Latest news with #croissants
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Snowboarder Scotty James has mastered the halfpipe. Now he's conquering dad life.
And looking for the best croissants in town. Snowboarder, dad … children's book author? As a two-time Olympic medalist who has also brought home four World Championships and a pile of wins from the Winter X Games, Australian snowboarder Scotty James has proved he's king at the mountain. In his off-time, however, the 31-year-old athlete tells me he's been tapping into his playful side, all thanks to the influence of his 9-month-old son, Leo, whom he parents with his wife, singer Chloe Stroll. 'Having a baby has brought back the child in me a little bit,' James, who released his Mooki children's book series last year, says during our conversation for Yahoo's OT Diaries. 'It's made me be more playful and even take on a different approach to how I'm training.' While the halfpipe pro is happiest when he's at home with his family, he still takes his sport very seriously. Here's what he told me about staying on top of his game during the off-season — and how he still makes time for croissants and Sons of Anarchy. What does a 'normal' day in your life look like? The ideal day off would start waking up around 8 a.m. I'm a morning person, so that's a bit of a sleep-in for me, like I've woken up at midday. And then I'd go out for breakfast and coffee with Chloe and Leo. I'm a big croissant critic, so typically I go and try and find where the best croissant is, depending on where I am in the world. And then go for a walk. If I'm at home in Monaco, I'll go down to the beach. If my family's in town, I'll try and go out with them and see them. Then in the evening, I'd pick either pasta or sushi, sit on the couch and watch whatever my favorite movie is at that time before going to sleep. It's pretty simple, but I think that's what I love about it. Simple is probably what you're in the mood for after a competition season. Is there a period of time that you'll take off from snowboarding completely? To be honest, eight to 10 weeks would be the longest I would have spent away from the board in the past 10 years. With the exception of the time we had in COVID. Are you prioritizing exercise during time off? I definitely encourage leading a very active lifestyle. I love being outdoors. I do a lot of cycling, so that's one of my passions. It's obviously really great cross-training for snowboarding, but it also is something I really enjoy doing with my friends. It's challenging, it can be competitive at times, so it ticks a lot of boxes in different areas that I love. When I'm not snowboarding, I'm still in the gym often five to six days a week, working on strength training and snowboarding as [the sport] gets harder and the tricks get harder. As it evolves, it obviously becomes a lot more demanding mentally and physically. So making sure that I stay in tune and sharp away from my board is really important to me. Fortunately, I actually really enjoy the work. In what ways do you focus on the mental aspect? We now live in a very fast-paced world. We always want instant gratification, and everything's so quick and fast that we become a little bit impatient. So when I get up in the morning, I don't go to seek my phone, and I try not to give myself to the world hypothetically before I actually know how I'm feeling. Did I sleep well last night? Did Leo sleep last night? How's my relationship with Chloe, my wife? All of those things play such a factor in the rest of my day or week. It's important for me mentally to make sure that I'm paying attention to those core values. And when I do, that's 30 to 45 minutes in the morning. I imagine you have to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie to be in snowboarding. Is thrill-seeking something you do off the mountain as well? I'm trying to learn Italian at the moment, and the thought of going downstairs to the café to speak to them in Italian, knowing that I'm going to make a thousand mistakes, actually makes me nervous. So it might sound a bit ridiculous [in contrast] to doing tricks in a 22-foot halfpipe, but I still get a very good amount of adrenaline and nerves about going and trying to speak a language that I don't really understand that well. There are other instances where I'm cycling and I might go down the hill too fast or something if I feel like I need to just get that fix. But to be honest, I feel I'm very calculated. I don't feel I need to find [adrenaline] in other parts of my life. I like to push myself and make myself feel uncomfortable, so I do things away from my sport that challenge me. Writing children's books has to fall into that category. Yes, we had to check the grammar a lot. What inspired you to take that on? Now that I'm a dad, I noticed that naturally, as you become an adult, you take on responsibility and you can become a little bit less playful about life. Sometimes I can get really engaged or I can get caught up thinking about the end results of something, like winning an X Games medal or winning the Olympics, that I forget about the process and the journey that it actually takes to get there, and the people that help me get there as well. Mooki is actually my alter ego. It was my nickname growing up, and it's a character that I embrace in both challenging moments and in really good moments to make them even better. The books really relay the story of my own personal experiences and the message of enjoying the journey rather than just the end goal. Also, [knowing] that failure is absolutely going to happen. We can't avoid it, but it's really important to lean on those around you and build resilience. It's been fun to share that story with the kids. There's a lot of freedom in that creativity. You get to think of crazy ideas and put them on paper and make a reality in a different kind of world, which is quite fun. Has tapping into that creativity translated into your sport? It's given me a more playful approach. Being a kid, everything's possible. They don't necessarily think about the outcome or the why-not. They just think they can do it, which generally is the way that I have to think when I'm trying to learn new tricks and things on a professional level. So fatherhood has made you better on the board in some ways. Did the sport prepare you for the journey of parenting? What I've learned from sport is consistency. You have to be very consistent with your routine and your training and your preparation to be able to achieve a win, for example. Consistency is also very parallel to being a dad. So making sure that I'm consistent in Leo's life and being there in the morning if I want to feed him and get to spend time. I try as best I can to be a consistent father figure in front of him because obviously snowboarding is very demanding and such. It's been a very cool journey so far. Sounds like it! Let's wrap up with some rapid-fire questions … Who is your No. 1 call when you have good news? My wife. What is your comfort watch? At the moment, it's actually Sons of Anarchy. It's not very comforting, but it just plays as I fall asleep. What is your guilty pleasure? Absolutely chocolate. My dad gave me a big sweet tooth. Biggest fear? Being stuck in a small place for too long. I'm fine being in a plane, but if I was put in a box, that would really get me. What gives you the ick? I really don't like soft towels, like towels that are so soft that when you dry yourself, you don't get dry. You actually feel like you're getting more wet after a shower. What is something that you eat or drink every day? I can't start my day without eggs. And I drink Red Bull and water every day. What is your internet rabbit hole? I love real estate. I'll go anywhere in the world and wonder if I could buy a house here. And then I start looking online at what the house prices cost. Typically I'll say, 'No, can't afford anything here.' What is one go-to item that never leaves your bag? AirPods. I always listen to music at the gym or while snowboarding. Sometimes at home if Leo's crying. What song or album is your personal soundtrack right now? '2 Million Up' by Peezy because the beat is amazing. I love rap music. What is a wellness trend that you swear by? No phone in the morning for at least 30 to 40 minutes. Let yourself wake up, figure yourself out and then get your day started. I think that's a really important thing for your mental well-being. Snowboarding aside, what are you best at? I can make a very good scrambled egg. What is a skill or hobby that you're trying to get good at? Speaking another language. I'm trying to learn Italian. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
7 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
These Croissants Took a $500 Ride to the Hamptons
It was 6:08 a.m. on a recent Saturday in Brooklyn Heights, and because of the roulette wheel that is traffic on the Long Island Expressway, Dipendra Rawal needed to hit the road. Mr. Rawal, 40, is an Uber-driver-turned-operations-director at Tote Taxi, a delivery service that has been running between New York City and the Hamptons since 2018. And on this drizzly morning, it was his job to ferry four boxes of buttery croissants to East Hampton, N.Y., where the Brooklyn-based bakery L'Appartement 4F was set to open a pop-up store at 10 a.m. Nearly three hours later, a polo-clad Mr. Rawal pulled into the parking lot of the Maidstone, a boutique hotel in East Hampton. 'Usually, delivery is not so glamorous,' said Ashley Coiffard, an owner of L'Appartement 4F, as scores of pastries emerged from the 2024 Acura MDX. The $500 mission was complete. Such regular hauls amount to six-figure annual sales, according to Danielle Candela, the Tote Taxi founder. Ms. Candela, 35, grew up in East Quogue, N.Y. — 'not quite the Hamptons' — and conceived of Tote Taxi in 2017 while living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. 'I was always schlepping my stuff,' she said, between her apartment and her family on Long Island. 'I felt like a bag lady all the time, carrying my suitcase on the subway and running for the Jitney or the Long Island Railroad.' In November of that year, Ms. Candela, who was working in sales at the wedding website The Knot, entered a business competition in Southampton and pitched a delivery service. She won $15,000. Aided by an additional $5,000 from her late father, who had owned a landscaping business, she purchased a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van to open for business the next spring. At that point, Ms. Candela had not seen a courier service dedicated to delivering the essentials to the 1 percent of the East End — Wellbutrin, dog medicine, putters, a dress or keys. Instead, if Upper East Siders in Sagaponack needed their tennis racket pronto, it might have found its way onto a Hampton Jitney bus or the back seat of a chauffeured car. Where New Yorkers with second homes saw headaches, Ms. Candela recognized opportunity. 'Sometimes, people have been blown away, like, 'This is genius,'' she said. 'I'm like, 'Is it?' I don't know. We're just picking stuff up and dropping it off.' Today, she employs three full-time drivers and more as contractors; the company owns two Sprinter vans. Ms. Candela declined to reveal some of her clients, citing privacy concerns, but said some high-wattage celebrities used the service. Last year, she made one delivery that involved interacting with the Secret Service, 'which was intense,' she said. In the back of the car? A piece of art. By 9:37 a.m. on the day of the croissant delivery, Cecil McGlynn, 17, had begun his paper route from Tote Taxi's office in Southampton. Lugging a dolly loaded with Cultured, an arts magazine based in New York and Los Angeles that uses the taxi service for East End distribution, the high schooler gently placed a fistful of copies on the doorsteps of East Hampton stores like Book Hampton and Harper's Gallery. Mr. McGlynn also does local deliveries of crudités. Beyond pastries and publications, Tote Taxi will deliver just about anything that's legal — for the right price. In most cases, a same-day Manhattan-to-Montauk delivery costs $350; less if the items can wait, more if there's a rush. But Ms. Candela has drawn a line at one request: nannies. 'It's a work truck,' she said. These days, most business revolves around $895 'summer relocations,' which the company labels 'mini moves,' to rentals and second homes. While families could hire any of the infinite movers that operate out of the tristate area, Ms. Candela's clients appreciate a more 'personalized' service. 'We're more nimble and petite,' she said. In 2022, the company began servicing Palm Beach, Fla., another stop on the ultrarich circuit, and recently started delivering luggage to sleep-away camps. And now, for $150, they will include a basket of goodies from Red Horse Market in East Hampton, a Martha Stewart favorite. Ms. Candela is exploring what's next: shuttling city pets out east, and a possible Boston-to-Cape Cod route. 'I want to be a household name,' she said. When Mr. McGlynn, the teenager, interviewed for his job, Ms. Candela recalled asking him: 'What if the challenge is that there's a pebble driveway and you're lifting a heavy suitcase. Do you think you can handle that?' He responded by sharing a story about helping his sister carry her suitcase from a car in his driveway. And that was just the kind of experience that landed him his gig.
New York Times
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Reporter's Methodical Quest to Find New York's Best Croissants
Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. I have been a restaurant critic and food writer for more than a decade, and began my career as an inspector for the Michelin Guides in North America. While training for that job, I learned about the importance of relativity, which is the idea that critiquing a meal in isolation is an incomplete analysis. The better critique comes from comparisons, whenever they are possible. It's a lesson that I use often in my work and one that was especially helpful in reporting a recent article for The New York Times on the best croissants in New York City. This spring, Nikita Richardson, an editor for the Food section, emailed me, asking if I'd like to write the article. Thanks to my work on Sweet City, a newsletter I recently started that covers bakeries, restaurant desserts and pastry trends in New York City, I had a robust knowledge of baked goods across the city. Still, considering New York's surplus of French bakeries and the croissant craze sweeping the city, my work was cut out for me. After narrowing down a potential list of places to scout, I settled on 114 bakeries and restaurants, and subsequently hit the road. There were different approaches I could take, but I chose to break my list up by neighborhood. In a sprawling city like New York, it was the most time-efficient way to go about the task. I'm not a native New Yorker — I was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hong Kong — but I have made this city my home, hopefully for life. Walking through various neighborhoods reminded me of the dynamism that draws people from all over the world to this city. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
10-07-2025
- Washington Post
This French lentil salad relies on quality ingredients and simple prep
This column comes from the Eat Voraciously newsletter. Sign up here to get one weeknight dinner recipe, tips for substitutions, techniques and more in your inbox Monday through Thursday. When I arrived in Paris for the first time, in the summer of 2005, it wasn't the Eiffel Tower that dazzled me. It wasn't even the warm chocolate croissants at every corner bakery. It was, I'm surprised to say, the salads.
Bloomberg
05-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Butter's Global Price Surge Hits Croissants and Kitchens Alike
At the Mamiche bakeries in the 9th and 10th arrondissements of Paris, their famous pains au chocolat and croissants depend on an essential but increasingly scarce ingredient — butter. The bakery's regular supplier can no longer provide a steady flow of French beurre de tourage, a type of flat butter used to make the pastries. Mamiche has gone searching elsewhere to ensure the steady flow of sweet treats from its ovens, but it's coming with a cost.
