Kathleen Tozzi.

FOOD, RETAIL & SPECIALTY CPG

I built an operational app so good it eliminated my position.

Turns out "make yourself unnecessary" is great advice right up until it works. So here I am, genuinely excited for what's next: 24+ years across retail floors, food craft, and ops systems, and the free time to help food businesses build it. Mostly I want to meet as many good people as I can.

Open to fractional ops, contract projects, or full-time roles with food businesses.

Let's connect See what I've built

Kathleen standing in a cherry-patterned white blouse and jeans, holding a floral mug with both hands

The throughline

“Different settings, same instinct: make things work better for the people doing the work.”

Mise en place matters in any operation.

Food, people & systems

What I've built

From grocery aisles to oyster farms to a very good ops app.

Systems & AI

Bright Beauty Connect

Building Ops Systems & AI Tools

As VP of Operations & Growth, I led the evolution of our agency's operating systems. We started with cumbersome Google Sheets and delayed static manual reporting. I first moved the company to Airtable for scheduling and results tracking, paired with a Jotform app prototype for real-time insights. Then, I learned to vibe-code on Lovable and we built the company's custom app, bringing scheduling, hiring, training, field communication, and reporting together across hundreds of retail doors. It gave clients a new level of service and gave our field team a far better experience. Along the way, the process caught the attention of The Wall Street Journal. Then the system ran so smoothly my full-time operational role was no longer needed. I'm honestly proud of that.

“Build the system so well it runs without you. Then go build what's next.”

As featured inThe Wall Street Journal

Retail leadership

Whole Foods Market

Running Whole Foods Stores

12 years running high-volume stores: P&L, people, merchandising, and one vegetable-oil-powered truck.

“Every product's real launch happens on a Wednesday at 6am in the backstock room.”

Kathleen standing with arms out in front of a Whole Foods Market refrigerated truck in a store parking lot — THE VEGETABLE-OIL-POWERED REFRIGERATED TRUCK

National accounts

True Chesapeake Oyster Co.

The Oyster Farm & Innovative Distribution

Took a sustainable oyster farm into MOM's and into Whole Foods across multiple regions.

Watch the USDA feature

“Good values and good margins aren't opposites.”

Kathleen sitting on stacked wire-mesh oyster cages with lines of buoys and a tree-lined shore behind her — On the oyster cages · Photo by USDA photographer

Food craft

A sheet pan lined with parchment holding twelve tarts: six dark chocolate ganache tarts topped with ruffled piped cream and chocolate specks, and six glossy blood-orange curd tarts topped with cream dollops and citrus wedges — CHOCOLATE AND BLOOD ORANGE TARTS · FROM MY PASTRY CHEF TIME

Family restaurant · Johnson & Wales · Whole Foods Market · True Chesapeake

The Kitchen & Pastry Craft

Raised in my family's restaurant, trained at Johnson & Wales. A recipe is just a system with butter in it.

“Mise en place works for spreadsheets too.”

Hospitality & hosting

Kathleen sitting barefoot on a stool by a brick hearth, with a cart of cookbooks beside her — The good part · a room that's ready for you

Airbnb · Various properties

Making People Feel at Home

Eight years as a SuperHost, making strangers feel at home.

“A welcoming space is something you build, not just something you decorate.”

8 years · SuperHost2 years · SuperHost Ambassador

Guest experience

Whitehall Mill Market

Opening a Food Hall

Opened a 9-vendor food hall in a historic mill, with an event space, in the middle of COVID.

“Hospitality is an operations discipline.”

Inside the market: a long hall lined with vendor counters, including Ceremony Coffee Roasters and Firefly Farms, with structural columns, pendant lights, and shoppers walking through — Inside the market · vendor counters in the historic mill

Founder story

Washington, DC · 2017–2018

The Fancy Schmancy Co.

My own organic bakery brand. I developed the product and formulas, and got it onto the shelf at Whole Foods and into distribution in NYC. It closed, and I kept the lessons.

Kathleen laughing at a desk beside a laptop showing packaging artwork, with a hexagon box mockup — Packaging development · from mockup to production

Kathleen beside towering pyramids of custom hexagonal Fancy Schmancy retail boxes and shipping cases — Commercial production · Washington, DC

“A great product is the start, not the whole plan.”

CPG packaging & product development · from dieline to shelf

Fractional ops

2016–present

Spark Spoon

My food consultancy since 2016: product development and go-to-market for food and beverage makers.

“Good makers deserve good systems.”

Two glass jars of GrowFood Carolina compote, Blueberry Rosemary and Blueberry Ginger, on a burgundy woven cloth with rosemary sprigs and a piece of ginger root — BLUEBERRY COMPOTE · GROWFOOD CAROLINA, CHARLESTON

Three areas of focus

The work I love doing

Untangling operations & building lean tools

When a growing food business is drowning in messy spreadsheets or scattered field teams, and needs custom operating systems, lightweight apps, or streamlined workflows that run smoothly without hiring a tech team.

The operational muscle behind go-to-market

When a brand has sales traction or a retail launch on the horizon but needs the actual plumbing built: packaging dielines, wholesale margins, fulfillment logistics, and backstock sanity, so physical execution matches launch buzz.

Taking good food ideas from concept to launch

Product, packaging, production, and the practical details of getting a new idea into the world: formulation, shelf life, unit economics, co-packer and production readiness, and launch execution.

Still making things

What I'm Working On Right Now

A pyramid of Sprinx Fancy Baking Mix canisters with custom sprinkle-patterned lids in pistachio spice, coconut cardamom and chocolate buttermilk

Baking & creating

Artisan baking mixes, with packaging I led the creative direction on. The sprinkle-patterned canisters and lids carry the same CPG packaging instinct all the way from Fancy Schmancy to today. The food-craft side of me, very much alive and covered in flour.

Visit Sprinx

People & celebrations

GatherJoy

A party planning & community gathering platform. Because bringing people together should feel like the good part.

Visit GatherJoy

From the personal archives

A few snapshots

Kathleen as a first-year culinary student in a white double-breasted chef's jacket and tall toque, standing behind a stainless-steel serving station — From the archives · 01
Freshman year at Johnson & Wales University.
Chef whites and a tall toque.

Kathleen in a Whole Foods apron beside an Elvis impersonator in the specialty cheese aisle — From the archives · 02
Event marketing in aisle 4 · Whole Foods Market.
Known for bringing energy and spectacle to the floor, balancing out the serious back-of-house ops.

Kathleen laughing while shaping dough at a stainless-steel bakery table while a friend rolls out pita beside her — From the archives · 03
Pita day at Mastiha Bakery · Washington, DC.
Rolling out pita with friends, and rallying the community to produce 2,000 pitas for furloughed federal workers with José Andrés' World Central Kitchen.
Alongside the baking, helping grow Mastiha's wholesale business.

Kathleen standing with a fellow instructor beside a classroom of children wearing paper Cooking Matters chef hats, several striking playful poses — From the archives · 04
Cooking Matters chef instructor · co-teaching six-week cooking classes for families.
Junior chef hats and a room full of enthusiasm.

Say hi. Really.

Coffee and CPG retail trends? Volunteering at the Maryland Food Bank? Baking a pie together? I'm in for all of it.

And if your food business needs fractional ops or fewer spreadsheets running the show, let's talk about that too. I read every note.

Or find me on LinkedIn →