New old books

When I was 18 and desperately needed a job my Mom hooked me up with a family friend that owned a bakery.  It was my first job in the food business.  I went into the bakery one night and met with Madeline MacDonald, the owner and chef, and sister of my Mother's very close friend from high school.  There was no interview, no discussion before hand.  She just told me to put on an apron and basically get to work.  At that time Madeline's business, Creative Cakes and Confections, was very busy.  She had a few pastry chefs working for her, a few student interns, and the rest of the people there were family or friends of her family or acquaintances of someone she knew.

Madeline was ALL business and gave direction well.  She NEVER stopped working or caring about what she was doing, even though she was very ill from the time that I met her.  She was quite possibly the definition of a workaholic and nothing could stop her from pressing onwards.  No one could tell her that she couldn't do something.  She was a fighter in every sense of the word, and I often thought that she could handle anything that anyone threw at her, whether it was deeply personal (her failing health) or just simply day to day orders at the bakery.  She really was a huge influence on my life and career.  I remember that I called her when I was thinking of going to culinary school and she tried to talk me into attending her alma mater, The Culinary Institute of America in New York.  She sent me a package in the mail with brochures and information on the school and really tried to push me to go there, but it just wasn't in the cards for me at the time.  I wanted to stay in Philly so that I could continue working and living here.  I just didn't have the money to relocate to New York.

Sadly, she passed away a few years ago and lost her long, tiring battle with cancer.  If I ever came close to having a mentor in my life, she was it.  I looked up to her, she was such an intelligent, hard working woman that (frankly) didn't take shit from anyone.  She absolutely ruled her kitchen and she expected perfection and nothing but hard work from everyone, whether you were a dishwasher (which I was for a time) or a pastry chef. 

I was thrilled last weekend when my Mom came home with two books that Debbie (Madeline's sister) had set aside for me.  They were books that she used when she attended culinary school.  Mastering the Art of French Pastry by Bruce Healy and Paul Bugat and Le Repertoire de La Cuisine by Louis Saulnier, which contains introductory remarks by Jacques Pepin.  I feel so honored that Debbie even thought to give me these books, and as I page through them I think about how Madeline must have learned from them years ago.  At the time that she used these books she was still a young woman, blind to what her future would hold and the short life she would have.  I just hope I can do these books and Madeline some justice by learning from them as she once did.