Good afternoon, friends and neighbors.
I am a cook. More specifically, I am a baker- or pastry cook, as one of my previous job titles went.
I am also, by virtue of being born in the late 80s, a member of that currently-most-accursed of demographics… a millennial.
And things are getting real out here, folks.
“… Millennial!”
Good evening, friends and neighbors!
Since I’ve lost weight and turned on to a more healthy lifestyle, my tastes have definitively changed.
I no longer crave (and no longer look forward to baking) saccharine-sweet things like I used to, piled deep with the butter and sugar that is cornerstone to pastry as a whole.
Instead, my tastes look toward more European recipes. When I was in culinary school, the running joke was “Take a European pastry, triple the sugar and fat, and you’ve got an American recipe.”
The joke is more true than you might think. European pastries and sweets tend to be considerably less sweet than American counterparts, and focusing on natural sugars like fruit- or more complex sweetness like that of dark chocolate- for their appeal.
That said, my sweet tooth may be diminished, but it’s still strong- though not always for pastry.
For reasons I can’t always eloquently explain, where elegant pastries in a case won’t always seize me…
a bag of rainbow-colored gummi frogs will not fail.
Morning, friends and neighbors.
Sorry if I’ve been quiet as of late. Sadly, there are prices to pay for being a bundle of energy that pilots a robot made of meat and untanned leather…
Getting sick kinda sucks.
Good evening, friends and neighbors! I apologize for the silence on here as of late, and for the lightness of this evening’s post.
Over the last two weeks or so, I’ve been reorganizing and tidying up this blog, and it’s kinda gotten in the way of researching and writing. Between that and working on the upcoming book, most of my creative energies have been pulled away.
The good news, however, is that not only will this blog be a bit easier and more enjoyable to read, it will also be better to write. Here’s why:
Good evening, friends and neighbors.
To quote my wife, “Cooking with a cold must be like being a musician that can’t hear.”
This may or may not be because we went out to dinner once when I was dealing with some nasal congestion and couldn’t taste anything. My favorite beers, deep-fried brussels sprouts, and smoked ribs were utterly tasteless. It was frustration bordering on heartbreak.
The senses of smell and taste are obviously deeply connected- informing and influencing each other in one of our most primal survival mechanisms- when something smells off, it probably IS off.
When you’re a cook, though, not being able to taste things is not an option. You might know the recipes by heart, you may measure and cook everything perfectly- but if you aren’t tasting (or able to taste) as you go, it’s like driving down the highway with only one eye. Yes, you can do it- but you wouldn’t unless had to, and there are a LOT of things that can mess with your ability to detect flavors.
Here’s some of them:
The Black Hat Baker 