"The Measure Of My Powers" by Jackie Kai Ellis comes out March 6, 2018
Jackie Kai Ellis graduated from IDEA School of Design at Capilano University in 2004 and ran a thriving design firm for several years when in 2011 she closed her company and set off to Paris to pursue her life-long love of baking.
She studied at Paris’ École Gastronomique Bellouet Conseil, returning to Vancouver to open Beaucoup Bakery & Café (2150 Fir Street) in 2012.
Combining the comforting North American baking she grew up with, her Asian heritage and the delicate art of French pastry making, Beaucoup was an immediate success, being featured in Bon Appétit Magazine in 2016.
Jackie then took her love for design, food, travel and writing and began The Paris Tours, leading intimate groups to the best Parisian pâtisseries, mentioned in Vogue in 2017. She also wrote articles on travel, food and lifestyle for several print and online publications including her own, jackiekaiellis.com.
She recently sold the bakery and turned her deep passion for inspiration, connection and self-discovery to author a memoir with Appetite Random House, called The Measure of My Powers: A Memoir of Food, Misery, and Paris coming March 6, 2018.
On the surface, Jackie Kai Ellis's life was the one that every woman--herself included--wanted. She was in her late twenties and married to a handsome man, she had a successful career as a designer, and a home that she shared with her husband. But instead of feeling fulfilled, happy, and loved, each morning she'd wake up dreading the day ahead, searching for a way out. Depression clouded every moment, the feelings of inadequacy that had begun in childhood now consumed her, and her marriage was slowly transforming into one between two strangers--unfamiliar, childless, and empty. In this darkness, she could only find one source of light: the kitchen. It was the place where Jackie escaped, finding peace, comfort, and acceptance.
This is the story of how, armed with nothing but a love of food and the words of the great 20th century food writer M.F.K. Fisher, one woman begins a journey--from France to Italy, then the Congo and back again--to find herself. Along the way, she goes to pastry school in Paris, eats the most perfect apricots over the Tuscan hills, watches a family of gorillas grazing deep in the Congolese brush, has her heart broken one last time on a bridge in Lyon, and, ultimately, finds a path to life and joy.
Told with insight and intimacy, and radiating with warmth and humor, The Measure of My Powers is an unforgettable experience of the senses. - The Measure of My Powers: A Memoir of Food, Misery, and Paris
When Jackie Kai Ellis closed her design firm to study pastry in Paris in 2011, it was a recipe for success and inspired the opening of Vancouver's revered Beaucoup Bakery & Café, media and tour company and a food memoir, The Measure of My Powers. - My Fave Room: Jackie Kai Ellis
When Jackie Kai Ellis opened Beaucoup Bakery (2150 Fir Street) four years ago, she did so because of her passion for food. A graphic designer who had no prior professional pastry training, against all odds, she created a French-inspired bakery that is now beloved by many. As Beaucoup heads into its fifth anniversary, Ellis is passing the torch to longtime staff, sister-brother duo Betty Hung and Jacky Hung.
“I’m proud of all that I have achieved with Beaucoup Bakery and as I enter my next journey in life, it seemed almost destined that Beaucoup Bakery go to Betty and Jacky,” explains Ellis, whose next project is her debut memoir, The Measure Of My Powers, publishing spring 2018. - Announcing A Delicious New Chapter For Celebrated Beaucoup Bakery On Fir Street
V.I.A. Podcast Ep 13: Jackie Kai Ellis of Beaucoup Bakery
Follow Jackie on Instagram @jackiekaiellis and Twitter @JackieKaiEllis.
