Emily Williams’ babka business booms
Though the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of us to press pause on life this year, some folks have used the opportunity to try something new. One such person is North Knoxville resident Emily Williams, a food-and-beverage veteran who has served at local favorites like J.C. Holdway and Emilia Italian.
Suddenly finding herself with a ton of free time on her hands when the novel coronavirus caused a shutdown of many local restaurants, hers among them, Williams and her partner Laurence Faber, a chef at Blackberry Farms, for the first time found themselves being able to cook together. Like many in the early days of quarantine, which felt like a never-ending snow day, she started out making sourdough bread. With the help of Faber, whose expertise includes a focus on Israeli food, she worked her way through a cookbook of different kinds of breads.
She began making pita every day, then moved to challah before coming upon the recipe for babka, a braided Jewish bread that can be made either savory or sweet. Williams and Faber weren’t very impressed with the recipe in the book, but instead of moving on to a different variety, they developed their own take on the style, which they have been tweaking every week since June. Describing the painstaking process of perfecting the pastry, Williams says, “Something that was fun to do turned into an obsession.”
At first, the spirit behind delivering the loaves was simply a means of staying connected to others while having to stay socially distanced. She said the delivery of these caringly crafted babkas to her friends was meant to “give a little part of me that says ‘I’m here, and I’m thinking about you, and I love you, and I hope this warms you up.’”
From there, Williams started selling loaves to her friends through Instagram, and interest in her products has done nothing but grow as a result of the exposure the social media site provided. Taking two to three days from conception and preparation to baking and packaging, Williams and Faber are able to turn out approximately 80 to 100 loaves of babka each week.
With the increase in production, now anyone locally can taste one of these delicacies. All you have to do is visit the IG handle @lesser_babka, check out the flavors of the week and place an order through direct message. There is a set menu each week, but Williams tries to change the selections on a rotating basis, and she says that they try to honor special requests whenever possible. You then set up a specific time for pickup, which currently takes place at Williams’ home in North Knox, although she is exploring other options around town for improved accessibility.
As Williams points out, competition in this particular realm of ethnic fare is scarce. “Knoxville is so funny,” she says. “There is just such a blind spot for Jewish food, really.”
As a result, she currently is expanding her repertoire by working on a secret recipe for “Southern” babka, and she’s entertaining the idea of making challah for sale, as well. As someone who has sampled the lovingly crafted loaves, I can attest to both their deliciousness and the hospitality of their producer. Showing patronage to a startup like this one is a great way to support a local maker while experiencing the thrill of noshing on delectable morsels you cannot really find anywhere else in town.
As far as the future is concerned, Williams says that if there is demand, she will happily follow it, but she is happy being a “scrappy” home baker for the time being. She has considered selling some wholesale orders; however, she says, “I’m not quite sure because I do want to make everything perfect before I start selling it.” Williams reiterates how time-intensive her current volume of orders is, saying, “It’s a long process – it’s a labor of love.” She also acknowledges that she would need a larger kitchen before taking on more work.
“I think, long term, it’s going to be something really special,” Williams says. “I obviously cannot speak to that now, but for the next year or so, I am going to try and make the most available as I can.”
