Kathy Gentry
Kathy Wise Gentry is the founder of Sweet Wise. Kathy started in the kitchen early on, making her first cake at age six. Her mother was a Wilton instructor, and Kathy quickly got her hand into the cake batter herself. She continued to make cakes for fun as she grew up, and sold her first cake to a neighbor when she was 16.
After graduating from high school, Kathy went to Danville, KY to study Economics at Centre College. No matter where she was, Kathy always found a place to bake so she could relieve herself from the stress of late night studying.
After graduating from Centre, Kathy couldn’t let go of the kitchen. She decided to enroll in the Opryland Culinary Institute, which helped her to plant her roots in Nashville. After 3 years of culinary school, she “cheffed” around town in catering businesses, hotels, and restaurants, but always made time for making cakes. In 2001, Sweet Wise was born. It was intended to be simply a wedding cake bakery, but in 2006, after Kathy had finished over 250 wedding cakes, the opportunity came for Kathy to expand into providing supplies for other bakers. Taking again from her mother’s background, Kathy decided to move forward with her passion for teaching. After 34 years of making cakes, Kathy found the perfect forum in which to combine the worlds of baking, teaching, and supplying fun tools and ended up finding herself a playground that many little girls only dream of.
John Gentry
John manages the finance and accounting functions of Sweet Wise, Inc. After becoming part the Sweet Wise team, John developed an admiration for the confectionary arts and became a practiced pulled and blown sugar artist. In addition to fulfilling his finance and accounting responsibilities, John now also teaches Sweet Wise's Pulled and Blown Sugar Class.
After serving more than seven years in the United States Marine Corps, John graduated from the University of Maryland in 1997 Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree in accounting and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1998.
In his free time, John enjoys gourmet cooking and specializes in making bread from fresh ground wheat.
Lydia Spencer
Born and raised in a large family in Newport, RI, Lydia found that between her siblings and herself, there were so many family members, that there was also a need for lots of cakes. As a single mom, store bought cakes were out of the question, but she still wanted her family to have nice cakes. She started out by borrowing some books from the library, bought a few cake necessities and taught herself to decorate cakes. In early 2000 she heard about the Wilton classes and found she could earn some extra money while sharing her passion for cake decorating. After making her first cake at the age of 12, Lydia began a rewarding career of making cakes and teaching classes that has offered her much fulfillment.
In 2006 Lydia and Kathy crossed paths when Sweet Wise was getting ready to open. Lydia was excited about the ideas Kathy had for the way that Sweet Wise would fill a need in the community. Working for Sweet Wise seemed to be a perfect fit for Lydia, and a lucky break for Sweet Wise that it was able to add such a versatile and knowledgeable instructor to its staff.
Lydia most enjoys teaching cake decorating and watching her students’ cake decorating skills grow. She enjoys the opportunity to share her knowledge, and working at Sweet Wise has given her that opportunity. She looks forward to working and teaching at Sweet Wise for many years to come.