“I love teaching and I especially love teaching people how to cook because I think anyone can cook,” says Kayla Tabb, who graduated from Boston University’s inaugural pastry program class in 2022. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Food

BU-Trained Pastry Chef Is Boston Public Library’s New Chef-in-Residence

Kayla Tabb: teaching food literacy, but keeping it fun

On a recent Monday evening, a dozen people of all ages crowd around a long table in the Boston Public Library’s Shaw-Roxbury branch. Inside the library’s Nutrition Lab, the group dons aprons and hairnets as they follow a recipe for no-churn vanilla ice cream. Darting among them is Kayla Tabb, the BPL’s new chef-in-residence and a graduate of Boston University’s inaugural professional pastry arts certificate program in 2022 Tabb offers words of encouragement and advice as her students attempt to beat cream into stiff peaks. 

“I’ll jump up and down and get excited when someone has perfected a technique,” says Tabb. “I really want to encourage people to trust in their abilities.”

Since starting her one-year residency in May, Tabb has been hosting free cooking demonstrations nearly every week. Sessions are typically limited to 12 people and almost always draw a waiting list. The students range from children to elderly adults, from novices to accomplished cooks. 

Tabb offers words of encouragement during a recent demonstration on how to make no-churn ice cream. “I want people to know that cooking doesn’t have to be scary,” Tabb says. “It can be very fun.” Photos by Jackie Ricciardi

Tabb spends much of the rest of her week creating and testing recipes for upcoming demonstrations and researching and writing about the foods she and her students are making, so that they understand each recipe’s historical and cultural significance. 

“I love teaching and I especially love teaching people how to cook, because I think anyone can cook,” Tabb says. 

The BPL launched the Nutrition Lab in 2021 as an innovative way to deliver on its core areas: literacy, spaces and programs, instruction, and culinary heritage. The space serves as the library’s hub for nutrition literacy, offering hands-on learning opportunities for healthy eating and a space to develop life and work skills focused on nutrition and meal creation. 

Stephanie Chace, the BPL’s nutritional literacy coordinator, says the chef-in-residence program, which began last year, was created “to offer local chefs an opportunity to hone their craft while connecting with the Boston community in a meaningful, intimate setting.” Both the lab and the chef-in-residence program are funded by a gift from a private donor. Anyone can register for classes, which are geared primarily to adults, but some are also available for teens. 

When Tabb saw the BPL listing for the chef-in-residence, she was immediately interested. “I was like, stop—someone made this job just for me,” she says. The role combines her passion for food and research with her love of teaching and mentoring. 

Chace says Tabb made an immediate impression when she interviewed for the job. “Kayla stood out to us for her unique blend of skills—as a recipe developer, pastry chef, and someone deeply attuned to the importance of food heritage and culinary education,” Chace says. “Her warmth, enthusiasm, and natural ability to connect with people make her a perfect fit for this role.” 

An early love of food and cooking

Tabb, 28, has always loved being in a kitchen. Her grandmother gave Tabb her first chef jacket when she was six—and embroidered her name on it. From the moment she could reach a countertop, she was making her own breakfast. She was gifted in science and math, and when she was 13, her parents enrolled her in a STEM class at UCLA Berkeley, with the stipulation that she help pay for the class. Given her skills, her mother suggested that she start a baking business, and Tabb was soon whipping up red velvet cupcakes, 7Up and buttermilk chocolate cakes, and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for baby showers, birthdays, and catered parties. She named the business Little Lady Kakes and continued running it through high school.

Despite her talent in the kitchen, when it came time to apply to college, Tabb’s family dissuaded her from pursuing a degree in culinary arts. Her father is a software engineer and her grandfather was a scientist. Both urged her to apply to engineering programs, arguing they’d pay better than a job in a kitchen. So Tabb enrolled at MIT as a chemical engineering major, but quickly realized she was more interested in anthropology and switched majors. She also took the only food chemistry class the school offered. A guest lecture by MIT alum J. Kenji López-Alt, who runs a popular YouTube food channel and had left his career as an architect to become a chef-restaurateur and award-winning cookbook author, proved life-changing. 

“I was like, I can be like him,” Tabb recalls thinking.

After graduating from MIT, Tabb spent a couple of years conducting market research, but also reached out to the gastronomy program at BU’s Metropolitan College, which she knew had been started by two of her idols, Julia Child (Hon.’76) and Jacques Pépin (Hon.’11). When she discovered that BU was launching a new pastry program, she jumped at the chance to enroll.

Tabb says from the moment she arrived at BU, she felt she was where she belonged.

“I loved it so much. I showed up to class early every day,” she says. “Food and cooking are my special interests, so when I could spend my entire day in the kitchen, I was obsessed. I didn’t want to do anything else.” One of the program’s greatest strengths, she says, is that it was taught by industry professionals who exposed her to different career options. “I felt like I was being nurtured and I felt so well supported,” she says.

During the 14-week intensive program, she mastered making breads, opera cakes, cream puffs, and whatever else an entry-level pastry baker would be expected to know. 

Among her favorite memories was a guest lecture taught by Pépin, who pronounced her French omelet better than his own. “Kayla’s talent, passion, and joy in the kitchen shine through in everything she does,” says Lisa Falso, assistant director of MET’s Food & Wine programs. 

After earning her certificate, Tabb went to work for one of her pastry chef instructors before becoming a recipe tester for the meal delivery service Purple Carrot. 

Promoting food literacy, but keeping it fun

Tabb says her goal at the BPL is to impart food literacy—understanding where food comes from, its origins and cultural significance—as well as how to prepare it. “People are so disconnected from their food,” she says. “We have to remember that food comes from the earth and that it is greatly influenced by the environment that we live in. I think there’s been a huge disconnect—so many people think food just comes from a grocery store.” 

But most important, Tabb wants the people who attend her classes to know that cooking need not be scary. She likes to have fun in her classes, playing music and encouraging people to learn one another’s names. “We try to make sure that we’re not just cooking together, but eating together,” she says. “We want to talk about the food, share what we love about it and what we don’t like about it. And we don’t make boring recipes here. We’re all about flavor.” 

When she started her BPL residency, she held a listening session to hear from patrons about the dishes they wanted to make. Given that most of the weekly group comes from Roxbury, Tabb tries to create recipes that reflect the cultural backgrounds of that neighborhood. To mark this year’s observance of Juneteenth, she taught students how to prepare a range of salads, including a “red salad” featuring strawberries, feta, watermelon, and basil with a hibiscus dressing. And in honor of the neighborhood’s large Muslim community, Tabb put together a demonstration centered around dates, a celebratory fruit in Islamic culture. She created recipes for stuffed dates, bean pie (navy white beans seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg), and timir cake, a Somali date cake similar to sticky toffee pudding.

Each of Tabb’s demonstrations offers an opportunity to talk about the science of food, which appeals to the chef’s passion for STEM.

“When you’re talking about food literacy, nutritional literacy, you want to understand what’s happening scientifically,” she says. “Cooking is a series of chemical reactions and so the better you understand those underlying principles—like what happens when something is browning— the easier it is for you to troubleshoot in the kitchen.”

For Tabb’s ice cream class, she invited food scientist Maya Warren to talk about the microstructure of ice cream, to give the students a better understanding of how to create a more creamy, silky texture in their frozen desserts.

Pursuing her passion for research

Tabb fell in love with research as a student at MIT, and the BPL program offered an opportunity to do a yearlong research project. The BPL wanted this year’s chef-in-residence to pursue a project focusing on indigenous populations. Tabb, who had worked on a Navajo reservation during college, loved the idea of a community-based research project. She’s studying how the local Wampanoag harvest and prepare shellfish and is deep in the data collection phase. She’s attended a powwow hosted by the Mashpee Wampanoag, where she sampled a range of smoked seafood. She took a traditional cooking class at the Plimoth Patuxet Museums, preparing bluefish baked in clay over an open fire. She also traveled to Duck Island Shellfish Company, run by Corey Hendricks, a member of the Wampanoag. The two spent a day touring Hendricks’ oyster farm near Barnstable, Mass., and digging for quahogs. This fall, she and Hendricks will offer a three-part workshop on how to clean and prepare razor clams, quahogs, and oysters, using recipes she’ll develop over the coming month.

When her research is completed, Tabb will prepare a series of “kitchen kits” that librarians at other BPL branches can use to teach classes on how to prepare indigenous seafood dishes. The kits will include cultural and historical contexts for each dish. 

Tabb says that when her BPL residency ends next spring, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in food anthropology. “My big, long-term ambition is to become the Black lady Anthony Bourdain,” she says. “I want to travel the world. I want to have a TV show. I want to just talk about and present food to people.” 

Follow Kayla Tabb on Instagram @kale.eatss.

Kayla Tabb’s Recipe for Timir Cake, Adapted from The Kitchen 

Timir cake is a Somali date cake served with a caramel sauce. The recipe is like the British classic sticky toffee pudding. This version uses hot milk instead of hot water to rehydrate the dates, adding richness and extra tenderness to the cake, which is often used to celebrate holidays in Muslim countries like Somalia.

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Ingredients 

Cake

2 cups pitted dried dates, chopped

1 cup milk, hot

1½ tsp baking soda

1½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp kosher salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

¾ cup unsalted butter

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

Toffee Sauce

¾ cup unsalted butter

1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

1 cup heavy cream

½ tsp kosher salt

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Make the cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, combine dates, milk, and baking soda. Set aside for 30 minutes to soften. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the baking powder, salt, and flour. Using an electric or stand mixer, cream together the sugar and butter in a large bowl for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightened in color and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing completely after each addition. Using an immersion blender, pulse the date mixture a few times to gently blend. There should be some texture remaining. Stir in the vanilla and blended dates and mix well. Fold in dry ingredients until just combined, but so no dry pockets remain.

Line a 9” round cake pan with parchment paper. Add the batter and bake in a preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool slightly in the cake pan.

Make the toffee sauce

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot. Add the sugar and cream and cook over medium-high heat for 4 to 6 minutes, or until thickened and glossy. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.

Serve

Turn the cake onto a serving platter. Drizzle the toffee sauce over the warm cake and serve immediately with the remaining sauce.