Pleasurable Conversations: Grayson Samuels

Nostalgic flavors, balancing baking and acting, and where to eat in NYC.

Few things in life are greater than the simple joy of eating a good pastry. The apple tart from Nick and Sons. The brown butter corn cake from Radio Bakery. The guava roll from Rosetta. The cake slices from From Lucie. I could go on.

However, one of my *new* favorite bakeries is Guest Check, a pastry pop-up in Brooklyn. Grayson Samuels, the lovely human behind Guest Check, has monthly pastry drops from their Brooklyn apartment. They’ve also popped up at some of our favorite spots like Public Records, Margot, and many more. Their next pop-up is at Little Prima on March 10th, so don’t miss it!

I started following Grayson on IG last summer when they worked as a baker at Winner Bakery. When they launched Guest Check last August, I was excited to be one of the first people to pick up a box of seasonal pastries. I recently talked with Grayson about their life as a baker, actor, and all the sweet things in between.

The only times we’ve talked is when I’ve come to your apartment to pick up my box of pastries, so I’m very excited to have a real conversation with you.

I know, you were one of the first Guest Check people.

Yes! I’m so excited to get to know you more. Tell me a little bit about you!

I’m a pastry chef and actor. I love to go out to dinner with friends, see movies, and read books. And I see a lot of plays. These are all things that are really important to me.

Grayson by @emmalendermanphotography

I read that you like to bring a theatrical mindset to baking and I’m so curious to hear more about that. How do you incorporate that into your baking process? How do you come up with a story for what you make?

In general, anything can be put through the lens of storytelling. Any strong brand, any strong marketing campaign, it’s all serving one specific vision. For Guest Check, I’ve always wanted there to be a feeling of exclusivity to it, mainly because I have really limited resources when baking at home. But I wanted this exclusivity to feel like it's really special once you have access to it. And I want all my pastries to feel nostalgic, like Oh, I recognize this flavor, I recognize this pastry, I’ve had this before. When creating a pastry story, I lean into one favor. Let’s say it’s strawberry. Okay, what sounds good with strawberry? What looks good with strawberry? I made a strawberry cornmeal kolache a couple of weeks ago because it sounded interesting and I knew it would taste good. The storytelling is very clear: this is strawberry. I always like to lead with something simple.

I’ve definitely felt that before when picking up your pastries. Your creations are so creative and unique, but there’s always that one familiar ingredient. Are there any flavors or ingredients you personally find very nostalgic that bring you back to your childhood?

Growing up, my mom baked pumpkin loaves for Christmas. Literally hundreds of loaves. My dad works in real estate and my mom would bake pumpkin loaves for the clients. I made a box for Guest Check this past fall and was trying to figure out what flavor in that loaf was bringing me back to being 10 years old in the kitchen, and I nailed it down to allspice. If it were left out of that recipe, it would not have meaning to me anymore.

Amaro-roasted plum kolaches

You’ve baked from bigger, industrial kitchens, but you also bake from home a lot. How do those baking experiences differ?

You don’t have to worry about restrictions in those giant kitchens. I could make anything I wanted because I had 200 pots and pans and like four walk-in freezers. And at home, I have a really tiny kitchen, with very limited freezer and fridge space. So there are limitations when I’m recipe developing at home. But it does feel special to pull off. Every time I launch a drop for Guest Check, I go I can’t believe I’m doing this again. Sometimes I choose pastries that are really difficult to do at home and there’s so much troubleshooting to be done on the day of. I’ll plan it, but then it’s not going the way I wanted it to. My philosophy with baking, though, is there’s always a solution. It’s a science. It either fails or it doesn’t. I’ve spent so much time in kitchens, especially working the line during dinner service, that I’ve learned to pause and think Alright, let’s slow this down, you have time, it’ll work out. I think that’s why I’ve felt confident in this project because I've been able to say it will work out.

Lemon cake, evoo buttercream, blood orange curd, lemon curd

Is there anyone you admire, either in history or present-day, and what would you cook for them?

Dorie Greenspan. She’s a pastry chef cookbook author. I adore her. I think she’s so adorable and looks like my nana. I love all her recipes and reference them a lot. I would probably make her some financiers or an almond cake and we could go eat it on her balcony in Paris and hang out. She’s written like a thousand cookbooks. I received the follow back on Instagram from her recently. I had to take a day to process.

That’s so sweet! Going into theater things, I noticed you see so much theater. What are your top must-watch shows? What should we all be reading or watching?

I do see a lot of theater. Especially in the last couple of months, I’ve been trying to see more and engage in theater in New York in a bigger way, like reprioritizing acting a lot more this year. Right now, you can see a play called Oh Mary, written by a comedian and actor called Cole Scola. It’s a camp comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln in the days leading up to Lincoln’s assassination. They have written probably the funniest comedy I’ve ever seen. It’s so niche. If you enjoy alt-queer comedy, go see it. Another play that I really loved this year is called Stereophonic and it’s loosely inspired by Fleetwood Mac recording the Rumours album. And in terms of plays you can buy and read (I highly recommend everyone read plays) I love Will Arbery’s plays. He’s a Pulitzer Prize winner for Heroes of the Fourth Turning, and I really like his play Corsicana, set in Texas.

Adding all of these to my list. I also need to know, what is your idea of a perfect day?

It starts early. I get up at 8 or 8:30. I like to sit and have my coffee for maybe an hour. Read the daily news. And then I’ll get up, maybe go and walk jog the Prospect Park loop. Read my book. Move leisurely. And get dinner with friends. My perfect day moves slowly.

Slow days are truly the best days. What are some of your favorite spots to eat in Brooklyn?

Roman’s in Fort Greene. It’s Italian-leaning, but the menu changes every time I go and it’s always the best thing I’ve ever eaten. It feels like you’re going to a friend’s house who’s the best cook in the world and they’re making you a really amazing homemade meal. I also love Radio Bakery. They have really interesting stuff and I like how seasonal-forward they are. And Rucola, also Italian-leaning. I went to Sailor recently and that was really impressive. But my favorite restaurant is Thai Diner. I go there a lot.

Speaking of seasonal, do you have a favorite season? For baking, or in general?

I definitely do. It’s my favorite season in general and my favorite season for baking. Summer, like early summer, late spring. I grew up in Florida where it’s always summer all the time, so I prefer the sun. I miss summer a lot. Plums, strawberries, tomatoes. It’s just the most exciting produce season.

Ugh, I know. The farmers market in the summertime.

Oh my god, it’s the best.

What are your goals this year as a baker, and what are your plans for Guest Check?

As a baker, I decided this winter to step away from kitchens professionally. I found it really hard to balance auditioning as an actor and cooking professionally. I was putting so much energy into kitchen work and couldn’t sustain what I wanted to achieve as an actor. So I have exited that sphere and hope to focus more on auditioning. But that leaves me with the question of, how do I want to fulfill my baking hobby? And I think it is through Guest Check. I really like where it’s at and the size that it’s at. I’d definitely like to be popping up at restaurants and doing less from home. And I’d love to get into plated desserts, too, and take over a restaurant’s dessert menu for the weekend and see what that looks like.

Ahh, that’s so exciting. I’m curious about another thing: what’s one of your small pleasures in life?

My space and my environment are really important to me. I’m very tidy but I also like to collect little trinkets. I’m very trinket-forward. And in my kitchen, I have a tiny kitchen. It’s a little dishwasher, little sink, little cabinet. I like the idea of a tiny kitchen being in my bigger kitchen. And that’s a small thing that brings me pleasure.

Grayson’s tiny kitchen

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