STACY MAKES DESSERT!
Some of you may remember the kitchen biographies posted many moons ago. Well, that was almost two years ago, and as is the nature of the industry there’s been some turnover since then; we’ve bid our farewells to a face or three, but we’ve added a few new names to the roster! Today, I want to focus on the woman who’s taken on a truly epic role in the kitchen, and the name you’ve probably noticed on the dessert menus: Stacy Foster. If you’re eating lunch at Bethany’s Table, you’re enjoying Stacy’s handiwork, and that fresh-baked focaccia is hers, too. If you had the good fortune to order something after the entrees were cleared, well then, you’re in for a treat: that’s her specialty, and her passion.
Stacy’s tumble down the culinary rabbit hole began early, as she’s been working in restaurants since the tender age of fifteen. Though born in Wisconsin, Stacy called the island of St. Thomas “home” for most of her life, and it was there that she started off waiting tables, eventually bartending, and finally landing herself a position in a deli that gave her license to do whatever the heck she wanted – which, as she had long known, meant baking all manner of scrumptious pastries, cakes and custards. However, demand for her services quickly outgrew her limited space and she took that devoted following to her very own bakery, built from scratch in a warehouse space in tiny St. Thomas. In time, they found themselves supplying restaurants, hotels, private caterers and of course the general public – sometimes doing business to the tune of fifteen or more weddings in a single weekend!
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Since moving to Portland a little over a year ago for a variety of reasons, Stacy has really stepped up the caliber of desserts produced at Bethany’s Table. With concoctions such as from-scratch s’mores (served two ways, just hitting the menu now) or our recent forays into house-made ice cream (from spiced chocolate to earl grey to buttered popcorn), Stacy has turned the dessert menu into her own dynamic and unique brain-child. So raise your glass of gewürztraminer (or tawny, or cognac, or champagne… just pick something off the back of the dessert list!) to our not-so-new pastry chef – and lest you forgot, addled with dreams of salted peanut butter truffles, cherry clafoutis, and titillating ice cream flavors: she does a mean lunch service, too!
Contributed by John Bowles