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The reason Molly Baz wishes she could wave a magic wand and bring cooking to everyone
Molly Baz, recipe developer and the owner of mollybaz.com, dreams big. "When I was little I was aspired to become an astronaut." she states "Then I was interested in becoming an United Nations translator. After this, I was thinking that I was going to run the art museum in New York City." So, logically enough, she was able to pursue a education in art history at Skidmore College, the liberal arts institution.
It was in a year abroad in Italy and studying Renaissance art, that Molly's love for food took over other passions: "I was living with an old lady called Graziella whom I called my'grandma' at homestay. The woman spoke only English and she didn't comprehend me when I asked thank you, but she cooked like a pro."
The main activity was to visit the market in town, buy the ingredients and then cook Molly dinner. "She was a devoted fan of it," Molly continues. "I hadn't consumed food like that. I wasn't exposed to food seasonality and Italy's reverence for ingredients. But I was like, 'Oh, man it's amazing! !'." Molly says that this kind of cooking didn't come up with - and she's sure that it's true to the vast majority of folks out there. "My parents didn't look for top-quality ricotta or the finest tomatoes. It wasn't the thing."
Molly talks to me about "mind-bending "whoa" moments" in Italy that made her come back home with a desire to be working on food. Even the way Graziella shopped at the market for groceries was very different to Molly's own experiences. Molly says: "Instead of going to the grocery store on Sunday for the week, Graziella was a market shopper each day. The reason was that you didn't know which vendors are likely to be in the market - and maybe the peaches look better today than they did yesterday'. This was about respect."
Molly tells me that, in quintessential Italian way her Tuscan cuisine was both easy, rustic and delicious. "Her tomato sauce is forever ingrained in my mind," she continues. "It's extremely good, and especially for winter, because it uses cherry tomatoes, which, in my opinion, the only tomato varieties which are worth your time out of season."
It's clear by the way Molly discusses food that, for her, cooking involves more than combining flavours. It's the whole experience of looking at the various ingredients available, considering what looks good while creating the perfect meal with your own mind. "That's simply not the way my brain worked. I just didn't think about eating in that kind of way. It's true that now this is all I can think about." Molly smiles. This is perhaps why Molly calls herself a recipe developer rather than an executive chef.
Restaurants, recipes and rolling around
To continue her professional journey in the world of food following her departure from Italy, Molly worked in restaurants where she learned how cook. However, it wasn't her ultimate desired goal "I was fed up with places and decided that I didn't wish to run my own restaurant. However, I was certain that I would like to cook and needed to find a career which was a good fit for me."
Molly was drawn into the field of food styling, because "the the next step in art history, including the art of composition and color was to make food appear appealing". As Molly's father was photographer, she believed it was the right approach to deal with food , based on her skills, expertise and how she was raised.
"It went well for a time and I enjoyed it," she continues, "But ultimately, I felt like I was cooking and decorating food for other people. You're like, 'Cool that looks delicious' and you have some ownership over the photo, however it's not your food. It's someone who else's. I always wanted to cook using my own thoughts and heart and soul."
Therefore, the next step was to begin making the recipes that magazines would use. Her experience was already in the world of food media through food styling at Bon Appetit magazine and was exposed to the role as food editor. This was a position she accepted. "I didn't know the definition of a food editor prior to this!" she jokes, "But it's a person who writes and creates recipes and spends 75% of their time in the kitchen. It was a way for me to work in the restaurant environment while also being in contact with food the bulk of the day." It was the right job. "I was thinking, 'This is all I will ever do again in my life,'" she smiles. Molly then became a the senior associate food editor later was promoted to senior food editor . She utilized the time to refine her skills in recipe development over the following four years.
The transition from food lover to food stylist to food editor was complete however there was one more step on the way. "It wasn't in my plans to become an actor or to appear on video," she continues. "The Bon Appetit YouTube channel had already been in existence at the time I joined, and it was already gaining some traction but it wasn't popping in the manner that it is nowadays. A few weeks after I was hired at the time, one of the editors said, "Do you want to create a short video? Then I thought"Oh my god. I'm not sure. I'm not an actress. I thought I was just a behind the scenes person'. But then, I clearly loved this."
Molly confesses that she was anxious her first appearance present on the test kitchen. "I was thinking, "Can they see me shaking?' Then the video came out and I was like"Wow, this was so fun.' It wasn't my plan however it came from it was Bon Appetit's plan and was just going along with the plan." The organic evolution to foodie personality the challenge of "figuring out what exactly it was for me to become Molly" was done.
Cook the Book The process of becoming an author
While working at Bon Appetit one editor from Clarkson Potter, part of Penguin Random House publishing group, reached out to Molly and asked for an appointment. "The ideal is to receive an email from an email address associated with the Penguin Random House email address," she remembers. "I suspected this was related to cookbooks. I took the meeting and then one thing lead to the next and suddenly, I had an agreement for a book."
"It's quite an exciting 'tension' to come up with a recipe list for a debut cookbook." she adds "Because you're simultaneously thinking about what dishes are the best expression of me and the world, as well as what other cooks tend to cook. What are the dishes that will be accessible? This isn't about "How difficult can Molly bend within her work?' but it's about creating recipes which are authentic to me, but do not seem intimidating or daunting as well as non-starters for regular ass cooks. These meals are something I would make at home, but only when I'm being super extra."
Molly describes: "75% of what I do is to become an untrained cook. I take everything I've learned about cooking. I approach cooking like it's only the only time in my life I've gone to the kitchen. She has trained herself to feel what it's like to be a newbie cook as well as "to feel overwhelmed by the amount of food lying on the counter the front of your eyes". The woman says that "My task as a creator is to design a recipe for them so that they can find entertaining, but not a pain in the ass."
"My greatest worry is that the people in my generation, and ones that are younger than me are going to have spent their whole time consuming food delivery apps like Caviar. Then they'll get up in the morning with an infant on their back and a toddler who's running around with a chore to complete and don't know how to put anything on the table -- not just pasta and tomato sauce -- and just be like"F*ck it. I'm ordering from Caviar once more!. My aim in the world is to stop the possibility of this happening in the most efficient way."
I ask Molly whether she has plans for a sequel novel. "I have to start making it up as early as three days in the past!" she smiles. She explains that she received an additional book contract a month ago with the same publisher, to be a sequel to the first to build upon the understanding taught in the initial book. Be sure to check back for updates.
Food that is fun, Caesar salad and Tuna the dog
Perhaps the most famous recipe in Cook This Book includes Molly's Caesar salad. A self-proclaimed 'Queen of Cae Sal' Molly smiles when she is asked how she is a fan of the dish. "I can't come up with a one-sentence banger of response to that!" she says, "I simply think it's the best salad anywhere on earth. If I go out to an eatery and see caesar-based salad listed on the menu There's absolutely no chance that I'll not order it. I've fallen in love with it throughout the years. I've spoken about the subject a lot and have made the caesar salad often. The world is aware of that. I just frickin' love it!"
It could be that Caesar salad conforms to Molly's ethos in that food must be fun. It's easy, simple and packed with flavour -- that's what cooking should be according to Molly. It's possible that this attitude is rooted in her experiences with the professional kitchen, rather than eating food and having fun with it: "I've always found such happiness in the kitchen working in restaurants. There were the highs and the excitement of getting in the kitchen and pounding out service and being like, 'F*ck, yeah, we did it'.
Molly is aware of the joy that cooking can bring and the stress it could create: "I hate that I can't just wave an magic wand to make it fun for everyone. If I tell you that cooking needs been fun for me is because I'm striving to always be a good time- not just with making food. If I had asked my husband, "Do you would like to bowl tonight?' he'd not say yes, while I'd reply, 'You just never want to have fun!" My job on this planet is to make cooking enjoyable for people around the world so they can access that joy also.
If Molly's passion for food was not evident enough from her cooking, this passion has infused into her home life. As seen sometimes on her Instagram and Instagram, she also has a pet dog named Tuna. When asked if tuna is an uninteresting choice as a favorite food, she disagrees wholeheartedly: "I do not find tuna boring at all! I think the water-packed cans that we ate as kids are old-fashioned and boring. However, high-quality oil-packed tunalike the ones you can find in Portugal is an absolute delight. It just hits different over the place, don't you think? !"
Molly as well as her partner Ben was in Portugal while they were conceived of Tuna. In the swimming pool during their honeymoon, instead of having a baby the couple decided to adopt an ox-like puppy. "We had a huge amount of tinned fish and it seems like we had tuna on the brain. We eat tuna about four times per every week!" she concludes, smiling.
It seems that, from Italy to the USA returning to Portugal Molly's love of healthy, simple, and delicious food is stronger than ever.