How a Home Kitchen Became a Source of Healing

TRANSCRIPT

Kirk Bachmann: Hello everyone, my name is Kirk Bachmann, and welcome back to The Ultimate Dish! Today, I have a very special guest joining me — Jennifer Relph, a dear friend, mom of four, and former bakery owner.

Well, we’ll hear soon, she’s been doing a lot of stuff in the course of her life, but what we’re really interested in is Selah Sweets a home-based bakery right here in Colorado, where she created cupcakes, cookies, and scones and others for holidays, parties, corporate events, and city gatherings. But Selah Sweets was much, much more than just a bakery. I love this. It was a mission-focused business where Jen chose a different organization every month to donate a portion of her proceeds to – who does that?! – giving back to her community one baked good at a time.

Jen believes that baking is the ultimate form of therapy, and for her, time in the kitchen is a tangible way to show love. She’s passionate about family, believes there’s nothing a baked good can’t fix, and she’s got plenty of stories to share [about] the realities of running a cottage food business from a home kitchen.

Get ready for a warm, honest conversation about the joys and challenges, and navigating cottage food laws of home baking, and why the holidays are the busiest and most rewarding time for all home bakers.

And there she is! Good morning, Jen.

Jen Relph: Good morning, good morning, Kirk. It’s so strange to not see you on a baseball field.

A Little Background

Kirk Bachmann: It is strange indeed. But you are such a professional. Before I dive into everything, rumor has it that you’ve done stuff like this before. Tell me about Jack and the Beanstalk?

Jen Relph: I started doing theater super, super young. I lived in Wichita, so I was able to do a pre-Broadway show. My first job ever was playing Jack in “Jack and the Beanstalk” in a dinner theater. I just absolutely loved doing theater as a kid, and would probably do it now, but I’m too old. I’m too old.

Kirk Bachmann: Well, maybe this is the start. This is going to be our breakfast theater. I like it.

Jen Relph: Perfect.

Kirk Bachmann: I like this a lot. People will fairly quickly figure out that we’ve met. It is really, really exciting to see you. Joseph Henry was sort of mortified when I said, “Hey, guess who’s on the show today? Eli’s mom.” He’s like, “Dude! Dad! Bruh! That’s so cringe! Why would you do that?”

Jen Relph: So cringe.

Kirk Bachmann: So cringe. So cringe. Hey, how did the whole family survive the holidays?

Jen Relph: You know what? We got really lucky this year. No one got sick. I’m going to count it as a win. Yeah, it was good. Nice and relaxing. The kids have an extra two days off.

Kirk Bachmann: I’m going to compare it to us. For our listening audience, our boys go to school together right down the street, and they play baseball together. But, what’s a normal – I say “normal” – day look like for you? And then I’ll tell you what a normal day looks like for me.

Jen Relph: It does depend on the day. I do have a part-time job. If I’m at the part-time job, I’m at the church working. If I’m not, again, it looks a little different. All of my kids are older, so they’re all in school, so I just do all the typical mom things. I actually start my day reading because I’m a big nerd.

Kirk Bachmann: Reading’s good.

Jen Relph: I read a hundred books last year, so you know I’m going to keep it up.

Kirk Bachmann: Wow! Do you challenge yourself? Is that a milestone? “I’m going to get to a hundred books?”

Jen Relph: Yep, absolutely.

Kirk Bachmann: Who’s your favorite author? What’s your genre? What do you read? Anything?

Jen Relph: Yeah, I read. Some people don’t consider this real reading, but I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy and thrillers. They’re not self-help books or leadership books or anything that requires a lot of thinking. I read for enjoyment.

Coffee and Scones

Kirk Bachmann: I’m very similar except for not with the written word. I just stream it. I love all that. My wife, Gretchen, she’s a big, big reader. I think our household is very similar. I’m at the school a lot, but this morning – she’s going to kill me for sharing all this – she does some really cool things in the community. She also does a lot of cooking and baking and is a personal chef, things like that. This morning, she had a really, really, really early gig, so I had to jump in and drop Grayson off at school, and stuff like that, which is all great.

But the big challenge was on her way, she just assumed she could just call Starbucks, swing by, grab the coffee for this catering event. The app didn’t work. Isn’t it amazing how your life just stops when the app doesn’t work? So she calls and she’s like, “What do I do? What do I do?”

“I’ve got a crazy idea, Gretchen. How about you call? How about you call?” And she did, and this young man took great care of her. I love it.

Jen, if you were standing in your kitchen right now instead of in front of the camera, and the oven was preheating, what would you naturally start baking this morning without even thinking about?

Jen Relph: Probably scones. I love making scones. They are so simple.

Kirk Bachmann: That’s a good answer. Yeah.

Jen Relph: The way that I do it. They are super simple the way that I do it.

Kirk Bachmann: Are your scones sweeter or more on the savory side?

Jen Relph: They’re sweeter, and they’re softer.

Kirk Bachmann: Oh, that’s the scone I like. Gretchen’s are harder. The kids love them. That’s what’s great about scones because the kids can just grab them off the table. Butter on top, or no?

Jen Relph: No. My favorite scone is a smoked ham and Gouda scone.

Kirk Bachmann: So are your people bringing that by the studio?

Jen Relph: Done! Yep, they’re on their way right now.

Kirk Bachmann: Get it over here! Get it over here.

I have to say, I think I know the answer to this. Again, we met each other through the local high school, the baseball team over the last – gosh! – three years now. But I get to introduce you today in a whole different way. How does it feel to be on the other side of the microphone? You’re usually the one keeping score, in charge of everything. How does it feel to be over in that seat?

Jen Relph: Oh, totally unnatural. I’m going to try really hard not to be awkward today, but I make no promises.

Selah Sweets

Kirk Bachmann: Oh, you’re doing great. You’re doing great. We’re talking about fun stuff that you enjoy.

Let’s talk about you. That’s what this is all about. Just so you know, the audience outside of my immediate family, we do have a huge viewership. A ton of our students tune into the podcast to get feedback from thought leaders, like yourself, about what they’re thinking about. The whole cottage food business, keep in mind, we have thousands of online students who go to school with us cooking in the comfort of their own kitchens. Many like to parlay that into a business. How do you do that? Other than being a fantastic person, that’s one of the reasons I thought it would be really, really fun to chat with you.

So let’s talk a little bit about Selah Sweets.

Jen Relph: Great.

Kirk Bachmann: Which you did out of your home here in Colorado. What made you, first of all, decide? That’s always the biggest thing? What motivated you to start the company?

Jen Relph: That’s a great question. I had been baking for people forever. I was baking for my friends. They were like, “I would buy this from you. You don’t always have to give it away for free.” I think the thing that stops people is the fear of the unknown. I finally just said, “Yes. Yes, I want to do this. I’m going to put in the effort and the work.”

I had a great partner that I was able to work with, which also really helped, so I didn’t have to do it all on my own. We each brought our own strengths to the business. Really, it was just saying yes and moving forward.

Kirk Bachmann: Was that something that was part of your upbringing, this love for sweets and the kitchen, and bakery, or is this something that you pursued later in life?

Jen Relph: This is probably a later-in-life pursuing. I didn’t grow up baking. I think the things that I did the most were drop cookies that are super simple.

Kirk Bachmann: I love a good drop cookie.

Jen Relph: Yeah. This was a later-in-life thing, once I got married and had my own house. It was just easier to have my own kitchen.

Baking with a Mission

Kirk Bachmann: So another great point. Many of our students who go to school online choose that path a little bit later in life, perhaps when they do have a home and a little bit more security. They don’t really want to relocate, so they just want to get cooking and get started in their own kitchens. It’s really, really great feedback.

You mentioned, Jen, that baking is therapy for you. I’d really like you to take us down the rabbit hole here. It’s a “tangible way” I think you said, to show love. What is it about baking – for you anyway – that feels therapeutic? One thing that really stands out about your company, Selah Sweets, is that it was mission focused. You chose a different organization every month to donate [to]. Who does that?! To donate a portion of your proceeds to. I absolutely love that. Is that therapeutic as well as the act of baking?

Jen Relph: Absolutely. It’s just nice to know. First of all, let me just say this was not my full-time job. We were able to say, “This is something we can give because we’re in the financial place to do that.” When you’re starting a business, you’re not always able to give away a portion of your proceeds. We were really lucky to start this and say, “How can we be a blessing to different organizations around the local area doing something that we love?”

We just really loved baking. It really is therapy. I was diagnosed with a disorder early in my adulthood. It was just a really great opportunity to calm the brain and truly focus on what I’m doing and have a great result at the end of it. It was completely rewarding.

Then, you get to see the people that you give it to. Of course, I asked, “How is it?” Who doesn’t love a baked good? There are so many different types of baked goods, savory and sweet and just so many different things that you can do with that you’re going to be able to please everyone, depending on what you make.

Kirk Bachmann: I’m curious because it’s a very, very interesting business model, super, super thoughtful. Were there specific organizations that were very obvious to reach out to for that? Smaller organizations, larger? Or was that just very serendipitous?

Jen Relph: A little bit of both. My business partner and I met at church. I also work at a church. That was a really easy connection point to be able to give back to the churches that we went to. We were also able to donate a lot of cookies to a local Christmas shop at a local church. That was super easy as well. Then, we did a little bit of research as well. We did Hope House, which helps single moms in high school. We were able to help a missions-based Christian organization. We were really lucky that we had a lot of connections with a lot of nonprofits that we could just then help that month, which we’re so grateful for.

Making What’s Popular in a Home Kitchen

Kirk Bachmann: That’s wonderful. You specialized in many things, but cupcakes, cookies, scones is what you talk a lot about. Those are super great choices for a home bakery, a cottage business. How did you land on those specifics as your flagship products? What were some of the most popular flavors or items that people kept asking for?

Jen Relph: I think they are the easiest things to sell. Everyone’s looking for cookies. Everyone wants scones for breakfast. We tried to start off with something that was easier to sell and that we were good at. We weren’t trying to sell things that [we weren’t good at.] We were not cake decorators. That was not going to be our journey. We were like, “We’re going to do something that we’re good at and something that is a little more rustic.” That really helped us a lot to be able to do that.

Our ham and Gouda scones were really big. Our dark chocolate, salted caramel cupcakes were really big. We had a special recipe for our chocolate chip cookies. Just things that the regular, everyday human who’s throwing a birthday party or for Thanksgiving breakfast, they don’t want to think about it, so they order some scones. Just different things like that were really big sellers for us.

Kirk Bachmann: People like the familiar, right?

Jen Relph: Absolutely.

Kirk Bachmann: Some people are daring, but people like the familiar. The holidays. You mentioned Thanksgiving. Must have been a crazy busy time. What was that like? Again, everyone has to remember, you’re doing this out of your home kitchen. There were probably some limitations. Kids wait for breakfast. “I’m a little busy right now.” That type of thing. What is it like baking at a volume level for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, other holidays like that? Again, to come back to the family, because that’s so important, how did you manage that volume while also running a family?

Jen Relph: Our first Thanksgiving, we really specialized in mini-pies, which takes a lot of time when you’re doing multiple types. I want to say for three days before Thanksgiving, we spent fourteen hours in the kitchen each day, on our feet. It was very exhausting – and rewarding – but very exhausting.

I have two ovens, so that’s a gift. But when you’ve been running your ovens for fourteen hours, at the end of the day, we were like, “Why are they not cooking the same as they did earlier today?” Because your ovens get tired! It’s not a commercial kitchen. There’s also a smaller area to work. I only have my island and a little spot on my countertops. I don’t have the racks that you do in a commercial kitchen or anything like that to be able to put your baked goods on. It was cold. We put a lot of stuff in the garage on a table to stay cool. Those are just the different types of things that you’re looking at in a home bakery.

I do have my kids running around. I had two dogs. We had to keep them in a totally different room. We’re constantly sweeping and cleaning up. My kids ate out pretty much every meal during that time.

Kirk Bachmann: Did your kids get involved ever as commis in the kitchen, sous chefs and such?

Jen Relph: No. I was really nervous about the legality of that. We were really careful about following the law. I’m a stickler for following rules. That was just something that I didn’t want to push and have someone go, “Oh, I found X, Y, Z in the cookie,” and have to be like, “Oh, that was my kid. Sorry.”

Guidance for a Cottage Food Business

Kirk Bachmann: That’s a perfect segue. I’d really like to talk about the reality of running a home bakery business. Running a home-based food business, like I said earlier, it’s a dream for a lot of people, but there’s also many thought leaders – chefs – that have had unbelievable success come on the show. I always want to point out that while we’re having a great conversation and we talk about all the fun and all the rewarding stuff, we often don’t see the sweat behind the scenes. We don’t often see how hard it was to get there. I always want to acknowledge that because there are a lot of things behind the scenes that people just don’t understand. We get questions about running home businesses all the time.

My understanding is that Colorado specifically has cottage food laws that allow you to bake from home without a commercial kitchen. Can you walk us through [that]? I imagine there are some legalities around what type of foods. Nonperishable, things like that. Can you walk us through what you had to go through to get started, legally, and what were some of those high-level requirements?

Jen Relph: That’s a great question. I actually met with somebody recently who is wanting to start their own micro-bakery, cottage bakery. I was able to talk her all the way through. You have to take a food safety course. It’s online, so it’s very doable. In the food safety course, you learn what things are possible, the pH. levels that you need to have for certain things. You’re not allowed to sell anything that has to be refrigerated. There’s a lot of limitations to what you can do. You’re only allowed to sell a certain number of products a year.

Kirk Bachmann: Oh, wow!

Jen Relph: You can sell $10,000 worth of chocolate chip cookies. You might think, “Oh, well, all cookies, all you can sell is $10,000.” There’s a way, not around it, but you can sell $10,000 worth of chocolate chip cookies and $10,000 of chocolate chip cookies with walnuts. As long as there is a real thing to change the recipe, you can sell an additional $10,000 worth. It is different. There are limitations that you can do.

We did the food safety course. The little things! We had to register our business name, make sure there was no other business like that. We had to get our EIN. We had to get all our taxes set up and decide if we were going to be an LLC or something besides that. We had to open up our own bank account. Please open your own bank account! Don’t try to do it through your personal finances. Open your bank account and keep it separate. We did Quickbooks. We designed our own website. It’s all of the behind-the-scenes work that you really want to do if you want to look like a professional business.

We could have just done it out of our home and just taken orders through our phone, which we did when we first started, but we wanted to be a legitimate business. Quickbooks takes the taxes for you, so you don’t have to worry about that. Keeps track of all your expenses. That was super helpful, but it also costs a lot of money. Yes. Say yes, but also be aware that there are going to be some costs. Insurance. That was something that we didn’t really think about to begin with, but if you’re selling food to other people – especially if you’re doing anything gluten free – highly recommend getting insurance so you’re not liable through your own personal money to have to take care of all of that.

Kirk Bachmann: That’s such great feedback, Jen. With all that said – and there’s probably more, storage, delivery, all of that – big picture: did all of those requirements impact your business? Did you find yourself pivoting much in the early [days]? You had this vision. This is what we’re going to do. Oh, we can’t quite do that. We’ve got to add walnuts if we want to do another 10,000 cookies. Again, this is the psychological part, the part that our students really have to understand. Did you have to step back every once in a while, analyze the business, in order to stay honest and true to your mission? Or did you find yourself pivoting constantly to keep going?

Jen Relph: I think the biggest thing for us is, “Okay, here’s how much the website costs. Here’s how much Quickbooks costs. All of that, which means we have to sell at least XYZ amount so we can cover that before we can even make any money.” It’s those costs that are overlooked sometimes that get you in the end. “Oh, well, I started off really good with a hundred and fifty dollars worth of sales my very first month.” Actually, most of that went to the behind the scenes stuff that no one sees. Building in those monthly costs is really important when you’re looking at goals for the month.

The Challenges and Rewards

Kirk Bachmann: If you had to outline – I hate to even go this route, but it’s important for people that are listening. Of all those paths and criteria that you had to follow, what would you say was the most challenging to get the business up off the ground?

Jen Relph: I think it was finding recipes that went with the cottage laws. We loved to make cinnamon rolls. Well, there’s only one specific type of cream cheese frosting, and they give you the recipe for it in the food class. If you don’t like that recipe, do you want to put that on the cinnamon rolls that you spent all day long proofing and kneading and cutting and doing all the things. You don’t want to ruin all that hard work that you put into that. Finding a pie recipe that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. Different things like that were the hardest things, feeling restricted in the types of things that we could make in our home kitchen.

Kirk Bachmann: Was there ever a point where you were thinking to yourself, “What did I get myself into, and how will I get out of it?”

Jen Relph: So many times! Honestly, the thing that was probably the hardest was the toll that it takes on your body when you’re standing for that long. I know probably all of your students have experienced that. Even if you spend two or three hours standing on the hard ground, I learned I needed to wear Crocs. That was not my favorite thing, but I do know they are very popular in kitchens. So my husband bought them for me and was like, “This is going to help your hips.”

Kirk Bachmann: That’s brilliant. That’s brilliant.

Jen Relph: So we wore Crocs. We stood on the mats that are a little bit padded.

Kirk Bachmann: Safety’s important, too.

Jen Relph: There are just things that you don’t think about because, “I’m just at home. I’m comfortable.” But it really does take a toll on your body. One hundred percent.

Kirk Bachmann: So on the flip side, what are the moments that were the most rewarding, that really stand out, that make you light up like you’re lighting up now?

Jen Relph: A big thing, for me, I got to do it with my best friend. That was really big. I got to have a partner in it, and we had so much fun. We got to dream together. Really. We started off delivering food ourselves. It was dropping off the food and seeing people get excited. Hearing, “I loved this. This is so great for the birthday party.” Everyone likes to hear that their stuff tastes good. That’s a common thing. You want your stuff to taste good. For people to love it and be repeat customers.

Kirk Bachmann: And tell others.

Jen Relph: And tell others. Absolutely. Word of mouth was huge for us. For the success of the bakery, we really did rely on reviews and word of mouth. That also changed what we did. We had a monthly Flavor of the Month. We would do a macaron in that flavor. We would do a cupcake in that flavor, and we would do a cookie in that flavor, just to do something different and test out new recipes.

Kirk Bachmann: Who handled the marketing and the website and all of that?

Jen Relph: We both kind of split it evenly. I have a lot of experience. We both did it equally, which is really nice. I loved doing the online stuff. I’ve built multiple websites, so I was a total nerd.

Getting Inspired

Kirk Bachmann: So you’re good with that. I would love that part. I would love that part.

This is a tough question. Put you in a tough spot. For me, I’ll give you an example. When I was growing up in a food family, master pastry chef father, restaurant, hotel, and all of that. I did everything I could, Jen, to not go into this industry. You’ll relate to this; I thought I was going to be playing center field for the Cubs. I did. Silly me.

Jen Relph: I was going to go to Julliard.

Kirk Bachmann: We were there. We were going to knock it out. All of that. Then you pivot, and you do different things. I remember, I was done with college, I was done with culinary school. I was still [asking myself] “Is this it?” There was an early, early issue of “Food and Wine” magazine. This is going to make you laugh.

Jen Relph: Okay, I’m ready.

Kirk Bachmann: It was all featured on Southwest cuisine, which was really, really big in the ‘80s. Really big. Santa Fe, New Mexico was kind of a hotbed of that. Texas. There was this one issue that was on the table at the house where it was like a cast iron plate and a bunch of herbs: sage, rosemary, basil, all kind of tied together in a twine. I carried that cover. I ripped it off, and I carried that for years. It’s the strangest story in the world. This was a kid who spent summers working with my uncle in Europe, and in my mom and dad’s bakery, but I got motivated by this one picture. I love Southwest cuisine. It kind of defined my style for many years in my early years. I just loved it. I loved the spices and the flavor and the color, and all of that. I’m curious: for you, was there an inspiration? Was there a person? Was there a book? Something that you ate one day when you were in another part of the country that motivated you to go down this path?

Jen Relph: I can’t think of anything earlier, but I went on a mission trip in Greece, and I had a pastry there. I was like, “Oh my gosh! This is the best pastry I have ever had in my whole life. I want to go home and make this.” And I didn’t because it was a really hard pastry to make the more I looked into it.

Kirk Bachmann: Yeah.

Jen Relph: Yes. It was very difficult, just lots of steps, which you don’t always have time to do at home with four kids. But that was like, “You know what? I can also make something really good. That might not be my lane, but I do have another lane.” It was really just a reminder of the joy that baking goods, baked goods can bring to someone. To have them be like, “Oh my gosh! That’s a treat!” The feel in the mouth. Everything is just a treat. It was that moment that I was like, “Oh yeah. This is a passion of mine. This is something I’m excited about.

Advice for the Newbie

Kirk Bachmann: I love that. Our students will love hearing that because, quite honestly, sometimes people doubt themselves. Sometimes they don’t feel passion’s enough. But it can be. It can be. You’re a perfect example of that.

So let’s fast forward a little bit. I know a lot of what you do on a daily basis, but are you still baking in some capacity? Do you miss running the business? Or are you the type of person where, “Hey. I set out to do something. I think we did a really good job. We achieved what we looked to achieve. Check the box. I’m good”?

Jen Relph: Yeah. I do still bake. I really enjoy it. I probably bake a couple of times a week just to give to friends or to bring to work. That’s a really big thing. I will try something and bring it to work. We have someone there who is dairy free, and another person who is gluten free. Those are really good challenges for me to try and find a baked good that still tastes really good with those parameters.

It was a really big bummer to stop the business, and that was actually a really hard decision. My partner left a year into it because of health reasons. I kept it going for a year after that, and it just wasn’t the same to do it without my partner. It was a lot more work. Like you said, I have four kids. They’re older, which means they’re all in a bunch of different activities. I don’t have that same dedicated time that I would to run a website and to do the Instagram posts. The social media posts-

Kirk Bachmann: That alone.

Jen Relph: Oh my gosh. It’s crazy. I told you I had met with somebody recently who was wanting to start a micro-bakery. She’s not on Instagram. I was like, “I highly recommend that you do something on social media because that’s how you’re going to get your name shared.”

Kirk Bachmann: That’s what everybody goes to first, right off the bat.

If someone came to you today – maybe a graduate from our school – and said, like the person that wants to open up the micro-bakery, “I want to start my own bakery or business from home.” What’s the first thing? I ask a lot of guests this question. What’s the first thing? People say everything from “Do it for you first.” “Do the market research so that you’re producing a product that’s needed.” “Stay in your lane.” The advice is all over the place. What would that advice be from you?

Jen Relph: Two words: do it. That’s it. Just do it.

Kirk Bachmann: Do you work for Nike?

Jen Relph: We do second guess ourselves. We do doubt ourselves. If you have the money to start the business, just do it. What are you going to lose? You have built into a dream that you’re hoping to do. I’ve seen other people locally that have started micro-bakeries, and I’m like, “Good for them. What a great thing that they have done!” Just do it. Just say yes and do it.

Kirk Bachmann: I love it. I love it.

You know what we should think about? As you were talking about that, I thought, you’ve done at least one, maybe two classes here with Chef Dallas. We could do something kind of fun where we bring you in as a guest chef just for fun. Invite friends and family.

Jen Relph: I love it!

Kirk Bachmann: No pressure. No pressure.

Jen Relph: Let’s do it.

Kirk Bachmann: I’ll film it.

Jen Relph: It will be just a giant blooper reel.

The Generosity of Effort and Time

Kirk Bachmann: That’s okay, too. Right?

You mentioned that there’s nothing a baked good can’t fix. I’m not a doctor, but I know that mental health is real today. People struggle with a lot of different things. We try really hard to find that balance of something that gives people joy, a reason to come to school every day. We do something here, Jen, called flipping the classroom. Traditional education is always “Come on in. I’m the teacher. Here’s the syllabus. Here’s how we’re going to do it in order to get a grade.” We even see it at Centaurus.

We flip the classroom a little bit, and we push out information for our students to review in advance, discuss among themselves, think about. Then when they come to class, our instructors, both online and on ground, are encouraged rather than being super, super formal about classroom activities, to let the students drive it. Let’s start with questions. What questions do you have? What did you cook yesterday? How did you apply the principles of what you’re working on in your daily life? That sort of thing.

Again, I won’t hold you accountable to any of this. There’s nothing like a baked good that can fix things. Have you found in your life, in your work through the church and with your friends that sometimes that’s helped someone going through a tough time?

Jen Relph: Absolutely! I’m bipolar, and selfishly, it really helps me – I had said earlier – I’m able to focus on that one thing in front of me and not have to worry about everything else that’s going on. That’s really important. When you give someone a baked good, you have spent a lot of time on that baked good. It’s not like a quick Kraft mac and cheese that’s super easy. You spent the time measuring everything out. You spent the time making it look great. The time even just baking it and making sure you have the bake that you want, it all takes time. You’re truly giving your passion, your love, your effort to someone else that they get to just [accept.] “Thank you for thinking of me.”

We used to pray every single time before we would start baking over the baked goods that we were doing. We hope this blesses the person that we’re giving it to. That was just really important to us that it was more than just a cookie; this was a gift of peace. It was a gift of love, of time. It really is more than just measuring the eggs and stirring it or kneading it, or whatever. There really is so much time and effort and love put into it that you’re then giving to somebody else.

Local Shout-Outs

Kirk Bachmann: Passing it on. That’s fantastic. Not everyone will know locally, but what’s your go-to? Where do you like to go to get that perfect baked good to get your day started?

Jen Relph: Oh, there’s a really great French bakery that’s right across the street called Jeannot’s. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it, but they’re from France.

Kirk Bachmann: Oh yes, they are!. Yes, they are.

Jen Relph: Maybe you know them.

Kirk Bachmann: Our house is so close. We’re in Indian Peaks there, so we walk.

Jen Relph: Oh yeah. You’re right there.

Kirk Bachmann: We’re right there. What do you like there?

Jen Relph: Their morning buns. I love their morning buns. And their almond croissants. They sell out of those by ten o’clock every morning. They never have enough. Those are my two favorite things. They are just so phenomenal. It is nice to have something that is legit.

Kirk Bachmann: I’m going to give you another one. He’s from Paris. He’s amazing. My dad, who’s now 90, did this for the majority of his life. He does this flat sweet roll with raisins. He has it almost every morning. Like you said, it’s legit.

There is another. You know where St. Julian is in Boulder? Right across the street, it’s a white stucco building. It used to be called Franks Chop House. About a year ago now, almost a year ago, one of our pastry chefs here from Escoffier, his name is Florian Tetart. You can’t even make that up! His father actually has a bakery in – I think they’re in Brittany – but his father has a bakery in France. Florian worked for us here for three years while he figured out what he was going to do. Long story short, it’s called Maisonette. It’s right across the street from St. Julian. It’s legit.

Jen Relph: Okay! I’m down! I’m there.

Kirk Bachmann: We are so spoiled in Boulder. It’s unbelievable how spoiled.

Jen Relph: It’s true.

Joy and Gratitude

Kirk Bachmann: So you can go east out to us, where we are, and if you’re in Boulder, you have to go to Maisonette. It’s absolutely fabulous.

You said the word “joy.” It’s just such an important, important word: the joy of cooking, the joy of life, the joy of love. Why do you believe, Jen, that a couple of years after closing your business that it still brings you so much joy? Why, after doing it professionally, is the concept of baking and giving someone something that you’ve created still bring you so much joy?

Jen Relph: That’s a really great question. I know sometimes, especially with mental health, you can really bring yourself down and just kind of sit in that. Then everything feels awful and the worst. I really try to work with gratitude. What am I grateful for? Every single day, there’s this challenge that every day you write down three things that you’re grateful for. Even if it’s just, “I’m grateful I brushed my teeth today. I’m grateful that I had a cup of coffee.” It can be something small. Or, “I’m grateful that my husband and I went on a date tonight and we got to reconnect.” It can be literally anything. That practice has really allowed me to see the positives in what I’m doing. Is it that way every day? No. I’m human. Some days, I’m still like, “The world is so awful.”

Kirk Bachmann: It’s hard. It’s hard at times. Food is love; love is food. That leads us perfectly. We wrap up every episode of The Ultimate Dish with the same question.

Jen Relph: Okay.

Jen Relph’s Ultimate Dish

Kirk Bachmann: Responses are always different. The question is, what is, in your mind, Jen, the ultimate dish? This could be an item. It could be a food memory. It could be sitting around the table. We’ve had people in tears when they think about a food memory. It’s really, really beautiful. But what’s the ultimate dish?

Jen Relph: Oh gosh. That’s hard! That’s a really hard question.

Kirk Bachmann: It is. And this is not Pass/No Pass.

Jen Relph: There are so many that I can think of that bring memories, from Christmas morning monkey bread…

Kirk Bachmann: Oh-ho-ho, I got a chill! That’s good.

Jen Relph: That’s a good one, right? But I have this really sweet memory. My husband and I were in Vegas. We went to a restaurant, and we had the seafood paella. It was so good. Everything about it was amazing. It was a date night. We were away from the kids. We got to go to a nice dinner. It was great drinks, great atmosphere, great company, and really great food.

Kirk Bachmann: You know what’s the best part of that answer? We’ve spent the last hour talking about sweets and cupcakes and cookies and scones, and you come out of left field with a paella.

Jen Relph: With a paella.

Kirk Bachmann: Which, I’m right there with you. If it’s done…the best paella I ever had was in a village in Stockholm, literally a community on one of the islands. The paella pan was probably 30×30.

Jen Relph: Oh my gosh.

Kirk Bachmann: And the entire neighborhood brought their items and put it on. They had people doing the socarrat, the rice and stuff, but you brought your own items. Paella is family. Paella is community. It’s love.

Great answer! You pulled that one out. That was the bottom of the ninth. Eli is going to be really, really proud of you on that one.

Jen Relph: he’ll be impressed.

Kirk Bachmann: He will be. Well, fifteen-year-olds, sixteen-year-olds are not impressed by anything.

Jen Relph: No, I’m lucky if I can get him to say, “good morning.”

Kirk Bachmann: Hey, Jen, this was so much fun. Unbelievable way to kick off our year with The Ultimate Dish. Thank you. I am going to see you soon with booster club meetings and baseball. That’s all getting on the way already. Thank you, thank you. I’m going to follow up to see if we can do a guest appearance for our home cook classes. It will be fun.

Jen Relph: Oh my gosh! It would be a blast. Yes.

Kirk Bachmann: Absolutely.

Jen Relph: thanks so much for having me. This was so fun.

Kirk Bachmann: This was totally fun. Always. I’m going to leave you with, “work with gratitude.”

Jen Relph: Yep. That’s right.

Kirk Bachmann: Love it. Say hey to everybody. We’ll see you.

Thank you for listening to the Ultimate Dish podcast, brought to you by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. Visit escoffier.edu/podcast to find any materials mentioned during the podcast, including notes, links and other resources. And if you can, please leave us a rating on Apple or Spotify, and subscribe to support our show. This helps us reach more aspiring individuals ready to take the next step toward their dream careers. Thanks for listening.