The Many Layers Of Baking
King's Day King Cake Kick-Off at Bywater Bakery
Infrogmation of New Orleans (CC BY-SA 4.0) / Wikimedia
Flour, butter, yeast, and sugar are all simple ingredients, but together they can produce extraordinary things. This week, we look at baking from the neighborhood bakery to the home kitchen.
First, we catch up with Kelly Jacques and Samantha Weiss, whose Ayu Bakehouse in New Orleans continues to earn both local and national accolades. The duo has come a long way since we first met them in 2022. We get an update and take a closer look at the delights they are serving up daily in the city's Marigny neighborhood.
Then we learn about a popular bakery just down the road, and its owner who has helped shape the baking scene in the Big Easy in over 20 years. Bywater Bakery's Chaya Conrad joins us for a conversation about her career and how she came to invent the New Orleans dessert staple: the Chantilly Cake.
Chaya also shares some of the ingredients behind her bakery's offerings, before food writer Anne Byrn explains why choosing the right flour matters.
Finally, we meet baker and author Heidrun Metzler, who grew up in a family of German women with a passion for baking. In her debut book, German Heritage Baking, she celebrates recipes shaped by memory, family, and a culture where baking is woven into everyday life.