Wednesday, January 24, 2007

There is a new cookbook I want. Lord knows I do not need a new cookbook because I have a ton already, but I want this one. It’s by Dorie Greenspan and is called “Baking: From My Home to Yours”. Dorie was on a Bon Appétit podcast, (I listen to their podcasts) and this woman sounds like she really knows baking. I’d bet cash money anything she bakes tastes good…..some people you can just tell. So the thing that got me was her story about her first job as a baker. She worked for some restaurant and they had this cake they served and she’d have to go in and bake it (in triplicate) every single day. Well she got pretty bored making the same cake day after day and so she changed it up a little one day. The cake had whiskey-soaked raisins in the cake, but she put **Armagnac-soaked prunes in. And rather than using the ground almonds in the cake, she used ground pecans. Not a huge variation, but it was a noticeable change. The cakes went up to the restaurant and were serverd….and no one but Dorie knew about the changes. The cakes were served and at the end of the day, she was called into the managers office. The manager commented “Those were interesting cakes you made today”. Dorie was pleased thinking this was a good thing. Well, she was fired for “creative insubordination”. I’m sure that seemed like a bad thing at the time, but I think that sounds like a good thing! Maybe not good to be creatively insubordinate if you are a….oh….pilot or maybe a….heart surgeon, but a baker….maybe that’d be ok. So long as that does not mean using dirt as an ingredient...or....well nevermind. This isn't going where I had intended!

*chuckles*

But anyway....I want the cookbook :)

** A brandy produced in the Gers department of France

1 comment:

littlemikemack said...

Try hard, real hard...imagine someone saying to you....."we can't keep you on any longer....your creative insubordination can't be tolerated"

 Hello, I'm still here!