by Ebony L. Morman

Jasmine Macon of Beyond Amazing Donuts. Photo: Rico Marcelo

For several years, there’s been plenty of buzz around pastry chef Jasmine Macon and her confections. Oversized cinnamon rolls, classics donuts like raspberry sprinkles and old fashioned, and seasonal creations have been keeping the Thomasville, North Carolina native busy.

Previously, Macon was sous pastry chef at Leah and Louise, which is where she started creating pastry boxes as an extra form of revenue during the pandemic shutdown. The boxes, which always included a donut, evolved into a consistent donut-pop, Beyond Amazing Donuts (B.A.D), in Camp North End. Now, the evolution continues.

Last month, Macon, who moved to Charlotte in 2008 to attend Johnson & Wales University,  celebrated the opening of a brick-and-mortar in Montford after pursuing B.A.D as a donut pop-up full-time for about a year.

Unpretentious Palate: How did your career in hospitality begin?
Jasmine Macon: During senior year in high school and after I’d already taken culinary courses, a representative from Johnson & Wales came to our school. She did a simple demo and talked about how she enjoyed the campus. I didn’t really know I wanted to be a pastry chef. I just know I enjoy the hospitality industry, I enjoy food, and I also enjoy travel and lodge. I thought I was going to do things in hotels and travel and tourism but there’s something about working with my hands. Also, I’ve always had a big appetite. So, I said I can be a chef, I can do this. That’s how I ended up at Johnson & Wales. Once I figured out that I was going to do pastry, I always knew I didn’t want to be in the traditional setting of a restaurant.

I believe I adapted my entrepreneurial spirit from my father. He has his own martial arts school in Odenton, Maryland. I felt like I could do that. I just didn’t know exactly what I would be providing. I just knew I wanted something of my own to be able to create that same sense of togetherness, and I’d offer this product and people would like it. I just didn’t know that donuts would be that thing.

B.A.Donuts opened on Abbey Place, off Montford at the end of July. Photo: Rico Marcelo

UP: What was the inspiration for the overall aesthetic of B.A.D.?
Macon: I think people expected it to be bright and vibrant colors. And it’s not that bright, it is very purple. But it’s a playful purple. It’s definitely my personality everywhere. I have like a little inspiration wall, which is pretty much pictures of my friends and family or people I feel like have been very instrumental in this process of getting me from point A to point B.

UP: How would you describe your approach to pastry?
Macon: My approach is inspired by friends, family, and interactions with people. That’s how I got most of my flavors. One of our most popular flavors is the brown butter sorghum caramel and it’s a flavor I got from my grandmother who passed. She used to eat Wonder Bread slices with dark corn syrup or molasses and softened butter. I thought, how could I honor my grandmother but tweak it? I thought I could introduce people to something they haven’t heard of and it can kind of be reminiscent of something familiar, also.

UP: What’s the most interesting donut flavor you’ve created since opening up the shop? What makes it stand out?
Macon: It’s definitely the black garlic everything, which again was one of those that was inspired by my time at Leah & Louise. Chef Greg Collier doesn’t throw anything away because he operates as a no-waste kitchen. While I was there, we had multiple containers of dried collards. Collier said to put them on a donut and I thought, what am I going to do with this? Then, I thought a little bit more and said, it can be like an everything bagel. We also had black garlic in-house. So, I thought, I can put black garlic in the cream cheese topping and instead of only having the regular sesame seeds, onion powder, and garlic powder, I can toss that with a little bit of dried collards and a little bit of nori. So I experimented, and we all tasted in the kitchen and we were like this is amazing. It’s simple and it came from using ingredients we had and also thinking of something that already exists, which is an everything bagel. People hear black garlic and don’t want to try it. But garlic has a natural kind of sweetness to it. So, it is more so on the savory side but it gives this umami experience.

UP: What was your creative process when developing the menu?
Macon: I knew I didn’t want to offer a lot. I knew I wanted six staple flavors, which were created with family and friends in mind or something I personally liked. I knew I wanted to have three to four seasonal flavors. I want people to be adventurous with me as I create these things, especially when I use more vegetables. It’s fall, so squashes are about to be in season and I even want to play with peppers to make a pepper jelly. I want to take the original donut, peel it back a little bit and figure out ways to be more creative. It’s a little different from some of the other donut offerings in Charlotte, which is what I was going for. I like explaining to people the ideas behind the flavors and how I want to use produce that’s in season and not processed items and how we make as much as possible in-house.

UP: What’s an important thing you learned from being a pastry chef at Leah & Louise?
Macon: One of the things that I really appreciated was being able to see how you can take one item and the applications you can get out of that one item. I just really enjoyed how Chef Greg was able to look at things and say, “Don’t toss that, we can still get something out of it.” I also learned how to delegate and teach, which was one of my biggest challenges.

Photo: Rico Marcelo

UP: What’s the most rewarding part of what you do?
Macon: The most rewarding part was the grand opening day and having my family be inside of the space to see what I’ve been working so hard for. It was like a family reunion. The people who were in line were talking and celebrating with my family. It was just really nice to watch. Everyone was really excited because I’ve been talking about this for so long.

UP: What has been the response since opening the shop in August?
Macon: It’s exciting to be in the space. I feel like I definitely have developed what I knew I wanted back in my high school days, which was that sense of community and the following. Also, for people to be really excited to see the journey itself and to also be a part of it because I wouldn’t be in the shop if it wasn’t for people supporting me. It’s a joint effort in terms of my efforts, the support from the community, and the support from friends and family. It goes beyond doughnuts. For me, it’s being able to be my authentic self and offer something that I feel like is authentic. And, it just so happens to be donuts.

UP: What’s something unexpected about you?
Macon: I am a brown belt in American Kenpo, and my father is a second-degree black belt in American Kenpo. I can not only make donuts, but I can turn into a ninja sometimes, too.