10:56 pm – On the playlist: “It’s Tricky” • Run DMC
A few feet away, Lisa works on new Danish shapes. Now that Willa Jean has been open for a few months, she’s trying new cuts, twists, and folds.
Lisa is hemmed into a corner by Kelly, who’s rolling out cinnamon roll dough on the sheeter. It rolls back and forth on the heavily-floured twin conveyer belts, with Kelly operating the lever. Kelly throws handfuls of flour and the dough flattens little by little. They’re both working in the same tight triangle between the counter, sheeter, and giant mixer, but it’s a big kitchen. Big enough for a busy New Orleans restaurant, and a lot bigger than what Kelly expected when she first started seriously talking with Chef John Besh about opening a bakery in 2003.
New Orleans, she thought, was a city of neighborhoods: people on the far edge of Uptown wouldn’t want to head all the way across town to the French Quarter or the South Market District for a chocolate chip cookie. A collection of small-footprint bakeries more akin to David Chang and Christina Tosi’s successful Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City was more what she had in mind. But that’s not the way it worked out. And she’s realizing people will travel for those salted chocolate chip cookies. In just a few short months, the bakery has reached destination status.
11:46 pm – On the playlist: “Bust a Move” • Young MC
On the other side of the kitchen, former actress Kate Phillips, might be in another world. While Kelly’s cinnamon rolls rest and Lisa’s experimental Danishes wait to be filled, Kate brushes warm loaves of cornbread with a thick honey glaze (they will be reheated and served to wide-eyed diners with an indulgent portion of smoky-sweet Poirier’s cane syrup butter). In addition to baking breads for the restaurant, the Third Shift finishes the croissants, biscuits, crackers, and other odds and ends served by the daytime shifts.
Meanwhile, standing in front of the long, three-decked oven—tricked out with precise digital controls for steam injection, heat, and timing—Tasha pours out containers of ciabatta dough half her size. Kelly leans over and sniffs the dough, pats it, and watches it lazily spring back. They all smell everything.
