FSR August 2023

CHEFS & INGREDIENTS CHEF PROFILE

I kept getting jobs. And what I learned is that every job had something that I wanted to know,” she says. “I got red a lot because I treated my job like that department or that area was my per sonal business, so my employees were happier and more productive. And we got things done, and I created a ex time when there was no such thing … I really understood the business world.” “By the ninth ring, it didn’t bother me at all,” she quips. Pinkney recalls being red from one job on a cold Chi cago day because she came in wearing pants under her dress to stay warm, and women weren’t allowed to wear pants at

most businesses at the time. One day while getting ready to begin her 21st job as a manager of a plastics company, she saw an ad in a local news paper for a balloon delivery service— and an idea sparked. “For your birth day, people send you balloons, they send you strippers, and they send you singing telegrams,” she says. “ is was 1980. But nobody sends you a cake? Isn’t that sort of wrong?” She pitched the idea of tuxe doed butlers delivering cakes to people with sparkler, plus parchment scrolls with birthday wishes and kind messages. “And everybody was going, ‘oh my god, what a great idea.’ And I went down to my apartment, it was a Saturday, and I wrote down all the things I thought I needed to do to make that happen.” Soon enough, Pinkney’s phone was ringing with orders from peo ple who had heard through word of-mouth about her new butler cake-delivering service. “And I did what every entrepreneur does—I

said yes. And I took down all the infor mation. And then I thought, ‘oh my god, I need a cake,’” she recalls. At the time, most cakes were dry, layer cakes with “bad buttercream and I thought, ‘oh, I wouldn’t even eat one of those.’” So she decided to make one of Craig Claiborne’s recipes for a ourless chocolate cake she saw in e New York Times Magazine. “Now here was the issue—I had never separated an egg. I had never beaten an egg white. And I had never melted choc olate. So I tried to make this cake and it was a disaster, so I went out and bought enough ingredients for three more cakes,” she admits. “And by the end of that third and fourth one, it was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. And I thought, well, I’ve just learned something. If you can read, you can bake.” “I would follow a recipe and I would do what it said. Baking was so in my wheelhouse, because a tablespoon is a tablespoon,” Pinkney adds. “I’m baking at night, bringing the cakes to work, and these guys are showing up in their little tuxedos, they’re going o and delivering cakes, going everywhere.” Pinkney got red from the plastics

INA PINKNEY

BEST MUSIC TO BAKE TO: Today, I needed to get pumped up and was listening to “The Circle of Life” from “The Lion King” (Composed by Elton John, performed by Carmen Twillie) GO-TO COFFEE ORDER: I’m a latte girl, day and night. At night, it’s decaf with whole milk and good froth. WHAT YOU HAD FOR BREAKFAST TODAY: Amylu’s chicken sausages, and I like sunny-side-up eggs cooked in olive oil so that they frizzle at the edges. FAVORITE RECIPE: Heavenly Hots Pancakes that were on the menu, and people went crazy for them for 22 years. Ingredients: 4 large eggs, 2 cups sour cream, 1/4 cup cake flour, 2 tbsp. potato starch, 3 tbsp. Sugar, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp. salt, served with peach, raspberry, blueberry compote.

FROM FRIED CHICKEN AND WAFFLES TO PASTA FRITTATA, INA’S ELEVATED DISHES WITH HIGH-QUALITY INGREDIENTS.

STEPHEN HAMILTON (3)

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FSRMAGAZINE.COM

AUGUST 2023