Posted: 3/25/04
By Barbara Brown
The wall behind the pastry counter at Rush City Bakery has new decoration.
Four medals ñ three silver and one bronze ñ hang side by side, a sure sign of greatness at work in the kitchen.
Three members of the bakery staff brought back the medals after the February 21-22 Upper Midwest Bakers Convention held at the Hyatt Regency on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis.
Bakery manager Tim Price encouraged the staff at the bakery to enter the contests available at the convention to see how their skills stacked up to decorators and bakers from the upper Midwest.
Meg Hanson is Priceís top decorator. She has worked at the bakery for nearly two years.
The Pine City resident graduated from the culinary arts program at Hennepin Technical College.
Hanson said she only discovered her love of baking when she entered the college program.
ìYou get such a variety,î Hanson said. ìYou get the chance to be creative. Making the cake is the boring part, but decorating it is great.î
Not only has Hansonís practice paid off by satisfying Rush City Bakeryís clientele, she earned a silver medal for her floral presentation.
The convention only helped to spur on Hansonís love of baking and cake decorating.
She said the staff returned to work ìjazzedî to integrate new ideas and techniques into the bakeryís regular methods.
She said the crew introduced elegantly decorated cookies last week.
The first run of three pans vanished in just a couple days, she said. The lone cookie, a heavily maned lion head looked lonely in the case Monday morning.
ìThey became really popular,î she said. ìWeíre going to be making a lot more of those.î
Next year, Hanson said she hopes to enter the advanced decorator categories to test her silver-medal skills against more experienced decorators.
Jeremie Storm, a baker at Rush City Bakery, entered a category new to the bakerís convention.
Storm, who has worked at the bakery nearly three years, is son-in-law to bakery manager Price.
Storm earned bronze and silver medals for his entries in the banana bread and hamburger buns categories.
While those recipes may sound relatively easy, Storm explained that the judges have specific, tough criteria by which they make their decision.
He said buns must be a certain diameter and height and the bread must have the right flavor, of course, but also the best appearance to earn favor with the judges.
ìIíve always heard that baking is more of a science and cooking is more of an art,î Storm said.
His banana bread earned bronze and the hamburger buns he submitted got the silver.
Storm said he was glad to see some variety in the contest categories at the convention this year.
Previously, the only items judged were decorated confections.
He said he plans to enter next yearís contest also, but that he hopes to encounter some categories that may be more challenging.
Lacie Mae Crawford, who has worked at the bakery for more than one year is mostly a clerical employee who spends most of her time working on the computer and books for the bakery.
Crawford said she wasnít too thrilled to enter the decorating contest at the beginning ñ after all, she was only a fill-in decorator.
She entered a quarter-sheet cake decorated with ìCongratulationsî and balloons. The work was good enough to earn her a silver medal.
ìIt was just a really neat experience and I would definitely do it again,î Crawford said.
Rush City Bakery is located just off 4th Street on Eliot Ave. south. For information, call the bakery at (320) 358-3115.
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