Where did you grow up?
I grew up with wandering hippie parents, so my childhood was spent traveling the country in search of the perfect place to land.
It was an adventure that stretched from California to Vermont with many stops in between. By the time I graduated from college I had gone to 18 schools. An alternative childhood to be sure but it was the only one I knew so I didn’t realize how odd it was.
When did you discover your passion for baking?
Around the age of seven, in one of the communes I lived in, another child and I got into the pantry and made a Dutch Baby or what we called a “Puffy Pancake” and watched the flour, eggs and milk puff up in the oven and nearly explode. It was exhilarating and the first time I’d experienced the magic of baking. It made a lasting impression. The maple syrup we poured over the top, that we’d made from our own trees, was a bonus.
How did it develop into your career as a pastry chef?
In 1989 while in college I started a cookie company called Zoë’s Cookies. I baked them fresh in the morning and sold warm cookies from a homemade cart on the streets of Burlington, Vermont, where I went to school. That lasted a semester until winter landed and I had to get back to my studies. It would be a decade of working other jobs before I would return to my true calling and attend the Culinary Institute of America in New York, to study pastry in earnest. My first job out of school was with Andrew Zimmern in a new restaurant he was opening in Minneapolis.
What motived you to publish your first cookbook?
In 2021 I left the restaurant world to raise my two sons. When my younger was two, I met Jeff Hertzberg at a children’s music class who had an idea for a book about a crazy bread recipe he had developed. He asked me to write it with him and I thought it would be a fun kitchen adventure I could do at home with the boys. Little did I know it would be the beginning of a nearly 15-year partnership.
How many cookbooks have you published?
I am now working on my eleventh cookbook. Eight in the “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” series with Jeff and three solo books, “Zoë Bakes Cakes,” “Zoë Bakes Cookies,” which landed me on the New York Times Bestseller list, and I am currently writing “Zoë Bakes Pies,” due out in 2027.
Were any cookbooks more challenging than others to write?
The first book was a challenge because we had no idea what we were doing. “Zoë Bakes Cookies,” my most recent book, was the most surprising, because it became a very personal book for me. The recipes are not only delicious but also tell my family stories, some of which I didn’t even know until I was researching the book. It taught me the power of a recipe and how it can connect us to our roots in a profound way.
Do you do your own food styling and take your own photos?
Yes, I do all of my own food styling and photography. I studied photography and art in college but never found my true medium until I discovered the culinary arts. Now it all plays well together, the pastry and photography.
Do you have a personal favorite or “must have” recommendation?
If you mean a favorite cookbook, there are too many to pick just one. I have a collection of over 500 cookbooks, most of which are about baking and pastry. I have my grandmother’s old Betty Crocker cookbooks from the 1950s, which are splattered with cocoa, butter and have her handwritten notes throughout. They are treasures, not only for the recipes but for the memories.
How have other mediums, like television and the internet, changed the way you communicate with your audience?
I was terrified the first time I went on TV in 2007 to promote our debut bread book. It was 15 years later, during the pandemic, when I was doing Instagram Lives to teach people at home how to bake, that I discovered I enjoy being in front of the camera and sharing my craft with people. I was contacted by a few production companies as a result of my Instagram presence. I ended up creating “Zoë Bakes” with Andrew Zimmern’s local production company for the Magnolia Network. We ended up being nominated for an Emmy Award together, which was such a lovely full circle moment with my old friend.
What do you do when you’re not baking?
Haha. I am an entrepreneur with a website (zoebakes.com), a Youtube channel (@zoebakes), a weekly Substack newsletter (Zoë François), the TV show (Zoë Bakes), cookbooks to write and social media (@zoebakes) to maintain, so I am always baking. I am lucky to LOVE what I do and would do it even if it weren’t my career.
Why do you choose to live in Minneapolis?
My husband and I came to visit in the early 1990s on our way to move to San Francisco and never left. We fell in love with the lakes and the art scene and just knew it would be a great place to raise a family. I have been fortunate to find the most talented and generous food community I’ve ever experienced. It is quite wonderful, unique and something to treasure.
