by Ebony L. Morman 

Pastry chef Hannah Patel with chocolate babkas. Photo courtesy

Hannah Patel’s dessert obsession started with a box. As a child, she’d sit at home, patiently waiting for the door to open and reveal to her what her Jewish grandmother carried. When Patel was greeted with a pastry box from a Jewish delicatessen and bakery in South Florida, it was pure joy. These sweet acts of kindness from her grandmother set the foundation for the pastry chef’s culinary journey, which began when she accepted a job at Walt Disney World Resort’s Main Street Bakery.

Fourteen years later, the pastry chef for Joan’s Bakery & Deli/Meshugganah is among the few pastry chefs in Charlotte who create fresh, housemade Jewish desserts. The deli and bakery, which started as a pop-up deli in 2020, celebrated the opening of its physical shop last December, providing Patel an opportunity to use her creativity in a new way since she signed on with Rare Roots Hospitality — the restaurant group behind Joan’s — in 2022.

Initially, Patel joined the team to work at the group’s commissary bakery, which is where bakery items such as cheesecake and carrot cake, are produced for the restaurant group, which includes Fin & Fino, Dressler’s, and The Porter’s House. With the shop’s recent opening, Patel is able to make two desserts that are close to her heart — rugelach (a triangle of dough wrapped around a filling of nuts, fruit, or chocolate) and babka (a loaf-shaped, braided brioche dough with a ribbon of filling of chocolate or cinnamon). While the goal is to honor these classics, she’s also inspired to explore numerous versions this spring, including some that are savory — for example, the addition of Israeli flavor profiles like tahini.

“My approach these days is to let go of perfectionism,” she says. “Making things delicious is more important to me than making it look perfect or pristine.”

For her, curating tasty desserts means balance, which is why savory ingredients are important for pastry chefs. Patel utilizes salt, vinegars, and herbs while exploring how to balance sweet components of her baked items. At the foundation, it’s about knowing and tasting ingredients, as well as considering the seasons.

There are many ways to determine particular flavor profiles and what compliments the season, especially when everything is growing in the earth together simultaneously, she says. Patel used the same approach while operating her own pop-up, Moon Box Bakery, for the three years prior to partnering with chef Rob Clement at Meshugganah. Before that, she worked as a pastry chef in farm-to-table restaurants where she curated plated desserts.

“My inspiration has always come from the seasons,” Patel says. “I love ordering from Freshlist, and the farmers and I love creating relationships with farmers, which is important to me. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a position, I guess the last couple years, where I can actually get into my creative juices.”

As a pop-up, Meshugganah gained popularity in Charlotte’s Jewish community because it was the place for people to buy specialty Jewish dishes. Babka was a top-seller and Patel used to feature at least one seasonal babka. Last spring, she created a strawberry babka using a fresh strawberry compote that she preserved to offer throughout summer, too.

Freshly made rugelach is one of the may tradtional Jewish pastries available at Joan’s Bakery & Deli/Meshugganah. TM Petaccia/UP

Since the shop’s opening, babka has maintained its popularity, along with rugelach, which currently is flavored with apricot on the seasonal menu. Patel’s looking forward to Valentine’s Day when she will create another of her favorites, brown butter Linzer cookies with different jam fillings.

Moving forward, Patel and Clement hope to make an even greater impact by being the only place that will offer Jewish cultural holiday items for dessert, starting with Purim in March, she says. Hamantaschen, a triangle cookie that is typically filled with jam, will be on the menu.

“There’s so many people in the Jewish community that really want to order catered food, so heading into the next season or two, Rob [Clement] and I are trying to figure out how to make catering a possibility, especially for Passover and Rosh Hashanah,” she says. “Those are the two major holidays when people want to get freshly-made Jewish food.”

Being able to provide those options has been a source of joy for Patel, especially because she can use pastry as an avenue to connect with her customers by having the desserts she makes bring happiness during their life events. Other enjoyment comes from the people she’s closest to.

“I enjoy what I do, my art, and being around people who are also passionate about being in the kitchen,” she says. “It’s also rewarding to train and teach people what I know.”