Pastry Love: A Baker’s Journal of Favorite Recipes

With every cookbook I write, Christopher asks me, “Aren’t you worried about giving away all of your secrets?” I see his point—we have a collection of bakeries and a restaurant, all of which base their menus on the recipes in my books. From my point of view, however, I write books for the exact same reason I run Flour and Myers+Chang: I love to share the joy that amazing food brings to us all. (Plus, if you’ve visited any of our places, you know that it’s the genuinely warm spirit of the teams, along with the overflowing bounty of sticky buns, dumplings, and egg sandwiches, that makes visiting Flour and Myers+Chang irreplaceable by a cookbook. Come visit us!)

Writing a cookbook, like operating a bakery or restaurant, is truly a team effort. If Pastry Love brings you pleasure and sticky fingers and a full tummy, it is in large part because of a huge support network of bakers, friends, family, and cookbook devotees that helped me.

Thank you to the devoted and grand army of Flour pastry chefs and pastry cooks who tested, tasted, prepped, and cheered me on throughout the writing of Pastry Love. I’m grateful to be surrounded by such a passionate and generous cadre of pastry stars. Special shout-outs to Sarah P., Sarah M., Allyson, Rachael, Heather, Joe, Jes, Jonathan, Jessi, Miguel, and Keith, who enthusiastically helped with their time and talents. I’m so grateful for you all.

To Mike, Frank, and Nicole, you all get a Moment of Excellence 😉 for keeping the bakeries running smoothly while I diverted attention to the writing of this book. Thank you so much.

I had an incredible testing team! Thank you Anne, Andrea, Katie, Falcon, Mike B., Dawn, Jessie, Mary, Kaia, Kiran, Mardi, Jane, Tracie, and Val, who baked their way through all 150 recipes to make sure they were ready to share. Each recipe was triply tested to make sure they were all perfect. Special thanks to Michael and Sandy who, between them, tested each and every recipe again. That was a ton of testing!

I’m grateful to work in an industry that supports and shares with and roots for each other. Thank you to the pastry chefs and chefs who have always said yes to any request for advice, recipes, or opinions when I’ve asked: Rick Katz, François Payard, Jody Adams, Lydia Shire, Jamie Mammano, Amy Scherber, Christina Tosi, Yotam Ottolenghi, David Lebovitz, Andrew Zimmern, Dominique Ansel, Dorie Greenspan, Rose Levy Beranbaum, and countless others.

A great book agent makes you believe you can do anything. I’m so lucky to have Stacey Glick in my corner, and without her, I know this book would not have come to life. Her unabashed zeal for everything I do is like having a second mom—thanks, Book Mom!

Writing a cookbook is hard work! Justin, my editor, is the person you want helping you every step of the way. I can’t thank him enough for his guidance, support, and encouragement, which fueled me forward on many a long night of editing and writing and even more editing. He’s editing this acknowledgment in his head as I write, and I know he’ll make it so much better!

I couldn’t wait to take the photos for Pastry Love, not only because I was super excited to see these pastries again in their final form, but also because I knew shooting with Kristin Teig would be a blast. If you’d watched us at work, with all the different angles and splits she would contort her body into to get the perfect shot, you would’ve thought we were in an advanced yoga class. Rick Holbrook, our food stylist and part-time hand model, made the pastries shine. And when I threw out the insane idea of taking pictures of every single dessert, both immediately agreed. I couldn’t have asked for a better team.

To the whole Myers+Chang and Flour family, thank you for making me proud every single day with your grace, determination, and dedication to excellence, and for allowing me to step away from work to focus on writing Pastry Love. I’m grateful to all of the teams, and I love you very much.

My mom and dad are the reason I am who I am today, doing what I do. “Just do your best” has been their lifelong lesson to me, and everything I do is to make them proud. I love you.

And of course, Christopher—my best friend, my sounding board, my favorite tester, my inspiration. You are the reason for everything. Thank you for believing in me, and for believing that I can do anything—because of you, I can. Not only could I not have written this book without you, I would not have wanted to. This book, and everything I do, is for you.