Rebecca Reed on Baking during a Pandemic

As the Corporate Pastry chef for Black Sheep Restaurant Group, which includes Black Sheep, Restaurant Orsay and Bellwether, Rebecca Reed is accustomed to long hours juggling recipe development, plating desserts and overseeing her staff at the 3 businesses. Time at home is spent with her husband and young daughter, which doesn't leave much opportunity for personal baking projects. COVID-19 has changed pretty much everything in Reed's routine. While Black Sheep and Orsay remain open for take-out (including desserts), Bellwether has shifted gears and has partnered with Feeding Northeast Florida to prepare meals for low-income senior citizens. This shift in meal preparation at the restaurants has provided Reed more down time at home for stress baking and recipe experimentation.

********

I have been doing a bit of extra baking at home, but I am a little jealous of some of the people I see on social media who are capitalizing on free time they have for ambitious baking projects and making home cooking videos. With my entire staff being laid off, I have remained busy running between Black Sheep and Restaurant Orsay to keep up with the to-go orders. Needless to say, I have not cleaned my oven, gone through my spice rack or gotten caught up on every episode of the Great British Bakeoff. I am thankful to still be employed and doing my part to keep people fed is fulfilling for me, and I have had a chance for some rare weekend baking adventures.

I noticed that what I have been cooking is more geared towards comforting food cravings and time-consuming recipes that I have been collecting on my Pinterest page for a rainy day. Baking bread at home is notoriously time-consuming. There is a lot of down time between mixing, proofing, shaping and baking. The hustle of a working mom during a typical weekend spent with a toddler and a husband that travels to sporting events for work rarely allows for so much time spent at home. I would typically only have a two-hour nap time window to tackle a baking project. Closed parks and sports being canceled have changed things.

I have been able to seize the moment and even try out some new recipes. I baked chocolate babka for the first time last weekend. The unseasonably hot and humid Florida weather has turned my lenai into the perfect condition for proofing bread. I mixed the dough, let it have a nice long slow proof covered on my porch, filled it, shaped it, proofed it again, then baked it off. The smell was glorious! I wish I would have made it sooner. It combined two of my favorite comfort food cravings, chocolate and bread. Since baking it at home, I have also made it at work for the few coworkers that are left. Having fresh baked goods in the morning for the staff makes being at work during such a strange time a little bit sweeter.

No doubt we all have a lot of observations and new perspectives about the ways we (hospitality industry workers) are preparing and serving food right now. Here are some things that I have noticed during this time that may be food for thought for others.

We are using so many more single-use containers to package all of the to-go food.

We are using even more gloves than we would typically go through but wearing gloves does not necessarily mean that is more sanitary.

When social distancing mandates are lifted, we are concerned that our guests will be apprehensive about gathering in large groups. Will people want individually portioned food, will buffet style serving no longer be a preference, will they still share appetizers, will they want tables to be spaced out more in the dining room?