Art, Mathematics and My Grandmother's Buns

I have been coming to BREW for several years now. It is one of the best cafés in Vilnius. A good friend introduced me to Jekaterina, and she made a real impression on me. First of all, her pastries, which in my opinion are the best in the city. But also her character. She is quiet, a little shy, and simply a very kind person. I like people who talk less and do more, and that is Jekaterina.

Today she shares her own story, from art books and mathematics to the bakery at BREW. In her words:

Before moving to Lithuania 21 years ago, I had a completely different profession. But looking back, the beginnings of what I do today were already there in my childhood.

My mother is an art teacher. Our home was full of art books, paints, nibs, ink and piles of paper of every kind. She also loved baking cakes, biscuits, doughnuts and all sorts of other treats. My grandmother and I would race each other to shape buns. I think that is where my love of baking and beautiful things began.

At the time, though, I took a different path. If you did well at school, you were generally encouraged towards an academic career. Becoming a pastry chef was rarely seen as a profession you might choose out of passion. So I studied mathematics instead. That probably explains my love of precise measurements, something that turned out to be very useful later.

My second child was born in Lithuania. While taking a break from my previous work, I found that my hands were still looking for something to do. And so I returned to an old love: baking.

Gradually, following recipes was no longer enough. I wanted to understand why things worked, what happened to the ingredients and how I could change the result. That curiosity led me to study with pastry chefs abroad. Travelling masterclasses were only beginning to become more common, and pastry schools were increasingly welcoming international students. There were far fewer opportunities to learn than there are today, so learning often meant travelling.

Then came a succession of professional projects: creating and appearing in a television programme about pastry, helping launch a chain of pâtisserie restaurants, working in restaurants, consulting and teaching. Those years were full of work, responsibility and very different experiences.

Eventually, I began to wish for something smaller. Somewhere I could work a little more with my hands and a little less with my head. At least, that was the idea.

About a year ago, a mutual friend introduced me to the team at BREW. They had been dreaming of opening their own small bakery for several years and were looking for someone to help bring it to life.

After a few conversations, we decided to become partners, and I began creating BREW Bakery. There was a range of products to develop, recipes to test, daily routines to organise and a team to train.

So my wish to return to working with my hands became another project to build from the ground up. My head, of course, did not get much of a rest either.

Those two sides still meet in my work: a love of beautiful things and a need to understand how they work. I am fascinated by how time, temperature or a small change in proportions can affect flavour and texture. Scales, a thermometer and notes from the latest trials are never far away.

At BREW, that curiosity becomes bread, buns and pastries. We test, discuss, adjust and work towards making them consistently well, day after day. There is a great deal of everyday care behind what you see on the counter.

For me, the appearance of a pastry should promise the pleasure you actually get from the first bite. Decoration should complement the flavour, and the baking itself should express the quality of the ingredients and the attention given to them.

Perhaps the best way to explain my approach is through our cardamom bun. I had an almost unstoppable urge to get the dough just right and create something with a character of its own. The classic Swedish cardamom bun was a starting point, but I wanted ours to be different, unmistakably ours.

It brought together my enthusiasm, my love of precision and the determination to keep working on a texture until that moment when you take a bite and think: yes, this is it.

Fresh from the oven, it is a soft, moist, delicate cloud, rich with the aroma of fresh cardamom and unrefined sugar. I wish everyone could taste it while it is still warm. That is when it comes closest to the bun I imagined.