Three Layer Cake

Diva of Desserts.

Rose Levy Beranbaum is an authority in her field—baking– and quite well-documented.  Most home bakers, when they hear Rose’s name, think the Cake Bible (or the successive Pie and Pastry Bible, or Bread Bible), but she’s also author of five other books, in addition to the three ‘Bibles’, and is working away on her ninth book.  Rose has been on television, in print, toured the world with her knowledge (to teach and to learn), and since September 2005, she also has a blog, Real Baking With Rose.  On her blog there is a comprehensive bio which chronicles Rose’s development into a world-renown expert on cakes, pies, and just about anything that rises in the oven.  It tells of how she started in baking, her studies, her career milestones, her awards.  Rose is looked up to by many people for her superior baking skills, but her books and website do not let you know what Rose is really like as a person.

What her site and books don’t explicitly tell you about Rose is how wonderful a person she is, even if you might be able to gather it through how thoroughly she dedicates herself to her readers’ queries and her written work.  She has a kind word for everyone and is genuinely enthusiastic about others’ success.  She’s not afraid to promote colleagues’ and friends’ work, and she’s not above asking for help.  She loves sharing what she knows with others.  Rose’s caricature smiles from ear to ear.  It’s not an image marketing ploy.  It’s Rose.  She loves to laugh and she loves to make people laugh.  She’s as skilled at telling humorous anecdotes and comic timing as she is at baking a génoise.  Rose is fun.

The way she tells a story, opting for the positive and the humorous, instantly catapults you to the moment and allows you to feel the emotion of everyone involved as if it were your own.  Expressive language comes naturally to Rose.  Her words are perfectly calibrated, like her recipes, and produce results equally sublime.  Among the touching and personal anecdotes she shared with me, the one about her mother was warm and fuzzy, but the most touching was her memory of Julia Child. 

Forty two years ago, as a young bride who couldn’t afford a television, I used to drive 2 hours to a dormitory lounge in Philadelphia every week to watch Julia’s PBS show. She was my greatest inspiration and motivation to devote my life to the food profession.  Twenty-three years later, when The Cake Bible was published, I had the good fortune to appear on “The Today Show.”  I was also scheduled to do a demonstration in Philadelphia. It was the first time in all those years that I was going back to that area. So you can imagine my surprise and utter delight when I returned from the Today Show appearance and my idol Julia called on the phone. “Dearie!” she crooned. “I’m so proud of you!” It was one of the most magical moments of my life. Those evenings in Philadelphia, mesmerized by Julia on TV, I would never have dreamed that someday I might meet her, let alone that she would call me to congratulate me for being on TV. It was one of the miracles of my existence and illustrates so amply how generous and supportive Julia was to members of this wonderful food community.

 Rose didn’t share it to boast, she shared it to convey so many facets of her personality that peep through every element of the short but powerful memory.
 

What else Rose’s books and website don’t tell you about her is that she is truly gifted.  It was hard work that got her where she is, but it was also sharp intellect, great intuition, and exceptional communications skills.  She’s an adept communicator on many levels, not just through her ability to explain her baking knowledge in clear concise language, but also in her ability to understand a question or an issue almost before she is confronted with it.  And what doesn’t come as second nature comes as a result of her scientific and methodical approach to baking, a healthy dose of common sense, or a combination of both.  She is a problem-solver and if you ask those who know her, they’ll tell you she’s a good listener and a good friend.  Rose is a people person, and maybe that’s why she has excelled in her culinary career.  She’s skilled at making the ‘food’ which brings people together.  Ever met someone who didn’t like a perfectly baked cake or who didn’t feel better after a good laugh?  It’s like a sugar high to find out that the public figures we most look up to actually match our positive images.  In this regard (and so many others) Rose takes the cake.

Rose is currently working on her ninth book, which will be her first full color book with stitched binding, a high quality production cake book in which every cake will be pictured.  It will include new cakes since the Cake Bible and a few old favorites in different sizes that have been requested by readers over the years.  As fate would have it, it was award-winning cookbook author and long time friend, Lisa Yockelson, who put Rose in contact with her editor, Pam Chirls.  Rose, who is still on cloud nine as she develops what she describes as her dream cake book, said that what Lisa did was, “An act of extraordinary integrity and generosity.”  She points out that in such a competitive industry, Lisa easily could have looked at her as a competitor instead of ally, but instead she has been doubly fortunate that Lisa’s ‘match-making’ skills worked because she and Pam get on very well professionally and as friends.  In fact, shortly after this interview, the three met for Sunday brunch, as their busy lives willingly coincided to share a relaxing moment of friendship and of course, sweets.  Rose brought a cheesecake she has been developing for her new book!

If Pam and Lisa’s work on ChocolateChocolate (nominated for a 2006 IACP award on March 6) is any indication of the beauty and quality which we can expect from Rose’s next book, 2008 can’t come too soon!  And for the baking challenged, look forward to Rose’s new high quality cake mixes.  All the high quality of an original Rose recipe without the necessity of precisely measuring the ingredients.