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“Even on my days off, I just want to cook,” he says Caroline ship, at the confectioner Gage & Tollner, A historic oyster and steak house in Brooklyn. “I was talking to my mother, and she said, ‘Thank you, you’re so tired from work, we’re going to ask for prepared food.’ And I said, YOU DON’T DECIDE TO REMOVE THIS. Today, Caroline comes out with her first cookbook, The Sweet Side of the Mother, inspired by his (and everyone’s?) pandemic hobby. We talked excitedly about Baked Alaska, the hair that grabs gravity, and a surprisingly hard part of the job …
Where was your first restaurant job?
At Good fork Brooklyn 2008. I was a chef, but I was insanely sweet and I wanted to be an elegant pastry shmancy. Chef / owner Sohui Kim said if you want to do baking, you need to go into a kitchen with a baking program and a baker and go upstairs. He pushed me to do that, and then this mistake bit me. Now I have been a professional baker, my god, for at least 13 years.
How hard is it for your job that people don’t expect?
It’s * terribly * physical. My job is my training; I’m on my feet all day, lifting things up. My team members are always involved in your core! At night, I feel it in my body.
In his review Gage & Tollner, Pete Wells of the New York Times wrote, “There are Parker House rolls, full of butter and so stuffy, that you’d like to stretch out and go to sleep if they don’t serve you hot.”
Yes! We make Parker House rolls every day. Bread service is probably the most intensive work we do. I always hope people know that when a dish is worth a certain amount we don’t try to take anyone for a walk. Love and work are involved, from start to finish.
Tell us about your Baked Alaska! It seems incredible.
From day one of Gage & Tollner, I said there must be a Baked Alaska. It’s a hearty Victorian-era dessert that takes three days to make. We mix three flavors of homemade ice cream — cherries, fresh mint, and dark chocolate — and they should be set in molds overnight. We unmold them and cut them into slices, then we cover everything with French meringue freshly whipped on request. Then we put the explosive. I wanted the creation to be weird and too big; and when your table arrives, you would think: Wow, this is wild.
In restaurants, I always wonder if confectioners will be stressed if people stay too full for dessert.
At Gage & Tollner, that’s actually not the case. You have projections about the percentage of people who will order dessert, but those projections came out of the water.
Why do you think that?
People here are watching the meal as a play, and you won’t be out until the third act. It’s so nice to be able to make desserts here. When I was six, I would lose my head when I walked past a bakery or ice cream shop; I’d like to go back and say to myself, Hey, you’re going to make a living.
Speaking of creation, tell us about your amazing hair.
My hair has always been great. My mother has it too. With one of them I figured out how to stack it on my head giant claws, and I wrap it in kitchen towels. I love that it’s something that people know about me.
Do you always carry it stacked?
For my brother’s wedding, a stylist gave me a blow, and I was like a dog when you take them to the salon, and HAPPY. I immediately went home on the subway and took a shower.
What beauty products are always in your bathroom?
I put it on tinted sunscreen every day. If I dress up, it’s my behavior black eyeliner and black mascara. I’m still buying the same one I bought in high school, a classic Maybelline drugstore.
How to take care of your skin?
Working in a kitchen, I end the day with a film of flour on my face. So once a week, I exfoliate Fresh Sugar Polish to get the flour out of the pores!
What else makes you feel good?
I have never removed my mitzvah necklace, which is the Star of David. It has been in my body all my life.
Congratulations on your new book, The Sweet Side of the Mother, which comes out today.
My pandemic baby! The cookbook shows all the sweet things you can do with a bittersweet start.
What prompted you to write about gangsterism?
Gage & Tollner was scheduled to open on March 15, 2020. When we suddenly had to hit the breaks, I thought I couldn’t let the restaurant start dying, so I’ll take it home for a couple of weeks. So I’m making bread at home, but I’m losing my head because you can only eat a lot of bread. I was thinking, what more can I do with the trail?
Ooh, what else did you invent?
I started adding cake to the dough and cakes. Then came the babka, sticky pastries, donuts, double-slice chocolate cookies, fig brownies. Each recipe is something I worked on in a very dark time, and it was a way to feed people. I can send messages to friends and say: Go ahead and I’ll throw you a focaccia or I put some cookies in your mailbox. I would leave the cookies downstairs and send messages to my neighbors that they were in the lobby radiator.
This is random, but I have a curiosity: What do you think The Great British Baking Show? My doctor sister he hates most medical sessions.
Cooking sessions give me a strange amount of anxiety. I’m like You don’t have to bake long enough! I prefer to watch The Office because it can’t be any different from my world.
In your career, have you ever felt hopeless but nevertheless moved on?
Absolutely. When you’re working towards a goal, it can be an emotional roller coaster ride. For a few months, I was working as a freelancer and I didn’t make any money and I felt and felt like a complete failure. What am I doing? What am I wrong with? I would be terrified I will never get a job. Those moments when you start spiraling.
In restaurants like Gage & Tollner, what can diners do to show gratitude to the baker?
Positive feedback means the world. When someone tells me they love my coconut cake, I’m dead. Dead. If a meal says he wants to meet me, I always go to say hello. I love walking into the dining room and getting everyone involved in the conversation and living out their moments. Actually, I’m more than a moon.
Thank you, Carolina!
PS More uniform beauty, including comedy writer and a genius in the cookbook.
(Photo above for user Andrew-Bezek. Taking pictures of the blue sweatshirt in the oven Gabby Jones. Portrait in front of the table and next to it with a yellow bowl Yumi-Matsuo. Portraits in a black T-shirt Lanna-Apisukh. Photo with drink in the kitchen Nancy Borowick.)
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