Quick Wiki
- Full Name Amirah Kassem
- Occupation Baker, TV personality
- Nationality Mexican-born American
- Birthplace Juárez, Mexico
- Birth Date Jan 08, 1987
- Age 37 Years, 6 Months
- Net Worth Not disclosed
Amirah Kassem | Biography
Owner and founder of FLOUR SHOPKassem quit her full-time job in 2012 by taking a risk to launch Flour Shop out of her two-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg. She couldn't afford a proper website, so she focused all of her efforts on marketing her creations on Instagram. Flour Shop soon received custom orders from well-known designers, including Phillip Lim, Valentino, Chanel, Stella McCartney, and Versace.
Amirah Kassem is a self-taught baker best known for being the owner and founder of Flour Shop and a judge on Disney+’s Foodtastic, a food-art series.
Who is Amirah Kassem?
Amirah Kassem is a Mexican-born American author, designer, and Baker. She is also the creator of Flour Shop, specializing in Rainbow Explosion Cakes and conceptual, playful desserts for the fashion and entertainment crowds.
According to Kassem, her proudest career moment was opening the first Flour Shop store in SoHo, NYC. The clients of Flour Shop include celebrities like Katy Perry, Valentino, Snoop Dogg, and others.
Her food-based installations have also been featured, from private settings at the Whitney Museum to 64-foot edible hallways at the Brooklyn Museum. Moreover, her fondant-free creations have also piqued the interest of renowned publications like Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, and other fashion parties in New York City.
Kassem has expanded her products further than cake, with bakeware, perishables, and dinnerware collection from Williams-Sonoma, a Pottery Barn Kids & Teen home collection.
She also serves as the judge in Disney+ food-art series Foodtastic, which premiered in December 2021. Besides, she has appeared as a guest judge in shows like Sugar Rush, Cupcake Championship, Nailed It! Mexico, Beat Bobby Flay, Cake My Day, and Top Elf.
Additionally, she is also the best-selling writer of ‘The Power of Sprinkles: A Cake Book,’ as well as the children’s books ‘The Magical Land of Birthdays’ and ‘Bake a Rainbow Cake!’
Age, Educational Background, & Early Bio
Amirah Kassem was born on 8 January 1987 in Juárez, Mexico. As of January 2022, she is 34 years old. She grew up in Juárez on the Mexico border and Texas.
She earned a bachelor of science and an associate of arts degree from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising-Orange County. However, she had planned to study political science at university but changed her major when the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles offered her a spot in their program.
Parents
Kassem was born to a Kuwaiti father and a Mexican mother. Her parents met while they were in college and later got married.
As a child, her two favorite pastimes were horseback riding and cooking in the kitchen with her mother. Her mother would also instill in her a passion for baking, owing to the many birthday cakes she baked for Kassem as a child.
“When I was seven she made a life-size Little Mermaid cake for my birthday. She taught me that you can be creative without the need to follow rules while cooking, which I’ve kept with me till this day,” she said in a 2019 interview with Harper’s Bazar Arabia.
In her book ‘Bonilla Vanilla,’ she credited her mother and explained, “I always looked up to my mom. She was basically a Pinterest mom before Pinterest existed.”
How Did She Start?
In 2011, Kassem moved to New York to work at Interview Magazine before launching the denim and leather label BLK DNM with fashion designer Johan Lindeberg. She was later promoted to general manager.
However, as her fashion career progressed, she started waking up early and baking for her friends and family. “While I was working in fashion, I was waking up early and baking for friends and family,” she stated. “I never had a plan, it was just something I loved doing.”
In 2012, aged 25, Kassem eventually quit her full-time job by taking a risk to launch Flour Shop out of her two-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg. She couldn’t afford a proper website, so she focused all of her efforts on marketing her creations on Instagram.
In a 2019 interview with Bonappetit.com, Kassem revealed that starting the physical bakery without professional training was intimidating, and everything was unfamiliar. “There’s industry knowledge that a classically trained pastry chef or someone who grew up working in a kitchen has that I definitely didn’t,” she added.
Flour Shop soon received custom orders from well-known designers, including Phillip Lim, Valentino, Chanel, Stella McCartney, and Versace.
Over the years, Kassem has created Louis Vuitton-inspired treats for a pop-up bakery at the Whitney Museum, as well as miniature ice cream cones and a dessert truck with glitter-topped hot chocolate and the opening of Rebecca Minkoff’s store in Soho.
She celebrated four years of her Flour Shop on 15 November 2021.
Husband
Kassem and her husband, Ross Harrow, got married in April 2017 after Ross proposed to her in Los Angeles. The pair married on April Fool’s Day in Punta Mita, Mexico. They decided on a four-day celebration at the St. Regis Punta Mita as a tribute to Kassem’s Mexican heritage.
They were neighbors and had been dating for two and a half years before Ross proposed to her. Kassem was in LA for work, when Harrow surprised her with the proposal. He also had invited both of our families out for the breakfast.
Kassem mentioned that her most proud moment in life was marrying the love of her life and business partner, Ross Harrow. The couple also has a daughter named Coco Eloise Harrow, born on 6 August 2020.
In addition to that, her husband now runs the business side of her company. “There’s just no way that I would be able to sit there, go through our taxes, and also come up with our next treat,” Kassem said.
