by Erin Maddrey
Éclairs, tarts and salted caramel brownies… these are some of the things Charlotteans love most about Amélie’s French Bakery & Café. Scoop went behind the curtain to find out who is responsible for the sugary goodness we crave. Mary Jayne Wilson is the executive chef and director of operations at Amélie’s French Bakery & Café. Mary Jayne earned her A.S. in baking & pastry and her B.S. in food service management from Charlotte’s Johnson & Wales University. She was a pastry chef in several Charlotte restaurants, as well as her own business, before coming to Amélie’s in 2011.
Scoop caught up with this purveyor of sweets, and soon to be mama of two, to get an idea of what a typical day is like for her.
6:30 am… Let’s do this! During the week, I’m up early to get my two-year-old daughter, Luna, up and ready. Often this is the same time my husband and I wake up on the weekends, but it really depends on Luna. I set an alarm for peace of mind, but Luna is our real alarm clock. If my alarm goes off before Luna gets up, I will hit the snooze button. That rarely happens, but I take advantage when it does because she doesn’t have a snooze button. When she’s up, we are all up!
6:45 am… Since I use my phone for my alarm, if I have any texts or phone calls I see them right away. I will often hear from someone at Amelie’s early in the morning before I get into one of the bakeries.
7:00 am… Shower time! I don’t really have a beauty routine. Shower, get dressed, mascara and some powder for makeup, that’s about it. I’m very low maintenance. I’m a ponytail or bun type of lady. Working in the bakeries, I keep my hair up almost every day. I also decide on my outfit the night before, but don’t really commit too much time to what I am wearing. I am currently 6 months pregnant, so my maternity wardrobe is relatively small and doesn’t need much consideration. My outfit selection depends on if I am having more of an office/meeting day, or a work in the kitchen at one of the bakeries, kind of day.
7:30 am… Breakfast. We eat a lot of eggs in my house for breakfast. Usually eggs over easy on toast or maybe a breakfast burrito made with scrambled eggs, cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, and maybe bacon or sausage. Luna calls them “ritos”. Or sometimes when we are on the go, its steel cut oats or grits.
8:00 am… We are out the door and on our way to work. My husband has a Frankenstein truck that he and his mechanic, Andy at The Neighborhood Garage, built. It is an old Ford diesel that has been converted to run on vegetable oil. Recently, the truck has needed some work and so we have been carpooling to drop Luna off and then head to work. He works at Birdsong Brewing, and our babysitter is located in NoDa, so carpooling is pretty convenient for us. When the truck is running, either he or I will take Luna to her babysitter and then head to work. On our way to work, we listen to NPR to get our news fix.
8:30 am… I’ve made it to the bakery and it’s time for coffee! I always get my coffee at Amelie’s. I make coffee at home on my days off, but during the workweek I would rather wait and have the best coffee when I get to work. I prefer espresso; however, being pregnant, I have drastically cut back on my caffeine. I allow myself one small espresso drink a day, so I really savor it.
8:35 am… After I’ve gotten my coffee, I check my emails before I start my day with meetings or whatever else is planned for the day.
8:45 am – noon… My typical morning almost always involves being at one of the Amelie’s locations, meeting with a bakery manager or chef, vendor, or other colleague. I spend a lot of time touching base and communicating with our various leaders for strategic planning or problem solving.
12:30 pm… For lunch, I usually eat at Amelie’s. I try to eat different things, since I’ve been eating lunch here for the last 5 years. I eat a lot of salads, a lot of soup and a LOT of baguettes. Every now and then I’ll venture to Sabor or Lang Van for something different. Lang Van is probably my favorite restaurant in Charlotte.
1:30 pm – 4 pm… Afternoons often continue with meetings, talks or planning. We are in the process of opening a new location at Park Road Shopping Center. Recently, I have had many meetings there amidst construction, for planning and changes. Sometimes, I am helping out or doing menu development in the kitchen at one of our other locations.
4:30 pm… I’m usually leaving work now in order to pick up Luna from the babysitter and get home to feed her dinner. My workday doesn’t always end there. There are often phone calls or emails that need to be answered after I put Luna to bed.
5:00 pm… Being a working mom, my workout routine consists of a late afternoon/early evening walk in my neighborhood with my daughter. I used to be a regular yogi, at YogaOne in Plaza Midwood, but my work/home life schedule makes that very challenging to achieve the last couple of years.
6:00 pm… I make dinner at home almost every night. We eat tons of vegetables, a good bit of pasta. I usually save the more elaborate meals for the weekends, when I have a little more prep time. We rarely eat out. When I am not pregnant… my husband and I will enjoy a glass of beer after dinner. He works at Birdsong, so we have access to excellent beer, regularly.
7 pm… Time to put Luna to bed.
7:30 pm – 9:00pm… A typical evening at home often consists of chores (cleaning, laundry, etc.) and trying to relax for an hour or two before bed. With such a heavy schedule, my evening is pretty low key and usually involves chilling at home, maybe watching a show on Netflix. I do not go out much these days, but in the past month, we were able to get out to see a couple of bands. We saw The Wood Brothers at Neighborhood Theater, and Shovels and Rope at the Knight Theater. On the weekends, we usually like to have people over to our house to make dinner and hang out or go to a friend’s house.
9:30 pm… I check news on my phone in the evenings. Apple News and the BBC are go-to’s for me. I also like to read for a while every night before bed. Reading materials vary, but I do love a good book. The three most recent books I’ve read are Hillbilly Elegy, Underground Railroad and Five Quarters of the Orange.
10:00 pm… I am an early bird and usually in bed by 10!
