• September 20th, 2017
• Comments Off on People of Southport: Celeste

Celeste has been baking with us since early Summer. She’s a graduate of the French Pastry School here in Chicago, with both pastry and bread courses under her belt. She has been baking at home since she was a kid and always knew that was what she wanted to do professionally. Her Grandma and Mom owned a test kitchen downtown, so she’s grown up surrounded by cooking and baking.

Straight out of pastry school, Celeste spent 3 years at Little Goat Diner, where she learned to make all sorts of different breads, including miso brioche and chorizo sourdough. “It was a great experience learning to work with all the different departments within the restaurant – the prep kitchen, butchers, etc. Working in a real bakery is very different from pastry school so you learn a lot really fast, including how to create new recipes,” which she hopes to put to use and bring new things to our bakery case once she’s been here a while. Nothing rattles Celeste. She works hard and is very easy to get along with. Our lead baker Terri says “Celeste is like a wizard on the mixers – she’s so fast! She’s definitely made me a better baker.”

Now that she has a 1-year-old at home, she appreciates the slower paced nature of Southport Grocery. “There’s a wonderful simplicity to our baked goods here – they’re classic with a little twist, which is much more like my own baking style. The breads are my favorite but the vegan cookie is epic too.” She’s a pro at making our Ding Dongs – cutting them to size and carefully filling them. At home, she loves to make pies & cook short ribs.

Celeste hails from Logan Sq so is a true Chicago kid. She’s loves that it’s such a livable city with so much going on. In Summer, she’s all about spending time outside with her son and takes him biking regularly.

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