Personal History, 1993 to now
Just the basics. When and where. It might read dully, like a resume, but the route here is kinda random so I’ll try to be straightforward.
’93 college graduation. Brown Univ. Loved it. Studied history. It frames my perspective.
1994, 1995. Health educator. Probably the best jobs I’ve ever had. I worked in community health clinics, in Providence, Rhode Island and then in San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles county. Showed me the value of prevention. And that people want detail but sometimes are timid to ask for it, which is understandable. Unwillingness to come forward is always understandable, but it takes listening to get there.
1998, George Washington University. J.D., MPH. The formal educational outcome of my interest in history and health ed. Problem was my focus for public health was sex ed. There were always lots of questions—all of the students had lots of questions and the school materials didn’t go there. I wanted to and the teachers I would guest lecture for on behalf of the clinics I worked for that contracted to come in and give the sex ed lectures… they were happy to have the questions answered. But no one I met at the planning level was ready to have the formal discussion about sex and all that comes from being honest about talking. Opening up. The preference was to keep it light, leave it alone. This was ’98. Pre internet. Voice mail was still new. One friend in law school had a cell phone and I was like, why does he need a phone to walk around with? It was easier to avoid the issues as people pretended like they liked to or needed to just to get to get by.
1999-2001 Being a lawyer just didn’t fit. I started baking in my apartment as a new year’s resolution and soon discovered I liked cakes. I liked the quiet of making them. I was frustrated by the challenge of figuring out good recipes, assembling layer cakes, finding a look that finished product that spoke to me. Frustrated in a good way. And I got there. I had fun finding my way. I liked sharing what I created. The feedback was thrill.
2002-2015, CakeLove bakery, retail storefronts. Within this space I hosted Sugar Rush, a show on the Food Network, I wrote four cookbooks, was on TV and interviewed, gave a lot of speeches. I worked dozens and dozens of great people who baked and cleaned and served customers and planned and scheduled. It was a lot of fun. And a lot of work. Good times that taught me a lot.
A major take away that didn’t really show itself until years later was telling of the CakeLove story which I did over and over again. I wrote it down of course but I have a hard time keeping to any script so I usually went off and told stories of the day-to-day in the bakery—the challenges of the moment mixed with how I got there. I think that’s when I started to find my voice—for writing. Knowing something really, really well does wonders. A well honed skill feels like a thing you can hold, like something you can define and describe. You know the ins and outs of it well enough to predict outcomes, see weaknesses or strengths before they play out. Maybe. I guess it’s confidence that it can give. For me, it informs me of what it feels like to stand squarely and be able to take what comes, the good and the bad.
I’m glad for those times, but I don’t wish I was in the retail bakery anymore. Been there, that was then. After trying a lot of different routes I saw a way to build on the bakery products I knew well. A way to share what we knew how to do really well, but it was really different than how I started, and a bit awkward to transition into. But, you know, live and learn. It was all driven from feedback for what we did at retail—and what we didn’t. Cream cheese frosting and portability, one thing people loved that we made plus a problem we could solve. Cake in a jar.
2015 to now, together with a fantastic and dedicated team, my bakery in the wholesale space and we make cake jars. Don’t Forget Cake®. It’s good stuff. I had Tres Leches and Caramel just yesterday. I don’t usually go for two in a day, but once I cracked the seal I was like why not have another?
2018-19 I started playing with healthy ingredients in the bakery in the off hours. Non-allergenic ingredients. I wanted a snack that I could eat. I got married in 2008 (to a wonderful woman) and my daughters were born in 2010 and 2012. I’m sure I’ll get into family life more later but what’s relevant here is that “snacking” became part of our lives once the kids started day-care and preschool and the whole nine. I wasn’t like trying to make the worlds healthiest option, but I did want something I could eat that I wouldn’t have problems with. I’ve got a sensitive stomach. My wife and I joke that hers is like an iron tank and mine is not. It’s probably a little bit gluten sensitive. Lactose intolerant, for sure. But it’s really oils. The quality and quantity, the sources, I just, uh, opted to not participate in sharing of a lot of snacks being passed around wherever we brought our kids. Better off hungry than doubled over, you know.
So after thinking about it and being asked to make something for the medical marijuana market in DC which was just starting back then, I toyed around with recipes. I made something based around my scone recipes from the CakeLove storefront days. I swapped out lots of ingredients and changed ratios. I made the first Spark Bite. Then I changed a few ingredients and made alternate flavors. Now there are 6.
My shameless plug for Spark Bites, a prebiotic energy snack, is something I wasn’t even in pursuit of, it just worked out this way. They’re loaded with prebiotic foods—normal, everyday items that are available in the grocery store, usually in the bulk foods section. Pumpkin seeds. Dried cranberries. Millet. Chia. Oats. Flax. Apples. Items that the bacteria in the colon feed on—the good guys. I’m not a doctor so this isn’t medical advice, don’t quote me on this, yada-yada, but, when that bacteria is fed, when they’re fat & happy, they emit a mucus that coats the inside of your gut, and it builds up to be a layer between your gut and the stool passing through it. It’s like a liner. It acts like the pre-salt treatment on a highway in the winter that prevents the ice from forming. That layer of mucus prevents sticking. So you’re done in one. It’s remarkable. We don’t do digestion alone—we depend on trillions of good bacteria. But if they’re not fed, they can’t do anything. And then, well, just look around. We’re all living in a sea of poor gut health in America.
I’m telling ya, I’m like a broken record. One big historical perspective focused on prevention, particularly in subject areas of, uh, very personal issues. I don’t know when I’m ever gonna get to something else.
With Respect - WB