Confections of a Closet Master Baker: One Woman's Sweet Journey from Unhappy Hollywood Executive to Contented Country Baker [Hardcover]

Gesine Bullock-Prado (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 8, 2009

A former Hollywood insider trades the Hollywood Hills for Green Acres—and lives to tell about it in this hilarious, poignant treat of a memoir.

As head of her celebrity sister’s production company, Gesine Bullock-Prado had a closet full of designer clothes and the ear of all the influential studio heads, but she was miserable. The only solace she found was in her secret hobby: baking. With every sugary, buttery confection to emerge from her oven, Gesine took one step away from her glittery, empty existence—and one step closer to her true destiny. Before long, she and her husband left the trappings of their Hollywood lifestyle behind, ending up in Vermont, where they started the gem known as Gesine Confectionary. And they never looked back. Confections of a Closet Master Baker follows Gesine's journey from sugar-obsessed child to miserable, awkward Hollywood insider to reluctant master baker. Chock-full of eccentric characters, beautifully detailed descriptions of her baking process, ceaselessly funny renditions of Hollywood nonsense, and recipes, the ingredients of her story will appeal to anyone who has ever considered leaving the life they know and completely starting over.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this terrifically lively account chockfull of elegant, Old World recipes, Bullock-Prado, a former Hollywood film developer and sister to actress Sandra Bullock, recounts the joys and heartbreaks of running her own patisserie in Montpelier, Vt. Having fled the soul-sucking routine in Los Angeles with her husband, Ray, for the simpler pleasures of a small town near the Green Mountains, the author opened her own bake shop, Gesine Confectionary, in 2004, mostly on the fame of the macaroons she refashioned from her German mother's favorite almond treat, mandelhoernchen (and the casual mention in an interview her sister did for In Style). Although a law school graduate, Bullock-Prado always relished playing with sugar, butter, and flour and concocts an affectionate homage to her mother, who recently died from colon cancer, and grandmother. Her memoir follows one day in a busy baker's life, from waking at three a.m. to prepare the batter (croissants, scones, sticky buns) and bake before opening shop at seven; through the hectic lunch (focaccia); and the three p.m. tea time. In subtly compelling prose, the master baker conveys her touching sense of responsibility for the emotional needs of [her] patrons, and offers mouthwatering recipes. (Sept.)
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About the Author

GESINE BULLOCK-PRADO’s delicious confections have been featured on the Food Network's hottest new show, Road Tasted with the Neelys and in such publications as In Style, People, Vermont Life, and Boston Common. Gesine still lives in Vermont and is preparing to open another bakery in Austin, Texas.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Books; 1 edition (September 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767932684
• ISBN-13: 978-0767932684
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #430,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a baker, a writer, a cookbook author and an inveterate sugar addict.


If I can't teach you something new and exciting about sugar at least once a week, my job here isn't done.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Read of 2009 September 10, 2009

By Loves Books

Format:Hardcover

I work in a bookstore and read soooooooooo many books that and often I lose interest and toss the book aside to move on to the next one.

Well. I LOVED this book. I read it in two days and found myself making home made bread and vanilla cake (which was THE BEST EVER).

This is the story of Sandra Bullocks's sister, Gesine, who worked in Hollywood for her sisters production company and gave up a career most American's would drool over. Famous Stars - check! Fabulous clothes - check! Lunch/dinner dates - check!
First class travel - check!

Gesine chucked all the "phoniness" of LA to follow her passion for baking and ended up opening her own bakery - due mainly to an offhand comment her sister made about Gesine's fabulous macaroons.

If you love to bake (or eat) hurry and place your order for this book. If you're not a foodie but your doing a job that drains you and long to do something else, buy this book!

It's a heartfelt, easy, inspiring, read.

Truly the best book I've read all year. I will not be loaning my copy to ANYONE. And I rarely keep books I read (I usually pass them on). I have ONE SHELF that holds favorite books (6 in all) - and this takes first place.

Did I mention I LOVED this book! Funny. Heartwarming. Inspiring. Funny.

And there's recipes!!!!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Confection of Cookbook and Memoir August 16, 2009

By Susanne Koenig

Format:Hardcover

Fresh out of law school and hanging out in L.A., Gesine's sister hits the big time, and she becomes an executive at her newly formed production company. Several years later, her very health-conscious mother dies from colon cancer. Hit hard by the loss, she finds herself channeling her grief into baking. Day after day she produces popular treats in a fashion that renders even the most congealed L.A-weary hearts putty in her hands, working out her angst into heavenly macaroons. After realizing that she was profoundly unhappy in the biz and always would be, she takes off for Montpelier, Vermont, and sets up shop. There she finds the kitchen a haven from the unplesantness she experienced in Hollywood, and falls passionately in love with what she does.

Including wondrous nostalgia for the ways of her mother and grandmother, Gesine takes the reader through the world of her childhood in Austria and Germany and along the way, ending each chapter with a recipe that makes you want to run to the store and start baking like mad. The Golden Eggs recipe--for a simple yellow cake that tastes just like donuts--is not to be missed, nor all the recipes for truly divine German treats. She really cares about what she does, and it shows.

Now this is not a touchy-feely heroine who throws rose-petals at your face because she's found her own happiness--she's not the touchy-feely type--she's a self-confessed misanthrope who is usually way too blunt and socially inept for most people's taste.... She initially loves the kitchen for its anonymity and not having to deal with people, which is what I like best about this book--it displays a remarkable honesty about her own character and who she is and why she does what she does--baking is the best way she has of expressing goodness to the world, and although she feels like she's never fit in, she finds that through her gift she becomes an integral part of people's lives in her new home town. This is because (oh, and I love her for this) good treats matter, dammit, so put down that Twinkie and have a piece of properly made cake! Now!

So if you're into baking or just want a good quick yet insightful read about finding what's true for you in your life, then this is the book for you and your book group. Gesine's no poet--the language is very plain spoken and blunt--but she wrote a book packed with meaning and self-truth that I loved. A real treat, inside and out. I'm truly glad to have read it. Read more ›

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delicious Book January 14, 2010

By Lisa C. Palatsky

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Gesine Bullock-Prado lives the life that I am living in quiet desperation. Her bakery is the bakery of my dreams, her life the one of my aspirations. I, too, am a closet baker, giving love and affection to whoever will appreciate the time and care that go into a perfect chocolate chip cookie, a decadent double chocolate brownie pie, or anything else baked in my tiny kitchen in upstate New York. Gesine's road from Hollywood to Vermont makes perfect sense to anyone who dreams in sugar, flour and butter...and often chocolate, too. Her autobiographical story of lawyer to baker truly is well written and understandable, funny and intellectual...and then there are the RECIPES: almost as many as in any cookbook, but woven in as part of a story from a European-flavored childhood (Apfelkuchen and Zwetschgendatschi) to the very adult Devil's Cream Pie and Espresso Cheesecake. Can't wait to try them all. I loved reading this book and am thrilled to add it to my collection of special cookbooks that tell their own story. Please get this book; Gesine's story will make you laugh and will touch your heart.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars combination autobiography & cookbook August 28, 2010

By Student56

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This autobiography is organized as "a day in the life" with each chapter being the next hour of the day. This gives a nice structure to the book as the author's memories jump around, triggered by some event that hour. It's also a nice touch to have recipes included at the end of every chapter! I am curious why the title changed from the hardcover's "Confections of a Closet Master Baker" to the softcover's "My Life from Scratch"?? Either way, it's a heart-warming story of the author's transition from working at a profitable-but-unpleasant job to a calling.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Food for the Soul -- So good you'll want to eat the pages! February 16, 2010

By Alexandra Roberts

Format:Hardcover

I received an autographed, gift copy of Gesine Bullock-Prado's book for Christmas this past year. The givers were my brother and sister-in-law who live in Vermont, about 20 minutes drive away from Gesine's bakery. I plan to visit the bakery and them - probably in that order ;-) - when I next find myself in Vermont.

I loved this book! Quite apart from the fact I am an unabashed "foodie" -- known to drive ridiculous distances in quest of just one perfectly prepared food item -- I not only shamelessly slobbered all over the pages when ingesting the recipes, I laughed myself silly while reading the trenchantly witty, often self-deprecating narrative. And nevermind her serving as throwdown judge with FoodNetwork's, Bobby Flay. Gersine is a worthy battle of wits match for that bad-boy chef turned Travel Channel globetrotter, Anthony Bourdain. I'm betting our girl Gesine could leave claw marks on Bourdain's psyche before he knew he was bleeding.

That aside, the timing of receipt of this book proved poignantly bittersweet for me when I read the portion of the book devoted to loving recollections of Gesine's late mother, Helga Bullock. I am currently serving as caretaker for my own mother, who is in the final stages of Alzheimers. I split duties with my sister, as Gesine did with her actress sister, in providing my Mom with pretty much whatever she wants to eat -- mostly ice cream, in my Mom's case. When I read about the lengths to which Gesine and her sister went to supply their dying mother with her favorite foods, I literally had tears in my eyes. I'm guessing, at some irrational level they felt, as I have, that feeding their mother exactly what she wanted might in some miraculous way, heal her, even though it didn't....

I was thankful for the fact Gesine counter balanced the painful recollections of her mother's death, with screamingly funny recollections of her, in life. In particular, the incident involving the righteous wrath Mother Helga visited upon Gesine the Child, after Gesine was found to have stolen cookies from a neighbor's kitchen cupboard. So relate-able! I laughed aloud in recalling the time my own mother marched my eight year old self right back into a grocery store, and not only made me return a half eaten candy bar I'd pilfered, I had to apologize to the store manager. The humiliation of that stuck with me, to the extent I never shoplifted anything, again.

This is THE book to read when one is mired in indecision and debate over career changes. Gesine gave up an assured, big-bucks business career for more soul-satifying work that requires rigorous, uncompromising self-discipline and long hours of plain hard work. Yet she rejoices in providing exactly the right confection, to even the most temperamental of customers -- including: a screaming little boy who wanted a chocolate croissant as much as Gesine once craved to eat taboo Oreos, instead of her mother's homemade, whole-grain bread.

Finally, to Gesine: If I move to Vermont, will you puh-lease let me work in your bakery? Read more ›