Zoë François Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City. Each week, we talk to the coolest culinary personalities around, the folks shaping and shaking up the food scene. Joining me in the studio today is Zoë François, who is just the most delightful human. Some of you might know Zoë as Zoë Bakes on Instagram, or as the star of Zoë Bakes on the Magnolia Network, or maybe you know Zoë as the author of Zoë Bakes Cakes, her recent cookbook that's filled with her signature confections. Zoë joins us today to talk about life, baking, and more. So stay tuned.
This episode of Radio Cherry Bombe is sponsored by Kerrygold, which is so nice because Zoë and I met on a Kerrygold trip to Ireland a few years ago. Kerrygold's butter and cheese is made with milk from Irish grass-fed cows and you can truly taste the difference in their exceptional products. I love to bake with Kerrygold products, but we are in the middle of a heat wave and I have no plans to turn on my oven. I want to talk about some other fun things you can do with Kerrygold. You can make compound butter. What is that, you ask? Well, compound butter is essentially butter that you mix with herbs, spices, and door seasonings. You shape it into a log and pop it in the fridge or freezer to harden.
Then you have it to spread on bread, muffins, or biscuits, or you could slather it on fish or steak if you're barbecuing. You can even get fancy and colorful and incorporate edible flower petals into your compound butter. And how about Kerrygold cheese when it's steamy outside? It's all about the salad. Start by tossing your favorite greens and some sliced peaches or cherries, which is perfect right now because it's stone fruit season, with a nice bright vinaigrette. Add in some roughly chopped walnuts, pecans, or pistachios, and some small chunks of Kerrygold's Blarney Castle, which is a Gouda-style cheese, or their Kerrygold Cashel Blue Farmhouse Cheese. Toss lightly one more time and enjoy.
You can learn more about Kerrygold butter and cheese at KerrygoldUSA.com and look for Kerrygold at your favorite supermarket or specialty food shop. If you are a regular listener and you haven't signed up yet for our weekly newsletter, head over to cherrybombe.com. Stay on top of all Cherry Bombe events, special podcast episodes, and news from Cherry Bombe HQ. Now, let's check in with today's guest.
Zoë François, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Zoë François:
I'm so happy to be here.
Kerry Diamond:
We have done over 300 episodes and somehow this is our first Zoë François episode.
Zoë François:
Well, I am so honored. Actually I've been waiting a long time to be invited. Yeah, thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
You are such a positive human being. How do you stay so positive?
Zoë François:
Well, I grew up with a father who believed deeply in therapy. The very first thing I remembered doing as like a preteen is this thing called actualizations. It was this group of teenagers that got together and spent a weekend actualizing themselves, which sounds so crazy. But if you knew my upbringing, it would make a whole lot more sense. But that's the kind of... instead of like camp, my dad would send me to like EST. Do you remember EST?
Kerry Diamond:
I've read about it. I don't know what it means. I also don't know what actualization means. Do you want to tell us?
Zoë François:
Nobody does.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, okay.
Zoë François:
No, no, no, no, nobody does, but it's sort of this like finding yourself. But what preteen really wants that? Well, I was going to like self-help workshops starting at like 10. Not that that helped me, but I don't know. I think it's somewhat innate personality. And also, I had a very crazy bonkers upbringing. It was like, I could sink or swim basically. It's like, if I let all of the crazy takeover, it wasn't going to get me anywhere and I wanted to go somewhere. I was like rebelling from that. The way I rebelled was being happy. So weird.
Kerry Diamond:
I don't even know where to start with your childhood, because sometimes it sounds like something out of a movie or a TV show or a book.
Zoë François:
Which is so funny because it's my childhood, so I don't know any different. But when I tell people, it's like what?
Kerry Diamond:
You moved a lot as a child.
Zoë François:
I did move a lot. In fact, I went to 16 schools before I graduated from college. Graduating from college was amazing considering the holes in my education. It was pure will and some really incredible teachers that identified that I had some aptitude but very few skills.
Kerry Diamond:
Why did you move so many times?
Zoë François:
Because my dad was a wandering hippie and we went from commune to commune to cults. He was a real seeker. I mean, probably the most curious person I know. There goes the self-actualization. He was constantly looking for it. Not sure he's found it yet. He's still looking, as we all are, but it dragged me from communes in Vermont, in California, in Pennsylvania, and some religious cults. it was crazy. But like I said, it was my childhood, so I didn't have anything to compare to.
Kerry Diamond:
Just so folks know, you are on good terms with your dad these days. He's been on your TV show.
Zoë François:
He has.
Kerry Diamond:
Yes.
Zoë François:
Yes, it's great. Like I said before, I rebelled, but I've come to respect him and admire him and realize what a treasure I had the whole time. He was doing things like starting co-ops and growing all of his own food and keeping bees and hauling maple syrup from Vermont to Florida to sell it and making food at Woodstock. Now, I look at him and I have such admiration for him. But back then, I just wanted a dad in a suit who went to an office just to be normal. I didn't want the name Zoë. I changed my name to Donna.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh wait, I didn't know that part.
Zoë François:
Yeah. At five, I changed my name to Donna because Zoë was so weird. Do you remember Takashimaya, the department store right here on Fifth? I actually changed my name to Takashimaya for a hot minute.
Kerry Diamond:
When you were little?
Zoë François:
When I was little. It was my favorite store. I could reinvent myself every time I moved and I did.
Kerry Diamond:
Our poor teachers are so under siege right now and so under-appreciated. But as a child, you had a handful of teachers really kind of help you.
Zoë François:
Yeah. I would say the most memorable teachers for me were in the creative arts, so like home economics. I did not excel as an academic student. It just wasn't going to be for me. It was really the teachers that saw my potential creatively. I mean, I grew up in a dance studio as well, that's my mom's side of the story, and my dad's very creative. That was always going to be part of my world. But then they sent me to boarding school in high school because they realized that I needed the foundation of education.
I mean, even if you're in a creative field, you have to have some of the understanding of that. There was a teacher. I think it was like first or second day I'm sitting there and he realized that I was curious and interested and loved the subjects, but I did not know how to learn. I didn't know how to read, to take notes. There were just some fundamental, practical things that I had missed. He took me aside and tutored me, which is very unusual for somebody in a boarding school to do that.
Kerry Diamond:
We discovered this when we were talking for the cover story. One way that you made friends in all these new schools was by giving out candy.
Zoë François:
Yes. Yes. It started really early. I think I was eight. I was living in San Francisco with my dad. I went to three different schools that year. It was just a crash into a group of kids. I realized I would stop on my way to school and buy myself candy. And everybody would want some, and then I would buy candy for everybody. It was like an instant in. It was a little bit desperate on my part, but it was also when I look back on it, it was presence of mind to know that this was going to be the faster track. I don't think I ever lost that feeling. I could just remember how happy they were and what a surprise it was. It was a great feeling, and I still feel that way when I'm feeding people. It's for different reasons now hopefully.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you have your cookie cart? Was that in college or right after college?
Zoë François:
It was college. I wrote a series of bread books and I have a co-author and my co-author is a doctor by training. He always refers to me as having a very interesting relationship to numbers. In college...
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, is that a compliment or not a compliment?
Zoë François:
It's not a compliment. It is very much not a compliment, but he took that part. I mean, he loved numbers, Excel spreadsheets, calendars, and I could just create. It was a perfect combination. In college, I had to take a math class. I decided I would take this business class to fulfill that. Most of it I don't remember, but one of the things he had us do was write a business plan. We had to write like a fictitious business plan. It was the time of Mrs. Fields cookies and Famous Amos and all of these gourmet cookies were popping up. I wrote my business plan, Zoë's Cookies.
Kerry Diamond:
For those listeners who don't know those names, they were in every mall across America.
Zoë François:
Before that point, it was Toll House. That's what everybody knew. They were adding macadamia nuts and white chocolate.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you remember the cookie cakes?
Zoë François:
Oh yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
You could get a giant cookie as a cake and it would be decorated with buttercream and your name on it. I loved those.
Zoë François:
I was just enthralled with this. I wrote this business plan and decided it looked like a whole lot more fun than school. I went, took out a bank loan, which he had actually recommended that we do to get credit.
Kerry Diamond:
The professor?
Zoë François:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Which blows my mind. What professor is telling students to take on more debt?
Zoë François:
Yeah. He had said, "Take out a loan. Do not spend it. And then just pay it off, because then you're going to establish a line of credit."
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, interesting.
Zoë François:
Your credit score is going to be great. I had no idea what he was talking about at the time, but I did it. But instead of not spending it, I spent it on this cookie company, I bought a mixer. My boyfriend at the time built me this adorable cart that I could wheel out onto the street, because obviously I didn't have enough money for brick and mortar. I taught myself how to make these gourmet cookies. They weren't very good. I have the recipe card still and I made some maybe a year ago and realized how terrible they were. But at the time, they were great.
Kerry Diamond:
Were they really terrible?
Zoë François:
And they were made with so much love. I mean, maybe my... Well, definitely my 18-year-old self thought they were great. But now that I'm making it having had a 30-year career in the food world, I've learned the salt balance was off and the sugar...
Kerry Diamond:
Were you selling them to drunk college students?
Zoë François:
I was actually selling them to the store owners on Church Street in Burlington.
Kerry Diamond:
Because I went to college across the lake from you at SUNY Plattsburgh and there was a pizza place and we thought it was the best pizza on the planet. It wasn't. It was just 2:00 in the morning and we were drunk.
Zoë François:
Was it downstairs from Nectar's on the corner right there?
Kerry Diamond:
I think it was Monopoles. Was it Monopoles? I forget the name of it. If anyone remembers, DM me.
Zoë François:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, it was those days where when we taste things now that we had then loved, sometimes either our palette has changed or really things have gotten better.
Kerry Diamond:
I think things have gotten better definitely.
Zoë François:
I think it's gotten better. My cookies have gotten better as well. I made every mistake in the book and I learned a ton. I actually didn't lose money, and I did actually end up paying back the bank and establishing a great line of credit score.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you get an A in that class?
Zoë François:
I do not remember. I highly doubt it.
Kerry Diamond:
Because grades don't matter, kids.
Zoë François:
Because grades don't matter. Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Learned that lesson now. Anyway, no. It's not true. If your parents are listening, that's not true. We're going to time travel again. We're going to travel to Minneapolis.
Zoë François:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Even though you had this fun, great experience with your cookie cart in Burlington, you did not pursue that as a career.
Zoë François:
It didn't follow the path that I thought I wanted for myself, which was an office. I thought I'd be in Manhattan. I'd work in the advertising world. I'd wear a suit to work. I'd be a CEO someday. That's what I thought. Doing a cookie company or baking or being in the kitchen in any way did not fulfill the fantasy that I had set out for myself. I went into that world. I worked in an advertising agency in Minneapolis. It was between a half an hour and a week. It felt like 10 years. I would come home... have you been to Minneapolis? The buildings are connected by skyways. I would walk through this skyway with 10 million other people and I would get to my brown cubicle.
I would be like, "This is not at all what I thought this was going to be. I thought it would be really creative." I would just come home depleted. My whole soul was just sucked out of my body, and I would just bake. I would bake and bake until I basically fell asleep. It was actually my husband who said, "Why don't you go to culinary school? This is what you basically love to do and live to do." I did it. I just went to a local culinary school in Minneapolis. Got a job at a little cafe.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you quit your ad agency job?
Zoë François:
Oh yeah, like in a heartbeat. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. My husband had a job and a really good one, so I had the financial stability to do something. I could pursue this thing and check it out and see if it was real. I got this job in this cafe and went to culinary school. I loved it. I could have spent all of my time there, sleep there. I was married, so that wasn't going to be good for my marriage. But it was my thing. I found my people. I had studied art in school other than this business class.
I knew the artists were my people, but I didn't know what my medium was. And then I found it. It was food. The culinary school in Minneapolis was great. It was probably set up more for industrial kitchens. Tin cans were involved. It was just not the food that moved me. This is when I realized that my parents were cool, and I started walking it back and wanting less sugar and organic and things that tasted great. So, I did that school. It was terrific, but then I went to the CIA and did some work there because...
Kerry Diamond:
Culinary Institute of America and you went to the one at Hyde Park in New York.
Zoë François:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Left your husband.
Zoë François:
Left my husband and my dogs.
Kerry Diamond:
And your dogs?
Zoë François:
And my dogs.
Kerry Diamond:
No kids yet?
Zoë François:
No kids yet. I wanted a crash course in the techniques, in the food science. Because in baking in particular, there's like these foundational things with science that you have to understand, even though that's not really where my brain power lies.
Kerry Diamond:
So even though you knew you weren't good with numbers, you did love science.
Zoë François:
I loved kitchen science. I needed to know this. I needed to understand how things played together so that I could create, instead of follow. I knew that I wanted to manipulate recipes, but I didn't always know how to do it so that I would have a high success rate. It was just too time consuming to fail that often. The failures were the most exceptional educational tool around. Why people don't embrace failure more? I know it sounds so like such a cliché and I was terrified of it.
I didn't want anybody to see me failing, but it was like, without all of that, I wouldn't have developed half of the recipes that I have. It's where you learn. It's like, how would you learn if you did everything perfectly? That experience was intense and fast and just incredible. I got a job from the CIA with Andrew Zimmern over the phone and I left and I went. I didn't graduate.
Kerry Diamond:
I always think of you as like the Luke Skywalker of CIA. You're like so close to becoming a Jedi and you get lured out of school to go back and work in a restaurant.
Zoë François:
The degree or the diploma wasn't the end game for me. I felt like I got some of the tools that I needed and I wanted to be in the kitchen.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that it was Andrew who called you and got you to come work in his restaurant. I heard him speak once, and he is one of the most moving, inspiring humans I've ever heard speak.
Zoë François:
Yeah. He's been one of the biggest mentors in my entire career.
Kerry Diamond:
And he had a restaurant. Most people know Andrew Zimmern as a TV personality now, but he had a restaurant back then. In reading about it and hearing you talk about it previously, it almost feels like it was a rock band of sorts and it was very much a moment working there.
Zoë François:
Minneapolis, when I first moved there, had one fine dining restaurant. The rest of it was national chains. Marcus Samuelsson moved into town, opened up Aquavit, and it was closed, shuttered within four months because the palette of Minneapolis wasn't used to that kind of food. And honestly, they weren't used to those prices. It took a while to educate. And Andrew… the first restaurant that he was in in Minneapolis, I want to say was Un Deux Trois. It was very French, classic French, beautifully done. We opened up a restaurant where I worked with him called Bravo.
It pushed the envelope a little bit. I think French food's a nice entry point, but he was pushing it a little bit farther with Bravo. He really created—not alone but with some other chefs—really created the food scene in Minneapolis. It was super exciting to be a part of that and to watch people come in and say, "What's that?" And then try it and be like, "Whoa!" It was really fun to feel like you're on the ground floor of something.
Kerry Diamond:
I want to jump ahead to the bread books because this is a chapter of Zoë François' life that I didn't even really know existed. I knew you as Zoë Bakes, the woman behind these beautiful cakes and this beautiful Instagram account, but you had a whole life with all these bestselling bread books. Tell us how that began.
Zoë François:
Well, I left the restaurant world when I had my kids because it's bonkers, and you can't work all those hours when you have little ones, so I left.
Kerry Diamond:
Not just all the hours, the nighttime hours.
Zoë François:
It's nighttime, weekends. It's all the opposite hours that families want. I left. I was raising my kids. I took them to a music class, these little kids’ classes. I had done the class with my eldest and now I was there with my younger one. I went to the back of the room and I started chatting with this man. He found out I was a pastry chef, so he told me about this bread that he was baking. It sounded awful. I mean, it just flew in the face of absolutely everything I had studied about bread. He didn't knead it. He let it sit in the refrigerator for... well, when I met him, it was a month. And it was just like, what are you even talking about?
He tried to get me to make the recipe and taste it. We were friends at this point and I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I like put it off. Super, super persistent. I finally did it. I came back and I'm like, "You have got to write a book," because it's like...
Kerry Diamond:
He pressured you into making his bread recipe. Oh, that's so funny.
Zoë François:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's very persistent. So, I'd been teaching classes and people would've made a five-tier wedding cake before they wanted to bake bread. It was also on the heels of Atkins. I don't know if you remember that disaster.
Kerry Diamond:
Like a big low-carb moment.
Zoë François:
No carb. No carbs. Bread was like the evil, but it was just... We were just slipping out from under that rock. I made it and I'm like, "You have got to put this in front of people. It's so easy. It's so amazing." He called into Lynne Rossetto Kasper, The Splendid Table.
Kerry Diamond:
The original host of The Splendid Table radio show.
Zoë François:
The original host. I mean, because this was back in...
Kerry Diamond:
Which was recorded in St. Paul.
Zoë François:
Yep, in St. Paul. This was way back in early 2000s, and she gave him some advice.
Kerry Diamond:
On air?
Zoë François:
On air. Yeah, yeah, yeah, on air. It turned out that an editor from New York was listening, called Lynne Rossetto Kasper and said, "We want that book." And that's how the book deal came. We've ended up writing the book together.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us the title of the book.
Zoë François:
Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. We now have eight books in that series.
Kerry Diamond:
And how many copies were sold? Tell us.
Zoë François:
Almost a million.
Kerry Diamond:
Amazing. You taught a lot of people how to bake bread.
Zoë François:
We taught a lot of people how to bake bread. I thought that it would be a great present for my parents. I had no idea that was coming. Jeff did.
Kerry Diamond:
Your co-author?
Zoë François:
Yes. Yes. He always knew it would be a smash success. I just figured, I'm at home with my kids. I've never written a book before. Let's do this. It'll be really fun.
Kerry Diamond:
Why do you think those books were so popular?
Zoë François:
Well, because of the timing. First of all, the method is awesome. It's super easy. Anybody can do it. And it was timing. It was some luck that people were realizing that bread was not evil. And in fact, it's the staple of many cultures and should be. And just don't eat the whole loaf.
Kerry Diamond:
Easier said than done sometimes. If someone is interested in checking out those books today, should they start at the beginning with the first one?
Zoë François:
They're all standalone. I mean, the method is just that easy. It's not like they build on each other. We have a book, Holiday and Celebration Breads. I did put a 15-minute croissant dough in that book. It's not five minutes, it's 15. But the rest of them, it's a dump and stir. You dump the ingredients. The main recipe has four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. You just dump it in a big bucket, because you're making enough bread for four loaves. And that's where the time-saving comes in. You just stir it, like a wooden spoon is fine, and then you can store that for up to two weeks. Originally I had said... Jeff was doing it for a month and I told him I wouldn't put my name on that book. So we compromised at two weeks.
Kerry Diamond:
So you can store the dough, the uncooked dough, in your freezer?
Zoë François:
In the fridge.
Kerry Diamond:
In the fridge?
Zoë François:
In the refrigerator.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow! Okay.
Zoë François:
It's sort of a similar concept to the sourdough that the fermentation makes the dough more interesting the longer that it's sitting there. You can even save a little piece and seed the next batch so that you start with more flavor. It's not a sourdough. It is not that process. It's absolutely terrific beginner bread. In fact, I consider it like the gateway to the craft. I am absolutely thrilled when people start with our bread and then write to me and tell me they're making sourdough bread. I don't care how they get there, but this is a great way to start.
Kerry Diamond:
Next leap. At some point you decide, "I want to do something different."
Zoë François:
Yes. Well, okay, so pastry was always my heart. It was always my love. Really the bread books were a train ride. I didn't realize...
Kerry Diamond:
But you were becoming known as this “bread lady.”
Zoë François:
Yeah. I didn't realize that that was going to be such a freight train. And every time we finished one book, the publisher wanted another one. It just kept going. And then eventually, I was like, I want to go back to doing pastry. I started Zoë Bakes on Instagram, and I was just sort of doing it for my own satisfaction. And then I realized that that was taking over more and more of my time and I love it. I really felt like I had said everything I needed to say about five-minute bread dough. I loved it. I have no regrets about that. There's so much more.
There is so much more—more and more than that for me and what I wanted to teach people. I've realized doing those books what I'm really good at and what I really love is demystifying baking, because people are so intimidated by it. That more than cooking by leaps and bounds. I realized that my joy... I'm getting goosebumps, just talking about it. That my joy is not even baking for other people anymore. It's watching them bake and finding that joy and learning that it's fun and not being intimidated by it.
Kerry Diamond:
What recipe should folks start with in your cookbook?
Zoë François:
Oh, in the cake book?
Kerry Diamond:
If they're slightly intimidated. Yep. In Zoë Bakes Cakes.
Zoë François:
I have Zoë Bakes Cakes and really the way that I laid that book out was almost like my culinary school, so that you're really starting with the basics. And in fact, I have a chapter called The Cake Academy. If you want to go into some of the food science and how these things come together, or if you have your grandmother's recipe that isn't quite working out, I spell that out in science that I would have wanted to be taught. It's a little bit geeky, but it's understandable. But I really lay out the book from really easy basic recipes, some of them are even one bowl, all the way to the end where you can build a wedding cake and it's everything in between. I have pavlova and all kinds of cake in there, but there's something for everybody.
Kerry Diamond:
What has turned out to be the most popular recipe?
Zoë François:
My pavlova.
Kerry Diamond:
Because something always emerges.
Zoë François:
Yep. I would say the pavlova, the lemon curd pound cake. My pavlova is a little bit different because I sweep it up into a tutu. I mean, you know the story of Pavlova. She was a ballet dancer, and so I figured this thing should not be flat. They're gorgeous in their sort of rustic style, but I figured it should be an ode to a ballerina. I sweep it up and it looks like a tutu.
Kerry Diamond:
That's a fun summertime dessert.
Zoë François:
It's a fun summertime dessert, and it's actually much easier than it looks. I think people are so surprised and pleased with themselves. I think that recipe alone has been made 5,000 times on Instagram and people are just so pleased with themselves when they make it.
Kerry Diamond:
And that's a good feeling.
Zoë François:
It's a great feeling.
Kerry Diamond:
When you bake something beautiful.
Zoë François:
You make something beautiful and then you share it. It's like, there's nothing better than that for me.
Kerry Diamond:
The TV show.
Zoë François:
The TV show.
Kerry Diamond:
You just got renewed for a third season. Congratulations!
Zoë François:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about the TV show.
Zoë François:
Well, the TV show somewhat came out of Instagram, because all of us during COVID had to sort of create community in new ways. I was doing tutorials on Instagram, because...
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my god, I actually forgot how much you were doing on Instagram. You were doing so many Lives.
Zoë François:
Well, first, I was doing these camera-down, just-my-hands tutorials, because I realized that people would make the recipes if they can see me doing it, but I wasn't in the videos. And then COVID came and I flipped the camera around and started doing Lives because I needed that connection. It was not enough for me to have just my hands in it. I wanted to interact, so I did the Lives. Back to Andrew, he has a production company in Minneapolis. He told me 20, 25 years ago that I would have a TV show.
But I had the kids. I was crazy. That was just not something I was interested in. He's so brilliant at it, and I am not as big a character as he is. And then he came back to me and said, "Let's do a sizzle." We had one idea, and then I found out the Magnolia Network was becoming a thing. I said, "That's where I want to be." I love their passion for their craft. They seem so devoted to their craft, and that's the first thing.
Kerry Diamond:
You don't have to be silly on their shows, which I love.
Zoë François:
It's not so much about sort of flashy entertainment as it is about them teaching their craft. I'm like, this is me, because I'm not an actress. That's just not going to come with the game. We did a sizzle and it just kept going up the ladder at the network. Next thing I know, they're like, "Let's shoot a pilot." And they liked the pilot and here we are, season three.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you get to leave Minneapolis for season three?
Zoë François:
Well, not yet. Not yet. It's coming. It's coming, I hope. Are you listening?
Kerry Diamond:
Zoë goes to Paris.
Zoë François:
Zoë goes to Paris. It's definitely my dream, because traveling and pastry are two things that just...
Kerry Diamond:
Zoë goes to Paris would be so fun.
Zoë François:
It has to be, right?
Kerry Diamond:
It has to be.
Zoë François:
But right now, it's really fun because I go out into my community and I get to bake with people. I get to go to the farms. I get to go to the producers. I don't think many people understand the Minneapolis food scene, one, but that we produce so much of the food, dairy. We are an agricultural state. It's been incredible. I mean, a learning experience for me, because I didn't know half of the stuff that we were producing. It's been basically people joining my journey and learning about that. But then I come home and whatever I've been inspired by, I teach people how to bake. And that at the end of the day is my jam. We will be making jam this season.
Kerry Diamond:
Fun. Okay, let's do a speed round since you've never been on the show. I haven't been doing speed rounds. I don't know why, but I love them and we'll do one since it's your first time on the show. What is a treasured cookbook in your collection?
Zoë François:
Baking with Julia, Julia [Child] and Dorie Greenspan.
Kerry Diamond:
Most used kitchen implement?
Zoë François:
Mixer, my stand mixers, and I have five different brands.
Kerry Diamond:
What is a song that makes you smile?
Zoë François:
Strawberry Letter 23. Do you know that by Brothers Johnson?
Kerry Diamond:
I think I do. Sing it.
Zoë François:
No, no, no, no, no. That's not going to happen.
Kerry Diamond:
No? Okay, she won't sing it. I think I know it. You can sing it for me when we turn off the mics. What are you streaming right now?
Zoë François:
Ozark. Oh, oh, oh, Under the Banner of Heaven. Have you heard of this? It's about this Mormon sect. Super intense.
Kerry Diamond:
Kitchen footwear of choice?
Zoë François:
Converse. These new hot... oh, you have them on too. That's funny.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's take a picture with matching Converse on.
Zoë François:
These have platform soles, so they're really comfortable. But I also have kitchen mats. I swear by my kitchen mats.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's so smart.
Zoë François:
Yes, yes, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Is there a brand you like in case people want to get them?
Zoë François:
I'll let you know. I don't remember. They're too old for me to remember that, but I'm in my kitchen 12 hours a day. You should not be standing on a hard service for that long.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, good advice. Dream travel destination?
Zoë François:
Vietnam. I really want to go to Vietnam. I want to go back to Paris. I mean, because of COVID, it's like everywhere. Italy is one of my favorite places. Spain.
Kerry Diamond:
So many.
Zoë François:
Yeah, so many.
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?
Zoë François:
I'm going to say Dorie Greenspan just because she can cook everything. She's so talented in every direction. I find her just... she soothes my whole being. She's the sweetest, most talented, most generous. She's another one of my mentors who has just been a gift to me. I want to spend my days with her.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, she is a treasure as are you, Zoë François. Thank you so much for your time. It's so good to see you.
Zoë François:
It was so nice. Thank you. I loved this.
Kerry Diamond:
I feel like we need to do a part two. I feel like we barely scratched the surface.
Zoë François:
Yeah, let's do it.
Kerry Diamond:
You'll have to come back soon.
Zoë François:
I will. I'd love it.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Thank you so much to Zoë François for joining me today. If you want to keep up on all things Zoë, follow her on Instagram at @ZoëBakes and be sure to check out her wonderful Zoë Bakes series on the Magnolia Network. If you're a baker or a dessert enthusiast, pick up a copy of Zoë Bakes Cakes at your favorite local bookstore. Thank you to Kerrygold for supporting today's show and for introducing me to Zoë. If you enjoyed today's show, check out past interviews with other bakers like Cheryl Day of Back in the Day Bakery, Ellen King of Hewn Bakery, and Nadiya Hussain of The Great British Bake Off. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of Cherry Bombe Magazine. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Thank you, Joseph Hazan, studio engineer for Newsstand Studio at Rockefeller Center, and thank you to our assistant producer, Jenna Sadhu. Thanks to you for listening. You're the bombe.