logo
  • News
    • Northside Community Meetings
    • Community Calendar
    • Elected Officials
    • Features
    • Local Business
    • Pittsburgh Police Blotter
    • Public Safety
    • Sports
  • Arts + Culture
  • Real Estate
  • Classifieds
  • Marketplace
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
    • News
      • Northside Community Meetings
      • Community Calendar
      • Elected Officials
      • Features
      • Local Business
      • Pittsburgh Police Blotter
      • Public Safety
      • Sports
    • Arts + Culture
    • Real Estate
    • Classifieds
    • Marketplace
    • Subscribe
    • Advertise
Features
admin, on
September 13, 2010
New Priory pastry chef focuses on freshness

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-style-parent:””;
font-size:11.0pt;”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-fareast-“Times New Roman”;
mso-bidi-“Times New Roman”;}

Priory Fine Pasteries’s new pastry chef Jim Lazeration stands in front of the bakery’s two cases. (Photo/Kelly Thomas)

If you’ve noticed something a little different about Priory Fine Pastries on East Ohio Street, it’s probably thanks to new pastry chef Jim Lazeration.

Lazeration started at the Priory Aug. 13. He isn’t one for sweeping reforms, but recognizes “you can always do better.”

In the month since he started, Lazeration said business has started to pick up already, thanks to three little, but important, changes.

“The biggest thing is baking things fresh,” he said.

In addition to making sure everything in the display case is hot out of the oven (or as close to it as possible), Lazeration has been tweaking some of the Priory’s cookie and cake recipes to bring out more flavor and fluffiness.

Eventually, he’d like to start rotating cookie and cake recipes more frequently to offer a greater variety, but for now he’s happy to have things consistently fresh and delicious.

The third minor adjustment he’s made is to focus more on customer service.

“Everybody works out front,” he said of the Priory’s bake staff. “[Customers] don’t like to wait at all.”

Lazeration is the youngest of nine children, and said his love of pastries came from his family. “We used to come home and there’d be seven apple pies on the table,” he said.

One of his sisters also used to bake wedding cookies and he enjoyed helping her. Because there was no pastry school in the area, he went to the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute and graduated in 1990.

From there, he worked his way up to being the pastry chef at Monterey Bay in Mt. Washington, and says he is “somewhat self-taught.”

Lazeration’s vision for the Priory is to have so many customers the line goes out the door, and is willing to work to get there.

The most challenging item for him to bake is wedding cakes, because that’s the item he’s had the least experience with.

So far, he said the Priory’s best-selling item is the carrot cake cupcakes. Those, along with all the cupcakes, are baked fresh, from scratch, every other day.

Cookie dough, on the other hand, is made in large batches, frozen, and then baked fresh at least once a day, but usually twice. Knowing how many cookies to bake each day, or whether or not they should bake more if they run out, is another challenge of running a bakery, Lazeration said.

Regardless of how much or how little they bake, he emphasized the need to keep it fresh, and to work hard to make sure the Priory constantly improves. 

Donate today to help support the Northside community newspaper's mission to provide hyperlocal coverage for our neighborhoods, neighbors, and their future.

Related Posts
e-Edition
Northside Neighborhoods
Northside Guides
FORMS + SUBMISSIONS
Events Letters to the Editor News Tips
POLL
MOST READ
Town Talk: Pizza! Pizza! Not your typical pizza chains
Allegheny City Central, Business...
Town Talk: Pizza! Pizza! Not your typical pizza chains
March 20, 2023
Most Northsiders are likely familiar with the phrase “Pizza! Pizza!” from the TV commercial promoting a national pizza chain. Yet (and to our benefit)...
this is a test
February poll results
Editor Picks, Features...
February poll results
March 18, 2023
February saw the launch of an exciting new feature on The Northside Chronicle’s website: polls! We asked our visitors to cast their votes on a variety...
this is a test
PREVIEW: Northside company launches program to promote robotics startups
Allegheny City Central, Business...
PREVIEW: Northside company launches program to promote robotics startups
March 17, 2023
Robots are perhaps one of the most common ideas people think about when they envision the future. And one Northside company is seeking to bring the fu...
this is a test
Ask An Attorney
Local Business, News...
Ask An Attorney
March 16, 2023
This month’s article will focus on insurance, namely car insurance. Car insurance is a necessary evil as it allows us to compensate others for injurie...
this is a test
BREAKING: Perry graduate to add books to school’s library
Arts + Culture, Features...
BREAKING: Perry graduate to add books to school’s library
March 16, 2023
A Perry High School graduate will install two of her own books in the school's library in an event this Friday. Maisha Howze , who graduated from Perr...
this is a test
Neighborhood Community Development Fund
Northside Leadership Conference
Donate

The Northside Chronicle

thenorthsidechronicle.com
Phone: (412) 321-3919
Email: [email protected]

About Us

Stay tuned with us

Copyright ©2022 Northside Chronicle. All rights reserved.