Sweet Things in Store

Paola Velez pays tribute to the bodega with Bodega Bakes, her debut, dessert-centric cookbook.

- Audrey Morgan

WHEN PAOLA VELEZ LEARNED she was a F&W Best New Chef in 2021, she initially turned down the honor. She had received several accolades that year for her Dominican-influenced pastry programs at Kith/Kin, Compass Rose, and Maydan in Washington, D.C., as well as for Bakers Against Racism, a grassroots collective that organizes global bake sales to raise money for social justice causes worldwide, which she founded in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd's murder.

"My fear was that I was rising too quickly without any stabilizing forces in my life," Velez recalls. She was also concerned that she was only getting recognition because Bakers Against Racism addressed such a timely cause. “I felt like, ‘Is it just a fad, or is it my work?’” Eventually, though, Velez came to realize that Bakers Against Racism was successful because people trusted her as a pastry chef.

Ultimately, she accepted the Best New Chef award, and in doing so, she gained new mentors from the BNC alumni network and received an even larger platform for her social media presence, nonprofit work, and one-of-a-kind desserts. “People were already paying attention to what I had to say. But then once I became a Best New Chef, it made me an authority in the industry,” she says. “[Being named a] Best New Chef gave me this unique voice.”

That voice shines though bright and clear in Velez’s debut cookbook,