Serving Up Comfort with a Side of Michigan: Meet Bakery Chef Linda Adamthwaite
If you’ve ever visited Project Host and taken the full tour, you’ll know exactly when you’ve set foot in the Bakery for at least one of two reasons: you either have the scent of delectable cheese rolls or some other fresh baked good on your nose, or your ears are abuzz with the boisterous, Midwestern accent of Chef Linda Adamthwaite as she greets you.
Since 2017, Chef Linda has called Greenville her home, and the Bakery has been her domain since 2019. She’s adapted nicely to being a cook in the South; she has a natural affinity for Southern comfort food: “If it’s got a pound of butter in it, then I’m probably a fan of it.” Nevertheless, Chef Linda’s Michigan roots and her journey down South are deeply ingrained in her passion for food, people, and Project Host.
Chef Linda’s desire to learn how to cook came along early in life:
“When I was 6 years old, I told my mom that for my birthday all I wanted was all the money in the world and to learn how to cook. My mom told me that the rest of the world would be sad if I had all the money, but she could show me how to cook.”
Linda was allotted one day a week when she could make dinner and bake for her parents, but her desire to create more adventurous dishes was quickly curbed by her parents’ taste. “My parents were very basic: boiled potatoes, canned vegetables, and something burger-based. I remember making Hawaiian chicken—this beautiful chicken with pineapple and coconut—and it was too weird for them.”
So Linda adapted to the more rustic cooking that was typical for her rural Michigan upbringing, and that love of simple, comfort food shines through in the ready-to-eat meals coming out of her Bakery today. “In Northern Michigan, people like just simple food. I can do fine dining, but I like to feed the masses.”
It was that love of sharing her food with many that became Chef Linda’s calling after she left her hometown for New England with her second husband. “I have always had a heart for helping the homeless and the less fortunate. Before we moved, I said to my husband, ‘When we’re in New England, we’re going to go to a soup kitchen and volunteer,’ because there weren’t any soup kitchens in rural Michigan.” Linda made good on her promise, volunteering at the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter. Before she knew it, a few years of volunteering had passed, and then she became the kitchen manager.
But work would soon call her husband away to Atlanta and then to Greenville, and Linda would follow, all the while staying engaged with local homeless shelters and continuing to pursue cooking. When she got to Greenville, it didn’t take long before she stumbled upon Project Host.
“I walked in at Project Host on a Wednesday, volunteered for a day, and at the end of the shift, I got a tour. I happened to catch Chef Tobin [Project Host’s Culinary Instructor at the time] when he was in the classroom by himself. He gave me a tour and kept telling me to apply. I had already applied to the Cordon Bleu in Atlanta but couldn’t afford it, but I was afraid we made too much for me to qualify for the CC Pearce Culinary School.”
“I’ve always worked solo, so I learned to rely more on teamwork, that people do have your back. I learned techniques that I hadn’t known before, and I just got a little more confident in the kitchen.”
Chef Tobin reassured Linda to just apply, saying there were only three qualifications in his kitchen: Don’t come in drunk, don’t come in high, and don’t come in swearing.
“I looked at him not even knowing him and said, ‘What about two out of three?’” Chef Linda recalls with a twinkle in her eye.
From there, a friendship between Chef Tobin and Linda was formed, and soon Linda was one of three in a stellar cohort of students studying under Chef Tobin in the CC Pearce Culinary School. Linda remembers her class fondly, where she and her two fellow students were preparing Cooking for Kids program meals for 400 children per day.
“I’ve always worked solo, so I learned to rely more on teamwork, that people do have your back. I learned techniques that I hadn’t known before, and I just got a little more confident in the kitchen.”
Linda completed the course and proceeded to pick up catering gigs and work Community Dinners with Project Host in the weeks that followed. It wasn’t until she baked a fateful pan of cinnamon rolls for another culinary class’ graduation that Chef Linda’s trajectory at Project Host changed course again.
“They were going to go to Publix to get cinnamon rolls, and I just couldn’t have that. I brought mine for everyone to try. Before you know it, Sally [Green, Project Host’s Executive Director at the time] and Tobin had me making cinnamon rolls regularly.”
Between Linda’s baking and cooking skills and her work ethic, she had quietly made a case for herself to become a more permanent member of the Project Host team. The plan was to keep her on to work on the new HostMobile food truck, but suddenly after a staff departure, the organization was missing a baker just weeks before its new Bakery was set to open.
“I was getting ready for a Community Dinner, and I could see Sally and Tobin talking about me, so I turned around and said, ‘Is there something I can help you with?’ Sally said, ‘I’m just telling Tobin you’re our baker now.’”
And that’s where Chef Linda has been ever since, whipping up all sorts of baked treats and comfort foods for sale to local restaurants, like Jasmine Kitchen, and to Project Host patrons. But the beautiful thing for her is that she hasn’t had to leave her love of Michigan or community service behind in her role at Project Host.
“Sometimes I’m just really shocked that I get paid to be doing this.”
Chef Linda still likes to source a lot of her ingredients for the Bakery from Michigan when she’s able. “Spy apples are a northern thing. You can’t get them down here, so when I can, I like to go up in September or October to get them for my apple pies.” The same is true of her Hubbard and butternut squash for fall Bakery needs, as well as tart cherries, blueberries, and the list goes on.
And as for her passion for serving others, she says of her job at Project Host:
“I feel fantastic. It is an amazing place to work because, while I’m not as client facing as I’d like to be, I have outlets where I can do that if I get the time. But I know that the good that comes out of my Bakery and the money that comes into the Bakery will go back into the school that helped me or into the Soup Kitchen to feed people in need. That’s a great feeling. Sometimes I’m just really shocked that I get paid to be doing this.”
By Claudia Winkler
