Making the world a sweeter place…
An American honoring Paris.
Once a week, a farmer from Warren County delivers 100 dozen organic eggs to The Flaky Tart in Atlantic Highlands. Once a day, Marie Jackson tweaks her croissant dough, adjusting for atmospheric changes in heat and humidity — a process that’s part science and part art, and one that takes longer than eight hours each time.
Jackson has been told that neither effort makes much business sense, that organic eggs are too costly and that it is ridiculous for a shop owner to spend so much of her precious time on croissant dough. But Jackson, despite her degree in accounting, doesn’t care much about how America defines business sense. Her philosophy is more French.
Would a Frenchman ever in a million years cut corners? Buy a cheaper chocolate? “I aspire to be as good as my favorite pâtisserie in Paris.”
The Philosophy
It’s a philosophy that’s caught attention; Jackson this year was a James Beard semifinalist for best pastry chef.