A Sweet Job - Custom Desserts with Chef Maddy

If you’ve been to any of Gather’s public events, or even attended a wedding held at or catered by Gather, chances are you’ve had the decadent and obsession-inducing macarons! 

Maddy Meyer, catering manager and pastry chef of Gather, is the genius behind Gather’s special macarons, and she’s taken time out of her busy whisking and decorating to discuss all the sweet things piped out of Gather’s kitchen.

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Baking up a sweet life

According to Maddy, she’s always had a taste for the sweet side of life, receiving her first cookbook and kitchen set when she was only seven years old.

“My love for desserts started when I was just a kid, we were really into baking and cooking at home,” Maddy explained. “My brother, Alex, and my sister-in-law, Alyssa, gifted me my first set of measuring cups and bowls, and a kids’ cookbook for my seventh birthday, and they told me I could pick anything out of the recipe book that I wanted to make for that day. I chose some double chocolate truffles with rainbow sprinkles,” she laughed at this, “which is very me, because anyone who knows me today knows I'm obsessed with sprinkles, especially rainbow confetti ones; I have confetti on everything, from my phone case to my socks. But that was the start for me, melting chocolate and making candy, from there my love grew.”

Maddy has always preferred baking to cooking, learning to make complicated truffles, cookies, and cupcakes with flavors and mix-ins you couldn’t find at the store! It wasn’t until her mid-teen years that she started to venture into the meal side of the kitchen.

So now Maddy knew what path she would pave for herself once she graduated high school, applying to a culinary school to learn how to bake and cook like the professionals she aspired to be!

However, before Maddy even applied to any school, life paved another course for her.

“Around this time when I was 15 and just discovering what I wanted to do with my future, my dad was volunteering at Habitat for Humanity, where he met Jyll's dad, Pat,” Maddy smiled. “They got to talking about their daughters, and my dad revealed how I wanted to be a chef, and Pat responded 'Well, weirdly enough, my daughter just opened this venue with catering and she's looking for help!' So at 15 years old, I went to one of my first job interviews ever with my dad, and was quickly hired there after cooking under Jyll's eye.”

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Maddy’s mad-creations 

While the freedom of Maddy’s position in the kitchen offers plenty of space for creativity in flavors and dessert types, the method behind each baked good is very precise.

“When it comes to desserts, because there's so much science behind things, at a bare minimum it takes a couple of days to several weeks of trying different quality of ingredients or different methods,” she revealed. “Anything can affect a recipe, even varying humidity levels and fat percentages in milk! It can be a super time-consuming process, but in the end, it’s always worth it.”

When toying with a new recipe, Maddy prefers to work in the Gather kitchen, as she’s been working with the materials and the location for nearly seven years, it’s where she feels comfortable!

“Usually I will do the trial process alone, early in the morning at Gather, that way I can play around with the flavors and materials,” Maddy explained. “Then, typically after I've made four different versions of something, I have everyone taste them, I get feedback, and then I try again with some tweaks. I like to do the baking and the messing around by myself so that I can just be focused and truly get in the groove.”

Working in a kitchen and bakery for nearly a decade will align many opportunities to find the groove in baking, and there was one recipe Maddy knew she wanted to perfect so that she could customize it over and over again, making a name for herself in Green Bay for her delicious macaron making method.

“Whenever macarons are on the schedule, I still spend a full day on them because I want them to remain the best in town, constantly surprising people with new flavors. I'm a big cookie gal in the first place, and I suppose a macaron is a cookie so I have a little bit of a bias, but at home, if I have to pick anything to bake or make, it’s usually playing with different cookie flavors and mix-ins.”

Maddy has certainly created a name for herself not only in the dessert side of life within Green Bay and its surrounding area, but also specifically a name for herself in the cookie careers! Obviously, Gather’s macarons are a huge hit because of Maddy’s amazing skill and flavor pairings, but according to many attendees and event bookers, she also has some of the best homemade chocolate chip cookie recipes in the area as well. 

“People always say we have the best chocolate chip cookies that they've ever had, and that’s honestly because of the elevated techniques used within the recipe, not the ingredients,” Maddy revealed. “It’s a very simple recipe, but because I’ve integrated some techniques of a higher skill level it seems to stump my helpers and kitchen employees more often than not, but those techniques are worth it. Every so often they'll make them in the kitchen without me, and I'll be able to tell by the color whether or not they're correct. Because of that, I'll typically do them myself, but I love making cookies, it gives me my much-needed break in the day. I can just go and make a huge batch of cookies and be good for the week.”

Maddy has been cooking and baking for more than half of her life, and during this time she has noticed the flavor profiles she continues to prefer to work with, sometimes unconsciously gravitating towards the same flavor profiles over and over, which is where her flourishes of creativity keep everything new and exciting.

“I love sweet and salty, so much of my menus are geared towards those chocolate, melty, warm, nutty-like profiles,” Maddy revealed. “I am known to make a homemade jam and put that in a cupcake or a cake every once in a while too, but I lean more toward chocolate flavor profiles or the warm spice profiles overall.”

The boundary-pushing of desserts both in presentation and in taste is something Maddy is incredibly passionate about and frequently notes the importance of Green Bay keeping up with the growth of the area, both in trends and experiences.

“There aren't a lot of different styles and types of desserts in the Green Bay market right now, so getting to come to Gather and try an entirely different type of dessert that isn't a cheesecake or crème brûlée is something exciting both for me and our guests as well,” Maddy explained. “We've all been to events or weddings that put out dry cupcakes, rock-hard cookies, or stale brownies, so being able to make desserts that shock people and get them excited to eat is super important because it changes the way that Gather is viewed in the wedding and catering space.”

As much as Maddy loves the actual development, creation, and pairing of flavors when baking and thinking up desserts, she loves the decoration step just as dearly.

“I love the freedom of baking, especially when it comes to decorating! Every so often a bride or groom, or a friend of mine will give me complete creative freedom of decor for their order, and I'm always reminded of how much I love that a cake is technically a blank canvas until you put frosting on it,” Maddy smiled. “You can physically paint on cakes with edible watercolors, you can add glitter, you can add a million different types of sprinkles! I like that it's no different than painting, you're starting with a blank canvas and turning it into something beautiful.”

“Technically, you're starting with a blank plate and eventually a fully composed, super flavorful, delicious sweet dessert is going to end up on it. I think cakes are such an easy way to get creative because you can really see the artist’s style, like any piece of art.”

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Creatively customizable cakes

Gather encourages couples to show off their relationship’s personality throughout the evening’s entirety, from venue decor, to drinks, to desserts; after all, the wedding is the night you’ll be displaying what this relationship means for the two of you, to all of your loved ones.

“When booking with Gather, everything is already here for you,” Maddy emphasized. “We have an amazing bakery, catering staff, preferred and trusted vendors lined up, and a beautiful venue, but the best part of booking with Gather is everything is made from scratch! We're not a bakery, which means we're not sitting on product, so everything is made from start to finish on your special day.”

“Right now our Gather Package, which includes assorted desserts, is the most popular of our packages offered,” said Maddy. “Typically what will happen, even if the couple isn’t purchasing a package, is they will attend a tasting, and then after their tasting I’ll sit down with them to have a catering consult. In that time we'll go over menu choices and options, and then we move on to the dessert side of things.” 

“We put an assorted amount of desserts out at a tasting, and then at the consult we ask what they're looking for and what they liked from the tasting. I'll let them know based on their guest count how many flavors and what quantity we'd make, and then, based on guest count, I come up with a total, which is all updated live in their event orders! If they have room in their budget and want to add more or change their order entirely, that is absolutely possible. They’ll just easily update those with me either over the phone, email, or in person. I want the process to be as simple as possible,” she smiled.

“All of our cookies are baked first thing on the day of the wedding or event because I don't want any chance of them drying out, getting stale, or getting too crunchy. When they’re baked and presented on the same day they're still ooey-gooey when people go to eat them, just the way they should be,” said Maddy.

While the percentage of couples booking their desserts or catering through Gather is consistently rising, nearly 75%, it is still more common to choose from Gather’s existing menus with slight tweaks rather than an entirely customized menu, but this doesn’t stop some couples from going above and beyond in displaying their love through food for the big day.

Whether you and your partner are looking for an entirely unique wedding with customizations at every corner, or a more traditional wedding with all of the classic elements, Gather is here to make your special day one for the scrapbooks.

“Booking with us means not having to reach out multiple times to multiple vendors, just to make sure amounts are correct, not coordinating drop-off services, or worrying about setup or takedown -- It's literally all here! Let us take care of everything,” Maddy Meyer smiled, already anticipating and excited for the next couple to book their special day with Gather. 

Learn about all of our packages and features offered, as well as dates available to book your wedding today at Gather.

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