DDMA Member

My name is Shelley Jaffe, and I am the Executive chef and co-owner of The Scone Age Bakery and Cafe. I chose food as my art at the age of 18 months old while watching my great, great aunt make a lattice top pie. By the time I was 10 I was cooking dinners for my sister and my single mother. In my teens, that same great, great aunt, along with my grandmother, helped me hone my cooking and baking skills, while my uncle taught me how to garden. Throughout my teens I spent my summers working in Farmer Pritchett’s fields, and my evenings and weekends cooking and baking for the family, often using fresh, local ingredients.

At 22 I was fortunate enough to start my culinary career with Food Services of America and learned under four accomplished chefs, two of which were CIA (Culinary Institute of America) graduates who I also happened to live with at the time.

By the time I was 30 I was catering using fresh, local ingredients grown in Washington State. I grew up farm-to-table, so it only made sense to me to carry this into my career. I later created, opened and ran a profitable organic farm-to-table restaurant. Unfortunately, the majority owner developed Alzheimers and we were forced to close. But like everything in my life, it was a learning experience for me and gave me the confidence needed to own and operate my own place.

Everything I have experience in my 50 years of life has helped form how I prepare my food. I do everything from scratch. From my pastries, to my soups, my sauces and my main courses. I don’t use any processed ingredients, and I use fresh and local whenever humanly possible.

The concept for the Scone Age Bakery & Café is to bring fresh organic and natural scratch-made, traditional baked goods and food back to the table.

In addition to traditional European style pastries and breads, I developed a line of whole food, gluten-free and paleo baked goods, including bread, cookies and muffins. Unlike many others creating these baked goods, mine to not contain defatted coconut or almond flour. I chose to use freshly milled nuts, as whole cassava flour. I like to use as much whole food in all of my cooking as possible, so that none of the valuable nutrients is lost, or the flavor that goes with them. The result is simple, delicious food that lets the natural flavors shine through.