s destined for great things! But since many of you didn’t get to #eatkomeeda at Sugar Sketch, here are some shots from this sweet experience!
We stuck around an hour after the experience ended, and chatted it up with the staff and ‘Rouk from Beyond The Eats. It’s seldom that you meet people who are so busy and flustered, to be so kind, energetic, and sustain the love that initiated the project at hand. From the moment you meet her, you vibe right away, as a person who motivates herself and others who hear her story. She chose her own destiny, fine-tuned her skills, and now brings her baking dreams to life, via surreal cakes. There’s no doubt that with time, Martina achieves her dreams of opening up other bakeries in NYC, L.A. and soon in her native land, Italy. We’ll be sure to be on that journey with her!
Want to experience what Sugar Sketch has to offer? Be on the look out for our next Fun Eating Experience there by signing up @ komeeda.com.
Sugar Sketch is located at 172 E 2nd St, New York, NY 10009.
