It’s not uncommon for people who haven’t met us face to face to mistake us for a husband and wife team, since the name ‘Taylor’ can easily be unisex and we are a pair in how and what we often think and do. Even those who do meet us in person assume we’re sisters, or can’t keep track of which one is which. So we’re excited to feature an actual husband-and-wife duo who also finish each other’s sentences, and are equally committed to great food for the greater good. Savor their serendipitous stories, take their advice, and pay them a visit if you’re lucky enough to be in the great state of North Carolina, where they headquarter This & That Jam.

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David is the Edible School Garden Instructor for a FoodCorps site in Tuba City, Arizona, a Native American community on the Navajo reservation. The Edible School Garden and Community Visioning Project are two efforts initiated by the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health to promote healthy living and to combat diabetes and childhood obesity. David and his team work with about 150 3rd-5th graders to implement a curriculum on horticulture basics and nutrition, both of which meet state requirements for math and science. The curriculum also invites community members to join the classroom and provide added instruction as cultural teachers. In the garden, they are currently adding more raised beds and just finished building a hoop house. Needless to say, they are cultivating much more than just vegetables. To learn more about the work that David and others do with FoodCorps, visit http://foodcorps.org/.

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We first met Steph when she was managing the kitchen at Astor Center in NYC. After two years apart, a mere acquaintance – rekindled through email correspondence via the Good Food Jobs newsletter – has turned into a long-term friend and food colleague. It just goes to show you that even seemingly random introductions can have a profound impact down the road. We’re endlessly inspired by Steph’s ability to think creatively and turn her love of food into a full-time gig outside of the kitchen, using her know-how and experience to represent fine cookware brands such as Le Creuset, Edgeware, and Peugeot.

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Okay, we admit that it’s kind of cheating to feature someone who doesn’t have a real job in food yet, but it’s yet another opportunity to highlight the spectrum of ways to pursue your passion. So in case you’re not independently wealthy, and actually have to pay bills and bank loans, Noah proves that you can exercise your interests while you figure out exactly where you fit in the food world.

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Photo Credit Andrea Littell (http://letlooselittell.wordpress.com/tag/bohemian-bread/)

Collectively, Robert & Annie have created a haven for food lovers in a remote spot in rural Vermont. Each Sunday since September, we’ve found ourselves leaning against a flour sack on the stairs of their small retail shop, drooling over the week’s new confections, sipping on freshly pulled espresso drinks (or in Taylor’s case, hot cocoa), and connecting with the others scattered across the community that choose to trade in a weekly visit to church with worship to a different shrine: food. If the start of 2011 marked Taylor’s move to Vermont, then building a relationship with Robert & Annie – the business they’ve built and the community they’ve cultivated – made Vermont her home.

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

ANNIE: In the beginning… I actually knew I always would be an artist of some sort, originally thought I would be in fashion. Growing up in NYC, shopping was my pastime and good food was not even on my radar. My grandmother (from Russia) lived with us and she did all the cooking (not very memorable), so my mom wasn’t even allowed in the kitchen until my grandma died. Then she was in a panic to cook dinners all of a sudden, and resorted to the straightforward broiling or frying of 5 meals which she repeated a set day of every week. Weekends luckily we went out.

When I got married I had never stepped foot in a kitchen, and so we went out a lot too. This is when IT happened. THE NY TIMES COOKBOOK. Out of boredom, I started making 3 and 4 course dinners each night, while my husband decided he’d rather drink his dinner, leaving me to my own devices, I made even more complicated meals sadly to sit and look at them alone.

Food took a backseat in my life at that point until I moved to San Francisco…land of perpetual sunshine and exotic flowers and plants and the most beautiful fruits and vegetables I had ever seen or tasted! From then on it was farmer’s markets and small markets specializing in the best of the best produce around. Then I met some chefs, and one particular BAKER. We made dinners with friends with complicated desserts, holiday gingerbreads, and all kinds of things and and we had a blast. We got to know famous bakers in SF and Robert wanted his own shop to make bread-and we arrived in New England, and bought our house to build a brick oven on the property.

Of course, designing the Bohemian Bread logo came first, followed by deciding how to package the bread with an ink stamp on a brown paper bag. Packaging became my love, with holiday Panettone labels, gingerbread labels and more for each of Robert’s pastries and confections. Then the bakery itself- designing it was great fun – to make it the little jewel in the woods that would surprise and excite everyone who walked in the door! Emails each week to promote that week’s story or to entice our wonderful customers to come and see us again and again… Along the way I also designed wine labels for E&J Gallo, and a small winery in New Jersey.

ROBERT: I sort of fell into it. You know the drill – washing dishes in the college dining hall, cleanup boy in a bakery. Then in 1979 I was cruising the want ads and “baker’s apprentice” caught my eye. I showed up at 4:00 AM, Hank Williams Jr. was blasting from the radio, they handed me an apron and said “put some fat in the donut fryer”. It was an old fashioned shop where we made everything from cream puffs to sliced bread to Black Forest cakes. I loved that I was learning a trade.

How did you get your current good food job?

ANNIE: I married into it.

ROBERT: My current “job” is me being my own boss, and working at my own pace, which means all the time every day. But I get to make what I want, the way I want to.  Bohemian Bread is the culmination of 30 years in the food biz  –  essentially a long journey, from which the term “journeyman” comes. You do your apprenticeship, then you travel around, learning from various masters of the trade.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job?

ANNIE: Design, illustration and marketing are my passions. I love figuring out how a product should look on a shelf, in a box or in some sort of paper wrapper. My background in marketing boring tech products and other businesses makes working with food the greatest pleasure! Something I can understand, and can taste!! Yummmmm!

ROBERT: In my wanderings, I was immensely fortunate to work for some of the best in the business on the West Coast. Among them were Gary Rulli of  Emporio Rulli, Carlo DiRuocco of Mr. Espresso, and Chad Robertson of Tartine. Rulli taught me Italian pastry and a particular work ethic that inspires me to this day. At Mr. Espresso I did coffee quality control for some of the top restaurants in the SF Bay area, including Chez Panisse, Oliveto and the Lark Creek Inn. And I met Chad and Liz when they were Bay Village Bakery in Mill Valley, before they moved to SF and became Tartine. I rolled croissants while watching Chad out the corner of my eye, picking up subtle clues about his extraordinary breadmaking. That brief time with Chad has proved invaluable to my quest for the perfect French bread, from fermenting the dough to firing and maintaining the brick oven.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream?

ANNIE: My husband is a hog in the kitchen…but luckily he can’t design – so that’s my realm… (Editor’s Note: Don’t let Annie fool you. We’ve come to crave her savory sandwiches each week and know for a fact she’s gifted when it comes to the kitchen, too).

ROBERT: Lack of self-confidence. And a host of other neuroses. I have Annie to thank for getting me (us) where we are now. She pushed and inspired and helped. Otherwise, I’d still be rolling dough on some bench in the vast jungles of the SF Bay area food scene. (Editor’s Note: It’s true! We love the way Robert and Annie play off each others’ strengths, resulting in magic that can only occur when you have a partner.)

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now?

ANNIE: Quality and simplicity are key. Too many chefs seem to think more ingredients makes something taste better, when I think the reverse it true. And so in design as well, find the essence and make it sing.

ROBERT: Three things: quality, quality and quality. Make it good, and they’ll keep coming back for more. We are the dictionary definition of an artisan bakery, but I’m sick of the word “artisan”. It means exactly as much as “gourmet” and “natural”.  When you see “artizzinle” bread that’s made in a factory and par-baked, it’s time to move on. Leave all that to the Marketing People. I see the direction of the future as micro and really tasty. Obviously, this is not about getting rich. Growth for its own sake gets you money (sometimes), but focus on quality gets you satisfaction and, hopefully, a decent living.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be?

ANNIE: Can it be love and laughter? And oh, maybe a trip to Paris…

ROBERT: To be 30 again and know what I know now.

What was your favorite food discovery in 2011?

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At GFJ we’re all about being proactive, and Katie’s just the type of good food job holder that we like to see! She emailed us in tandem with a recent job that Sweet Stem Farm posted, which led to a conversation, which led to us featuring her on the blog. It goes to show you that you never know who you will meet or what you will learn until you start initiating conversations. So in case you’re scoping out New Year’s Resolutions, you may just want to follow in Katie’s footsteps and write that email. You never know what will come of it.

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Two friends with different career paths and a shared passion for food put their heads together and start a website to share that passion with others. It sounds familiar in the best way. But take note, multi-taskers: these women are doing a lot more than running Pantry Confidential in their ’spare’ time. Christine waits tables at a local restaurant, in between sharing her latest behind-the-camera work with the rest of the world, and Hana spends her nights immersed in culinary school and dishing on her blog.

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Not to – excuse the expression – beat a dead horse, but for anyone wondering whether last week’s featured good food worker, Carly, was the only person who successfully found a way to combine food and law…the answer is no, and we’ve got Jason to prove it. Jason’s stateside practice shows us how attorneys can be used in a proactive manner to make more sound business decisions, which is something all of us small food businesses can use to propel the movement. Not only does he relish bringing his work home with him, but he also sometimes eats it for dinner.

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