يحاولGOLD- Free

Sweet Things in Store
Food & Wine|February 2025
Paola Velez pays tribute to the bodega with Bodega Bakes, her debut, dessert-centric cookbook.
- Audrey Morgan
Sweet Things in Store

WHEN PAOLA VELEZ LEARNED she was a F&W Best New Chef in 2021, she initially turned down the honor. She had received several accolades that year for her Dominican-influenced pastry programs at Kith/Kin, Compass Rose, and Maydan in Washington, D.C., as well as for Bakers Against Racism, a grassroots collective that organizes global bake sales to raise money for social justice causes worldwide, which she founded in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

"My fear was that I was rising too quickly without any stabilizing forces in my life," Velez recalls. She was also concerned that she was only getting recognition because Bakers Against Racism addressed such a timely cause. “I felt like, ‘Is it just a fad, or is it my work?’” Eventually, though, Velez came to realize that Bakers Against Racism was successful because people trusted her as a pastry chef.

Ultimately, she accepted the Best New Chef award, and in doing so, she gained new mentors from the BNC alumni network and received an even larger platform for her social media presence, nonprofit work, and one-of-a-kind desserts. “People were already paying attention to what I had to say. But then once I became a Best New Chef, it made me an authority in the industry,” she says. “[Being named a] Best New Chef gave me this unique voice.”

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2025 من Food & Wine.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة February 2025 من Food & Wine.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

نحن نستخدم ملفات تعريف الارتباط لتقديم خدماتنا وتحسينها. باستخدام موقعنا ، فإنك توافق على ملفات تعريف الارتباط. يتعلم أكثر