Who Influenced You to Become a Pastry Chef?

Who influenced you to become a pastry chef?

If there has been any one person in my life whom has had any influence over me becoming a pastry chef, that person would be my great-grandmother, Julia Graves, a.k.a. "Nana". Nana was my maternal great-grandmother, and this line of descent includes French, Spanish and a little Cuban. She and my great-grandfather brought our family to the states. I was never aware of any other job that she had, other that being a homemaker, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and of course... being an amazing cook for an ever-growing family.

When Julia's husband passed away, she moved in with my grandparents; and ultimately became their live-in chef. A little further down the road, I came along and when my mom went back to work, I got to spend my days with Nana. I became her kitchen assistant. Ms. Julia was a stellar cook, but her heart belonged to baking. I can remember her planning out everything she would bake the next day, and we would go and gather ingredients, setting things out to get to room temperature. She would even set her eggs out the night before, which we know now is probably not be best idea, but it was just what they did back then. Now, from what I can recall, I believe I was probably best at peeking over the counter and sticking my finger in the room temperature butter, or taking care of licking the beaters; but I was a part of the process.

It was so much fun for me to just watch her, and it's pretty amazing how much I actually remember from such a young age. Thankfully, my mother got to spend much more time with her, doing the exact same thing. She inherited the same love of baking and cooking and helped to pass all Nana's skill and knowledge down to me. My mother and I both have a nice collection of her recipes, most of which are baking. There are just certain things that will always come to mind whenever I think of her... "everyday" cookies (which aren't so "everyday" easily to prepare for the novice), lady fingers, pecan balls, thin mints, coke floats, chocolate coated orange gelatin sticks, and of course rum cake. The rum cake had to be my favorite, and the older Nana got, I think the more everyone loved it; I believe the last rum cake she made had close to a bottle of rum in there. She created tradition and closeness within our family by her love of the kitchen, and I choose to do the same, only expand on the foundation which I have inherited.