Arts
Cynthia Kinahan owns Pawling Bread Co, a bakery revered for their fresh sourdough loaves and black–sesame-stuffed croissants. Born in Malaysia, Cynthia discovered the allure of American cuisine after college, as she explained to the food blog Edible Husdon Valley back in 2018. Drawn to baking though her interest in American bread, eventually she began selling her goods at the Pawling Farmers’ Market where her baked goods quickly earned a large, loyal following. Jim Lahey thought he was going to be a sculptor. After noticing he couldn't find bread in New York like the beautiful, crusty loaves he ate in Italy while traveling there as an art student, he took it upon himself to recreate those loaves. In 1994, he opened Sullivan Street Bakery in the West Village, which now has locations in Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea and Miami. In 2015, his work at Sullivan Street earned him the first-ever James Beard Award for Outstanding Baker in 2015. In this installment of Leonard Lopate at Large on WBAI, Cynthia and Jim compare notes on their baking philosophies, running a bakery and how COVID-19 has changed everything.