FAQ Friday!

Heehee, this is fun.

Q:  "Rachel, how do you work in a bakery and stay so small?  If I was around cakes all day, I'd weigh 1,000 pounds!"

A:  First of all, I don't think you can weigh 1,000 pounds and still be alive.  Second, contrary to popular belief, working in a bakery does not entail standing around eating cookies and cake all the live long day.  I would probably be fired.  Yes, I do taste items that I'm working on, and I always encourage interns to do the same.  How do you know if it's right/tasty/not rotten if you don't?  But a taste is a taste, not an entire serving.

Also, when you are around the same foods day after day, you tend to get a little tired of it (gasp!).  I like to use the example of working at Taco Bell:  I love Taco Bell, but I would imagine the people that work there, making Mexican Pizzas all day, every day, they would get sick of cheesy, beefy goodness too.

I did gain weight when I was in pastry school.  Talk about baked-goods overload.  We would make loads of pastries and whatnot, but unlike a bakery, it doesn't get sold and go out the door.  So it's there, and available, and free.  And your eating habits are so wacked out because you can't cook in your little dorm room and the cafeteria is getting old.  And you're excited and invincible because you're at college without Mom and Dad.  And you're still kinda hungover from drinking pineapple Captain Morgan until 2 am last night.  So...you eat it.  You eat it all...

My pastry labs lasted two years.  After that, I was working at a fast paced bakery and in Food Service Management classes full time.  I started running to de-stress, and got back to a comfortable size.  I truly believe in the European way of eating:  Smaller quantities of higher quality foods are the most satisfying.  Good things in moderation.  A croissant a day keeps the doctor away... 

The author, in Chocolate and Sugar Showpieces Class, Johnson and Wales University, circa 2005-ish.  Hello Kitty obsession will be addressed at a later date.  Pasty skin and under-eye circles due to lack of sleep, but she smiles wide!

Happy weekend!

Rachel