When Noe Plata Alvarado enrolled in the baking and pastry arts program in the School of Culinary Arts & Hospitality Management, he was looking for a way to turn his love for baking into a career.
Now, Alvarado, 31, is the manager at My Sugar Pie, a Zionsville bakery known for its handcrafted pies that ship nationwide. The very same Zionsville bakery where he first arrived as an Ivy Tech extern over 10 years ago.
“I was just trying to get my foot in the door with a bakery. Then I kind of just stayed on,” Alvarado said.
A Passion That Started at Home
Alvarado’s love of baking started at home.
He grew up near Monticello in northern Indiana, where cooking and baking were a regular part of family life. He often watched his mother prepare meals and desserts, absorbing techniques and flavors long before he considered working in a professional kitchen.
“So when I was little, my mom did a lot of the cooking,” Alvarado said. “I just watched her a lot and learned from her.”
By high school, he had started baking cakes for classmates, friends, and family birthdays.
“I just liked the fast-paced environment and learning on the go,” he said. “Very hands-on. The busier, the better.”
Much of the baking he saw growing up came from family traditions. His mother often made Mexican desserts, which helped shape his early interest in sweets and pastries.
Still, he did not initially realize baking could become a career. That changed when a high school cooking teacher encouraged him to consider culinary school.
“One of the teachers told me if I wanted to, there were possibilities for cooking careers,” he said. “So I just took as many cooking classes as I could.”
That encouragement ultimately led him to Ivy Tech Indianapolis.
The Externship That Opened the Door
Alvarado enrolled in Ivy Tech’s baking and pastry arts program, where state-of-the-art kitchens and industry-focused courses helped him build the skills needed to work in a commercial kitchen.
Alvarado says Ivy Tech’s hands-on classes prepared him well for the realities of working in a bakery.
His favorite courses included yeast bread class, cake and fillings, budgeting and recipe costing, while he also appreciated his time working the front and back of the house at Courses Restaurant. All of which have guided his tenure at My Sugar Pie from extern to assistant baker, then to baker, and now to manager.
Alvarado applied to My Sugar Pie, seeking an externship while finishing his final semester at Ivy Tech in 2015. At the time, he was working seasonally as a food runner at Pacers games and looking for something more consistent in the kitchen. My Sugar Pie stood out because it offered something new.
“I liked the idea of pie because I’d never really worked with pie before,” he said, excited by something new.
When he arrived, he worked with Kelly Maucere, the founder and owner of My Sugar Pie, to set goals for the experience, including developing a new pie recipe for the shop and applying the recipe costing techniques he had learned in class.
“One of the classes at Ivy Tech was calculating recipes and converting them to what we needed,” he said. “That applied to what I was doing during the externship when I had to calculate the recipe I was making.”
The recipe he created, a s’mores pie, is still on the bakery’s menu to this day, and a testament to how Ivy Tech students are prepared to contribute from day one.
At the time, Alvarado viewed the externship as a way to gain experience after graduation. Instead, it became the start of a long-term career:
“I enjoyed what I was doing, so I stayed,” Alvarado said.
From Peeling Apples to Running the Shop
After completing his externship, Alvarado joined My Sugar Pie full-time and began learning every aspect of the bakery’s operations.
He started with preparatory work, such as peeling apples and assembling pies, before moving into roles as an assistant baker and a lead baker. Over time, he developed the technical and organizational skills needed to lead the team.
Almost two years ago, he stepped into his current role as bakery manager.
Today, Alvarado oversees ordering, payroll, scheduling, and daily production while helping guide the bakery’s team.
A key part of his growth has come from mentorship and regular coaching from Maucere.
“We have weekly or semiweekly meetings,” he said. “She sits down with me, and we go over goals for myself and for the team. It’s a lot of coaching and guiding.”
That support has helped him grow into a leadership role while allowing Maucere to step back from daily operations and focus on the broader business.
A Kitchen Full of Ivy Tech Alumni
One of Alvarado’s favorite parts of working at My Sugar Pie is the team environment. Several employees, including fellow Ivy Tech Indy alum Christy Weaver, share similar training and experiences.
“It’s cool that so many of us went to the same school,” he said. “We can talk about the classes and remember how busy they were and how challenging some of them were.”
During the bakery’s slower winter months, Alvarado also helps lead baking classes for customers on Saturdays, teaching participants how to make mini pies, cookies, scones, and other desserts.
“It’s fun teaching them how to bake,” he said. “Sometimes it’s little kids, sometimes older people.”
Bringing Baking Business Back Home
While Alvarado enjoys leading the team at My Sugar Pie, he also has long-term dreams of his own.
One day, he hopes to open a Mexican bakery and café near his hometown, combining his love of bread baking with coffee and traditional desserts.
“I really like bread,” he said. “I make bread at home, like sourdough and things like that. I’d like to open a Mexican bakery and café somewhere back home.”
For now, he continues building experience and leadership skills at the bakery where his career first began.
Looking back, Alvarado says Ivy Tech provided the foundation that helped make it possible.
“It was a good transition,” he said. “My favorite part would be the team … it’s a good work environment. We all get along well and help each other out.”
My Sugar Pie and Maucere were recently featured in the latest issue of Ivy Indy Magazine for their extraordinary support of Ivy Tech students. Over the years, Maucere has welcomed nearly 15 Ivy Tech Indianapolis baking and pastry interns into her kitchen, hiring many of them and helping turn student passion into lasting careers.
NEXT: MY SUGAR PIE BAKER FINDS THE RIGHT RECIPE FOR SUCCESS - AND IT BEGAN WITH IVY TECH
You can visit My Sugar Pie in downtown Zionsville, located at 40 E Pine St, Zionsville, IN 46077.
About Ivy Tech Community College
Ivy Tech Community College is Indiana's largest public postsecondary institution and the nation's largest singly accredited statewide community college system, accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. Ivy Tech has campuses throughout Indiana and also serves thousands of students annually online. It serves as the state's engine of workforce development, offering associate degrees, long- and short-term certificate programs, industry certifications, and training that aligns with the needs of the community. The College provides a seamless transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana, as well as out of state, for a more affordable route to a bachelor's degree.
