Sweet Dreams

About author / Rebecca Michaels

Queen of the desserts and pastry chef extraordinaire; graduate French Culinary Institute; Golden Scoop Award winner; Flying Monkey Bakery founder

As a kid I never dreamed I’d make a living baking. My grandmother and mother were first-class home bakers and they encouraged me to be creative in the kitchen. I still have the first cookbook I got when I was four. It’s the Mickey Mouse Cookbook For Kids. Frozen waffle ice cream sandwiches were my specialty. Making them remains one of my all-time favorite childhood memories.

Subsequent to my bravura performance with the waffle ice cream sandwiches, my mother sent me to cooking classes for kids. These courses taught us how to make simple, yet surprisingly elegant, food--in the company of parental supervision, of course. I remember learning how to make baked chicken, broccoli casserole, and chocolate mousse. Not bad for a 10-year old!

My real proclivities were presaged in other ways as well. I used to play restaurant with my family and their grown-up friends. I created menus with construction paper, paste, and Magic Markers. I would cook an entire meal, serve it, and even add tax and tip to the bill! But cooking was always just a fun thing to do. I never considered it as a career when I was a kid. I had big plans, and they never involved working with food.

Indeed, as I got older, I chose to pursue the rigors of a doctoral program in psychology. Graduate school was demanding and all-consuming. I would spend hours tucked away in the library absorbing loads of information--and then I would come home, turn on the oven and leaf through one of my many dessert cookbooks.

Even though I was exhausted and drained by the end of a school day, baking was an invigorating outlet. To be able to walk around the kitchen, listen to music, work with my hands and focus my creativity was a major stress-release. I baked whenever I had free time, giving away most of the goods to grateful friends and family.

And then one day the oven light went on, so to speak. I realized, sitting there in that silent, cavernous library that what I really enjoyed doing wasn't the thing that I thought I was expected to do. What I really enjoyed doing was to bake for people. So why was I sitting here in this library again? I was neither enthusiastic nor inspired by my studies. The passion was lacking and I couldn’t see myself continuing in this academic program for another 5 years or more, thereafter to pursue a career in this discipline for a possible lifetime. Besides, I already had twice as many cookbooks as I did psychology books!

So I took the plunge, dropped out of grad school and entered the French Culinary Institute’s professional pastry program. Yes, it was very scary to switch horses midstream. But I decided to follow my heart and I don’t regret it at all. I realize that I was lucky enough to be able to take that step with the generous, supportive help of my husband Adam.

But it was about more than just my career. It was about doing something that I genuinely enjoyed for my emotional and spiritual health. I was going to help people to be happy in a different way than I had originally planned. It’s all about your passion, really. Follow it. Be creative. Get inspired. Dream. And enjoy it along the way.