Caroline Schiff Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. Today's guest is Caroline Schiff, the pastry chef at Gage and Tollner in Brooklyn and the author of a brand new cookbook, The Sweet Side of Sourdough, 50 irresistible recipes for pastries, bun, cakes, cookies, and more. I went to the launch party for Caroline's book the other week, and there were plates filled with her cookies and focaccia, and everyone was in heaven. Caroline and I will talk about what she's making for Hanukkah. Happy Hanukkah, by the way, the story behind her famous Baked Alaska and more. I forgot to ask her about her famous hairdo, but that's okay, another time.
I'd like to thank today's sponsor, Kerrygold. Kerrygold, of course, is the maker of beautiful butter and cheese with dairy from Irish grass-fed cows. Kerrygold's butter and cheese are the perfect products for all your holiday baking, making and cooking. Be sure to head over to Kerrygoldusa.com because they have a special holiday calm program to help everybody de-stress this holiday period. I certainly need that. Engage all your senses, listen to some soothing sounds and find some great recipes. We'll hear a word from Kerrygold in just a minute. A little housekeeping. I will be in Washington DC on the evening of Tuesday, December 7th, with Cheryl Day of Back in the Day Bakery. I love Cheryl. We'll be talking about her brand new cookbook, Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking. Tickets are $40 and include a signed copy of Cheryl's book, which is very epic.
Visit boldforkbooks.com for more details. If you live in the DC area, I would love to see you. Now let's hear a word from Kerrygold and we'll be right back with Caroline Schiff.
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Kerry Diamond:
Caroline Schiff, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Caroline Schiff:
Thank you for having me.
Kerry Diamond:
So excited to talk to you today. Congratulations on your brand new book.
Caroline Schiff:
Thank you so much.
Kerry Diamond:
Your debut cookbook, The Sweet Side of Sourdough, which we will talk a lot about. We've got so much talk to you about. We're going to talk about the book, Gage and Tollner, everything you're doing there, Hanukkah. It's Hanukkah right now, which I know is a lot of fun for you as a baker.
Caroline Schiff:
All my favorite things.
Kerry Diamond:
All your favorite things. Exactly. Let's start with the book. How did The Sweet Side of Sourdough come about?
Caroline Schiff:
This book was actually sort of a, not really a mistake, but I never planned to write a sourdough book and I certainly didn't plan to write a book at this point in my career. Right before COVID hit and New York shutdown, as you know, had a lot going on. We were gearing up to open Gage and Tollner. Prior to that my agent and I had pitched a couple ideas around and I had a cake book idea and all these things. None of them were getting any bites. And then I was so focused on Gage and Tollner. I said, "You know what? Let's just put the book on the back burner for now. Let me focus on this. Let me see where it takes my career and then let's circle back and revisit the idea of a book, and however long."
Kerry Diamond:
And then the pandemic happened.
Caroline Schiff:
So then the pandemic happened and all of a sudden overnight Gage and Tollner was on hold. We had no idea what was going to happen. And like most people, I was just all of a sudden at home baking like crazy because for me, that's like my yoga, it's my stress relief. It's everything for me. So I'm baking like everybody else. And I also didn't want our restaurant sourdough starter to die. So I was like, "I'm going to take her home. I'm going to feed her. We can't neglect her."
Kerry Diamond:
The starter is gendered. Does she have a name or she's just she?
Caroline Schiff:
Yes, oh, actually she's named after Edna Lewis.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's nice.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. Edna. She's always with us and she's always inspiring us.
Kerry Diamond:
Edna Lewis, the iconic chef who had cooked at Gage and Tollner back in the day, back in the late eighties, early nineties.
Caroline Schiff:
So I had the sourdough starter at home and I'm making bread every day.
Kerry Diamond:
Every day.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
And giving it away?
Caroline Schiff:
I'm giving it away. But then I'm also losing my mind. I'm shoving it in the freezer and making croutons. I think we all felt like we were losing it and yeah, I'm giving stuff away. I'm telling friends to come by and this was at the point where we didn't know what was safe to do. So a friend would ride by on their bike and I would like throw a focaccia. I was overdosing on bread. I think a lot of us were, but I was committed to feeding this sourdough starter.
Kerry Diamond:
I know a lot of you out there already know what a sour dough starter is, but for those of you who don't, it's almost like having a pet.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. Yeah. You have to feed it every day or it starts to not feel well and then eventually it will die. So it's a culture, it's an active culture.
Kerry Diamond:
You're feeding it with flour.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. Like any other kind of culture out there, whether it's like yogurt or kombucha or any of these things. So you feed it flour and water. And then that starts to ferment. And it lives off of the wild yeast in your environment. There's yeast everywhere. And the microbiome of your apartment, your house, your kitchen. So each one is unique. Each one has its own characteristics and flavors. Sometimes they can be a little fruity, obviously yeasty. Some of them smell like wine or beer. Some are more funky than others. It's really cool.
Kerry Diamond:
And this serves as the natural yeast in your baked goods.
Caroline Schiff:
Right. So instead of using a commercial yeast, which there's absolutely nothing wrong with commercial yeast, you can use sourdough to leaven your bread. And it imparts texture and flavor, character. It's a little tricky because it's a little unpredictable. Sourdough starters are just like us. They have bad days. They get sluggish in the heat.
Kerry Diamond:
They have personalities.
Caroline Schiff:
They have personalities. They get annoyed if they don't get fed at the same time every day.
Kerry Diamond:
Really? I didn't know that.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. If I get into work and I feed our starter a little late, it's like the whole day is off.
Kerry Diamond:
Edna gets hangry?
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah, totally, totally.
Kerry Diamond:
Is Edna still with you? Is she back at Gage and Tollner?
Caroline Schiff:
Oh yeah. She's doing great.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, we were just getting up to the discard part, which is the worst word.
Caroline Schiff:
It is. It is. When you feed your sour dough starter, you can't just feed the whole thing because if you do, very quickly it will multiply and you'll have like vats and vats of starter. I have a small apartment. I don't need to be living with vats of sourdough starter. You always have to throw a little bit away. Yeah. You always have a little bit that's the discard that you have to get rid of or you can use it. Might not necessarily have, because you haven't fed it, it doesn't have the same ability to leaven a loaf of bread say, but it's still flour and water and it has cultures in it. And it's got all this flavor and fermentation.
So there's all these things you can do with it. And for me, I'm like, "Well, I'm feeding this thing every day and I hate wasting anything," and especially at that point in the pandemic, I really felt like throwing anything out was just ... I couldn't do it. And again, I was losing my mind. So I just started to do all these weird things with it. So the first thing I did was just make a pancake and that set some things off. It was literally the laziest simplest thing I could have done, which is I just poured the sour dough starter in a hot pan with oil. I seasoned it. I added some sesame, some scallions and flipped it and got it really crispy. And that was it. And I was like, "Okay, there's something here. We shouldn't be throwing this stuff out. There's a lot we can do with it."
Kerry Diamond:
We should mention that people got very excited about that pancake. That became a thing.
Caroline Schiff:
It did and that made me so happy because it was just like, oh my gosh all these people who have found some comfort in sourdough baking in this very heartbreaking time are now also getting creative themselves and they're not wasting. It sounds silly, but that really, it meant so much to me when people would make a pancake and throw in whatever stuff they had and tag me, I was like, oh my gosh, this is so wild and cool.
Kerry Diamond:
Instagram was definitely a lifeline back then.
Caroline Schiff:
It was, it really was. I connected with a lot of people and that's actually how the book happened. An editor just sent me a DM and was like, "You've got a great style. You have a great platform. Have you thought about writing a book? Do you have an agent?" I never intended to write this book and right from the get go I was like, "Oh, I'm not going to write this book. This is crazy." The whole thing started off with me just completely missing the first call that I was supposed to have with this editor and the publisher. '
Kerry Diamond:
You missed the call?
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. My agent was on the call and it was supposed to be whatever, Friday 11:00 AM. And I just totally forgot.
Kerry Diamond:
Whoa. And they obviously forgave you.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. And my agent is texting me and I don't know what I was doing. And she was like, "Are you joining the call? What's happening?"
Kerry Diamond:
Yikes your agent must have wanted to kill you.
Caroline Schiff:
I was mortified. I was so upset. And she was like, "You know what? It's fine. They're really nice. It's COVID. Things are crazy." She was like, "Just reschedule with them. It's going to be fine."
Kerry Diamond:
That's true. We had different rules last year.
Caroline Schiff:
We did, we did, we were a little more forgiving and I'm such a, I don't know. You've known me for a while now. I'm a pretty punctual person. I'm very like, I get back to people right away. So this was very embarrassing for me. But this editor and Madeline and the publisher gave me another shot. In the meantime I had been talking to my agent and she was like, "Well, listen, whatever idea you have, whatever you want to pitch to them, it's your first book. Make it easy for yourself. Keep it simple. Make it really approachable." And I'm like, "Okay. Yes. Got it. Easy, simple, approachable."
So then I get on this call that I don't miss. And they're like, "Well, what ideas do you have?" And I was like, "Oh, well, I have a proposal for this cake book that we were shopping around. And then I'm thinking about easy pantry cookies." And they're like, "Yeah, that's nice. I don't know. We have stuff like that. Yeah." And I'm like, "You know, I've been doing this weird thing with my sourdough starter where I got sick of making bread, so I started adding it to cookies and cakes and brownies. I'm just doing all this weird stuff with it." And they're like, "Oh, that's got legs. That sounds great." I got off the call and I was like, "Oh crap. Not only did I not keep it simple. I was like, 'Angela's going to kill me.'" I did not keep it simple. I pitched a sourdough book, which adds a whole other layer of complexity to all these recipes and everything you're writing about.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm going to ask you some questions about it because I am not a hardcore baker. I am the person who seeks out the simple recipes, the ones that you almost did a cookbook about. What is the sour dough starter adding to these products?
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. So the book has two types of recipes in my mind. There are the recipes where it really does serve as the leavening agent, like the focaccia and the sticky buns and the babka's and all of that. And then there are the other recipes that can all be done with either the discard or fed active starter. And in those recipes, it's not really the leavening agent. It's more about looking at it as an ingredient that's adding flavor, structure, crispiness, chewiness, tanginess, all of these things. So I just started seeing this thing as not just the leavening tool, like baking powder baking soda, whatever yeast, but an ingredient, like a flavor in my kitchen, the way I look at, oh, let me add some lemon juice, let me add some vanilla extract. It's like, "Okay, sourdough in this recipe is just going to make these cookies have that deep, savory quality. It's going to add some chewiness. It's going to add extra crispiness," things like that.
Kerry Diamond:
So I have to ask. If you don't have sourdough starter, can you use conventional yeast?
Caroline Schiff:
No. In these recipes, you can't.
Kerry Diamond:
No. Okay. Got it.
Caroline Schiff:
That would be, I mean-
Kerry Diamond:
Cheating?
Caroline Schiff:
You could, but you'd really have to do some nitty gritty conversions and also I just don't think that it would ... you wouldn't have that flavor and you wouldn't have that texture. So yeah, I wouldn't do it.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it. Got it. Let's walk through some of these recipes. Which one is a good gateway recipe?
Caroline Schiff:
I think the best gateway recipe is the salted honey focaccia.
Kerry Diamond:
Ooh.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about this focaccia.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah, so it's a really, really simple process. It's a simple recipe. It uses the sourdough starter as the leavening agent. It's a really simple bread. It's water, your fed active starter, some flour, some salt, time, as in it takes time to make, not the herb, but you could add the herb. That would be absolutely delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
T-I-M-E.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. Patience, I guess I should say.
Kerry Diamond:
Thyme would be nice in that with honey.
Caroline Schiff:
It would, wouldn't it?
Kerry Diamond:
Focaccia? Yeah.
Caroline Schiff:
I'll make that next time and bring you one. It's a really full-proof recipe. Everybody I've given it to, whether they are experienced in sourdough or not, has had success with it. And it's chewy, it's satisfying. It's crispy, bubbly on top. It's got the salt to balance out the sweet and you could have it as a sweet breakfast. You could have it with a cheeseboard. It's very versatile, but I think it's a great gateway recipe because it's so gratifying to see a bread come together like that for yourself, if you're a new baker and really understand how your starter works. So I would say, if you're going to start, that's a good place to kick it off.
Kerry Diamond:
What recipe is the most Caroline?
Caroline Schiff:
Oh my gosh. That's like asking me to pick my favorite child. Oh, this is so hard. If I had to choose, I would say it's the salted caramel hallah knots. I knew I wanted to figure out a way to do a sourdough hallah. And I tried a couple different recipes and versions and it wasn't really working. Usually if I test something three times and the third try it still needs a lot of work, I'm like, "Okay, we're done." The dough was working really well, but I don't know, it was having a lot of technical problems, but I really didn't want to give on it because hallah is just so important to me. It's very comforting. It's the first bread that I ever taught myself to make when I was 11 years old. So I was like, "There's got to be hallah in the book. There's got to be hallah. And so I came up with these salted caramel hallah knots where it's like the hallah dough and you just knot it up around itself and put it in a muffin tin with salted caramel and bake it. And it's the best, if hallah and a sticky bun had a baby. It's amazing.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, sounds so good. I think I actually got goosebumps when you were describing that. You know which one I love and the recipe is in the next issue of Cherry Bombe, the millionaires bars. Is that what they're called?
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my gosh. They're so good. They're like the sexiest Twix bar you've ever had.
Caroline Schiff:
That's awesome.
Kerry Diamond:
What's the story behind those?
Caroline Schiff:
That is probably the funniest story in the entire book. It's really an overshare. I went to university in Scotland and millionaire shortbread is a very, it's a super common treat. It's kind of like Rice Krispy treats or brownies where you make them at home for school snacks. And they're also just every supermarket has their packaged version. They're very, very every day. And it's a layer of shortbread, a layer of toffee and a layer of chocolate. I had never seen them before. I'm like 18, I get to college and I'm seeing them around. So I buy, I think they came in a, I don't know, like an eight pack or something like that from Tesco, which was the local supermarket. I bring them back to my dorm room and I'm doing whatever, studying assignment, and I'm eating them and I'm just sitting at my desk and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, Caroline, stop. You're going to eat the whole pack. This is out of control."
But they're so good because they're salty, they're sweet, they're crunchy, they're chewy. It's everything you want. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, this has to stop." So I toss them in the waste paper basket that's like under my desk. I'm like, "You're done. That's it." I go out with my friends, couple pub drinks later I come back and I can't believe I'm about to say this on air, but I ate them out of the trash. And there was nothing gross in the garbage. The thing about those is they're just so ... you cannot stop eating them because they hit all those notes. So the sourdough comes into play in a sourdough rye shortbread there. And they're just ridiculous.
Kerry Diamond:
When we were editing the story about you, Audrey Payne on the Cherry Bombe team, wrote the story. She wrote a beautiful story. She mentions that you went to college in Scotland. And I said, "Everyone who reads this will think Caroline is Scottish."
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
You're a native New Yorker. How did you wind up at college in Scotland?
Caroline Schiff:
That's such a good question. I kind of always knew that I just wanted a different college experience. Growing up, I did have the privilege to travel a lot and that was, I think, a huge part of my education and a huge reason why I was so interested in food and everything like that. I think I was very aware of how much I was learning by being in a place that was so different from where I was from that it made so much sense to me. I was up in Scotland at St. Andrew's and I was like, "This is the most beautiful place I've ever been. And I want to go to school here." And that was it.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's jump ahead to Gage and Tollner. So you are the pastry chef at Gage and Tollner. I am a big fan of Gage and Tollner. You have become kind of famous in New York restaurant circles for your dessert, Baked Alaska.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Why did you decide to put a Baked Alaska on the menu?
Caroline Schiff:
It's so funny when Chef Sohui and I first-
Kerry Diamond:
And that's Sohui Kim.
Caroline Schiff:
Sohui Kim, who's the chef and partner along with her husband, Ben Schneider, and their friend, who I've known the three of them for years. And when Sohui and I first sat down, this was in 2018. and I knew about the history a little bit, about the history and legend of Gage and Tollner. And she was like, "You know, this sounds kind of crazy, but you know, Ben saw the space and I think we're going to try to do this. And what do you think?" And I was like, "I think it's a great idea. And there has to be a Baked Alaska on the menu. We have to do it." We both felt that. We were like, "There's got to be a Baked Alaska." And this was before I had done any research on the menus or anything like that. And Baked Alaska was never served at Gage and Tollner, but it's a Victorian era dessert.
And it is really just over the top celebratory. It's really dramatic. And I think it fits that space so well. It was on the menu before COVID, before the pandemic. But I think it's like, I don't want to say important, but it's even more exciting after COVID because it's this giant indulgent, over the top dessert that people can share. And we didn't get to do that for so long. Yeah. It was just something to me that was, to me, dessert has always been this ... it should be whimsical and special. I mean, dessert to me is special. I knew it had to be on the menu and I wanted it to be ... we don't pipe the meringue on. It just gets swooshed on to order. And I really wanted it to have that whimsical quality to it, I guess
Kerry Diamond:
Swooshed to order. I like that. Walk us through the different layers and components, because there's a lot to this dessert.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah. There's a lot going on and I always tell people, it's like a three day process. So there's three flavors of housemaid ice cream in it. There's vanilla, Amarena cherry. The middle is dark chocolate. Then there's fresh mint. I always love the combination of chocolate and mint, always, always. And then there's a chocolate cookie crunch. So we churn all of those. We layer them. That sets overnight. I unmold it in these big slabs and then I cut it into portions. And then when the ticket comes in, these portions live in the freezer. We make a French merengue to order for every single one. And then with an offset spatula, just swoosh it on and we blow torch it.
Kerry Diamond:
Now I have to ask, Pete Wells did refer to it in his New York Times review of Gage and Tollner. And he referred to it as being the size of a large house cat. Did that make you laugh or were you like, "Pete, Why'd you have to call it that?"
Caroline Schiff:
No, I thought it was funny. I do really like Pete's writing. I think he has the right amount of humor and sarcasm and that kind of thing. It is, it's huge. It's not the most beautiful dessert on the menu.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I think it's beautiful, Caroline.
Caroline Schiff:
Well, thank you. But it's not this intricate refined thing. It's just this giant swoosh of torched meringue. So yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
It's interesting that Baked Alaska's are having such a moment. I've had yours now maybe a dozen times. I had a really good one at Andrew Carmellini's new restaurant down at the Seaport. I was just reading Cheryl Day's cookbook. There's a recipe for it there.
Caroline Schiff:
Oh, I love Cheryl, yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Zoe Francois, who we all know and love as Zoe Bakes.
Caroline Schiff:
Love her. I was so nervous when she came in and ordered the Baked Alaska. I was like, "The queen is here." But she's so sweet. She's so wonderful.
Kerry Diamond:
She is very sweet. Okay. So that Gage and Tollner. I recommend that everybody goes. It's tough to get a reservation, but try. It's worth it. You'll have a wonderful time there. Let's talk Hanukkah because we're in the middle of Hanukkah.
Caroline Schiff:
In Judaism, we do have so much symbolism in food. They are foods that are very specific to holidays for very important reasons. So I love that. And Hanukkah is one of the best ones because it's all about fried foods and fried foods are delicious, as we all know.
Kerry Diamond:
And tell us what that signifies, the fried food.
Caroline Schiff:
The fried food just symbolizes the oil that was part of the Hanukkah miracle. Oh my gosh. I feel like I'm in Hebrew school again. I'm like, "Okay, the miracle of Hanukkah. The temple was destroyed and there was only enough oil left to burn the lamp in the temple for one night. But the miracle of Hanukkah is that it lasted for eight nights. So we cook things in oil and we enjoy things in oil to symbolize that miracle of Hanukkah. That's why we have latkes. But when we think about Hanukkah desserts, it's all about the sufganiyot. Sufganiyot are donuts basically and typically it's a yeasted dough, enriched. Typically they're filled with jam.
Caroline Schiff:
So if you are in Israel over Hanukkah, you'll see, you'll walk down the street in the market stalls, they just have these giant trays of sufganiyot with strawberry jam and raspberry jam and they're covered in powdered sugar. And it's so fun. They're so delicious. And I love making them.
Kerry Diamond:
Your family must be so spoiled.
Caroline Schiff:
It's funny, my brother emailed me last night and he was like, "Hey," because Hanukkah, it's quite early this year. And he's like, "I know you're super busy and everything. And if you can't do anything, it's okay, but it would be great if we could plan a little Hanukkah family thing." And I'm like, "Oh absolutely. I'm coming over. I'm making latkes."
Kerry Diamond:
What's your latke secret?
Caroline Schiff:
The thing is they're all pretty similar. I have my great-grandmother's recipe, but latkes are always potato. Some people put onions in them. Some people don't. I happen to put onions in mine. Usually a little bit of something to bind it together, egg, a little bit of flour, but really the secret to a fantastic latke is to get as much moisture out of those potatoes as you can.
Kerry Diamond:
Get them in that kitchen towel and ring it, ring it, ring it.
Caroline Schiff:
And ring it out and then ring it out some more.
Kerry Diamond:
What do you top them with?
Caroline Schiff:
I love just dunking them in creme fresh. My family will do ... everybody has their favorite toppings and we'll do a whole spread. My niece loves them with applesauce. My mom is always going to have caviar and that kind of thing. So a latke party is really one of the best.
Kerry Diamond:
How about sweet potatoes?
Caroline Schiff:
This might be an unpopular opinion. I'm really not a sweet potato fan. Yeah. I mean, some people do a sweet potato latke and I respect ...
Kerry Diamond:
What else are you making for Hanukkah?
Caroline Schiff:
Latkes, sufganiyot. I like to fry all the sufganiyot and then have different fillings and piping bags so people can fill their own, which is really, really fun.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's fun.
Caroline Schiff:
Yes. You can do Nutella. You can do lemon curd. I love raspberry jam is my favorite, but that's just a really fun thing.
Kerry Diamond:
I have to ask. Do you make your own raspberry jam?
Caroline Schiff:
I mean, I do if I have an abundance of raspberries in the summer or whatever. If I'm doing the whole Hanukkah sufganiyot thing, to then make all the fillings, those are my Hanukkah staples that I have to have.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. Let's do a little speed round.
Caroline Schiff:
Okay. Can't wait.
Kerry Diamond:
What is one of your most treasured cookbooks?
Caroline Schiff:
One of my absolute favorite most treasured cookbooks is decommissioned Brooklyn Public Library book. Good friend of mine found for me at a thrift store.
Kerry Diamond:
We want to make clear, you did not steal it from the Brooklyn Public Library.
Caroline Schiff:
I did not steal it. It is no longer in print. It's from the sixties. It's like Jewish Cuisine from Boston to Baghdad, and it's interesting and inspiring and a little dated, but I just, I love old cookbooks and that one I tend to ... and I read cookbooks. I find them very comforting. Before I go to bed, I'll flip through and that's one that I'm always grabbing. It's funny.
Kerry Diamond:
Most used kitchen tool.
Caroline Schiff:
A bowl scraper, a plastic bowl scraper. They're so cheap. They're so useful. I have like 20.
Kerry Diamond:
Music in the kitchen. Yes or no?
Caroline Schiff:
No. Yes. Always during prep. Yeah. Not during service, a little too distracting.
Kerry Diamond:
What do you listen to?
Caroline Schiff:
We listen to kind of everything. I personally do not like to DJ. I don't want that pressure and responsibility. People in the kitchen take turns and I'm not super picky, but we do have one cook who started to put ABBA on a lot. And it's great. Highly recommend ABBA as a kitchen soundtrack. Nobody complains. Everybody's in a good mood. It's one hit after another. It's great.
Kerry Diamond:
What was your last pantry purchase?
Caroline Schiff:
Oh, my last pantry purchase was ... I do make regular trips to Kalustyan's and just-
Kerry Diamond:
Famous spice shop in Manhattan.
Caroline Schiff:
Yeah, and I think I restocked my chili flakes. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Footwear of choice in the kitchen.
Caroline Schiff:
This has changed over the years, but pretty consistently for the last two years I've been wearing Blundstones. They're really durable and they really are quite comfortable and they have ankle support, which I really like.
Kerry Diamond:
What is the oldest thing in your fridge?
Caroline Schiff:
Ooh. The oldest thing in my fridge is a jar of maraschino cherries.
Kerry Diamond:
Dream travel destination.
Caroline Schiff:
This has been on my list for a while. Once I can get some time off, I really do want to spend some time in Croatia. Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
I know you're very busy right now, but are you streaming anything?
Caroline Schiff:
Yes, I am streaming the new season of Succession. I am almost done with Squid Game.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Last question. If you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Caroline Schiff:
I'm sure everybody says this, but it's Ina I mean, it's Ina. She's just so wonderful. Jeffrey can come too. We love Jeffrey. I mean yeah, she would make the time go. She would make the time go fast.
Kerry Diamond:
What would you make for Ina on that desert island?
Caroline Schiff:
Oh my gosh. Well assuming there's a fully equipped kitchen on this desert island, oh I'd make her my coconut cake. Yeah. I mean Ina, if you're listening and you want coconut cake, I would love to make you coconut cake.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, maybe Ina's listening and she'll put in that order. Caroline, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations on your book. And before we let you go, do you want to shout out your pastry team? Because I know you have an amazing team and some Bombesquad members are on that team.
Caroline Schiff:
My incredible pastry team at Gage and Tollner. I'm so lucky to work with all of them. Katherine, Grayson and Rachel, absolutely dream team.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Caroline Schiff for joining us. Be sure to check out her new book, The Sweet Side of Sourdough at your favorite bookstore. And if you plan to be in Brooklyn, go check out that Baked Alaska in person at Gage and Tollner. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe magazine. This interview was recorded at Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Thank you to Joseph Hazan, studio engineer for Newsstand Studios and to our assistant producer, Jenna Sadhu. If you enjoyed this chat, catch my conversation with other brilliant bakers like baking icon Dorie Greenspan and cookie queen Sarah Kieffer, wherever you get your podcasts. And hey, I'd love for you to subscribe to our podcast as well. Happy Hanukkah, everybody. Thank you for listening. You are the bombe.