Discover the Unexpected Joy and Secrets Hidden Within Tanya Bush’s Year of Baking
Soon, Bush secures herself an internship at an agriturismo in Italy, sure it will turn her into the baker she dreams of being. Instead, she is excluded from anything hands-on . It’s painful to read, but it’s also an education about the kind of baker Bush does not want to be: one like her supervisor, who “is more interested in rigor than in pleasure.” She wants to make imperfect, delicious things that make people happy. “I will take pleasure in watching them be devoured,” she writes. “I will devour them myself.” She returns home, and in summer lands a job doing pastry production. She is busy, productive, learning constantly; in many ways, she finally has what she wanted. But just as things settle down, someone new comes along: someone who not only likes what Bush makes, but devours her desserts with abandon, complicating everything.
