bake chats with Paige Nickless
in conversation with my girl crush, Paige Nickless the artiste behind fremecraiche
A few of the things I admire most about Paige (a shortlist compared to everything I love about her):
takes the time to touch on an explore every facet of pastry that excites her
expresses her vulnerability and emotion in her food in a way that inspires me to be more open
captures her pastry artistry through a cinematic lens
highlights how pastry can be as intuitive as savory cooking
is a bigger Maggie Rogers fan than I am
is hot
I hope that by the end of this, you’re as in awe of Paige as I am (-:
Getting right into it Paige, you were on the Mr.Holmes Opening team and I was on the closing team so I feel a certain level of kinship here lol after leaving Mr.Holmes where did your culinary journey take you?
I love that we have this in common. I had always wondered what had happened to the bakery after I left and it made me so happy to have met you and hear about your experience there. Mr. Holmes was the first job I ever felt empowered in. It was a place for me to grow, develop and improve upon my technique and pour my passion into my craft. I was so devastated when the chef suddenly left and it took me a few weeks to realize that I needed to leave too. I knew I wanted to keep on this path of growth and progression but I felt so sad about Mr. Holmes and didn’t know what to do.
I spent a lot of my early career running from place to place trying to get as much experience as possible, so after Mr. Holmes, I ran as far as I could and ended up in Europe for about a year. I did long term stages at Bostock Bakery in North Berwick, Scotland, Amass in Copenhagen, Denmark and De Superette in Ghent, Belgium. My experiences at Amass and De Superette were the most impressionable. They were the first restaurants I had ever worked in and inspired me to seek jobs in fine dining once I got back to the US. I am a bakery girl through and through but I wanted to have a well rounded skill set before I fully dedicated myself to bakery life.
Baking is no longer your full-time gig but how does the work you’re currently doing now, if at all, tie into how you approach baking and creating?
I made a switch to the film industry during covid and I think what ties the two together is how I document my products. Everyday I get to watch multiple crews work together to create the perfect set for shooting each scene. Watching camera movements, positioning of lights, cutting and shaping light, set decoration and storyboarding are some of the more interesting things I take away from my work now. The combination of these elements has allowed me to look at my product and develop my own aesthetic around shooting photos and videos of the production process. My next goal is to learn how to create the look of natural sunlight without the sun :’) (FYI: I’ve heard it nearly impossible)
You’ve done a few pop-ups this year- and I've drooled from afar over everything others got to try. Is this something you plan on doing more of in 2024 or are you aiming to keep the baking to yourself as more of a creative outlet?
I’d love to keep it balanced. I worked through my late teens and my entire 20’s to create my own desserts and this year was the first time that people actually got to eat them. I would love to do more pop ups but maybe a little less street side hustling and a little more residency style pop-ups:) I’d love to supply a variety of products to cafes, boutiques or provisions stores for short periods of time, or do event based pop-ups/collaboration with brands to highlight their ingredients. For the holidays I got to sell my bonbons at a holiday market which was really fun. It was nice to slow the pace of things down and really get to connect with my customers and share my story with them.
Everything you make is gorgina, from the flavors, the pastry itself to the photography, filming and editing of your videos. Everything is so meticulous and well thought out. What is your approach to the creative direction of it all?
I am all about balance but my creative direction begins with flavors, how original right? Growing up I wasn’t exposed to many cultures or taught to embrace cultures other than just being an American so I made it a priority in my adult life to travel and experience culture through food around the world. I feel privileged to be able to share my life experiences through food and big flavors tell the best stories. I think a lot of people still expect to eat a dessert and have it only taste like sugar. It’s been my mission to create things that are balanced, with bold and uncommon flavor pairings, to invite people to think about what they’re eating and why it works. And to speak more on the idea of balance, texture plays a lot into that. When I set out to design a great dessert, I always consider the experience in HOW it’s eaten. Does it all melt together? Is it easy to cut into? Is there enough of each element to enjoy in every bite?
At the end of the day, my goal is to just have people engage with the dessert and use their senses while eating it.
Under your recent cream puff post you talk about finding balance in not only the food you make but your life as well. Giiiirl, did I feeel that, this is definitely something people in all creative fields struggle with. How have you been balancing your life and prioritizing yourself lately?
Baking is my emotional outlet as much as it is my passion, career, craft, etc. Finding balance in a broad idea, I’ve spoken about it in almost every question so far! Dedicating time to practice balance between myself and my work in a swinging pendulum in my life. Three weeks ago I was able to work out 3 times a week and go for a run or two. Once I started holiday production, all of that fell out the window. And I FEEL the difference when I stop prioritizing myself. My brain fogs, I can’t focus, my feet feel so heavy that everything seems to be moving slower. Every single day I wake up and plan to do something that doesn’t revolve around work but this entire year has been really hard. I am in a tough place in my personal and professional life and NEED to hustle to make ends meet. While all of this is going on, it sometimes feels like the hustle is me “doing something for me” just so I don’t find myself drowning or disassociating so far from life that I lose motivation to just exist.
I think striving for balance is like striving for perfection. It’s a pretty unrealistic standard because we just simply cannot control everything that’s going to happen to us or around us in life. I am hopeful for good days where I can spend time with myself, my partner, chatting with my friends and family or even just enjoying a breath of fresh air on my roof. I do not want to be so naive to think that bad days won’t follow some of those good ones though. To prepare myself for that, I just try to be patient with myself and understand that things will never progress linearly so I just have to go with the flow.
In the same vein of finding balancing, you know that sometimes the scales tip so far to one side you lose the creative spark. Where do you like to go when you’re feeling stuck creatively?
I have a few things I tend to do when I’m feeling stuck creatively. Firstly, I like to go for walks in different neighborhoods around New York City. Maybe I’ll try a new restaurant or walk down a street I've never been down before, but experiencing something new even in the slightest way is inspiring to me. I also love to hear the lapping sounds of the water by the piers in Red Hook, Brooklyn where I live. There is so much waterfront in NYC but Red Hook is so quiet and isolated from everything else and I find it to be so peaceful. There are a couple small parks and paths where you can sit down and just enjoy the view of lower Manhattan, watch ships coming in and out of the city, and there’s an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty. Lastly, I love to visit ethnic grocery stores and discover new ingredients that I would never find in my local stores. Some of my favorites are Kalustyan’s, Dual’s Natural, New York Mart in Chinatown and Sahadi’s. My friend just told me about Johnny Air Mart and Phil-am Food Mart so I can’t wait to check them out.
What mantras do you live by in the kitchen or just in general?
If something goes wrong, it’s not always a failure. Try to embrace it, learn from your mistakes and try again. It is so much work to produce what we do and it sucks so much to mess something up but every time I find myself with a product that doesn't meet my expectations, I will always try to step away, assess the damage and give myself another opportunity to try again and again… and again. I really hate the idea of quitting even though I find myself wanting to so often.. Lol… but i really just don’t think it’s worth it to give up on myself.
Outside of baking, what are some of your hobbies?
I’m a relatively active person so I love going on insanely long walks when I give myself the time to. And I mean I’ll walk like 10 miles in a day. I love to bike, run, snowboard and hike. I really love the outdoors so anything that gets me outside I’m pretty down to do. I’ve been camping a lot more in these past couple years and have come to fall in love with it. My partner has a tent mounted on top of his truck bed that just pops open. I’m hoping in 2024 to get back into it and do a longer cross country road trip. I am also obsessed with the ocean and love scuba diving although I haven't been in years :( I love the beach so I'm just happy to be in a place with plenty of beaches to travel to but I wouldn’t DARE dive in New York. Ew.
Thanks so much to Paige for sharing a little bit about her life and thanks to you for reading along!
If you’re in New York and would like to support her work, she’s got a Valentine’s Day collab with The Fleurista, made complete with chocolate bon bon bouquets. Flavors include:
Strawberry Cheesecake- Strawberry tonka bean pate de fruits, cream cheese ganache and graham cracker crumb
Old Fashioned Cherry Cordial- Liquid old fashioned cocktail, sour cherry ganache, maraschino cherry
Caramel Rocher- Smoked butter caramel ganache, hazelnut gianduja
Which please get them and enjoy on my behalf while I’m 3,000 miles away in California lusting over them!!
And be sure to follow Paige on Instagram to keep up with her amazing work ♡
Super Q&A! Nice connections! Thanks to both of you for inspiring details! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Great interview!