If the croissants have seemed flakier lately, you are not imagining it. Priya Nair joined us this spring to lead the pastry side, and she has spent three months quietly taking the whole section apart and putting it back together.
Priya trained in a hotel kitchen, then spent six years at a bakery she describes only as “much bigger than this, with a much worse oven”. She arrived with a notebook of recipes, a rolling pin she will not let anyone else touch, and strong opinions about butter temperature.
Lamination is mostly patience and a cold room. The rest is not being afraid to throw away a batch that is not right.
Priya Nair
The changes so far: a slower proof for the croissants, a switch to a cultured butter from a dairy an hour away, and a new pain au chocolat with two batons of dark chocolate instead of one. The cinnamon knot is also hers, and she would like it on the record that it is a knot, not a bun.
Say hello if you see her at the counter on Saturdays. Do not ask to borrow the rolling pin.