Shuna- yeah, bleach on bare hands is not a good thing. We only use it as part of the solution required to clean tables by the health department and I use gloves. Method products are a good recommendation. I need to switch to that. Thank you for bringing it up.

Alicia - I have so much to say in response to your comment that this should probably be it’s own post! (but since i have such limited time lately, i’ll try to fit in as much as I can now) Here goes…

*French Culinary seems to turn out very well trained chefs. All of my staff is currently from there (although we did just hire one from ICE and have had some of their graduates in the past which have also done very well). I personally didn’t go to culinary school, but I do see value in it. It’s quite expensive, but gives you the fundamentals.

*I really do work 18 hours a day at times, but it is getting more and more rare. The average day is at least 12, and I’m thinking about it 24/7 so it’s never really relaxing. If you have a lot of money perhaps you can hire a huge team and work less, but that’s not my situation (and I’m not sure I’d be able to stay away even if that was the case!)

*I do have a head baker and her name is Sara. I don’t bake every day. Sara has been working with me since the store opening, and has really led the development of a lot of our new recipes. Unfortunately she is leaving New York City soon, so I will need to find someone else (I will again be taking on more until we find someone else great). I couldn’t do everything I need to do to run the business and be in the kitchen every day. I actually like it this way. I still have the creative vision for the direction of the kitchen, contribute ideas, work on new recipes and I do bake whenever we have a big order or the team just needs a hand.

*Hiring is a tricky thing. The food business, customer service, etc. is filled with a mix of people - great people on their way to other things, great people who enjoy the job and plan to stay and a bunch of terrible people who landed there by default and really shouldn’t be there. Great people who plan to stay are the rare ones. The ones on their way to something else (i.e. college students) are also fantastic, but I have to expect that they will move on quickly and keep them as interested as possible in the meantime. When I said it’s hard to find enough good people, I meant to emphasize “enough”. The people we have right now are AWESOME. Many of our fantastic baristas have been with us since the beginning - Helen, Alyssa, Erin, Hiroko- and our newer crew are so smart and nice I’m amazed. Jen, our baking assistant since the beginning, has also done an amazing job and is becoming a superstar chef. It’s just that we could use 10 more of all of them

Good luck with your ventures! It’s tough, but if you really want it you can find a way to make it happen.

Congrats, you have no idea how much I admire what you did and how I wish I could do that someday, too.

PS I think that though NY has so many people for hire, it’s the worst for getting good employees who stick around, which really stinks. =(

Cheers,
Jason Licker

happy baking

There will be several different varieties of vegan chocolate ice cream (including Wheeler’s favorite, chocolate chocolate chip, and some vanilla and pumpkin flavors for those who aren’t quite chocolate enthusiasts) all put together in a lovely little tasting party held at Little Cakes art gallery.

Here is all of the details:

WHERE?
Little Cakes Art Gallery
625 East 6th Street, #1B
New York, N.Y. 10009

WHEN?
This Sunday, January 20th from 1-3PM

Thanks, hope to see you there!
Emily @ Wheeler’s Black Label Frozen Desserts

Keep on bakin’!

dbdtron