The first time Adri Yorke walked into the kitchen of Otro Cinco, a local Mexican restaurant, she felt she had to earn the respect of her older co-workers.

Yorke, a freshman television, radio and film major, balances being a student at Syracuse University while working at Otro Cinco as a pastry chef twice a week. Her responsibilities include making a variety of desserts, from cupcakes to tarts to rice pudding.

When her half-sister Johanna Yorke, the owner of Otro Cinco and Alto Cinco, asked her if she’d be interested in taking the job in early March, Yorke was on board. She was especially enthusiastic because at school she didn’t have opportunities to bake, since she lives in a dorm without a kitchen. She began working at the restaurant at the end of March.

“At first it was very intimidating to walk into an environment of adults who knew what they were doing. The first day I definitely felt out of my element,” Yorke said. “I feel like people didn’t take me that seriously because I was Johanna’s sister.”

However, as Yorke continued working at Otro Cinco, she described her coworkers’ attitudes toward her as changing from, “What is she doing?” to “What is she making tonight?”

Like many college students, Yorke said making time for her job isn’t easy. She also works as a communications assistant in the College of Law during the day, and joined a sorority earlier this semester. Despite her packed schedule, her job at Otro Cinco is a priority. She doesn’t feel like it’s a tiresome commitment because she said time flies when she’s in the kitchen.

Yorke’s sister, Alex, a sophomore nutrition science major, drives her to Otro Cinco twice a week.

“By now she has an idea of when she will be working, so she tries to plan. If she has something due Thursday but has to work Wednesday night, she’ll try to make sure she does the assignment Tuesday night,” Alex Yorke said.

Becoming gluten-free recently poses an additional challenge for Yorke in her baking process. She can’t eat many of the creations she makes at work, save a couple small bites or tastes. Outside of Otro Cinco, however, she’s been working on making gluten-free treats that are tastier than those sold in supermarkets.

“It’s definitely more difficult, but it’s something I can get over,” Yorke said. “It’s sad for me because I love desserts — it’s really kind of heartbreaking.”

Yorke first began baking and cooking around age 10. She grew up learning the skills from her dad, because baking was an activity the two enjoyed doing together.

“She’s always been very creative,” Adri’s father John Yorke said. “I think originally she really got into it because of the decorating aspect.”

Her father said it has been rewarding watching his daughter’s baking abilities improve as she’s grown up. He joked that when she was little, they used to eat all of her mistakes.

“I think that she uses cooking as a means of artistic expression, and she’s very good at it,” John Yorke said.

Yorke became more serious about baking professionally in high school, when she started her own baking company where she would bake cupcakes for graduation parties. Typically for those events, she said she would spend time making about 100 cupcakes in her kitchen from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Both Yorke and her father have the same favorite dessert to make — chocolate cupcakes filled with peanut butter filling, covered in chocolate ganache and topped with peanut butter buttercream frosting.

Because of her other interests in communications and TV, Yorke’s dream job would be to produce for the Food Network.

Yorke’s advice for students who would like to pick up baking or cooking is to stick with it and to not get discouraged. She also suggests learning by watching YouTube video tutorials.

“I’m definitely more of a visual person, especially when it comes to decorating. I found that the best way to learn was to actually watch the video while doing it yourself. It takes practice, lots of practice,” Yorke said. “There were a lot of sad, pathetic looking roses, but eventually you get there.”

In the end, for Yorke, the payoff of culinary skills is worth the labor of learning them.

Said Yorke: “It’s a lot of fun when you know what you’re doing, and it’s very rewarding to be able to make yourself a meal or bring a cake to a party.”

Published on April 13, 2015 at 9:55 pm

Contact Alex: aerdekia@syr.edu