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What was your first kitchen?

I worked in a restaurant called the Metuchen Inn in New Jersey—a fine dining restaurant in an old house.

Moment you realized you wanted to have a career in food:

The restaurant was newly opened and the chef was giving a lesson to the servers about how to explain his dishes. He spoke very eloquently about every ingredient. At that point I didn’t even know you could have that level of understanding about food, and I thought, I want to know as much as this guy knows. I was seventeen.

Favorite things to bake:

I love making a really nice pie. I think it’s one of the hardest things to do, no matter how many times you do it.

How much time do you spend at home?

The Bakery is like our home. We eat our meals here, we drink our coffee here, we have the majority of our interactions with friends here.

Describe your house’s kitchen:

We don’t even have an oven. We recently bought a camping stove with a propane tank attached, but we’ve never used it. The only two appliances we use to cook are an electric teapot and a popcorn maker. We do have a fridge but I don’t even know why we keep it on sometimes.

Could you ever leave Big Sur?

Originally, Phil wanted to move here but I didn’t. Then about two years into it he wanted to go, and I wouldn’t. I’m just so proud of what we do here and feel so involved in the community. It’d be really hard for me to leave.

Favorite types of customers:

The ones who think they’ve pulled up to a roadside greasy spoon and then have an experience they never expected. A lot of people feel like it’s a special place that they’ve personally discovered—they’ll go home and say, I found this great place in Big Sur right behind a gas station.

What’s your goal?

I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, or create things people have never had before. I’m more the type of person who just wants to eat the best vanilla ice cream I’ve ever had, and bake a pie that I imagine rivals my great-grandmother’s.

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Yam and Sweet Potato Pie

Regular sharp cheddar works well in this pie, but we particularly love it with Cypress Grove Chevre’s goat’s-milk cheddar (see Resources)—it has a nice flavor that contrasts well with the sweetness of the potatoes and the yams. You can serve this straight out of the oven, but it looks even better if you cool it overnight, cut it into squares, and serve it with long-cooked greens, stewed leeks, or grilled fennel.

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INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon rice bran oil or canola oil

4 egg yolks

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced lengthwise into 1/8-inch-thick pieces

6 ounces cheddar, grated

2 medium yams, peeled and sliced lengthwise into 1/8-inch-thick pieces

Serves 6 to 8

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Brush a 9 by 13-inch ceramic baking dish with the oil.

Whisk the egg yolks and cream together in a bowl. Season with the salt and pepper. Add the sliced sweet potatoes and toss them in the mixture. Form a layer of sliced sweet potatoes in the baking dish, overlapping them slightly so that the bottom is completely covered. Sprinkle the grated cheddar on top. Toss the sliced yams in the remaining cream mixture, and layer them on top of the cheese, just as you did with the sweet potatoes. Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour, or until the yams and sweet potatoes are soft all the way through. Then remove the foil and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove the dish from the oven and let it sit for at least 15 minutes before serving. (Or refrigerate it overnight. The next day, slice the pie into squares, reheat it in a 350ºF oven, and serve.)

Photographs by Sara Remington

Recipes

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Stuffed Acorn Squash with Apples, Leeks, Mushrooms, and Walnuts

This recipe takes a bit of prep time, but once all the components are prepared, it’s really easy to put together