Noah Whritenour: Stevedore Bakery (Savannah, GA)

One thing that is wonderful about a life in cooking is that the path doesn’t have to be straight and narrow. Chef Noah Whritenour of Stevedore Bakery in Savannah, GA is a New York native, graduated from Johnson and Wales in Rhode Island, has worked in kitchens all over the country from Martha’s Vineyard to Colorado, and honed his craft mainly on the savory side of things. However, the sweet side of the professional kitchen kept calling to him and he finally decided to commit to pastry a few years ago while at Husk Savannah. He leaned hard into the practice and landed the role of Executive Pastry Chef of the Thompson Savannah hotel and there, along with Culinary Director Rob Newton, opened the Stevedore. Each day he and his team create flaky croissants and various other treats, dig into the science of sourdough as it relates to the Savannah climate, and use local ingredients as inspiration to create breads and pastries that often have a taste of Southern soil. He’s at the perfect point in his pastry career to share some prime tips about setting yourself up for baking success, so we focus on that here, well, that, and some country ham and tinned fish, too.