The best part about walking into the cozy little Extra Fine bakery just north of downtown is discovering which assorted goodies the creative mind of pastry chef Jessica Philpot, who goes by Jess, has concocted that day—rye chocolate chip cookies, blueberry yuzu muffins, decadent cinnamon rolls.
Since 2014, Philpot has been the sweet genius providing the desserts to the Empty Stomach Group restaurants, and is now a partner in Extra Fine, the bakery from Chad Carey’s Empty Stomach Group that opened in August. She had always wanted to have a bakery and she and Carey moved into action last year when a one-time cake shop space opened up in Monte Vista. Her focus for the bakery to start was providing desserts for the group’s eateries, Barbaro and Hot Joy, plus breads for its Little Death wine shop. Now that the bakery is open, she turns out fresh treats daily.
“Jess is part of a dying breed in the culinary world … meaning, people who have both innate talent and the work ethic to produce delicious things,” Carey says. “That combination is exceptionally rare … people that can undertake creative work but also understand the effort required to bring it to life.”
Philpot, 37, originally wanted to be a teacher and studied education before finding her passion in food and switching to culinary arts at St. Philip’s College. After graduating in 2002, she went to work at the newly opened SBC Center (now known as the AT&T Center). “I remember the guy putting me in pastries because I was a chick,” she says. “I didn’t know otherwise, but I loved it.”
She knew she needed to raise her game, so she left her native San Antonio to study at Chicago’s French Pastry School, which she described as a “dream come true.”
“It was intense because it was all these formulas and math,” she says. “It just blew my mind how you can do all these things with chocolate and sugar.”
She graduated from pastry school in 2006 and moved with a then-boyfriend to Los Angeles, where she fell in love with the city’s culture, energy and independence. With her training and culinary execution, she began working a series of jobs at some of LA’s most notable restaurants, including Akasha and two-Michelin-starred Providence. “At the time, I didn’t even know what Michelin stars were,” Philpot says. “I didn’t understand the caliber of that kind of restaurant until I got hired. It was scary and difficult. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. If something was cut wrong, you just didn’t use it.”
In 2013, she returned home to be with her mother, who was fighting adrenal cancer and passed away the following year. Philpot worked briefly at the Culinary Institute of America – San Antonio and then met chef/restaurateur Tim McDiarmid, of Tim the Girl and now The Good Kind, who introduced her to Bakery Lorraine’s Anne Ng and Jeremy Mandrell. She worked with them for a bit and they introduced her to Carey. Philpot began working with the Empty Stomach Group a year after coming home.
Instead of a Michelin-level setup, she took her new station in a dedicated corner of the Hot Joy kitchen. She fit in quickly, even working with Chef Quealy Watson on a dish that used pig brains. “I had worked at Lukshon, a lauded LA restaurant. They were both Asian-influenced restaurants, so I already knew the ingredients,” she says. “I also took a lot of lead from each chef.”
On her second day at Hot Joy, she met Chef John Philpot, then at Carey’s much-lamented The Monterey. They started dating secretly about eight months later after they had collaborated on some creative desserts. Why secretly? She wanted to avoid drama, she explains. They married in 2016 and have a daughter, 3-year-old Ember.
John Philpot is handling lunch service at Extra Fine, presenting dishes like a slow-roasted pork sandwich with carrot-greens pesto, Thai herbs and zucchini tzatziki, all served on Jess Philpot’s housemade brioche, of course.
Aside from the bakery, Philpot says her focus is on her family and doing what she can to help all of the businesses in the Empty Stomach Group.
Carey says hers is a fun career to watch. “Jess manages to do this work while also being kind, and being a wonderful mom and wife to John, which makes her even more rare,” he says.
Extra Fine
138 E. Mistletoe Ave.
*This story has been updated from the print version to reflect that Extra Fine opened to the public on Aug. 13.
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