March 17, 2024
I come to you today fresh off the high of my Words and Pictures: Creative Writing from Visual Art class taught on Zoom for the UCLA Extension’s Writers’ Program. It was a terrific group and they honored me not only with their compelling pages of ekphrastic writing, but some of the most glowing teacher evaluations I’ve yet to receive. The flushed cheeks and all over warmth I felt, I’m happy to report, was not a hot flash, but the good feelings engendered by their generous assessments.
I’ve taught that class for the Writers’ Program since 2009. Another class I’ve taught since that time is Creative Cafe: Food and Writing. This past October, I ran a new expanded version of it, held four consecutive half-Saturdays on Zoom. I’m thrilled to be running it again this spring, again on Zoom, four half-Saturdays, April 13 through May 4. Click here for more information and to enroll, or look under my “classes” tab at the top of this page.
As for my own food-centric writing, I’ve been racking up the Substacks with my Cake Papers at Nancy’s Kontent Korner. They started this past November with a bummer of a trip to a beloved spot, Santa Monica’s Sweet Lady Jane’s on Montana Ave. It was where I went for a big slab of their celebrated triple berry cake (yellow cake layered with whipped cream, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries), coffee and catch up conversations with friends. It was one of those things that helped make up for the challenges of living in a big city like L.A. But I hadn’t been there for a while and that visit I was shocked to find the prices raised, the portions significantly smaller and counter help encouraging me to complain to their bosses. The result was Blowing the Icing Off Late Capitalism Cupcakes, my November 13, 2023, Substack post.
That December 31, the owners announced their closing of the six storefront bakery chain in an Instagram post that surprised not only L.A.’s cake loving cohort, but SLJ’s own employees. The New Year’ found them not only without jobs, but locked out of their work place, some with personal belongings still inside. January 10, I posted Let Them Eat Cake, or Whatever Happened to Sweet Lady Jane?, my further investigations into the crummy reality of Late Stage Capitalist Cupcakes. It was a glimpse into the rough and tumble world of commercial bakeries.
In its aftermath, my devoted Substack subscribers were advising where to find replacement versions of the triple berry cake and offering to ride along on my research. I ended up taking a whole Whole Foods whipped cream berry cake to my own Birthday Brunch and driving a rainy Saturday morning to Manhattan Beach for a Lido Bakery version of the triple berry cake many assured was the closest thing to SLJ’s. Much to my surprise, Lido’s owner, Ernesto, started the bakery with his mother after she quit SLJ in a salary dispute. After years of devotion and hard labor, she had risen the ranks from unskilled worker to head pastry chef. Lido benefitted from her triple berry expertise, becoming its own destination bakery.
Their cake was was quite good, as was the more affordably priced Whole Foods version. Feeling responsible for igniting cake hunger in my subscribers, I drove multiple slices around to them across the vast expanse of L.A., then wrote The Cake We Ate: Final Thoughts on Life and Cake After Sweet Lady Jane. That posted February 10. I thought I was done. I thought I could go back to watching my sugar intake and rare cake escapades, but noooooo. No sooner had I posted, than the announcement was made that SLJ had been sold and would soon reopen.
Last Wednesday, I made it my mission to hit the Beverly Hills shop, one of the only two I knew to be open, according to their online information, followed by fact checking phone calls. It was heaven. Stunned and gleeful customers circled the full display cases, chatting with other SLJ fans, ecstatic at Jane’s return. Then, on the way home, my cake-dar told me to swing by Montana Avenue. Lo and behold, that SLJ was open as well! They just hadn’t announced yet online. You had to be there!
A fortune was spent on lovely giant slabs of the returned to excellence triple berry cake and other goodies, all in the name of research. A sugar fugue state was induced. Only now has my brain returned to near normal and I can consider writing what I hope will be the fourth and final installment of my Cake Papers. While you’re waiting on that, I invite you to head over to Substack for the three installments so far. Grab your own slab of triple berry or other favorite cake, the perfect companion while reading Nancy’s Kontent Korner.
Thanks for stopping by!
