# 226: H is for Headware for Bakers!
Headware for Bakers and Cooks. Plus what I'm reading and listening to and a garden update.
I missed posting last week as I was busy out in the garden weeding and planting but I’m back. Today, I share a memory of a special gathering and a most embarassing moment.
Just after I joined a professional food organization years ago, I attended my first meeting as an official member. It was a potluck and, being summertime, I baked my favorite peach pie. I love peaches and I wanted this pie to reflect that love just like it did when I spent a day in my favorite orchard picking peaches with pie students.
But, let’s get back to the pie I brought to the potluck. I placed it on the table amidst other delectable looking creations by food writers, chefs, and culinary instructors I admire and had only dreamed about meeting. Picking up a plate and fork, I nestled myself amongst them and added some of their offerings to my plate.
OK, now you just know something is about to happen like I drop the pie plate, spill the wine, trip and bump into someone and they drop their potluck dish, right? But no, it was none of those. Those I truly would have felt bad about, but when I tell you what happened next, let me preface it by saying I just wanted to disappear!
I filled my plate and carried it back to the chairs we were perching on with, dare I say it, plastic cups for wine «gasp», when the esteemed food pro seated just behind me pulled out a hair…a long hair…my long hair…from the piece of my peach pie on their plate. Oh gawd! Do you have any idea how terribly embarrassed I was? This has never happened to you, right?
Like many of us, I suffer from Imposter Syndrome. I don’t have a certificate from a culinary institute in pastry making or any aspect of food, nor do I have any degree from a university in writing yet somehow I have managed to patch together a career teaching pie making and writing books.1 To me, that hairy moment was proof that I had no business being there at all. I was ready to slink out of the meeting and fade into utter foodie wannabe oblivion. And then…the most wonderful thing happened.
The pro behind me didn’t look at me with disdain, nor did they spurn, snub or ignore me. They smiled and said “Oh don’t worry. We’ve ALL had this happen and better it happen here than somewhere else,” to which there was gentle chuckling and agreement from those within earshot. To say I felt relieved is an understatement. I also felt a sense of belonging in a field where mistakes can happen to the very best.
H is for Headware that Keeps Hair Out of Our Work
Now I wear a scarf on my head, push my sleeves up, and try my darnedest to keep stray strands away from my work. I run my eyes carefully over bakes before they go in and after they come out of the oven because seeing that a hair or bit of egg shell or whatever might have found its way in to a dough or filing does not spark joy in my life in any way. Most of the time I’m successful keeping those unwanted bits out, not in. A scarf really does help. So does checking my apron and whatever I’m wearing, too.
The scarf I’m wearing below was a gift from a friend and I’m 99.9% sure it came from here. I love that the scarf comes in many colors and pretty patterns. It’s lightweight, too, so very nice in a hot kitchen.
Other Hair Covering Ideas
In 2020, Pinterest asked me to make a few videos for them about pie, dough, and whatever else I might want to do. Since I can’t figure out how to embed it here for you, here’s a link to one I made with other ideas for hair coverings you may find fun and entertaining.
A Question for You: What’s Your Most Embarrassing Food Moment?
This story begs a question from me to you. Have you ever had an embarrassing food moment…one that you might share with us? I know we would all love to hear them. So, my dear friends, I hope you will please share in the comments. The funnier the better! What say you?
Art of the Pie Workshops and Bake with Kate Virtual Classes
Here’s the link if you would like to join me in person at Pie Cottage for an Art of the Pie Day Camp or tune-in to an upcoming Bake with Kate virtual class.
Next up are:
May 5: Savory Handpies & Pasties
June 9: Black Bottom Pie
What I’m Reading
I just finished reading this newest book by one of my favorite authors. It’s the story of a young woman who grew up in Southern California and has just graduated from nursing school. She enlists in the Army and is sent to Vietnam. Her privileged life has not prepared in the least for what she encounters. The story follows her as she returns home and tries to re-enter “normal” life. It’s a good read especially for those of us who grew up in the Walter Cronkite news era.
If you or someone you know are seafood fans, you’ll want to check out Cynthia Nims’ Substack Seafood Savvy. I’ve known Cynthia for over two decades now and she is a great resource for all things fish and shellfish!
What I’m Listening To
Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag
Country Joe and The Fish, Woodstock 1969
In the Garden
First pick of rhubarb! Garlic is coming along nicely. The blossom on the apple and pear trees looks great and hopefully there will be a good pollination and set. Planted from seed snow peas, flowering sweet peas (my favs!) mache, spinach, kale, and chard and they are all poking up their little heads. I also put in kale, collard, spinach and lettuce starts. We do love our greens at Pie Cottage!
Please do click on the little heart below so I know you were here.
That truly means a lot to me when you do.
Before becoming a food “professional” I was a full-time musician. I had no degree for that either but as an accompanist, teacher and coach I made a good enough living to support my family. Many of my students have gone on to have very successful careers in music, food, or writing, too.
Oh, yessss! This embarrassing moment immediately jumps to mind:
During the 8 years I taught classical French and Northern Italian cooking in my San Diego home, I once was demonstrating beating many egg whites to prepare the light basis of a chocolate mousse. I had prepared this dish many times, during which I loved to take the stiffly-beaten whites in my large copper bowl (hand-carried from France), and flip the bowl over my head to show how the beaten whites remained in the overturned bowl. They always did.
Well, your imagination has it right! The whites for some reason dropped down flat on my head, bringing gasps and laughter to all, including me!!
Luckily, being at home, I excused myself and scooted upstairs, rinsed my hair and completed the class wet-headed. That never happened again, but the moment has remained embedded in my teaching memories.
Well….as a new bride I invited persnickety sister-in-law to lunch. I made a potato salad and while chopping onions I lopped off the end of one of my fingernails. (Please remember I was new at this food prep called cooking) I looked through the pile of onions, didn’t see the fingernail and thought ‘if I can’t find it, no one else will either.’ Yep, you guessed it, the first bite she took and she found the prize!