Joe Pastry…

Joe…

…is a guy who believes that if a man feels like whipping up a nice almond cocoa genoise or a few madeleines, well…he should be able to. And if he feels like talking a little science or history along the way, what harm does that do to anyone?

Joe was born and raised in the Chicago area. He started his career in food at age 15, working as a line cook on weekends. Through his high school and college years he worked a variety of food service jobs, never earning more than five dollars an hour. So he went into marketing.

For the last twenty years Joe has worked as a marketing consultant specializing in food, food ingredients, and beverages. Over that time hse has helped business of all sizes — from mom-and-pop organic farmers and street vendors to Cargill and McDonald’s — take their products to the people.

Joe was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma in early 2001 despite years of yoga, t’ai chi and mostly vegetarian eating. As part of his therapy he took a job at one of the Chicago area’s top bakery/pastry shops. He credits steak, chocolate chip cookies, first class oncology, and hand-laminated dough with his recovery. He has been in full remission since late 2001.

In 2004 Joe moved to Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, Jo, and shortly started both a family (daughters Jo and Joan) and a small doughnut business. The business failed in 2006, but his wife, for reasons still not explained, kept him. Today Joe leads as balanced a life as he can under the circumstances.

He can be contacted at: joe@joepastry.com

Joe’s Blog…

…is all about baking, science and history. It is not, nor does it aspire to be, the last word on anything. The recipes it contains are uncreative by design as the emphasis of the blog is techniques. Frequently inauthentic (often proudly so) the recipes are offered as examples of classic preparations, simplified where possible in hopes of making them accessible to the aspiring pastry maker.

Use the blog by simply starting to read it, as posts are mostly written in such a way that nothing is assumed. New readers should be able to dive in anywhere. There’s a catalog of recipes in the left-side menus. Each contains a photo tutorial with the recipe in a separate post below. To learn more about a food item, use the calendar feature at the bottom left to go back to the date of the tutorial or recipe post. Much nonsense will be found everywhere.