Chef & The Baker | Beating Bobby Flay

This bakery beat Bobby Flay with their empanadas on the Food Network! When I found out they had a location in my hometown, I just had to try it for myself.

All opinions are my own or the stated author approved by me. This post may contain affiliate links. Mackintosh Travels™ is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Thank you for your support.

This is the view from the street when I arrived. I wasn’t expecting the bakery to be in an industrial part of town. I do wish they were more visible.

As I approached even closer and parked, the bakery was much smaller outdoors and indoors than I imagined. They did seem to have customers coming in and going out so I figured the food must be good.

The indoors where the customers can see is small, but it looked like where all the action takes place (making the pastries & such) was bigger. I got a glimpse of them at work.

While I was waiting for someone else putting their order, I took a look at their menu on paper. The menu is also available on a screen, but it was scrolling a bit too fast for my liking.

I was mainly there to taste their empanadas so I ordered one chicken empanada and one beef empanada. I also wanted to try their Cuban sandwich so I ordered that as well.

Beef empanada

Let’s start with the beef empanada. The dough is not made of masa, which is a traditional maize dough where many Spanish countries use to make empanadas, tamales, corn tortillas and more. Although I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t masa, it was delicious. The beef is well seasoned and the filling to dough portion is well balanced. I’m a stickler for a balance. I don’t like when I see a huge piece of dough and a miniscule amount of filling. The dough itself was lightly golden and I was happy to see that when I bit into it, it didn’t all crumble and fall apart. It held very well.

Chicken empanada

The chicken empanada was my favorite! The dough is the same and again the filling to dough portion was well balanced. The chicken was very well seasoned and it was super flavorful. I love the way they add other ingredients to their meat so it makes it more inviting and gives each bite more texture.

The Cuban sandwich was tasty as well. I’m used to having my Cuban sandwich pressed and this was not pressed. The bread was a bit thick for my liking, but overall the entire sandwich was very good.

For this visit I wanted to taste the savory side (the Chef) of the business. On my next visit, I want to try the sweet side (the Baker).

If you’re into TV food shows and you’re in Pinellas County, Florida go and check out the Chef & The Baker out for yourself! Then let me know what you ordered and how you liked it!

Pin this post on Pinterest now!