Nancy Brewer, owner and baker of the Kitchen Shop in Grand Coteau, La., had a quiet epiphany in culinary school. While practicing pâte sucrée, she realized it was nearly the same dough her grandmother in Louisiana used for her sweet pies, a crumb and texture that isn’t quite a short crust and also isn’t quite a pie dough but its own thing all at once.
Nostalgia, in my experience, is the inspiration behind so many good decisions in kitchens and bake shops. The other important choices, in my opinion, are almost entirely based on your ingredients.
Recipe: Gâteau NanaYears ago, I worked in a restaurant that had a hard rule: If it didn’t come from within 50 miles of our kitchen, we didn’t serve it. This, of course, created some obstacles — the South isn’t known for its wine, olive oil or vanilla beans. But the ideology was meant to support local vendors and was dedicated — as much as it could possibly be — to creating demand, and in turn, supply. (Eventually, if I remember correctly, we softened “50 miles” to simply “the South,” which allowed for much more diversity and exchange.)
Cornmeal, sorghum (both syrup and grain), pawpaws, pecans, buttermilk, sassafras, sweet potatoes: These became the engines that pushed all of that classic French technique to a purpose on my menus.
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