The Mystical Treats at Sift Bakery

TV Fame Adds Just Dessert for Family Venture

For Adam Young, the Food Network’s 2018 “Best Baker in America,” it all started on a small dairy farm in Leicester, Vermont, run by his parents with help from his three older siblings and him.

“We lived very sustainably out of necessity,” Adam says, standing in the kitchen of his wildly successful bakery, Sift, in Mystic, Connecticut. “My mom is an amazing cook and baker. That’s definitely translated to here and at the Ocean House.”

Ocean House is Watch Hill’s luxury waterfront hotel, where Adam was the executive pastry chef for six years and one of the team that won the establishment its Forbes five-star rating. He also met wife, Ebbie, there, and they decided to strike out on their own, in 2016, when their daughter Stella was only 8-weeks-old. They opened the shop in Mystic that spring and another in Watch Hill in the spring of 2018 (the latter is seasonal and opens again daily after Memorial Day).

Even before the boost that his Food Network fame brought to the business (they now have customers seeking them out from across the country), Sift was an immediate hit with folks in Mystic and environs.

“I’ve been shocked by the quick climb and success of the bakery,” Adam says. “It’s very, very humbling. We have regulars who sometimes come three times a day!”

They’ve also had huge lines in the summer, with people waiting 45 minutes to buy baguettes and brioches (especially the very Parisian cinnamon-sugar one); croissants, both savory and sweet (5,000 a week, in the summer); carrot-cake roulades and opera cakes; and cookies—giant buttery cookies.

Adam didn’t begin his culinary career intending to be a baker. He began to work in restaurants at the tender age of 12 (people thought he was 16 because of his six-foot five-inch stature), and he progressed from dish pit to garde manger (keeper of the pantry) to butchery. At 17, he enrolled in the New England Culinary Institute, in Montpelier, Vermont, intending to hone his skills in the savory side of the kitchen. Through a series of internships, he landed in New Orleans at 18, and the only position open to him was in the pastry department, under the mentorship of pastry chef Joy Jessup and the late French master chef René Bajeux.

“That’s when I really began to understand the variables and control that pastry-making allows you,” he says. “With savory, you ‘manipulate’ flavors, but with pastry it’s precise each time, especially with regards to the chemical reactions of the ingredients. Working like that became very attractive to me.”

As a baker, Adam knows that sugar is not only a sweetener but also a tenderizer, especially in cakes. “Atmospheric conditions,” such as humidity, are another consideration for any pastry chef. Adam cannot make the iconic French macarons (75,000 hand-piped, mostly by him, in a nine-month period of 2018) when there’s too much moisture in the air. It ruins their crispy texture. Even chocolate reacts to a very wet day, followed by a very dry day, with a “sugar-bloom” on its surface.

He likes to balance his lineup of pastries at Sift to highlight creamy vs. crispy, bitter vs. sweet, sour vs. salty. Salt enhances many flavors, especially chocolate, so a Sift favorite is the chocolate chip walnut cookie, finished with large-grained Maldon salt, from England.

“Our work is a lot of trial and error,” Adam says. “Novice bakers think if it’s super-sweet or super-rich, it’s good to go. We prefer light, refreshing and exciting.”

“I also believe that what grows together goes together,” he emphasizes, giving an example of a rhubarb pastry sparked by an elderflower or black currant liqueur, perhaps paired with a sheep-milk panna cotta (think: spring lambs) and garnished with a strawberry fruit leather.

Harking back to Vermont farm days, where using seasonal ingredients was instilled in him, Adam also remembers the chores, especially the early-morning milking and the summer haying.

“I credit my work ethic to that time growing up,” he says. “And it gives you a perspective for conserving the land and the local economy. It’s a reflection of how we operate today.”

Adam does that in two specific ways: He gets produce and dairy products from eastern Connecticut farms, and he values the fact that his business creates local jobs. He is also proud of the guidance and the motivation he gives his staff.

“Our staff have come to us very well-trained,” he says. “We give them a lot of free rein and reinforcement, and there’s a sense of achievement when we sell their product out front.”

That not only develops a sense of loyalty, but it keeps staff members invested in the whole process and encourages their creativity and leadership.

“What is unique in this industry is that it’s not technology but people who are pushing it forward,” Adam stresses. “Nonetheless, bakeries differ from restaurants in that there is lots of labor and lots of items. Many bakers focus on moving those ‘units’ but we want each item to be interesting. For a thoughtful chef, every element is intentional.”

So the sourdough baguettes take four days, including fermentation of the starter; the multi-grain loaves use a local beer’s sour starter and lots of seeds. Though the bakery is “French-focused,” there are Italian focaccias and ciabattas; fancy pastries with a Viennese twist; a Latin influence for the guava/queso fresco “cheese Danish”; Indian and Thai spices in the macarons—curry espekafir lime or mango with pickled jalapeños; and, for the holidays, there will be panet-tone, plus lots of apple, pumpkin and squash in pastries; and plenty of tarts, cakes, cheesecakes and even bûches de Noël.

Though Adam was thrilled to win the Food Network contest, it was a grueling, challenging experience, and he’s back to putting 80+ hours into the bakery. Ebbie helps manage nearby Stonington Vineyards and, on top of motherhood, is involved at Sift as well. She and Adam make Mondays “family days” to spend with toddler Stella, at their home in Westerly.

“Ebbie and I are very like-minded about making this business something special,” says Adam. “TV shows help, but if your product is not good, they won’t come.”

That certainly hasn’t been the case for either Sift’s products or for the ever-growing number of its eager customers!

Sift Bakery
5 Water St., Mystic, CT
860.245.0541; SiftBakeShopMystic.com
Open year-round
7 am–7 pm, 7 days a week

and open seasonally …
102 Bay St., Watch Hill, RI
401.315.2655; SiftBakeShopMystic.com
Memorial Day through Labor Day
8 am–sellout, 7 days a week
Labor Day through Columbus Day
Open F, Sa, Su only