A globally-inspired oven
By Natosha Via
Natosha Via
Louisville, Ky.
STORY SUMMARY
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Fourth generation Oaxacan baker Diego Hernández López combines influences from around the world in his Louisville bakery. While growing up, Diego watched as his mother sheltered his father from the rain with a plastic bag as he baked in their outdoor clay oven. Their family bakery grew to a bustling community staple with four locations. Diego became lost as a teenager, but a spiritual awakening at a mountain retreat center set him on a path of self-discovery. He traveled across Europe and found that even in unfamiliar countries, he always felt at home in a local bakery. He watched the bakers carefully, asking questions about their processes. Once home in Oaxaca, he started a bakery of his own and began experimenting with recipes he learned abroad. He integrated them into his repertoire, combining them with traditional Oaxacan recipes. Now he brings his loving art of delicately crafted pastries to Louisville, Kentucky, where he is building a family, a home and a business that extends the legacy of his Oaxacan baking heritage.
Diego arrives at La Pana before dawn each morning to begin baking for the day. His father impressed upon him a sense of community responsibility: A business owner must show up every day whether he feels like it or not, as people plan their days around a visit to the bakery.
In Oaxaca, Diego made croissant dough with shortening. But in Spain, he watched a baker as she folded butter into the dough using a technique he'd not seen before. She encouraged him to use butter to get the best layers. It took Diego three months of using this approach before he perfected his recipe, which he now knows by heart.
Diego hand sifts confectioners sugar for an icing embellishment. He knows his recipes and processes by look and feel and doesn’t need to reference recipes or use timers. In Oaxaca, he was taught that if he used recipes, he would not truly know baking.
The full-butter dough learned and perfected from his trip to Spain is Diego’s signature dough. He has integrated it into both European and Oaxacan pastries.
Diego’s favorite things to bake are the traditional Oaxacan pastries “orejas.” He loves the simplicity of the recipe and offers a sample to everyone he greets during the day.
After a trip to Belgium, Diego developed a fond taste for apple strudel and taught himself to make them once back home in Oaxaca. Though he knows scones are traditionally English, he didn’t learn how to make them until repeatedly receiving requests in Louisville.
Diego’s bakery opened during the pandemic, beginning in the back of a small kitchen inside Logan Street Market. He quickly outgrew the cramped quarters and was offered a larger space in the same market. He now has ample room for refrigeration, storage, and large-scale baking equipment.
Diego is quick to make friends within his ever-growing community. They help each other by exchanging skills and talents, like repairing his car or creating a window in his shop for walk-up sales. Every day Diego sets aside a couple pastries from each batch so he can deliver a small box to one of his friends who has helped him on his journey.
Diego still supplies a case full of pastries for Foko, the Louisville restaurant where he started. He carefully slides the pastries into their case. “My dad was always telling me you have to do this with love, because you are showing up in an important way for the people.”
Diego provides pastries and bread to local cafes, restaurants and community spaces. People seek him out for large events and in the coming week, he will be fulfilling a thousand-pastry order. He brings joy to his work, connecting with people everywhere he goes.
After early starts and long days, Diego is eager to come home to his wife Lisa and 9-month-old daughter Maya. He leaves everything else at the door and gives his full attention and love to his growing family.