He didn’t need baking to be anything more. ![]() It helped keep him going, and that alone was a gift. Steve would add things, tinker, and play. He found solace in baking, finding boxes with muffins or cakes pictured, pouring the dust into bowls but never following the instructions. Steve was devastated having his family upended and then being separated from his mom. He baked when he was sad.Įspecially after his parents divorced when he was young, he taken away from his mom by family members who didn’t approve of her once she came out as gay. And while it’s said in jest, it’s really the closest thing to the truth.īecause Steve never looked to baking as a profession, but for comfort. Steve often jokes that the secret ingredient in Gideon’s cookies are his tears, represented by the flaky salt on top of the chocolate chip cookie in particular. “Everybody took themselves so seriously.” While Steve cares a lot about what he creates and takes it very seriously, it’s immediately clear he doesn’t take himself too seriously. He laughs and says, “Yes, definitely, do you see what I’m wearing?” I ask Steve if he wants to do the interview upstairs in the shop and lounge called The Neighbors, which has both seating and A/C. He arrived in all black - black jeans, black jean jacket, black t-shirt, with all his dark hair tucked under a black beanie. Once it was safe to do so, and once our schedules aligned, we finally met up at the original tiny Gideon’s Bakehouse in East End Market. I moved back to Florida in October 2020, and one of the first things I did (after finally eating a Gideon’s cookie for myself, confirming its magic) was reach out to Steve for a profile. Why then did Steve Lewis spend 15 years creating his own chocolate chip cookie recipe, and what is it about that cookie, and the Gideon’s brand, that has people still waiting in lines every day just to experience it? He certainly didn’t plan to become a Very Successful Business Owner, or even his official title on the website: “The Sublime Prince of the Esoteric Order of Cookie.” Gideon may have dreamed of being a baker, but Steve never set out to become one. So Steve named his bakery after Gideon, a way to make Gideon’s 100+ year-old dream come true. Steve loves collecting vintage books, and he picked up a cookbook once from 1898 filled with doodles from a boy named Gideon who wrote his dreams of owning his own bakery one day. It didn’t feel like it was trying to sell me anything instead it felt like it was trying to tell me a story.Īnd the story that caught my attention was about why it was called Gideon’s Bakehouse, even though the founder and original creator of this giant cookie was named Steve. I googled and started by reading the Gideon’s Bakehouse about page, unlike any other I’d read. Who was making these cookies? And how did they get into Disney? It was also mentioned that these cookies were started in a smaller location in Orlando’s East End Market, a place I used to drive by every week when I lived in Florida. She proclaimed it one of the best treats on Disney property. While watching a Disney News video one night, the only news I could handle for a time, the host AJ genuinely gushed over these new giant cookies selling out daily from a secret menu at the BBQ restaurant in Disney Springs, The Polite Pig. ![]() I first learned about these giant cookies in the spring of 2020, while living in San Diego, sitting in my worn gray IKEA recliner, doing what I did a lot of in 2020, watching Disney YouTube content, a way to feel closer to the home I left in Orlando, to the friends and family who were no longer just a plane ride away.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |