I made my first cake when I was six. It was for my younger’s brother birthday and it was a raw, sunken disaster. I remember feeling disappointed, not baking much after that, and envying my aunt’s ability to bake a cake all the way through. Several years later found me cooking at my college’s dining hall. It was my first exposure to the world of professional cooking and one that I would inhabit for five years before sliding into the pastry kitchen.
Why pastry? It’s alchemy. It’s art. If I want to convey autumn on a plate, I’d have more fun doing it with pastry than with a hulking piece of roast beef. I love pastry because it’s not the kind of cooking that many people have the patience for or are good at, but it’s the kind of cooking that evokes strong feelings of comfort. One of the first tastes that we emerge from the womb and enjoy is sweetness. And folks, I love sweets! In my long-gone youth, I stashed packets of brown sugar in my purse to stave off the hunger pangs when Saturday morning church ran two hours too long. These days, sensitive teeth and taste buds have tempered my sweet tooth, but not my appetite. A meal is not a meal unless it ends with something sweet.
Why food blogging? It’s an already over-crowded field, I know. I’ve always enjoyed reading about food, learning about food, exchanging ideas about food and teaching others about food. I’ve found the blogosphere to be an invaluable tool for all of the above so why not share what I’ve learned? From time to time, I share the pastries and books that inspire me as well as the chefs who challenge me and food producers who inspire me. When I started this blog, I wanted to focus solely on simplifying the mysterious and arcane world of baking and pastry. I’m hanging up that towel as I rarely bake at home anymore. I’m shifting my focus back to the professional kitchen where I’m starting to sprout deep, impenetrable roots, with an occasional diversion to home baking in a section I’ll title “Pastry Chef’s Day Off”. In this section, I’ll take a break from the hustle and bustle of kitchen life to explain some of the more arcane pastry techniques and share some of the simple, comfort-style recipes that I like to bake when I’m not on duty.
This blog has been a long time in the making. I set up an account six months before publishing this first post because I wanted it to be perfect: perfect layout, perfect grammar, perfect pictures, perfect posts. And like the rest of my life, perfection is not happening anytime soon (if it ever comes). So, here you go. My blog: Buttery. Salted. Caramel. In all its imperfect glory.
Buttery. Salted. Caramel. 
Hi Charms, Sounds like my attempts at cake-making, except that in my case, I remained averse to baking and settled for meat instead. Would love to hear about what you’ve been reading. Cheers! Phyllis