By Pam Hersh
My college job answering phones — in pre-historic times when girls dorms just had one pay phone per floor — failed to serve me very well in my career, other than to make me profoundly appreciative of smartphones.
Jen Carson’s job in college, however, may have helped launch her career as owner and operator of Princeton’s newest bakery — LiLLiPies Bakery in the Princeton Shopping Center. At Bucknell University, she worked as a griddle cook, making hundreds of egg sandwiches called Bison Breakfasts at the Bucknell Bison Café.
”I had a great time working in a commercial kitchen, really enjoyed the camaraderie,” said Ms. Carson, who was an elementary education major with a concentration in mathematics. “I learned how to be fast, efficient, without sacrificing quality — yes, the Bison Café had great food.”
Although she enjoyed teaching, the mother of three says her heart and brain were stuck in the Bison Breakfast business.
”I am from an Italian-American family, with a grandfather who owned and operated a butcher shop in Newark,” she says. “His work ethic and pride in serving a great product have always been an inspiration to me…
”Furthermore, when I was growing up, holidays were spent around the table, with lots of great food and drink… Some of my fondest memories were baking with my mother who baked elaborate baked goods for every occasion. Baking and cooking were loving activities, a way to show that you cared.”
In 2004, her husband’s job as a chemist brought the family to Princeton. Ms. Carson began to show her love for the community through baking, but all baked goods she supplied no matter what the occasion had to live up to her standards of excellence. As soon as her kids were all in school (they now are 11, 15 and 17), she went from being a volunteer baker for school and kids events to getting paid for her creations. She has baked for Small World Coffee, Tico’s Eatery and Juice Bar, the West Windsor Farmers Market, the Princeton Farmers Market, and the Institute for Defense Analysis, to name a few.
She decided to supplement her Bison Café experience and family-based culinary training by attending the French Culinary Institute (now called the International Culinary Center) in New York. She not only refined her baking techniques, but also obtained business skills that have proven to be crucial to the operation of her bakery.
”I wrote the first version of LiLLiPiES Bakery’s business plan in 2010, and have been tweaking it ever since,” said Ms. Carson, who noted that she “finally” opened the store, a soft opening, on July 11, 2016.
Her motivation to wake up at 3 a.m. is the love of baking and the love of the community for which she is baking.
”I look at Princetonians as being an extension of my own personal family,” she says. “I am very particular about using good, fresh good ingredients — local ingredients whenever I can — and using proper technique. Our sourdough is fermented for 24 hours, giving it a rich, full flavor and amazing texture. And our pies absolutely celebrate the bounty of the season. We bake fresh and from scratch throughout the day, so that everything we serve is fresh and delicious. And we are more than baked goods. I apply my same standards of excellence to the salads and sandwiches we serve.”
A lot of people assume the name LiLLiPiES (only the “I” is lower case) refers to her daughter’s name, but that isn’t the case (her daughter’s name is Sarah). The name refers to a single serving pie (in which we specialize) and ‘Lilli” is means “little” in Dutch.”
In spite of the Dutch name connection, the bakery’s offerings are all American. “I wanted to create a great American bakery, not French, not German, not Italian,” Ms. Carson says. “My goal was a bakery that celebrated American culture with its mix of different cultures, particularly to celebrate New Jersey with ingredients from New Jersey farms.”
The bakery hosts live music on some Saturday afternoons, reflecting Ms. Carson’s fondness for music. She is a drummer in a local band that also features her husband on bass.
She has had no time for making music since the opening of LiLLiPiES. She works 14 to 18 hours per day making food and supervising 18 part-time employees. “But no pity is necessary,” she said. “I consider myself incredibly lucky to be doing what brings me such pleasure.”
Perhaps if we are lucky Ms. Carson may decide to resurrect a Bison Breakfast — a blast from her past that brought her to the present and she hopes to a successful LiLLiPiES future.
