The Benjamin Hollywood,.

"I have a candy thermometer, but I don't use it," she says from her home kitchen in Los Angeles, where her oven runs around the clock to fill pastry boxes for her side hustle-turned-full-time gig, May Provisions.You'd never know from her flower-strewn,.

jam-dolloped cakes.that this inspired baker hasn't spent one day in pastry school.Piligian's talent was honed through years in restaurant kitchens; that's where she discovered the secret to buttercream success: Swiss meringue.

This simple mixture of egg whites and sugar (basically homemade marshmallow creme) not only lightens buttercream but also stabilizes it.Heating and whisking the egg whites unravels their proteins, which then tighten back up, trapping tiny air bubbles with an assist from the just-melted sugar.

Fluffy and sweet, the meringue loosens the thick butter, yielding a deliciously versatile frosting.

"It's so light, airy, and malleable," Piligian says.Masienda buys the surplus at two to five times the price of commodity corn, giving the farmers an incentive to grow the lesser-known, regional varieties.. Masienda's first clients were Mexican restaurant chefs in the U.S. Now, the company has expanded its reach to home cooks.

Masienda sells its own heirloom corn tortillas in a handful of supermarkets across the country, as well as small bags of whole kernels and tortilla presses on its website.. "Masa is our purpose.And around that, everything that makes that masa possible, beginning with the farmers," Gaviria says.

"We're a masa-focused mission."Ashtin Berry has worked in hospitality for more than half her life.At the age of 15, she started working in restaurants, where she quickly discovered a truth that is foundational to the work she does now: Black people have always been the backbone of the hospitality industry.. READ MORE:.