The Start of a New Project

Let me introduce myself. My names Lisa. I'm in my third year of undergraduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in applied mathematics. I grew up just outside of Boston in Newton, MA. I've always been a food fanatic and in recent years I picked up baking as a hobby. Living in such a culturally diverse city allowed me to try all kinds of foods, and especially desserts. From cannolis to churros to mochi ice cream. I've gotten the chance to try it all, things that I wouldn't normally get to eat in my traditional Chinese household. I was never allowed to bake much at home, because my parents kept a fairly healthy lifestyle and diet which sugary snacks did not fit into. At school my baking is rather conservative, kept to brownies, cookies, and cakes, etc. Things that didn't require too many ingredients that would put a dent in my wallet. So I’m hoping this project will help me branch out a bit. Now let me tell you how this project came to be.

The other night I went to the Unhappy Hipsters book signing with my friend, Cassie. It was held at a small studio store in the Fort Point district of Boston called Twelve Chairs. The place mostly sold furniture and decorative pieces for the high income hipster community. They also had several other signed books on display. I guess it's a common occurrence for this place to hold book signings. A specific book caught my eye: Flour by Joanne Chang, a baking recipes cook book. I picked it up because I liked the cover design and I have an affinity for cook books. I skimmed through some of the recipes and came to the conclusion that it was a very well designed cook book, so I decided to buy it. The woman at the cash register looked at the book and asked me if I'd ever been to any of the author's bakeries in Boston. I told her that I hadn't and that I just really enjoy baking. She told me that I had to check out Flour bakery (apparently there are three locations around the city) and asked if I was from the area. I told her that I did indeed live in the area for now, but that I'm studying math at Carnegie Mellon. She suddenly had a look of surprise on her face and told me that this was so perfect for me because as it turns out, the author of the cook book, Chang, also studied math before she started baking and to top things off she's also Chinese. Crazy right? So I bought the book and came home and immediately googled her. Basically this woman has my ideal future. She received her PhD in applied mathematics from Harvard University and she worked for a couple years in management before she decided to work at a bakery in Newton assisting their head baker. Newton! I'm from Newton! She then moved to New York for a couple years and when she returned to Boston she opened up her own bakery, Flour, and a Chinese fusion restaurant with her husband called Meyers + Chang.

So basically I'm totally crazy about this woman now. And my plan is to bake through her entire book, Julie & Julia style, while blogging about it. I'm definitely going to visit her bakery and restaurant in the South End this weekend and I'll make sure to write a post on that. Reading about her has just been such an inspiration to me. Chinese applied mathematician baker from Boston. It's just too perfect for words.