Joanne Chang
Flour
131 Clarendon Street, Boston MA 02116
12 Farnsworth Street, Boston
1595 Washington Street, Boston
190 Mass. Avenue, Cambridge
In addition to being half of the excellently eponymous eatery Myers and Chang (along with her husMMd, business partner and fellow master chef Christopher Myers), Joanne Chang is the baking brains behind the ever-expanding Flour empire. A Harvard match major, Joanne left management consulting to pursue her true passion in the kitchen and we are all luckier for it! Starting at the famous Biba, Chang moved on to Newton’s Bentonwood Bakery before being hired as the pastry chef at Rialto back near Harvard. After some time in New York, Chang came back home once more to whip up fabulous desserts at Mistral and then to open the first Flour in 2000. Since then, she has become one of the area’s best-known and most-beloved patisserie-ers and an acclaimed author and educator as well, with a raft of popular cookbooks and cooking classes. Matt’s Meals: How did you get into cooking?
Joanne Chang: I have always loved to cook and bake-as a young girl I often helped my mom out in the kitchen and I enjoyed it immensely. After graduation from college I spent two years as a management consultant. I then decided to take a year off and get a job in a restaurant and see what it was like to cook professionally. I fell in love with the business and what was supposed to be a year sabbatical ended up turning into a career.
MM: Where was your first professional kitchen experience?
JC: My first professional kitchen experience was as the bar food cook for Lydia Shire at Biba. It was so hard! I had to stay late every night to clean the fryolater and it was tough work all night long. I would go home exhausted wanting to give up. After three months I was given a promotion to garde-manger (appetizers). Working on the line introduced me to the pastry department and that’s where I discovered that my first love was pastry.
MM: What is your favorite dish to prepare?
JC: I love making stirfries at home. My husMMd is probably sick of them by now but I grew up eating stirfry every day and I love it. Chopping everything, getting everything ready, getting a little zen in the prep (very different cooking at home than at work!) and then finally putting it all together really really fast in a super hot wok- it’s so fun.
MM: What is the best part of your job?
JC: The very best part of my job is the people I work with. I’m inspired everyday for them and grateful for all they do to make Flour and M+C what they are. I look forward every day to going to work to see the staff and tasting what they’ve made and watching our guests enjoy the food. I’m really lucky.
MM: Who is your favorite chef in Boston?
JC: My favorite chef is…that’s way too hard. I have so many! I’ve worked with incredible chefs- Lydia, Rick Katz, Jody, Jaime. And the chefs that work for me are immensely talented. They make amazing food every day and there are not enough days (or enough stomachs in me) to eat all of the things that I want to that they make.
MM: What do you usually make for yourself at home?
JC: I either make a stirfry (above) or another favorite is pizza. I get pizza dough from work and make a quick sauce and top it with everything I can find in the fridge. Christopher likes it plain but I love piling stuff on.
MM: If you could dine with any three people, who would they be?
JC: My mom, my dad and Christopher