Recently in Notes from the Bakery Category

Brooks Headley is Del Posto's pastry chef in that video up there (yes, the restaurant is one of Mario Batali's greatest hits). My Boyfriend-I-Mean-Husband, Chris, became friends with Brooks because Chris is an editor guy at some rowdy magazine for 20-somethings that Brooks (formerly the drummer for Born Against) was featured in. Wow, that was a long sentence. I,however, am a baker and forged a friendship with Brooks because of his pastry background and more importantly because he said this revolutionary thing about vegetarian cooking and vegan pastry in Vice Magazine [please note there is some colorful language ahead--it's but one part of what makes Brooks so excellent, in my humble opinion!]:

"There are a lot of chefs that are anti-vegetarian. I am 1,000% pro-vegetarian. Chefs that are anti-veg are f*****g idiots. They're crybabies with a f*****g warped sense of creativity. Your walk-in is filled with beautiful fruits and vegetables. J****s C****t, make it work, dude. I'm totally stoked to send out my vegan desserts. It's not a chore."

See, that's what I'm talking about!!! This is the attitude that a lot of chefs could stand to adopt. Cooking vegetarian shouldn't be seen as a thorn in their side but an opportunity to celebrate what's left in the kitchen once you take the meat out. Brooke takes it one step further with vegan guests and creates massive works of art with his pastry that make me slightly embarrassed for how simple mine are. Only slightly, though.

Brooks emailed me yesterday to tell me he's giving his externs a challenge. He's stocked his kitchen with coconut oil, xanthan gum, gluten-free flour and the BabyCakes cookbook and told them to, "make it happen". I don't know about you but I want a boss like that.

Doesn't the book look adorable on the pass in their kitchen?

If you've noticed the blog has been a little bare lately it's because I was busy getting married last Saturday (that's me and my dad upper left)! I had no idea how incredibly emotional the whole thing would be, but I think it had a lot to do with my sister Bridget's dreamy planning--we got married under the ribbon draped tree (she designed the whole thing AND hosted it in her backyard). And of course the groom. Devra and Harris from our downtown LA store made the cake and it was scarfed up in seconds and drop dead gorgeous--I promise to post a photo of it when I get my hands on it.

I will share more details later, I swear!

Do you know David Lebovitz? If not, please do not read any further until you sign up to follow him on twitter and read a few entries from his blog.

Back? Cool. So David worked in the pastry dept at Chez Panisse for about 13 years in San Francisco (I worked there too, soon after he left) and he also was named one of the Top 5 Pastry Chefs in San Francisco which is a bigger deal than he'll ever admit. He wrote a ton of cult hit pastry cookbooks and then my absolute favorite, The Sweet Life in Paris, a memoir about his first years living in Paris which had me rolling on the floor laughing and then made me want to do-over my first trip there. David has a way of writing about food and pastry that is earnest yet fun, and real. A more human approach maybe? This is refreshing to me since so many foodies have emerged in the past 10 years that fancy themselves just a little too awesome and take it a crack to the obnoxious side of the fence, are you with me?

David stopped by the bakery a few weeks ago because he has been following our videos and wanted to see what was up with us. He was as hilarious in person as he is in his writing! Speaking of, he went back to Paris and then wrote this really adorable thing about his visit. To date, this is my all-time favorite write up that has ever been published about us. Thank you David! Will you marry me? Oh wait, my wedding's on Saturday. Too late.

Last week I spoke with a reporter for the Daily Beast about the growing popularity of gluten-free diets due to the number of celebrities who are booting gluten out of their lives. It seems like the whole world is now questioning whether following this diet is going to deflate their muffin tops and get their beach bodies back. Naturally, the quote that was pulled for the article had to do with me dropping 7 pounds when I gave up gluten which implied that following a gluten-free diet was a magic bullet to lose weight. But there were a few important details left out that had a lot to do with it.

When I removed gluten from my diet, I also stopped eating the common irritants: dairy, soy, eggs, caffeine, sugar, artificial sweeteners and preservatives--much like Dr. Junger's Clean Detox Program. I ate simple and natural--the way I always imagined hippies ate. Food was now carefully chosen but abundant. Fruit, avocado, walnuts, organic greens, brown rice and flax and olive oil. I drank yerba mate instead of coffee. There was no dessert (which is why I created BabyCakes--hello!). It was a hellish transition. I missed my boca burgers and had major chemical-withdrawal headaches from not eating my daily sugar-free frozen yogurt. No one prepared me for this! Luckily the symptoms departed after a week and I began to feel better than I ever had in my life. Eating didn't mean reserving time to curl up on the couch and recover, it actually gave me more energy. Yes, there was some weight loss but it had nothing to do with calorie counting and everything to do with feeding my body food it knew what to do with. This completely changed my attitude about eating and gave me a distinct respect for every organ in my body. I felt newly responsible for helping my body get the nourishment it needed.

Over the years, I'll admit it has been tough to maintain this lifestyle. I've lazed out and caved to a preservative-packed protein bar here and something fried there when I'm too busy to care and it had taken a toll. Thankfully, I recently picked up Dr. Junger's book, Clean which gives a fascinating insight on what goes on with your liver and gut and how important it is to care for your body. I decided to follow his Clean Detox Program to reset and start fresh and I can say I now feel back to my old self (the first week was pretty brutal though!).

So the point, right? Not sure. I was moved to write this simply because I don't think people should go gluten-free as a tool to lose weight. The key to better weight balance is to chose your food carefully and consider the opportunity each meal presents to be good to your body. Try to tap into your inner-hippy. Eat whole foods and remove pre-packaged and processed junk out of your diet and see how you feel in a week. I swear, you'll be testifyin' too!

Here's a photo of me and some of my bros and sisters (there's 12 of us) back in the 80's. The first person to guess which one is me gets a $25 gift certificate!

Sometimes I just need a little detour from the stress of my day with with some good old-fashioned food news/gossip. At times like these, I always turn to Grubstreet to get my mind off the pile of to-dos on my desk (for the record, my "desk" is a box of apples balanced on a small filing cabinet).

So today was one of those days. I skimmed over the latest in the NY food world and my eyes locked onto this article! For those of you too lazy, I mean, busy to click on that link, it's a dating site that this salad place uptown called Just Salads launched. Apparently there was already a big dating scene going on in this lunch spot (really?!?!) and the owners decided to organize an official dating program through their eatery. I don't know about you but I totally love this and think it's brilliant.

Share this with your New York singles! It's so absurdly cool.

Everyone is saying that Usher's song, "OMG" is this summer's anthem, but I think my niece's OMG song (above) is way better. I swear, that girl can make a billion balloons look gorgeous.

If you're celiac then you've certainly heard of Kim and Kelly from Celiac Chicks, the coolest and most informative celiac site I know. Well, today is a very big day because they have launched their first episode of Gluten Free TV. I'm particularly excited about this because I'm often in a rut when it comes to dining out and I stick to the same few restaurants I know I can eat at safely. Thank you Kim and Kelly! Please, oh please keep making these!

In honor of America, fireworks and deserted NY streets I'm closing up shop on the 4th and 5th of July so everyone can BBQ and relax. If you're traveling to NY or LA for the weekend stop by Friday or Saturday--we're open our usual late night hours! Hope to see you soon...

Pop the frosting shots y'all cause I'm engaged! It totally took me by surprise but I'm so happy even though my nails were all chipped and raggedy looking that night (I seriously wouldn't wear the ring until the next day until I got a manicure--they were that bad).

So now I have to plan it right? Somebody help me because all that comes to mind is visions of Baby's Breath and puffy prom style wedding gowns. Maybe it has something to do with countless years of General Hospital I watched with my babysitter as a very young youngster. It may have corrupted my little brain or something but I LOVED IT!!! Especially the highly inappropriate storyline of Luke and Laura (if you don't know it, you better ask somebody). Anyways. I'm planning away but if anyone wants to offer any advise please don't be shy!

Thank you for being so patient while we took day at the park! Here's some pictures of the fun. Yes! They are wearing their uniforms still! Face painting, wheel barrel races and bubbles. I'm exhausted!

Hey Guys!

I need to give you a quick heads up that I'm taking the chicks to Central Park for a picnic this Monday, May 24th, which means the NY bakery will be CLOSED Monday. The girls have been working their buns off and I really want to treat them to some rollerskating, face painting, cartwheeling, and kite flying. Don't be mad! We're back to normal hours on Tuesday. Love you! Mean it!

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