I have long believed that the Bakehouse PecanPie is one the tastiest things we make. I’m not the only one. Amy Emberling, co-managing partner, wrote in the book Zingerman’s Bakehouse, “This is my favorite Bakehouse pie, just because I enjoy it and also because it fits our mission perfectly—full flavored and traditional.” Want an outside affirmation? It’s been acclaimed by the Detroit News, featured in In Style magazine, and carried many years ago to Paris by Frankie Andreu’s wife to help him celebrate the Tour de France bicycle team victory! To state it simply, this is a pretty darned exceptional pecanpie. Muscovado brown sugar is one of the “secrets.” In the spirit of time management, it takes just as long to put this amazing sugar in our pie as it would take to use industrially refined brown sugar, but the flavor that the Muscovado brings to it is about 55 times better. As Amy elucidates, “What makes the difference between a good version [of pecanpie] and a great version is the quality of the ingredients and their proportions.” This includes using “real vanilla and flavorful butter.” Packed with flavor, mammoth halves of Western Schley and Pawnee pecans help the finished pie shine.
Like the Cultured Butter Croissants and the Ginger Scones I’ve written about in the last couple of weeks, the Bakehouse’s really good pie crusts just got a whole lot better. The difference is that we’re now making them with Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter. If you haven’t yet tried the butter, now is the time. You can enjoy it on its own, in Bakehouse pastries, or at the Roadhouse, where it’s in the Buttermilk Biscuits, served with the Bakehouse Bread appetizer, and in the Butterscotch Pudding, Anson Mills heirloom grits, mashed potatoes, and the terrific Trout Meuniere that’s on the specials list this month. I saw a Bakehouse customer buying a stick of the Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter the other day. When I told her in passing how terrific it is, she smiled and responded with enormous enthusiasm: “This is the best butter ever! It’s so good! We go through it so fast in our house! I could just eat it with a spoon!”
When the butter is that good on its own, it’s pretty clear that it’s going to elevate the flavor of any pie crust you put it in. And sure enough, that’s the case. Our PecanPie crust is so tasty, some of the crew have told me they’re now eager to just eat it on its own. As Jalen Johnson, longtime Bakehouse staffer and a member of our ZCoB-wide Governance Committee, says, “It’s the real deal!”
In 1982, Ari Weinzweig, along with his partner Paul Saginaw, founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen with a $20,000 bank loan, a Russian History degree from the University of Michigan, 4 years of experience washing dishes, cooking and managing in restaurant kitchens and chutzpah from his hometown of Chicago. They opened the doors with 2 employees and a small selection of specialty foods and exceptional sandwiches.
Today, Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a nationally renowned food icon and the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses has grown to 10 businesses with over 750 employees and over $55 million in annual revenue. Aside from the Delicatessen, these businesses include Zingerman’s Bakehouse, Coffee Company, Creamery, Roadhouse, Mail Order, ZingTrain, Candy Manufactory, Cornman Farms and a Korean restaurant that is scheduled to open in 2016. No two businesses in the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses are alike but they all share the same Vision and Guiding Principles and deliver “The Zingerman’s Experience” with passion and commitment.
Besides being the Co-Founding Partner and being actively engaged in some aspect of the day-to-day operations and governance of nearly every business in the Zingerman’s Community, Ari Weinzweig is also a prolific writer. His most recent publications are the first 4 of his 6 book series Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading Series: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business (Part 1), Being a Better Leader (Part 2), Managing Ourselves (Part 3) and the newly-released Part 4, The Power of Beliefs in Business. Earlier books include the Zingerman’s Guides to Giving Great Service, Better Bacon, Good Eating, Good Olive Oil, Good Vinegar and Good Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Ari regularly travels across the country (and world) on behalf of ZingTrain, teaching organizations and businesses about Zingerman’s approach to business. He is a sought-after Keynote speaker, having delivered keynotes for Inc. 500, Microsoft Expo Spring Conference, Great Game of Business Gathering of Games, Positive Business Conference at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the American Cheese Society. Most recently, Ari and Paul Saginaw were invited to address an audience of 50,000 for the University of Michigan 2015 Spring Commencement.
One of Zingerman’s Guiding Principles is being an active part of the community and in 1988, Zingerman’s was instrumental in the founding of Food Gatherers, a food rescue program that delivers over 5 million pounds of food each year to the hungry residents of Washtenaw county. Every year Zingerman’s donates 10% of its previous years profits to local community organizations and non-profits. Ari has served on the board of The Ark, the longest continuously operating folk music venue in America.
Over the decades, the Zingerman’s founding partners have consistently been the recipients of public recognition from a variety of diverse organizations. In April 1995, Ari and Paul were awarded the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County’s first Humanitarian Award. In 2006, Ari was recognized as one of the “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” by the James Beard Foundation. In 2007, Ari and Paul were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Bon Appetit magazine for their work in the food industry. Ari was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Cheese Society in 2014. And Ari’s book, Building a Great Business was on Inc. magazine’s list of Best Books for Business Leaders.
Notwithstanding the awards, being engaged on a daily basis in the work of 10 businesses and 21 partners, writing books on business and in-depth articles on food for the Zingerman’s newsletter, Ari finds time to be a voracious reader. He acquires and reads more books than he can find room for. Ari might soon find himself the owner of the largest collection of Anarchist books in Ann Arbor outside the Labadie collection at the University of Michigan library!
