Blog

Notes from the kitchen

Pricing, systems, and the stories nobody warns you about — from 20+ years in commercial kitchens. The hard-won stuff that actually runs a baking business.

• August 29, 2026

  Mallory’s Glasses

  A new store manager who hated women. A bakery running perfectly that he criticized anyway. A cash advance denied with cruelty. And Mallory — a bakery manager who didn’t need the job and wasn’t afraid of anyone — who showed up to his meeting with paper sleeping eyes taped to her glasses.

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• August 24, 2026

  The Princess Wave

  A store manager, a ring of department heads stealing prime beef cuts for their weekly lunches, and a head clerk illegally running a bakery through intimidation. A true story about anonymous letters mailed from different cities, an undercover HR investigation, and the coupon scheme that finally took down Fred the Fraud.

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• July 30, 2026

  The Day the Salad Dressing Hit the Fan

  I was across the room laminating croissant dough when the lid came off the Robot Coupe and green dressing hit the ceiling. Somehow it was my fault. A true story about knowing when to leave — and finding out later he kept my scone recipe.

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• June 11, 2026

  Vocational Trade School Changed My Life (And Probably Saved It)

  The mentors who scared the hell out of me and made me better. The case for trade school over six-figure debt — told through screaming chefs, a wedding-cake wipeout, a mouse, and the scholarship I turned down.

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• June 11, 2026

  The Small Town Cupcake Shop: Four Stories About Staying Too Long

  A warning I ignored before day one. A burn, a rehire, a setup for failure, and a last Saturday that ended the whole thing. Four stories from one small-town cupcake shop — and why I stayed too long.

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• June 7, 2026

  The Job I Should Have Walked Away From Before I Started

  I almost got blown up at work. Twice. In two days. But every disaster was written on the wall before I took the job — the red flags I ignored, and what twenty years in kitchens should have told me to do.

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