Meet Maximiliano Goldstein | Chemical Engineer & Chimney Cake Baker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maximiliano Goldstein and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maximiliano, putting aside the decision to work for yourself, what other decisions were critical to your success?
The single most important decision I made that contributed to my success was going to a very difficult school and choosing a very difficult major. I studied chemical engineering at Georgia Tech, and it kicked my butt. Obviously, I’m not working as a chemical engineer for my restaurant, but the experience I went through in college prepared me for everything. It taught me to be able to get over myself, to put work and effort into everything I do, and to really study all the angles of a decision before making it. I could handle setbacks and having risks backfire on me, because I had experienced it first in college. While starting Chimney Cake & Co., it was very difficult to get the recipe right. Time and time again the recipe was modified, the temperature changed, even taking into account the humidity inside the store, until finally the recipe was just right after months of trials. Without going through my college experience and setbacks that came with it, I may not have had the stamina and perseverance for the many iterations that the product went through.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
The most important factor behind the success of Chimney Cake & Co. is the versatility of the product. The chimney cake by itself is a fantastic dessert- soft on the inside, crispy outside, and sweet the whole way through- everybody can enjoy it. But the reason it’s able to set us apart is everything that it can be a part of. Change the shape into a cone, put ice cream in it, you have the best ice cream cone. Coat the cake with crushed cookies or pistachios, totally change the flavor and texture profiles. Cut it into pieces for bite-sized snacks or make thinner cakes with fillings to make a fluffy cannoli. The possibilities are endless, and the ability to continuously roll out (pun intended) new products and variations is what keeps people interested and coming back. This was not easy to do, and it required hundreds of iterations of product refinement to get to where I was happy enough with it to sell it to the public. Every time someone walks out of Chimney Cake & Co. with a smile on their face, it shows I did the right thing by not rushing the product out. If there’s one thing I want the world to know about Chimney Cake & Co. it’s that the freshly baked treat they made is the result of hundreds of years of Eastern European culture and many months of work to refine it and make it work for South Florida.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Other than taking them to Chimney Cake & Co., I personally love historic architecture and walkable places. Miami is a fairly young city, but it still has some history to it. There are beautiful historic art deco buildings in downtown and Miami Beach, there’s Vizcaya, and a number of other places. Las Olas boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood boulevard in downtown Hollywood are some of my favorite places to go out for a night to eat and walk around. I’m not so good at making a strict itinerary, especially not for a vacation, but south Florida has so many options for places to explore and food to eat, that you always have something new to see and taste.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Everyone is a product of the environment and people around them. My Shoutout has to be for my parents and siblings, who were always incredibly supportive of me and pushed me to be the best version of myself. Additionally, I would have never started down this path without my high school chemistry teacher, Mrs. Andre, who helped me find my love of chemistry (and fun experiments) that led me to becoming a chemical engineer and eventually a baker.

Website: www.chimneycakeandco.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chimneycakeandco/

Image Credits
The images provided were taken by myself and my family and by Ardor Consulting’s photographers