Ep 5: Bakery Life with Deb King of Deb's Artisan Bakehouse
This week, Deb King from Deb's Artisan Bakehouse and I are talking pastries, why food IS love if you're the cook, and how her terrific bakery got started.
If you've ever wondered how she creates a menu or what it's like to have a menu full of choices and options every week, this episode is the one for you.
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Christine Van Bloem: 0:22
Oh, happy day. Listen, if you have all of the sudden started to smell butter and smell things baking, it is because of this week's phenomenal guest, which is the amazing Deb King from Deb's Artisan Bakehouse in Middletown, Maryland. Hi, Deb.
Deb King: 0:43
Chris,
Christine Van Bloem: 0:44
How are ya?
Deb King: 0:45
great. How are you?
Christine Van Bloem: 0:46
Oh, so Dev and I were just talking, you know, we do a little pregame before we start recording because We're both kitchen ladies. So we like to get all our curse words out at the beginning But we were both saying we love to talk. So this is perfect for both of us
Deb King: 1:04
With no naughty words.
Christine Van Bloem: 1:05
With no naughty words! I said, because then I have to check explicit on the podcast and then it gets crazy. But you all should know if you have never worked in any kind of a professional kitchen, just because we're ladies does not mean we cannot throw down.
Deb King: 1:22
We shut the front door all day, don't we?
Christine Van Bloem: 1:26
We do! So, Deb is just this wonderful, I mean, what I love about you, Deb, is what you see is what you get. You are straightforward and you are a darn good baker, man.
Deb King: 1:42
Thank you so much.
Christine Van Bloem: 1:43
You made something a couple weeks ago that, I kid you not, I can't stop thinking about it. It had potatoes and, I don't know, it looked like a little pie. It was a little savory thing with mashed potatoes, maybe. And I ate that. three quarters. It was gigantic. It was a gigantic thing. I'll look it
Deb King: 2:04
We have a, we have, we have our favorites. A lot of our customers are our favorites. And one particular favorite, we were doing a video a long time ago in the beginning, and we were kind of having fun with the way that people come in and ask for things. And it was, it was my, one of my favorites, Jen, she came in and she said, y'all had this thing and it was green, maybe it was red. I can't remember if it was pork or if it was chicken, but it was like in a bowl and it was kind of flat. Do y'all have that? So that. I don't know. I don't know what to talk about. That's pretty much it. It
Christine Van Bloem: 2:39
That's so funny. So I have all of my guests, before they come on, because again, I'm so new at this, I have everybody fill out just a really easy little form. Just, you know, giving me the basics. And one of the things is kind of, why do you do what you do? And Deb's answer was, I'm unemployable, so I And that, if that is not summing up the whole thing, right? Isn't that it? That's pretty much
Deb King: 3:11
to figure it out. Nobody wants me to work for them. So I have no choice.
Christine Van Bloem: 3:17
I, well, I hear that. I hear that. So tell me about Debs because really, I mean, really, truly, this is how we met. And you are just, you are expert at your field. I kid you not. You have the flakiest darn dough. Man, oh man, you make everything from scratch, right?
Deb King: 3:39
from scratch. We do have our favorites, you know, some jams and marmalades, that type of thing that we'll bring in. But yeah, everything is from scratch. I think it starts with just the love of eating. I, you know, I love to eat. I love to shop for food. I love to put it away. I love to plan it. I love to cook it. I love to share it. It's like all facets of food. And so when I came about my time of discovering what's my next step, I had to stay in my element, in my lane, and the obvious was food. So it's, you know, baking was sort of like it honestly was an afterthought because I've always And so once I learned how to bake, I thought, well, let's put all the stuff I know how to cook inside the things that I'm learning how to bake.
Christine Van Bloem: 4:25
Yeah.
Deb King: 4:26
You know, a star was born.
Christine Van Bloem: 4:28
That, so that's so interesting because that's a thing that people that are in the business, we, we just know that there are basically cooks and there are bakers and never the twain shall meet. Right? It's, you are what you are. And Deb's like, psh, me, me. And I, I mean, I love to bake some stuff, but the, I'm a cook. Right? I'm a cook. Like, I like the flames and I like the fire. I like it to be quick and crazy and, and all that. And bakers tend to be more thoughtful in their process, right? It's more scientific. Baking's more scientific. And you really do both of them because you, oh my gosh, you do these fillings that are like, oh, crazy! What are some of your favorite What are some of your favorite savory things that you put out?
Deb King: 5:22
So I like anything with potatoes because So versatile. You can change the cheese. You can go, you can combine them with other vegetables. You can combine them with meats. You can, you can combine the consistency or, or, you know, like chunks, slices, mashed. So I love potatoes. I love carbs. So, you know, I like, I love our cream spinach, our cream spinach is our spinach bechamel is fabulous. Things that I love, I go through phases. And I feel like those phases are why we change our menu every week. Cause I can only do something for so long before I'm ready to move on to whether it's seasonal or just, I just need to look at something different. So I think I love all things savory.
Christine Van Bloem: 6:12
Yeah.
Deb King: 6:13
So I think as long as it's savory, it's got bacon in it and cheese. You know, if it's green and red and yellow. So it's kind of an unfair question to ask because I love it all. It's a favorite. I really do love it all.
Christine Van Bloem: 6:28
You're darn good at it.
Deb King: 6:29
I like our focaccia. I think our focaccia is always a little. You know, it's not a little, it's always over the top. And that's what I love about it. You know, a grinder on a focaccia, steak and cheese on a focaccia. So if it's got substance, that's my favorite. I
Christine Van Bloem: 6:43
Yeah, yeah, you put, so you put out a new menu every single week. I look at, I'm telling you, I have to be, post heart attack, I have to be a little more judicious about the Debs because, you know, trying to reform my ways a little bit here. I look at that menu every single week and it's funny, I feel like I can tell what you're going through by looking at your menu. Do you know what I mean?
Deb King: 7:09
totally know what you mean. That's hysterical.
Christine Van Bloem: 7:12
See, you're communicating even if you're not trying to
Deb King: 7:15
Yeah, I'm just so loud. It just comes bursting out.
Christine Van Bloem: 7:20
Well, it's funny because we, as cooks, you know, we're just given the love. I was, I was talking with someone else about it. I don't care what anybody says. Food is love. And not in the, you know, lock myself in the closet and eat bread. I have done that. But in the You know, I am showing my love for people and I really get that vibe from you, from your menus.
Deb King: 7:47
do love people. I love to feed people. And I think it's interesting because I was recently asked how I like the reward level of what I do. You know, do you find it rewarding? Do you find it fulfilling? I had to say, I had to think about it because I think that the longer you do something, the more you get into production end of it, where you're just sort of grind, grind, grind. And, and, and I really often find myself in that mode 90 percent of the week. And then that 10 percent of the week, Which is Saturday mornings. We get it all done. I don't have to go back in the kitchen and start preparing for the next day. I get to go out front and I get that people time. And there's nothing I find more rewarding than talking to the people who have, they're trying it for the first time. I want to know, how did you find us? If you had it, what did you think of it? If you took it to a friend because they were having a bad day, You know, how did that feel? Like, I want to talk to you about what you got and I want to hear how you liked it, how it changed your day, enhanced it, made a friend's day better, et cetera. That to me is the fulfilling aspect of it. So I try really, really hard to get through the production so that I can get to the other end of it. And that reward is the love. So, you know, when you, when you're doing, when you're stuck in the production, there's no love there. It's just, You're on your feet all day. So
Christine Van Bloem: 9:16
the grind.
Deb King: 9:16
it's a lot of work, but then that reward comes when you're actually putting it in somebody's hands or you see them racing into the parking lot, like, Oh my God, I'm going to be late. Or they come in smiling or they're just so excited. They start rattling off all the things that they want. And so that's where my joy comes in. And my love comes in where I get to play with people. You know, I, I'm like, you know, slow your roll there. I got to type it all in. And I just, that's, that to me is the reward. A hundred percent. Yeah.
Christine Van Bloem: 9:44
Yeah.
Deb King: 9:45
But the rest of the time, it's just a grind, man.
Christine Van Bloem: 9:48
It is a grind. It is a grind. And there, I think there's a lot of romance around food, right? Especially now. Like, when I went to culinary school almost 30 years ago, thank you very much, I was a fetus, actually. When I went to culinary school, the romance hadn't started yet. And now with, you know, everybody can do a food video. Everybody, there is a romance around the eating and the preparing and doing it with your friend. And I'm with you. Yeah, they're talking about
Deb King: 10:21
about it.
Christine Van Bloem: 10:22
What is sexier than talking about laminated dough? Thank you very much. And Deb's laughing, but I know she agrees.
Deb King: 10:29
love it. I love talking about it. Don't chefs always like to talk about themselves and what they do though?
Christine Van Bloem: 10:35
Okay, so yes. But I will tell you I get so sick of me, right? Like I try to I've been trying to really turn it around on Instead of just talking about well, what do you think about me? You know kind of thing I've been really working hard to think of how what i'm doing is affecting the other people So what are you getting out of me? But but like how am I Me How am I affecting that person's day? Do you know what I mean? How can I help them without me talking about me? Like, how can I just talk about the food end of things? Yeah.
Deb King: 11:18
It really is. Because food doesn't get boring. To me, food doesn't get boring. Maybe, my husband's not a foodie.
Christine Van Bloem: 11:25
Yeah. Yeah.
Deb King: 11:27
a foodie. So I think he gets, he'll get bored with it. But sometimes I'll say, Oh, look at our reel today or look at our, you know, and, and, and he likes that. But like foods, some people are just, food just is not, it's not life. I can't relate to those people.
Christine Van Bloem: 11:43
I figure if I have to talk to my husband about the Yankees, then he has to talk to me about food, but he, he loves food, but he does not love food the way we love
Deb King: 11:55
Yeah. It's life.
Christine Van Bloem: 11:57
it's finding your people,
Deb King: 11:59
Yeah.
Christine Van Bloem: 12:00
right?
Deb King: 12:01
Yeah, it is. And, and, and, and there's nothing I love more. Then the people,
Christine Van Bloem: 12:09
I agree.
Deb King: 12:10
they appreciate it and they, or they just look at it and like, wow, look at those layers, you know, and Katie will be up front and somebody will say something like that. And she's like, thank you. You know, cause some people don't really, they don't know the process behind the, you know, they just know the finished product, how it's days. It's not even hours. It's days that goes into a single pastry. And so the people that see that and embrace that right away, okay. Those are my people.
Christine Van Bloem: 12:37
Okay, so you're gonna do a bake for the weekend, right? When do you start by making your dough?
Deb King: 12:45
So we have, we have really come full circle since inception and we have become very efficient at what we do with the space that we have. So we try to give ourselves rest. That's really the, the biggest process of our week is to rest.
Christine Van Bloem: 13:05
Yeah, oh yeah it
Deb King: 13:07
Yeah. So, so we, in order to get that rest that we need, because we work like 412s, And you know, the other three days of the week, we're either resting or taking care of administrative stuff or shopping or get to the shop and getting ourselves set up. So I think that our dough process really starts the Friday before that week. So we'll make our first batch of croissant dough and we freeze it. And then we get into the place and we, you know, we put it in the fridges so it's ready for us the next day. And then we'll do three batches of croissant If it's brioche, we have to make that the morning before the day that we're going to start shaping it. Brioche, you know, all of our doughs have to sit and ferment and have a good rest period. That's our, that's our secret ingredient to everything we make is time.
Christine Van Bloem: 13:56
You can't rush
Deb King: 13:57
You can't rush it. You absolutely cannot rush it. And, and, and I have rushed it and you can see it in the final product. So rushing is never a good thing. So you have to be a little prepared. So we, we make our, our first batch of dough for the week goes in the freezer on Friday. And we have our final bake on Saturday and we come in on Tuesdays. We get the place all set up. Dough's come out of the freezer. Lamination begins Wednesday morning and then we shape and we fill and and it's just such a hustle come Thursday morning to get everything baked. A lot of people are very curious about our process because they say, So many things on the line and they want to know how do you get all this done? Like what time do you come in? And it's not, we're not like, I think that maybe if you make, if you, first off, if you open really early, I'm too old to open really early, I won't do that. So opening at nine 30, we have to start four hours before. You guys even get there. And at that time we're filling, we're proofing, we're baking, we're topping, we're filling. But all the shaping and all the lamination, that goes, that, that begins two to two to three days before you even have a pastry in your hands.
Christine Van Bloem: 15:11
Okay, so do, do me a favor for the folks who are, are new to this process and this kind of dough. When you say lamination, tell everyone what you're talking about.
Deb King: 15:22
So when you're talking about things like croissant or puff pastry or even biscuits, biscuits are a rough lamination, but talking about specifically our pastry, That begins with making the dough and then the dough is portioned and it's refrigerated and it's portioned in bulk and then it's refrigerated and then we have to take typically 35 percent of our dough weight is in butter and that butter needs to be It's a lot of butter. That butter needs to be pounded out into the right shape that fits our dough. And then we marry the two through a series of folds. And those folds are the laminations so that your final product comes out to be dough, butter, dough, butter, dough, butter. So we are purposefully placing a layer of butter, a layer of dough into each portion of dough that we have. And we do this, you know, 52 times a week. Different, you know, portions of our croissant dough. It's the same process with puff pastry. We specialize in puff pastry. Biscuits, croissant, brioche pie dough, and you know, the occasional bagels that we do once or once a month. So those are, that's where all of our basis starts is with all of those doughs. And three quarters of those doughs are through the lamination process of folding that butter into the dough and getting all of those layers. Yeah,
Christine Van Bloem: 16:45
good stuff man, and and you can do it like you can do it at home You're gonna
Deb King: 16:50
absolutely.
Christine Van Bloem: 16:50
can why the heck would you because I'm telling you right now I'm just gonna make my trip to Middletown and get it from you because I think I mean listen, everything, I've never had something from your place and I have had many things from your place that isn't fantastic but I think I am partial to the laminated doughs because I know the work that goes into that.
Deb King: 17:16
is, it's, I feel like it's easier to do lamination doughs on our level than it is to do it at home. You know, the first time I ever did croissant was it, obviously it was at home. And I, I just remember I was reading the directions and doing it and reading it and doing it. And I was here there, you know, when you, when you read something for the first time, there's a whole lot of tips. You don't want to do this. You don't want to do that. And of course I did all of those things that I wasn't supposed to do. And then I threw it in the oven and I'm holding on to the door and I'm looking in there and I'm waiting and I see it puff up and it was just, it was like I've been chasing the dragon since that first time. You know, it was so rewarding to see it do what it was supposed to do even though I believed there was all these flaws in there. So the best way for you to become proficient at laminating dough is to open a shop.
Christine Van Bloem: 18:11
You're forced. You're forced. Do you, you have a dough sheeter, right?
Deb King: 18:15
have a Sheeter, yeah, but we started without a Sheeter. And you know, those early days, I wouldn't go back to them. I wouldn't go back to them.
Christine Van Bloem: 18:23
that's where the romance comes in.
Deb King: 18:25
The romance came in, I think, I, yeah, I, you know, it's really funny because I, I turned 50, my kids were grown, and I thought, What the hell am I going to do with my life?
Christine Van Bloem: 18:36
yeah,
Deb King: 18:37
Chapter. And and prior to that, you know, it was all about going to the gym and, you know, making all of my foods and prepping for the week. And
Christine Van Bloem: 18:46
quite the 180 there, Deb.
Deb King: 18:48
definitely 180, but I remember thinking that, wow, I really wanted to sell that service. I wanted to help people do meal preps. For weight loss success and body transformation. And I was like, to hell with that. Let's bake bread. Let's make bagels. Let's make pastry. And so I started in the house making the bagels. That was the first thing was bagels. And Nikki ran around the neighborhood and she was dropping bagels off to the neighbors and when we came up with a little page and we let everybody know when we were making bagels and this went on for a few weeks and I, and you know, the family would be woken at 7am on Saturdays and Sundays because people are ringing the doorbell coming for bagels.
Christine Van Bloem: 19:29
Oh my gosh.
Deb King: 19:30
And and one time I told my husband that, you know, my goal this week is to make X dollars. And he like rolled his eyes cause you know, he was on cleanup duty and he, you know, he just thought this is such a waste of time. So I felt challenged in that. And I said, okay. And that was when I was like, all right, what else can I make? And I was like, let's do, let's make Napoleon's and croissants. And I never made them before. I was like pie, I never made pies before. Let's make, you know, and so I started asking him, what do you want? And. People just lost their minds. They just literally lost their minds. And we had this little private page and it grew to like almost a thousand people and people who I didn't know were coming to my house. And then I was like, I got to get out of the house.
Christine Van Bloem: 20:13
heck yeah,
Deb King: 20:14
So we kind of blew up. It wasn't something that I innately knew how to do. It was something that I look back on my pictures from those times. And I'm like, Oh, I thought that looked good at the time. You know, So, so the start of Lamination was really the start of the love affair for me and I guess, you know, all of our, our early fans.
Christine Van Bloem: 20:41
I love it. Okay, so let me ask you another question, so when I had my kitchen, I had my kitchen for 15 years, I loved having my kitchen. I loved being the, Person in charge. I loved when I had to have people come in and service equipment and service things like that. And it is, that is a male dominated field. And I think you and I are pretty similar in that we are take no baloney kind of people. There, there is this guy who I cannot say enough nice things about, Matt, from Matt's Repair Service. I always loved Matt because I felt that he treated me like a peer, right? Like he treated me with respect, I treated him with respect. He's an awesome guy. Awesome guy. Totally loved him. But I would get these people coming in, trying to mansplain to me, trying to talk to me, trying to talk down to me, and I'm the one writing the check. And that would make me, you know, bristle and go even harder. Are you the same
Deb King: 21:52
I'm exactly the same way. I'm exactly the same way. But I think for me I usually patronize with a cookie afterwards.
Christine Van Bloem: 22:01
I always did that! I always, like, food is love, right? And it wasn't because, you know, You're trying to,
Deb King: 22:08
for letting me go hard here. Let me, thanks for me. Thanks for letting me shake you down a little bit. Thanks for, you know, that little wee bit of emasculation. Here's a cookie. don't
Christine Van Bloem: 22:18
never Matt. I loved Matt. Do you ever work with Matt?
Deb King: 22:22
know who Matt is. Wait, was he with was he with Hobart? Okay.
Christine Van Bloem: 22:25
no, no. He's his own guy. He's his own guy. And he is, he's just terrific. And I don't know, I have a really soft spot in my heart for him, but I would have people come in and just try to explain things that I'm like, Dude, I've been cooking for 20 years. I've been cooking for 30 years now, you know, and I don't know. I just, I always liked it. I liked being,
Deb King: 22:52
HB, C.
Christine Van Bloem: 22:54
yeah, I like being the HBIC. You know
Deb King: 22:57
But you know what? I, you know what I love even more than that, perhaps this is like just a sign of my aging. I love relinquishing the responsibility as well. I love being able to say to any of the ladies, guys, this is you. This is you now.
Christine Van Bloem: 23:13
Oh, yeah. Oh, well that's having, that's building a really terrific staff. That's what that is. That's
Deb King: 23:23
my staff. I love every single one of them. I love them so much. I mean, I, I feel like they are, they're the, you know, everybody comes in and they, they always say, who's Deb? And I just, I always point to them like her, her, her, you know, it doesn't matter. Like if
Christine Van Bloem: 23:39
That's sweet.
Deb King: 23:40
on the door, no, but nothing happens without them. When you have somebody come in, like what you're explaining, I love to say, I'm very, very lucky in that my husband is the most talented man that I have ever met. There is nothing he can't fix. He's such a good guy. I mean, I, you know, Hun, this is broken. Hun, that's leaking. Hun, this is, this is flashing. Whatever it is, I know. I know that once he thoroughly researches it, it's going to get done. So I, and that I'm so grateful.
Christine Van Bloem: 24:15
yeah, absolutely. But I think you and I are both super fortunate because we Just had this group of incredible women on both sides that, you know, I had no problem going on vacation and knowing there wasn't gonna be an issue. You know, I, I just loved it. I loved having such an incredible team.
Deb King: 24:37
Yeah. I feel very fortunate and I feel like, I feel like our team wants to be part of it. I don't think that there's, there's really nobody on our team that. is there because they need the money or because they have to have a job they're there because they, they want to be a part of it. And I, for that, I'm incredibly grateful. You know, training Nikki, bringing Nikki up to, to learning more techniques and more products and, and that sort of thing has been very rewarding for me. Nikki
Christine Van Bloem: 25:05
everyone who Nikki is.
Deb King: 25:07
is my daughter.
Christine Van Bloem: 25:08
And she's, she's so cute.
Deb King: 25:10
She's amazing. She's 25. She went to university of Maryland on on an honors on a academic scholarship and she graduated May of 2021 washing dishes in the kitchen while her name, you know, zoomed across the screen for UMD. But I think that, you know, Nikki is sort of a by product, like so many of the kids in her generation and below from the pandemic where the pandemic changed the course of their life. And and so she, she's Really just come such a long way. I think she came to us a little reluctantly because it was like, wow, you know, I just graduated college and everything is shut down. What am I going to do? The time when my son who's, you know, was already out in the world and, and, and done with school and, and working his job didn't have to experience. He went through obviously a different experience. Like all of us did. She had to take a step in a direction towards a career. And so we don't know if this is what she wants to do. It's, you know, it's entirely up to her, but while she's there, she's just, she's just. Gaining all of this knowledge that's always going to be a part of her so that if she chooses to go someplace else and then come back to this at some time or even for personal use, it's yeah, it's hers to keep. So it's been a pleasure to work with her. She's literally just, you know, she's everything for me.
Christine Van Bloem: 26:33
She's really sunshiny.
Deb King: 26:35
She is very sunshiny. And she actually has done everybody a service by being there because she she keeps me straight. She quiets all that noise in my head. It used to be prior to Nikki, I would just, I was just spiraling out. It was like, let's make this, let's make this, let's make this. I remember you coming to the shop and you're like, Dab, you need to reduce. You need to reduce. You don't need five varieties of this and 27 varieties of that. You know, and Nikki kind of came in and she's like, all right, we're reducing and there is no alternative to that because I am young and I have a life and I can't be putting in 118 hours in this place. So she really cleans it up. She tidies up the corners. She keeps me in my lane. She keeps me focused and she, I mean, she's just really just been something else because without her, it's I'm spiraling because I don't know when to stop. You know what I mean?
Christine Van Bloem: 27:34
And she has, as, as your daughter, because I have a great relationship with my daughter as well, and they can call us out in a way that, as much as you love your staff, and as great as your staff is, and as responsible, and all of those good things, there is a little bit of a boundary a lot of times that people are afraid that people are afraid. And I finally got, after about a decade, my staff was kind of like, Okay now, you know, and they could do that with me. But to have your daughter be able to kind of be that person, and what a gift it is.
Deb King: 28:10
It's a gift.
Christine Van Bloem: 28:11
The idea of working with my mom, when I graduated college, I mean, seriously, and my mom was, Phenomenal. I loved my mother tremendously, but holy bananas, never gonna happen,
Deb King: 28:23
One of our lives would have been shortened.
Christine Van Bloem: 28:25
Oh my gosh, it's such a different world. It's just a really different world now.
Deb King: 28:29
a, it's a, it's a totally different world. And, and Nikki and I are very different people. And for that, I'm grateful because like I said, I mean, she she always, she, she always says, you know, you have thawed flawed thinking. She'll say that's flawed thinking and, and she will call me out, but she's always right. Because again, I, you know, I am, I am a, I'm an over the top woman. You know, we went to we went to London a year and a half ago in summer to go see my son. And that particular week we write on our refrigerators what we're making. So, you know, if you come into the bakehouse, you'll see how we have all the refrigerators, all the doors are written all over and it's menu. We put sweets on one side and savory on the other. And then the other refrigerators were writing our production on. So we know what we have to make to, to meet the menu. And that particular week before we went to London, we had written out our menu and we kept, I kept adding stuff. I was like, Oh, I want to make dah, dah, dah. And Oh, I want to make this. Oh, I want to make that. And it's all written like this, you know, from top to bottom. And that week Nikki was writing sideways in the margins. And right before we went to London, it was like, I said, it was our final bake. And we, I counted, we had 42 things on the menu. And it wasn't like, I wasn't making like four of one thing or like six of another. It was like dozens of, you know, just, we had thousands of pastries going on. And I remember before we left, I apologized to everybody. And I said, this is the last week. It's going to be like this. I promise. And then we went to London and we went to, we even went to Paris for the day. We took the train into Paris and we went to, All the bakeries everywhere. And we would go in and people would have like, they would have like five things. They would have like maybe six things and they'd have a bunch of bread or whatever it was. It was minimal. And no one was saying, is this all you have? You want to get up on my last nerve. You're going to come into the bakery and you're going to look at our line and you're going to say, so is this all you have?
Christine Van Bloem: 30:40
I never want to be on your last nerve. I know you will cut me off from my pastry supply.
Deb King: 30:47
no, I would never do that. I would never, would never do that. But, but don't, don't smear me because the amount of work that goes into 22 items on the line and it's like, that's a lot of work. And when you go over into Europe, they're not doing that. They're doing a few things and they're, That's what they're offering. And so when we came back, that's the, that, well, we, we still over the top it, but it was, it'll never be 42 things again. So in that regard, Nikki has taken the reins, cleaned it up and said, this is how many things you can put online. This is how many things you're allowed to do on the fly.
Christine Van Bloem: 31:25
Nice.
Deb King: 31:26
know, so, so it, and it, it really has worked. It's worked so beautifully. So I don't even know how we got on this
Christine Van Bloem: 31:33
Yeah, that is the beauty of the podcast, right?
Deb King: 31:38
Yeah. It's great. It's
Christine Van Bloem: 31:39
no, I, I love that because I, I go over the top too. I think we are similar personalities in a lot of ways and it's, I love to go over the top and do more and it has taught me a lot. It is. It's fun. And it's that love thing. It's that love thing again. And I know I have told you this, but this is such a big deal to me because we bonded with our neighbors. We live in a downtown. We're not in like a subdivision or anything. And we bonded over your pastries. And I hate it when you have a million things on the menu because I feel like I have to buy every single one of them, right? I'm always like, Ooh, well, I'll get more. Okay. Well, I'll get, well, I'll, I'll add that one too. Well, that sounds really good. And next thing you know, I'm buying a dozen of your pastries and your pastries are not dinky. They are big things. So
Deb King: 32:36
The men for staring. Oh,
Christine Van Bloem: 32:38
it has been this whole love affair and we all just started. We would kind of take turns coming in and then we would pull out, you know, this big cutting board that I have and we'd cut everything into quarters and they had a couple of young kids, you know, the, the folks on the other side had young kids and they'd come over and it was just, you could see Flake just, you know, In the air as people are grabbing and good and it was so much fun and we all and we're close friends the The one couple has moved away and we're still close friends. I'm watching their kids this Thursday You know and it all originated from Debs
Deb King: 33:21
That's wonderful. I love that so much. I love, I love to hear how people talk about it. You know, we had a guy that came in this past weekend and he said he's with the military and he was in Hawaii. And he was he was Ubering part time and I don't know who got in the back of his car, but he told them that he was moving to Frederick, Maryland. And they said, Oh, you have to go Debs. Funny. So he moves to Frederick and his children befriend some kids and they decide that they want to meet the children's parents. So they invite them over and they brought Debs,
Christine Van Bloem: 33:59
Oh.
Deb King: 34:01
not the, not the guy from Hawaii, just
Christine Van Bloem: 34:03
The other guy.
Deb King: 34:04
the other guy. So it's like twice in, you know, a few months that Debs has come across to this guy and that is just, I mean, that's a story.
Christine Van Bloem: 34:12
a story. That's the whole way across the country. And then some.
Deb King: 34:17
Food connects people.
Christine Van Bloem: 34:19
It does.
Deb King: 34:20
really connects people. It is, you know, and, and I've always looked at what we do as some people will come and say, Oh, it's so fancy. You know, or I'll have a croissant and it's like, it's not, it's not fancy. It's just food and it's good food and it's quality food. And there's, and, and the, and the technique that goes into making that food and the love that goes into that food. You don't have to come from a certain pay scale to enjoy the food. We get people from all walks of life, all. Incomes. And my goal as a baker of what we do is to make it shareable. So people may say, wow, you know, whatever, 15 for this or, or, or 7 for that. And it's like, look at the size of that thing. Not a single portion,
Christine Van Bloem: 35:11
No, nothing there is a single
Deb King: 35:13
nothing. I mean, unless you're going for that body by devs,
Christine Van Bloem: 35:17
Yeah.
Deb King: 35:18
the single portion. So we love to sell variety boxes and we love to hear that you have a cutting board that you pull out. I love that so much because that's sharing and everybody gets to taste a little of something. And that's, that's, that's, that's why I do what I
Christine Van Bloem: 35:34
That's, that's the thing. It's, I'm telling you, I'm using we're using the phrase cooking connected for a lot of the stuff I'm doing because the connection through food and through the process is, it's the thing. It's the thing! Alright, so, tell me what's on the top of your hit parade right now, sweet wise.
Deb King: 35:59
It's a tough one.
Christine Van Bloem: 36:00
I know, I'm not asking you your favorite, because I know it ebbs and flows. I mean, are you, we're not quite into berries yet.
Deb King: 36:10
not quite into berries, but anything with cream.
Christine Van Bloem: 36:13
Yes.
Deb King: 36:14
So, you know, blueberries and strawberries. And so even though I'm not able to get them locally yet, I still get them and they're great. So anything with berries, anything with lemon, but also I think baking is a very seasonal craft.
Christine Van Bloem: 36:26
For sure.
Deb King: 36:27
Oh, many holidays. And so we keep pulling things out that will suit vegetarians versus them. And I know you said sweet, but it's, we just have such a wide range of things that we offer that it's really hard to nail it. But lemon, I think lemon this time of year is always, it's always heard that. Yeah. Lemon, coconut, chocolate. That's a tough one to ask me. It really is. Yeah, I like to save the on the fly things, you know, I mean I feel like Maybe there's some carrot cake coming up. Maybe some maybe some Hummingbird something. I don't know.
Christine Van Bloem: 37:09
yeah. Okay.
Deb King: 37:10
the Jerusalem bagels are hot right now. That's a fun thing Yeah, have you ever had one?
Christine Van Bloem: 37:15
Tell me about it.
Deb King: 37:15
So it's a it's sort of a very Scantily sweet bagel, it's a oblong, it's generous, it's covered in sesame seeds, and you can literally eat it with anything, but we are selling it to be served with labneh, which is like a Greek yogurt, and we put a bunch of olive oil and salt and seasoning on it, and you just dredge it, and it's just, it's so delicious. So delicious.
Christine Van Bloem: 37:42
that sounds so good. So good. So good.
Deb King: 37:46
Oh, and the sausage meat pies.
Christine Van Bloem: 37:48
Oh, those are good.
Deb King: 37:50
Yeah. I don't know. We could go on and on and on.
Christine Van Bloem: 37:53
We could go on forever. We could go on forever. All right.
Deb King: 37:56
Deb podcast?
Christine Van Bloem: 37:58
Yeah. I said, I'm definitely gonna have Deb back on. We're gonna get into the nitty gritty of some of these doughs and some of the stuff. And we were talking before we came on about I'm gonna go to the bakery and to the bake house, and we're going to do some things together, which will be really fun, I think. So folks can find you on social media no matter where they are. Live vicariously through your social media. You're on Instagram and Facebook. You, you have a website, I think it's deb's artisan bakehouse.com.
Deb King: 38:31
it. Yeah,
Christine Van Bloem: 38:32
Yeah. And then are you Deb's Artisan Bakehouse on social.
Deb King: 38:36
it's, Deb's are some bake house across the board.
Christine Van Bloem: 38:38
Love that. We love consistency. And you are always doing fun little videos and stuff like
Deb King: 38:44
We do try to keep it fun. I think that sometimes we get a little stuck in our production,
Christine Van Bloem: 38:49
yeah,
Deb King: 38:50
and and you gotta shake it off and say, let's do something fun. And so we have a couple things in the works to kind of lighten the mood. We used to do a whole lot more of that, but boy.
Christine Van Bloem: 38:59
Well, you get busy, right? You get really, really busy. So,
Deb King: 39:04
I'm really fortunate for. So thank you to everybody who always comes out and supporting us. It's just, they're absolutely amazing. We love baking for you.
Christine Van Bloem: 39:12
Oh, Deb, you're a big softie.
Deb King: 39:15
I am a softie. I come off like I'm not, but I swear I am.
Christine Van Bloem: 39:18
No, you are, you're a total softie.
Deb King: 39:20
I love to, I love to feed people. I love to make them happy. It's what's life's all about. It's food and happy, being happy.
Christine Van Bloem: 39:27
You're the crunchy exterior with the soft, creamy inside, right?
Deb King: 39:31
mine.
Christine Van Bloem: 39:34
That's you. All right, so everybody be sure to check out Deb on her socials and you know, drop her note and say hello. And if you're local, stop in and get something with potatoes for sure. But no matter what you get, you won't go wrong and do what we do. Get a whole bunch, call your neighbors, make friends with your neighbors and have a great afternoon doing Deb's. So Deb, thanks so much for being on.
Deb King: 40:01
Thanks for having me. This has been a lot of fun.
Christine Van Bloem: 40:03
Oh my gosh, I so appreciate you. All right. So thanks everyone. I'll talk to you next week.
