Apr 30, 2008
Megan Palmer is baking something special
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Palmer’s Market strives to be Darien’s neighborhood supermarket. Now, with fifth generation Megan Palmer at the helm, Palmer’s has added gourmet bakery to the list of what it offers.
Palmer’s Bakery opened last year with Palmer as executive pastry chef and while the supermarket always had a bakery, Palmer took it another step.
“We used to be a traditional baker, but we transformed it into more of a rotisserie,” she said. “We modeled it in a Parisian style.”
“It’s not really American or Italian or French,” Palmer added. “It’s a mix of everything. It’s the best of everything.”
No matter what fashion the bakery takes on, Palmer makes sure of one thing with her products — they are made with only the best ingredients. She credited the work of her staff with making the best pastries possible.
“Everything is fresh,” she said. “Everything is made from scratch and in house. We have no trans fats and no preservatives, so nothing really lasts more than a day or two. That’s my biggest thing — I want the finest, freshest ingredients out there.”
Getting the finest ingredients available includes bringing fresh bread in from New York City every day.
“It comes fresh every morning, which is amazing because it’s hard to find good bread around here.”
The bakery, or ‘my baby’ as Palmer calls it, was a long time coming.
“We had been planning this for a while, I went to Napa specifically for this,” she said.
“It was a business plan for a long time. I think I started designing this bakery when I was 18. And it turned out just how I thought it would.”
Napa is the Culinary Institute of America’s campus in Napa, Calif., where Palmer earned her pastry degree. She graduated valedictorian and won the baking and pastry achievement award.
It was at 15 that Palmer realized she wanted to be a chef. So she graduated high school early and went straight to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., for her culinary degree before heading for Aspen, Colo.
After getting her culinary degree, Palmer moved to Aspen and began putting her trade to work at a restaurant in the five-star hotel, the Little Nell. Then she realized baking was her future and she headed for Napa.
Once Palmer returned to Connecticut, her dream finally came into fruition.
“I wanted to make it my own,” Palmer said of the bakery’s design. “The idea was to make it kind of girlie with the pink and chocolate colors, and the crystals. Most bakeries you walk in and they’re not overly adorned, they’re kind of boring. This is exactly what I expected.”
The bakery’s most popular items vary from tiramisu and creme brulee to “yumyums” — Palmer’s own take on yodels. She also said the coconut macaroons and cranberry scones are among the most popular items.
The bakery will have a steady supply of its best selling pastries, but then Palmer gets to mix it up with new concoctions each day.
“We change the menu all the time,” she said. “The produce department is right there, so I might see something and decide to bake with it that day. I might say, ‘Oh the peaches look good, I think I’ll make a cobbler.’ It might just be my latest whim.”
That’s one of her favorite parts of the job, that she can decide what to make each day. She also said she’s always going into New York City and looking in other bakeries to get new ideas. I try to keep myself inspired, she said, it keeps it fun.
“My favorite thing to make are the wedding cakes,” Palmer said. “It’s the decorating that I really love. It’s art.
“We’re really trying to get more into the wedding cake business. We hope to start a retail line to other bakeries and supermarkets, then maybe even wholesale to restaurants and country clubs. We also want to package some of our most popular items. We’re really hoping to expand.”
While wedding cakes might be the future of Palmer’s Bakery, Palmer maintains that the most popular items, or standbys as she calls them, will always be available. Because it’s always about the customer and the customer’s taste buds.
“We’ve developed a really loyal following,” Palmer said. “I get calls from people the next day telling me how great their cake tasted. And that’s great because so many wedding cakes are all decoration, they don’t taste good. We want everything to taste amazing, that’s number one.”
E-mail Darien Times reporter Austin Amoroso at aamoroso@darientimes.com.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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