Meet Lindsay Miller | Pastry Chef & Owner of “A Little Salty Pie Company”

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lindsay Miller and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lindsay, what is the most important factor behind your success?
I think the most important factor behind our success so far is that I just make things that I think would taste good, but I do it in a fun exciting way. I think the pretzeled crust puts a fun new twist on a classic dessert, but even without that I think the key to a successful baking business is finding the fun in whatever you’re making and staying true to what you think will be extra yummy. Also booze. When in doubt, bake with booze.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Alright, so basics… I’m a baker/pastry chef and have started my own cottage food pie business called “A Little Salty Pie Company” We specialize in pies make with our pretzeled pie crust, a process created when I was working as pastry chef at Playa Provisions. We used to make these soft pretzel bites and I used to play this game called “will it pretzel” where I would just put the pretzel solution onto other baked goods to see what would happen. One day I put it on a pie crust like you would put on an egg wash, and added some salt and BOOM. The pretzeled pie crust was born.

I think what sets me apart from others is the way I like to try and keep my desserts playful. Think classic nostalgic desserts with a fun weird twist to them. I’m always playing mad scientist in the kitchen and trying new things out just to see what will happen. I honestly think it’s my lack of any kind of formal training mixed with a playful curiosity that allows me to experiment and find new fun ways to make things.

It was not the easiest journey to get to where I am professionally, but at the same time it was a lot of right place, right time stuff. Honestly, most of the challenges I faced were created by myself. I have been incredibly lucky. I never went to culinary school. I just worked my way up at Playa and eventually ended up running their pastry department and helping open their stand alone ice cream shop. When the pastry chef who I annoyed into letting me work with them left, a new chef was brought in and made me his sous chef. He was only there for a couple months before leaving, and when he left I just kind of….took over? I had guidance from the Chef De Cuisine and just started acting like I was the pastry chef. Then I was suddenly actually the pastry chef.

Looking back, I don’t know that I was actually ready to be in charge, I had imposter syndrome like crazy, and had mountains of trauma that I had yet to acknowledge and even start to deal with (hello cptsd). But, I was ambitious and couldn’t let this insane opportunity pass me by. A lot of my career has felt like it’s been a sort of trial by fire. Having an amazing opportunity just fall into my lap that I feel like I’m in no way ready to handle, but I can’t let the opportunity pass me by so I just…try to figure out how to make it work, even if I’m having frequent panic attacks that are so bad that I’ll puke. And I did that for about 2(ish) years.

Anyways, I think now one of the things that I am the most proud of is learning how to handle my anxiety enough that I can sort of function. There was a point where it got so bad that I was crumbled in a ball crying every day in the bathroom stall. This was instigated by my mom’s cancer coming back with a vengeance. She first got cancer when I was 6 months old and has had it on and off my entire life. So when it came back, and I was already exhausted and feeling terrible and terrified on the daily, it just kind of pushed me over the edge. I had to take a step back at playa and let my sous chef take the reins so I could help out with my mom after her brain surgery, but also so I could try and take care of myself too.

It’s taken almost 3 years to be able to get to a place where I’m ready to REALLY jump back in, and get to where I feel like I can handle the stress involved with the business. So, here I am, starting a bakery that I really believe in and feel like sharing with the world. And I feel like the world might be ready for it too!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I feel like most of the itinerary would consist of food and drinks. I feel like I’d break the days up by neighborhoods…So probably we’d start out on the east side since that’s where I live. We’d start that day out at California Donuts to get some really good and interesting donuts to start the day off strong. Then we’d go to the store and get a nice bottle of rosé from this amazing little store down the street from my apartment called “Corner Shop” and then we’ll also get supplies to make a charcuterie feast. THEN we would take those supplies and have a picnic at the silverlake reservoir (we’d have to be a little stealth about drinking the wine there but we’d do it anyways…gotta live on the edge some times). We’d come back to my apartment for a leisurely late afternoon nap, then head out for dinner. We’d definitely do dinner at Casita del Campo, and then finish the night at at The Dresden where we’d listen to Marty & Elaine play and sing their hearts out.

For the downtown day, I would probably start with lunch at Grand Central Market (so many amazing options of food & drinks…is it a basic choice? yes but it’s good so I don’t care if you judge me.) Then I’d drag them to the Alamo Draft House downtown for an afternoon movie & more food and drinks. Then we’d run back home and get all fancy and finish the evening dining and dancing at the Cicada Club downtown. (it’s a STUNNING Art Deco dinner/live music/dance venue that has been around forever and makes you really feel like you’re living that classic old Hollywood life).

If they wanted to do a beach day, I’d take them to Playa Del Rey. It’s one of the less busy beaches and there are some amazing restaurants and bars down there as well. (I may be biased since I used to work at Playa Provisions down there).

We would also do a hiking day in Malibu. There are some amazing and easy trails there that are really interesting and cover all kinds of different terrains. One of my favorite ones is Solstice Canyon trail because it’s got some old remains from some houses in the 50s that had burned down in one of the fires, and there’s this creek that runs along this trail of boulders that you can climb and it’s just fun and kinda spooky.

It think that covers all of my favorite places for the moment, but LA is constantly changing, and there are so many pockets of the city that I haven’t even explored, so I’m sure there are amazing places I don’t even know about.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Oh man. There are so many people that I want to shout out and that deserve credit/recognition. Most of which were at my first ever job in a kitchen.

One of the biggest ones would be Kate and Ashley Failor. I got to know both of them while I was working at Playa Provisions and they’ve both been such huge supports through the years. They really believed in my skills and have been major factors in helping me get my business off and running. Between pop ups, and having my pie on their restaurant menu, and just ordering thanksgiving pies from me every year…they’ve been the biggest support and I need to shout them out for sure!

I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today if I didn’t annoy the pastry chef (Kristin Feuer) at Playa Provisions into letting me work for them in the back. Up until then, I had only ever worked in the front of house as a server or cashier etc. and I knew that I wanted to pursue a career baking, I just didn’t know how to make it happen. So, I asked her one day if I could just learn like…an hour a week or something, and they wouldn’t even have to pay me. I just wanted to see if I liked it back there and try to learn as much as I could. After a few months of me annoying them about it, they were just like “do you just want to work for us? we have an opening at night.” and I was like “YES” and the rest was history. If they didn’t take a chance on me and teach me EVERYTHING, I wouldn’t be where I am.

The other people I’d like to shout out are the owners of that restaurant Nick and Brooke. They really let me grow and believed in me enough to let me take over their pastry program when they really had no reason to. When I was new to the whole chef-ing thing, they brought in co-chefs and gave me the space to learn from them but also be creative on my own. I want to also shout out those co-chefs, Heather Bingham, and Beth Kellerhals. They both taught me incredibly valuable lessons and techniques that I still use today.

I also need to shout out to my husband Alan Miller because he’s put up with me being crazy stressed and anxious and falling apart and all of the other things that come with this career, and he’s been nothing but kind and supportive to me.

Lastly, I got to shout out my therapist, haha, because she’s really helped me keep my head on tight.

Website: www.alittlesalty.com

Instagram: @alittlesaltypiecompany

Image Credits
Alan Miller