March 28, 2023 – She had the job of a lifetime, one she felt she could have happily done for the rest of her life, but at 29 she wanted to see the world, and she did.
“The good thing about food is that it’s everywhere,” says pastry chef Stephanie Prida. “Take advantage of it! You can literally travel anywhere in the world and find a job in food.”
After working as pastry chef at the 3 Michelin starred Manresa restaurant in Los Gatos for five amazing years, Prida took off for the bright lights and excitement of New York City in 2017, landing a job that had her jetting all over the country and around the world.
That job was with Major Food Group, and in short order, Prida, a San Diego native who by her own admission had zero interest in cooking or baking as a child, helped open a total of 13 restaurants in Miami, Boston, Dallas, NYC, Las Vegas and Saudi Arabia.
“We did a 3-month popup for two restaurants (CARBONE and Dirty French) in Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, as part of a big festival,” she recalls.
“It was super hard, because we could not get any of the ingredients we needed. Everything is imported! It was also an extreme challenge working with people from all over the world, whether from Ukraine, Sri Lanka or Bangladesh: the language barrier was pretty difficult.”
But, perhaps the biggest challenge was living and working in the food and beverage space in a country where you can’t drink alcohol. Says Prida, “None of us smoked until then. But we needed a vice. All of a sudden, I found myself chain smoking.”
Yet, she says, Saudi Arabia was very receptive to what they were doing. “It was fun to see a six-top of all women in restaurant. Pretty much it was either all women or all men, or maybe a couple by themselves. They don’t have anything like what we were offering but they were very receptive. There are not a lot of food options there. Most people eat Turkish food at home. There was an Eataly and a Cipriani, oddly. We were instantly popular and booked every night!”
At one point Prida helped set up a pop up version of the restaurant in the backyard of the king’s house, along with other restaurants from all over the world. “The restaurants were essentially built from trailers, and we were in the back of the festival. The locals loved it! But, when we left, we were excited to get to Dubai, where we could drink, and immediately booked ourselves into the Champagne bar on our layover,” she says.
But then everything screeched to a halt during the pandemic. Back in NYC, the company laid off all the line workers and kept only the executive chefs, who ended up working every day for minimum wage, continuing to turn out food at a high level, for delivery. As much as she loved New York, her heart was calling her back to California, and specifically to Santa Cruz, where she had lived while working at Manresa.
She reached out to a longtime pal, head baker Avery Ruzicka, who enthusiastically encouraged her to come back and work with her at Manresa Bread.
“I am 37 now and have given so much of myself to other people,” says Prida, who had envisioned a career in art as a painter, until her sister suggested culinary school.
“I told Avery that I wanted to eventually open a restaurant on the coast and she said, ‘Come back and work at the bakery and work on your business plan.’ I said to myself, ‘This is it!’ I am going to do this now while I still can!”
Prida’s plan is to have a restaurant with two menus: one for morning and another featuring all day fare, accompanied by lots of Amaro cocktails. “My goal is to branch beyond pastry: I feel it is so narrow. Pastry chefs are more focused and tend to be OCD. I’m excited about doing savory foods.”
Moving back to Santa Cruz after six years away, Prida was not prepared for how expensive it had become. “I had a two bedroom place with an extra room for the inevitable new Manresa employee back then. I think I had 7 different roommates during that time. I paid $1700 then, and now a one bedroom is double that!”
Despite the cost, she’s happy to be back on the West Coast, where she can live the outdoor life she loves. Being in one of the best parts of New York, the west village of Manhattan, was wall-to-wall adrenaline and non-stop action. “There is an energy to New York that is unlike anywhere else. I thrived on the nightlife, and all the restaurants and the bars, but I missed the beach, hiking and the woods.”
Although she made Central Park her refuge and playground, it wasn’t California.
Right now, her present mission is to up the pastry game at Manresa Bread: she’s already added a cream cheese Danish sprinkled with everything seasoning and a gorgeous strawberry crème tart to the lineup. She’s helping Ruzicka move the entire baking operation into the new 18,000 square foot commissary in Campbell, in the midst of the Easter holiday. “It’s going to be the nicest bakery in America,” she says.
Pre-order Manresa Bread specials for Easter now, including the new Strawberry Tart, Everything Cream Cheese Danish and gluten-free Blueberry Coffee Cake, as well as returning favorites like Babka, XL Kouign-Amann, Quiche Lorraine, and Herb & Potato Quiche.
Pre-orders close on Wednesday, April 5. Pick-ups are available at all retail locations Friday, April 7- Saturday, April 9. Customers can place a pre-order via Tock by first selecting their location here. https://www.manresabread.com/preorder-1
About the author
Laura Ness is a longtime wine journalist, columnist and judge who contributes regularly to Edible Monterey Bay, Spirited, WineOh.Tv, Los Gatos Magazine and Wine Industry Network, and a variety of consumer publications. Her passion is telling stories about the intriguing characters who inhabit the fascinating world of wine and food.
