The Art of Baking with Flour Bakery Founder Joanne Chang
Chang: “I wanted to wake up excited to go to work… Now, I find things I do every day that inspire me.”
Photo Provided by Rayna Yun Chou
“I wanted to wake up excited to go to work… Now, I find things I do every day that inspire me.”
On the evening of Thursday, Jan. 16, Joanne Chang, the owner of Flour Bakery + Cafe (known to MIT students as Flour) and James Beard Award–winning pastry chef, hosted the MIT Arts Scholars community for The Art of Baking, a relaxed conversation with Chang on her background and journey to becoming one of the most celebrated chefs in Boston and beyond. She shared stories about her Harvard education, her challenging switch in career paths from consultant to cook, and lessons learned on how to successfully lead teams, craft recipes as a home baker, and navigate bakery entrepreneurship.
Chang admitted that she did not always want to be a chef. She studied Applied Mathematics and Economics at Harvard University and baked for fun on the side. She joked, “I would bake chocolate chip cookies for my applied math study groups… so people would help me in exchange.”
Chang went on to graduate with honors and worked for two years in management consulting, following the path she had created for herself at Harvard. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” she said, but “in my spare time I was always cooking and baking”. She would frequently invite friends over to her apartment in Somerville and host dinner parties with all her culinary creations.
She realized she did not want to continue consulting long term, and decided to pursue cooking. She wrote letters to four restaurants in Boston; by a stroke of luck, she got a call back from one with an open position because someone had just quit.
She was hired at Biba in Boston to make “bar food,” cooking chicken wings and scallion pancakes. Chang was eager to work in the restaurant business, but had doubts about her decision. “It was a labor-intensive, hot, difficult job… sometimes it felt like it was a mistake,” In spite of this, Chang persevered and was promoted. She began to notice the pastry chef’s dessert station and took a special interest in baking. Today, she advises anyone who wants to open a bakery or restaurant to “get your foot in the door” by working at one and making connections with the chefs and managers.
Chang’s interest in baking eventually inspired her to take the leap to open the original Flour Bakery + Cafe in the South End. And for six years, she ran the bakery. Although she loved her work, it wasn’t all easy. At times, she “even wanted to sell it.” But Flour’s popularity continued to grow. Chang strived to foster an environment where her staff could make people’s days. “The world is about that connection,” she said. In 2007, a second Flour location opened. Today, Chang owns nine Flour locations in Boston and Cambridge and is planning to open a tenth location this spring in Boston Common.
As Flour has expanded, Chang has developed recipes, expanded her menu, and written cookbooks. She has also opened a restaurant with her husband and is leading a growing team of employees.
Chang chatted with the audience about how she learned to be a good home baker. She recommends finding cookbooks and experimenting with them, which taught her to “understand the proportions and reactions that work.” Practice, she stated, will “build your toolkit” of baking knowledge. Baking is an art form, but it also requires precision and experimentation.
Chang’s time working at restaurants helped her amass foundational knowledge of many recipes, which aided in recipe and menu creation. In fact, Chang’s triple chocolate mousse cake is inspired by a recipe from the first restaurant she worked at. She now has a pastry chef who provides additional expertise. In a process of trial and error, he brings many variations of recipes. The duo tastes them together and then makes changes.
Flour might never have had a savory menu if it were not for a critical, early decision by Chang. Originally, she wanted Flour to be a patisserie, serving only pastries and sweets. But, she received advice from a fellow chef, who told her, “You’ll be working hard anyways, why not expand your menu… give people a reason to come for lunch?” With this in mind, she changed her business plan and decided to serve sandwiches in addition to her baked goods.
As Flour grew, she began to miss the experience of training employees as she had done at her first location. She began to write cookbooks to draw on her love of teaching. She now has published five cookbooks, four of which focus on baking, and is working on a sixth about cookies.
Chang’s story and amazing success is inspiring: pursue what fuels your passion and makes you excited to wake up every morning. On a leap of faith, she switched paths from management consulting to the culinary arts, and found an incredibly rewarding career. Just from hearing Chang talk about Flour, I can tell that she truly loves what she does. Chang’s stories were met with a warm round of applause. Inspired students lined up to take photos with her and thanked her for motivating them to pursue careers they truly love.
The MIT Arts Scholars program organized the event, and provides MIT students access to exclusive art-related events, including concerts and museum tours. For more information, consult the Arts Scholars website or contact Rayna Yun Chou.