I'm a baker now
What sweet things lay ahead
It has now been one full week since I started working at a bakery. A week of waking up at 3:00 AM and truthfully, I’ve never been more excited and energized to be where I am.
I’m in a state of both kicking myself for not doing this sooner but also giving myself credit for actually following through with it. In the peripherals of every thought I have is a deep sense of happiness knowing I am contributing to making bread and pastries to feed hundreds of people.
The bakery is called Evergreen, in Atlanta. I toyed with the possibility of applying there for the latter half of 2023 but honestly my decision fatigue got the better of me and it wasn’t until January of this year I gained the confidence to apply.
I worked part time at another bakery in 2022 to get my feet wet but my life was transitioning in spicy ways I didn’t have the mental capacity to work two jobs. So I had to choose. The wine career I’ve had for 6 years or this oft-remarked hobby slowly taking over the part of my brain reserved for obsessions. The rather middling advice I got in 2022 was to stay with wine and enjoy baking as a fun hobby.
So long time coming is an understatement.
I never knew what aspects of the wine industry I thrived in and made my career off of hesitating until it was too late and just stumbled into the next thing. My wine path was paved with red flags. This isn’t to say I didn’t come across some amazing people in my time in the wine industry. I certainly did and am thankful for their support and mentorship.
There’s this obsession in the wine industry about pinpointing a person’s epiphany wine. The wine that made them dedicate their life to the industry. It’s often regarded as a status marker to see if you are cool enough to get invited to insufferable tasting groups. But no one ever asks my what my epiphany pastry was…
Croissant de Frambuesa
Barcelona 2017
I was new to new countries and skating on the context from what I learned watching Anthony Bourdain among others. I didn’t know how adventurous I was nor did I think I needed to be. I was simply trying to make the best of something so new. I was teaching English but I wanted to reconcile my evolving love for food with the local cuisine I could never dream of finding in the US. The bakery game in Barcelona, admittedly, was lacking. Spain is not well known for their pastries. They have the harsh reality of being neighbors to France.
However, one such place was an immediate entry to win my heart and mind as it pertains to pastries: Pastelería Hofmann.
The touristy areas of the Born neighborhood gave me pause that such a place could exist without flavor dilution. Happy to have been so wrong. The first moment walking in to Hofmann, you are greeted with an overflowing and precarious case of croissants and cinnamon rolls I imagine only comes in dream form for most people.
Their speed is outpaced only by lightning so you’re hardly ever waiting in line. The butter croissant is incredible. Their mascarpone croissant is perfect for social media. But their raspberry croissant re-introduced me to religion.
I then scrambled to find a bench to enjoy it and my only dining companions were fat and happy pigeons waiting for yet another meal. Biting into the glass-like sugar coating to be met with a cascading, Shining-level amount of raspberry filling while still having butter dominate the mouth is a sensation I chase…often.
I then proceeded to eat this croissant (among others) weekly over my year there. All the while not realizing there could lay the possibility of ever making croissants myself.
I thought, even in my early 20’s, that it was too late. Like you had to have started in high school if you wanted a chance at the big leagues. There was also this incessant pressure from peers that I was already behind the game and needed to catch up. You know, pick a career with legs and stop goofing off. Find your path, yes, but also start making money so you can start planning for whatever vacuous stage of life might require a nest egg.
Nothing in the world was leading me to think that a career in pastry was viable. Had I known better, I still would’ve picked the safe option. Because it’s terribly hard to know which moment to “follow your dreams’ or “pursue your passion.” As much as people are tolerable of dreams, they always seem to want to bring you down to their reality.
My life recently has been filled with those who encourage. My feelings toward passion are heightened by those who are also passionate about their fields of interest. I now want to be even more surrounded by creative people and seek laughter and creativity everywhere I can.
Done with wine?
Highly doubt it. Just trading one yeast for another.
The problems I have with wine will remain. Neither I nor my past peers will fix them right now. The industry is slow moving in every literal and metaphysical way. The way the legal system is set up around wine in this country is a large part of it. But wine, to me, is food. And it will always have a place at the table.
Difficult to know how many problems have been caused or solved by wine. The idea that we have something at our disposal to lift everyday conversation from mundane to rowdy is wonderful. I’m not blind to its negative effects, but I know it as a loving contribution to the table where more friends than enemies are made. Those who make the wine are some of my favorite pieces of this world and it wouldn’t be complete without them. I relish the opportunity to drink wine and have great sense of hope for what lay ahead for the wine industry. I just know I can’t meaningfully contribute to it right now.
What’s Next
There’s nothing I want more right now than to learn and improve. I’ve encountered so much that inspires me over the years but it hasn’t been until now that I can see the motivation to craft something of my own. One thing I do know is that time is a societal burden mostly untrue and there is not “perfect moment” to do anything. If you have the determination, there is more than enough time in this world, regardless of your age. So go do that thing.
As of right now I’m an amateur baking with strong notions. I hope you come along with my lightly floured journey.
You’re the best.