Cliff Jette PhotosJamie Powers, 33, Iowa City
Owner/Pastry Chef @ Deluxe Cakes and Pastries
Before opening Deluxe, you worked as a pastry chef in some pretty fancy restaurants in Denver.
I was a pastry cook. I was the minion. I was just like everybody else, scooping chocolate chip cookies and churning out product. I worked at Wolfgang Puck’s on their dessert line, then Brown Palace Hotel, a five-star hotel, then a small bakery. All three places had a great product.
Why leave Denver to open a bakery in Iowa City?
It kind of happened organically. I didn’t plan on opening up a bakery. I always had it in the back of my mind that I might. I moved here with my husband to be closer to family. I started out of my basement doing wedding cakes and stuff. Then I saw this place was for sale, so I took advantage of it.
Was this building a bakery before?
No. It was an art gallery, and before that a weaver’s studio. And before that it was a neighborhood grocery store, which really inspired me because a neighborhood place is no more; everyone drives out to malls. It was really important to me to have a bakery in a neighborhood.
What items are most popular at Deluxe?
Our sticky buns, our cupcakes and our Saturday morning doughnuts. The doughnuts are old-fashioned yeast doughnuts. A lot of people compare them to what their mother used to make on the farm.
What do you like about being a pastry chef?
I like working with my hands. I like working with bare-bones material, turning it into something totally different. I like the flow of the kitchen, the morning coffee. I love the people that I work with, and the pace of a pastry kitchen – it’s very deliberate, concentrated and creative.
Do you remember the first thing you baked?
My mom would make chocolate chip cookies on a Saturday morning and I loved that. I loved to see the chocolate chips swirl in the brown dough at the end. It just was like magic to see it.
You make so many different types of sweets at your bakery – cakes, pastries, cookies, pies, tarts – what’s your favorite sweet to eat?
A chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven, hands down. I’ve been known to shove three in my mouth. That, or, we have a morning biscuit that’s out of this world. That with a coffee in the morning is great.
What is the biggest thing people can to improve their baked goods at home?
Use butter, and only buy cookbooks that promote using butter. If you’re going to take the time to bake at home, use the best ingredients that you can. That’s my philosophy. Do that and you’ll have a great product.
Details: Deluxe Cakes and Pastries, 812 S. Summit St., Iowa City; 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday; call (319) 338-5000; online at www.deluxecakesandpastries.com
