We recently connected with Holly Hintz and have shared our conversation below.
Holly, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
As a pastry chef, staying creative is very important to me. I feel like I have always been creative and artistic, and instead of expressing that creativity with paint or textiles, I use dessert. To keep my creativity alive I make sure to follow other bakers and pastry chefs on social media, and I subscribe to industry publications that showcase new ingredients, new techniques and give insight into what industry leaders are doing. That’s Big Picture stuff. For the daily, weekly inspiration, it comes from the seasons. This time of year, spring is just starting and I am joyfully shaking off the duldrums of winter. Winter is apples, nuts, and chocolate and caramel…all wonderful flavors but winter is long and it can get a little boring for me. Spring is new, it’s bright and green and that means lighter flavors. It’s lemon and berries, it’s rhubarb, it’s fresh herbs. When I’m writing a menu, it starts with a list of words, some are ingredients I want to use, others are feelings I want to convey. Then it’s figuring out how to get that thought translated into a flavor. One spring I was working on a St. Patrick’s Day macaron, so I was thinking about Ireland, and that lead me to rolling green hills. Ok so how do I get rolling green hills into a macaron? By infusing micro-green pea shoots into a white chocolate ganache, and pair it with a honey buttercream. Sweet and green, this macaron tasted like spring, it was amazing.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a pastry chef that owns my own home-based bakery. I specialize in macarons, decorated sugar cookies, bars and breakfast pastries. I went to culinary school after high school and got a degree in baking and pastry. From there I worked in a variety of boutique hotels, local restaurants and bakeries. I also spent 18 months working in a small restaurant in Provence. France. When the pandemic hit, I had been working for a local Des Moines bakery for about 7 years, first as a pastry cook at night, then bar manager, then as the general manager, and I was pretty burnt out. I had already talked to the owner about leaving before the summer, so when things started to shut down, we just moved the timeline up. That summer I started Prairie Rose Desserts and have loved it ever since! I started with a farmers market, then started taking custom orders and doing pop-ups. Now I have a handful of wholesale clients and great repeat custom clients. I offer special pre-order menus for holidays that keeps me excited because its a chance to show off seasonal flavors and themed designs, and I’m always changing it up.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1: always be learning. Nobody knows everything and being proactive about learning new techniques, learning about different products, and expanding your skill set will keep you interested in the job and make you a more rounded person. There are so many resources out there, use them!
2: have confidence in what you do. Believe in your product and others will follow.
3: be organized. I’m a naturally messy/disorganized person, but its very important to keep my business organized, otherwise people won’t get their dessert! So I use both digital and paper calendars, I make lists, I have an invoicing app. I have folders for receipts and excel sheets for expenses and recipe costing. Other parts of my life can be cluttered and chaotic, but not the business.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
As a baker, the rising cost of ingredients is my number one challenge. Not just eggs, although they are very expensive, but just about everything else is getting more expensive as well. So I have to raise prices, but then my clients may not be able to afford the new prices, because of course everything for them is getting more expensive and non-essential things get the cut when the budget gets tightened. So it’s trying to find the balance of shopping around to find the best price on the same quality ingredients, and pricing my items in that sweet spot that keeps my customers and my bank balance happy. It’s stessful
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.prairierosedesserts.com
- Instagram: @prairierosedesserts
- Facebook: @prairierosedesserts.com
Image Credits
Profile picture: Kiwi Imagery
Dessert pictures: Holly Hintz
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
