Claire Fordham interviews Patrice Winter, who has been baking in Topanga for 56 years with no intention of retiring.
In my not-so-humble opinion, Patrice Winter’s carrot cake is a mighty fine slice of deliciousness. Her gluten-free vegan version is even more scrumptious than her regular one, I reckon. Patrice, AKA Patty, was given the recipe 55 years ago by one of the women who helped create Topanga Community Center.
“A group of women would get together in Topanga and they started TCC. One of them, Mrs. Solem, bestowed the recipe to me and I’ve been making it ever since,” said Patty, who tweaked that carrot cake recipe to make the gluten-free vegan version. The frosting? Yum. Chef’s kiss.
However, there’s so much more in Patrice Winter’s repertoire than just carrot cake. With no formal training—taught by her mother and grandmother from early childhood—Patty’s signature bakes include cinnamon buns, 56 different croissants with sumptuous fillings, custom cakes, muffins, cookies, tarts, pies, and quiches. And the bread. Oh my.
All her bakes are made with organic whole grain flour she mills herself, and using Patty’s famous Lady Hawk sourdough starter, begun 54 years ago, that she “feeds” twice a week. The healthy bacteria that ferments in Patty’s legendary sourdough comes from organic heirloom grapes. No added yeast.
If you forced me to choose (and it’s not an easy decision), I’d say her potato tart is Patty’s best savory bake. There are multiple flavors in there. Delicate flavors, decidedly not overpowering, and all the herbs are grown in Patty’s bakery garden at Theatricum.
Part Italian, German, Hungarian, and Native American—but born and raised in New Jersey—Patty moved to Topanga in 1970 and never left. She has had many jobs here: painter; ceramicist; private chef; worked in bakeries in the valley; yoga, dance and pilates teacher for 30 years. And she managed a ranch in Topanga for 20 years where she met her partner in crumb, Dave Winter.
“Dave had been dating one of the tenants up the hill and they’d just broken up. He was driving back down and about to pass my home when I called out and said he looked like he could use a bowl of homemade soup. That night I called my mom and said, ‘I’ve met the man I’m going to marry.’”
Patty and Dave have been together 42 years, married for 40. Dave edited television commercials before he retired. He’s writing a novel and Patty has taught him how to bake. So Dave didn’t actually retire, he started a new career.
“Dave made the potato tart you love and makes all the cakes, including the carrot cake,” said Patty. “It’s easy to teach someone you love how to bake.”
Patty’s favorite memory as a young girl was watching her mother bake. Patty’s mom taught all four of her children to bake and they all grew up to be brilliant bakers. “Mom would turn over empty crates for us to stand on at the counter. I loved cutting out cookies and painting them. I remember using Mom’s favorite cookie cutter. It’s long gone now.”
Eighteen months ago, when Patty missed her footing while standing on a ladder spring cleaning and re-painting The Canyon Bakery kitchen, her knee was so badly injured and painful that she couldn’t bake or stand for an entire year, and Dave took over everything. There are also two “right-hand women”, Sophie and Stacy, who help make The Canyon Bakery a thriving, well-oiled machine, and beloved local business and community hub.
Patty describes The Canyon Bakery as a micro-bakery from where she produces fine floury fare for Café Mimosa, plus individual and wholesale orders every day. But her biggest baking days (nights!) are for their stall at Topanga’s Farmers Market on Friday mornings, and Sunday Fun Day at The Canyon Bakery in the grounds of Theatricum Botanicum from 9:30 am until everything is sold. The current record for selling out is 10:30 am. Patty bakes much more since that record was set, so it takes longer to sell out. But maybe only by another hour, so don’t be tardy.
Most professional bakers, says Patty, get up at midnight. “On a heavy production day, we can wake up at one, get here by two. I like to go to bed the night before a big bake as early as possible, sometimes 4 pm. Summertime’s the hardest for me, but we have special shades I can close off to darken the bedroom. My goal is to get eight hours of sleep every night. Sometimes we only get six hours.”
Theatricum’s Peter Alsop suggested Patty make use of the small kitchen on the property in 2007 and it soon became her main place to work. “It’s a joy to bake in this beautiful, creative space,” said Patty. She installed a high-end professional-grade oven and, more recently, an Italian-made coffee machine. She insists on the best coffee. And Patrice makes her own plant milks.
Sunday Fun Day at The Canyon Bakery was established just before the pandemic. Then customers would place their orders and collect their pre-paid carefully labelled bags, masked and keeping their distance.
Remember when we were complaining about the heat in August? Imagine Patty working in The Canyon Bakery kitchen with no air conditioning. “We did have fans going full blast.”
Patty had to abandon one day’s entire bake because the dough was melting in the heat. “Humidity can wreak havoc on any bake,” she said.
The weather nearly ruined another day’s baking recently. This time it was rain. Patty is always checking the weather forecast. The week before this particular day, her weather app said there was going to be a 76 percent chance of rain. Then the chances went down to six percent.
“So I thought we’re back on and I made a ton of food,” said Patty. About 4 am, it started to drizzle. Then it began raining heavily. I stood in the kitchen looking at all the food in the oven, wondering who I could give it away to. Then it really started pouring. But still people came. Topangans are intrepid.”
The beauty of that rainy day for Patty was that she doesn’t usually get to see customers eat her food, as they tend to sit around the corner at Theatricum’s tables and chairs. But everyone stood in line with their umbrellas and galoshes, waiting patiently. Instead of taking their food home, people grabbed a chair and sat around the counter. Towels were provided for customers to wipe their chairs before they sat down.
Once people were finished eating, they got up and gave their chair to the next in line. Those earlier customers didn’t leave, though, they stood under their umbrellas and kept talking. That’s community at its finest.
“It was so wonderful,” said Patty. “It was such a gift to hear people saying kind things about my food. We sold everything that day, even faster than usual.”
After 56 years as a professional baker, Patty has no intention of retiring. “I love baking and feeding people. I’m going to bake until I drop.”
Patty has this advice for would-be bakers, “Keep baking. No matter how many mistakes you make, how much you may fail, just pick yourself back up and get back in the kitchen.”
And use a scale for measuring ingredients in grams rather than spoons and cups, of which Patty is not a fan.
I recommend taking your family, a friend, or a date, to the glorious garden at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum on a Sunday morning at 9:30 to sample Patty’s wares and drink her delicious Italian coffee. Or buy one of her sumptuous bakes (one slice of the carrot cake could feed three) to take home and invite a friend over to share it.
