nosh nook #193 - wednesday, december 9, 2009

there's a 'cookie snob' in the kitchen (link)
12.9.09 - the washington post - by jane black

if i've learned one thing from cookie monster's lunatic ravings, it's that C is most definitely for cookie. that may be a public television-supported fact, but it's also a fact that C is for copious calories & chunky cellulite! am i right, cookie-loving ladies? i mean, i love cookies as much as the next guy, but i realize that man cannot live on cookies alone, so i try to keep my cookie consumption in check, lest i become known about town as "the tubby cookie boy." no amount of brownies or samoans are worth that nickname...unless you have a job in a traveling carnival...& you get to sleep with the sword-swallowing chick.

there's this "beer-themed restaurant" down in d.c. called birch & barley and according to the washington post, they have a "cookie snob" in the kitchen. her name is tiffany macisaac & she's been a cookie snob ever since her first job here in nyc at union square cafe, where she perfected the art of baking cookies. she made the move from nyc to d.c. earlier this year after birch & barley contacted her & her fiance (a chef) about an open chef position at their restaurant that they needed to fill PRONTO. it was a few days before their wedding but they jumped through hoops to get to d.c. & show off their skillz & in the end, both ended up getting hired, with macisaac becoming their new pastry chef. then they went to hawaii & got married...& macisaac baked cookies instead of having a wedding cake because she's obviously NUTS about cookies.

at birch & barley, she "turns out ginger molasses, chocolate shortbread and chocolate chip cookies, plus graham crackers." her future plans include "a late-night cookie bake" where "just before the restaurant kitchen closes, she will make about 60 cookies that servers will sell for $1 apiece in the upstairs bar, churchkey." then she'll dispense her tasty cookies to hungry & impressionable drinkers. it's an awesome idea, one that she describes this way. "think about it. you've been drinking and you're thinking, 'wow, i wish i had a snack,' "and then the smell of warm cookies wafts through the room. wouldn't that be awesome?" yes, tiffany. yes it would. wherever there are cookies wafting...that is where i want to be.