Tiffany Oppelt

I was young when I knew I wanted to work in the hospitality industry. As a child, I wanted to own a Bed and Breakfast. I liked the idea of hosting people from all over the world and showing them the very best hospitality. I got excited about the conversations we could have, the experience I could create and the food we could wow them with. 

My Aunt Karen — who we called “Martha,” as in Martha Stewart — was amazing at hosting and bringing people together, and she let me help her every chance she could. I loved her attention to detail in making events special and creating delicious recipes. When I realized there is an entire industry focused on being hospitable, I knew that’s where I wanted to be. 

For my education, I obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Hospitality Management from Kansas State University and spent a semester studying culinary arts at Lorenzo De Medici in Florence, Italy. 

Over the years, I worked at various restaurants and catering companies, including LongHorn Steakhouse. There, I served as Bar Manager, Service Manager, Kitchen Manager, Culinary Captain (for more than 80 restaurants) and General Manager. My position as GM provided lots of experience with budgeting, forecasting, scheduling, planning, customer service and hiring. I also worked as Culinary Operations Manager and Training and Development Manager at Kramer Dining Center at K-State, which gave me experience in large-scale service and training. 

Today, I’m the owner of TheraPie, a local bakery here in Manhattan, Kansas. I love having opportunities to connect with people and brighten their days through community and pie. 

When I decided to start making my business plan and turning my dream of TheraPie into reality, I started doing market research and looking for brick-and-mortar locations. I quickly realized I wasn’t ready to take on the financial risk of moving from where I was into a storefront. After working with the City of Manhattan’s Code Services department and the Kansas Department of Agriculture, I decided to build a commercial kitchen in my basement. Upon presenting my business plan to banks, I was able to acquire funding, and in March 2020, our kitchen was officially licensed. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic fully underway at the time, I had to work hard to market to people when they weren’t leaving their homes as often. I immediately began offering no-contact pickup and delivery services. Thankfully, I had some volunteers helping me, and because we were growing steadily, I began to hire team members. Then, we partnered with local businesses to serve our pies in their shops and continued to grow through farmer’s markets and other events. 

Around this time, we began to look for brick-and-mortar storefronts again until we found the right one for us. Because we required additional funding to purchase retail equipment and outfit the shop to sell pies, we ended up winning a pitch competition and took on an additional loan. We also brought in another small business to share our space and lower costs for both of us while helping to build up each other’s businesses. We officially opened our doors on March 14, 2023. We continued to grow while operating out of a very small kitchen in our downtown shop and the original basement kitchen across town. In June 2024, we built a commercial kitchen above the downtown storefront and moved out of the basement kitchen. 

My main job as owner of TheraPie is setting goals and working on the details of achieving them. This involves hiring the right people, empowering my team and providing the resources they need to be successful. I also teach, schedule, develop recipes, try new things, connect with the community, ensure our standards are met, and conduct the accounting and marketing for our business. 

For my career goals, I plan to keep growing TheraPie to its fullest potential. I want to continue pouring back into the community, helping other small businesses be successful and spreading kindness like confetti in everything I do. 

As far as advice for young people who want a career in this field, I recommend getting a part-time job or internship so you can gain firsthand experience. You could also interview people who are in the position you hope to be in someday. You can learn a lot by putting yourself in the environment you see yourself working in. 

Your life and career paths will take you to places you never planned or expected. Don’t let fear stop you from trying something outside your “plan.” Some of the best things in life will be really scary. I recommend doing it scared!