North Bay Woman

F A L L 2 0 1 5 | NORTH BAY WOMAN 63 Bay Area grocery stores," she recalled. Then in her late 40s and with a track record as a homemaker, Milne started charging $9 for her artisan, all-butter-crust 10-inch pies that she'd sell on the street or to people she knew. "I had to figure out how to support myself," she said. Word of mouth was positive. The fan base built while the pies, bursting with fresh seasonal fruit and boasting richly buttery crusts —no shortening ever— spoke for themselves. Milne soon clinched her first account, at the Depot Café in Mill Valley (still a devoted client). Within five years she had a thriving full-time Bay Area-wide business. These days, Upper Crust Pies operates out of a large commercial kitchen on East Francisco Boulevard in San Rafael. Milne's baking team hand-crafts 2,000 pies a week during the year, rolling out as many as 23,500 in four days prior to Thanksgiving. Her fruit, pecan and pumpkin pies, ranging in size from 6- to 10-inches, are sold in markets from Calistoga to San Ramon to San Jose. The line has expanded to include gluten-free as well as sugar-free versions. "My philosophy has always been to try and make the best pie on the market," said Milne, tall, elegant and athletic at 70. "We want people to enjoy them and feel like they are homemade. We know a lot of people don't have time to spend two hours in the kitchen making pie. That's our niche to fill." Kathleen Weber, Founder/Baker/ Author, Della Fattoria Kathleen Weber, 70, is another pioneer of artisan baking who in 1995 inadvertently launched a career based on a love of hearth- style bread. For her 50 th birthday, she had an Alan Scott-designed wood-fired oven built on the back deck of her home. "We lived and are still living in the Petaluma Farm that has been in my husband's family for many years. So there was plenty of room for the oven. It's still in the same place on the back deck, along with another oven," said Weber, who runs her 20-year-old business out of the farm. Inspired by 1970s and '80s local organic bread artisans such as Acme, Semifreddis and Metropolis, Weber started out baking for her family and friends. Her son Aaron, then a chef at the Sonoma Mission Inn, brought his mom's ultra-fragrant, crisp-crusted, tender-sponge breads to the inn's kitchen for feedback. As Weber tells it, the chefs were very positive, giving her ideas for bread, which she would bake and "give away like crazy because you can't stop making it and you can't eat it all." Just a couple of months later Weber's breads, brought to the French Laundry to "audition" by her son's girlfriend, became a dinner staple at Thomas Keller's world-famous restaurant. The rest is Bay Area bread history. Weber, who works with her husband Ed and her children, makes a dozen kinds of bread served in only 20 restaurants throughout the North Bay and San Francisco; it's sold in about that many grocery stores. Weber and her team of 12 produce 800 to 900 loaves a week. In 2004, she opened the frequently jam-packed Della Fattoria Café in a Victorian building in downtown Petaluma where the breads are augmented by French pastries, towering layer cakes, cookies and more, all organic and made with local ingredients. Della Fattoria breads and laminated pastries are also a staple at the Marin and Ferry Plaza farmers markets. And just this year in January 2015, Weber's first book was published: "Della Fattoria Breads," with a forward by Thomas Keller; it was nominated for a James Beard Award, the Oscars of cookbooks. "I love mixing my dough, thinking every day, 'Who will eat this, who will be dining at the Sonoma Mission Inn, or The French Laundry,'" Weber reflects. "I love how people will love my bread and reach out to me; it makes people happy, to eat wonderful bread. I love creating that abundance." Bert Smith of Bert's Desserts, Petaluma For nearly 20 years, Bert Smith worked in the financial industry. But she traded gold bullion for gold medals — and silver and bronze, and Best of Shows. Smith, a self- taught confectioner for the past 12 years, has won more than 50 medals and prizes at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair for her hand- made, original recipe candies and treats. "Desserts make everyone smile," said Smith. "They're the end of a nice meal. They're the pick-me-up during the day. People eat vegetables because they're supposed to but they choose sweets because they make them happy." Now working out of a small commercial kitchen in downtown Petaluma (though she debuted her business in her Petaluma home), Smith turns out dark and milk chocolate peanut butter cups; dark chocolate truffles with assorted fillings including varietal wine ganaches; white chocolate cups stuffed with ethereally fluffy lemon cream and much more. All her sweets are made from scratch, she explained. Bert's Desserts candies are sold at Woodlands Market in Kentfield and Tiburon; her cookies are found at Palace of Fruit in Petaluma, to name a few places. But she gets most of her business online as mail-order. At holiday time or for special occasions she has produced up to 1,000 boxes of confections. "Nothing's hard for me anymore," said Smith, who recently challenged herself by making New Orleans-style pralines but has since mastered the art. "I can make candy in my sleep." Recipes Tuna Melt, Kathleen Weber of Della Fattoria (Serves 2). This stellar recipe from Weber's new cookbook "Della Fattoria Bread" calls for 1 pound of Overnight or Hurry-Up Pizza Dough, but Weber says you can substitute slices of Della Fattoria Campagne or Pullman loaf as well. For simplicity's sake, we >>

• Cover