E18: Mastery, Mindset & Integrity: Lessons from Certified Master Baker Chef Cody Middleton

What does it really take to become a Certified Master Baker—and a true master of your craft?

In this episode of The Perfect Rise, Chef Kimberly Houston sits down with Chef Cody Middleton, professor and department head of Baking & Pastry at the International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach (HGTC), to explore the intersection of skill, humility, and leadership in the pastry world.

From studying at École Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie under the Alain Ducasse education group to earning certifications through both the American Culinary Federation (ACF) and the Retail Bakers of America (RBA), Chef Cody has built a career defined by excellence and integrity. But his path wasn’t a straight line—he shares how his early uncertainty led him to discover a love for pastry’s precision and science, and how each step along the way shaped his approach to teaching and mentorship.

You’ll hear:
 • Why humility is one of the most important skills a baker can have
 • How studying abroad in France reshaped his entire outlook on food and technique
 • What the Certified Master Baker (CMB) exam really tests—and why it’s harder than it looks on paper
• The logistics lessons learned from serving high-profile guests and large banquets
• How to prepare students (and professionals) for both the creative and business sides of baking
• Why entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone—and how to define success on your own terms
• How professional certifications push the industry forward and hold chefs to a higher standard
• The one rule Chef Cody teaches every student: do the right thing, every time

This episode is a must-listen for pastry students, educators, and bakery owners who want to elevate not just their technique, but their mindset and integrity in the kitchen.

About Chef Cody Middleton
Chef Cody is a Certified Executive Pastry Chef, Certified Culinary Educator, and Certified Master Baker. He leads the Baking & Pastry department at HGTC’s International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach and has worked as an executive pastry chef for luxury country clubs throughout North Carolina and Florida, serving clients ranging from professional athletes to international diplomats.

Connect on Instagram: Chef Cody

Connect on LinkedIn: Chef Cody Middleton

Connect with the RBA
Learn more about professional certifications, education programs, and industry resources at www.retailbakersofamerica.org
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Transcript

Kimberly Houston (00:01.422)
Today's guest on the Perfect Rise, the RBA podcast, is Chef Cody Middleton. He's a professor and department head at the Baking and Pastry Department of International Culinary Stop.

Kimberly Houston (00:19.254)
On today's episode, we are joined by Chef Cody Middleton, a professor and department head for the Baking and Pastry Department at the International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach. Before joining HGTC, he served as a chef instructor. Stop.

Kimberly Houston (00:44.856)
start.

Today on the podcast, we are joined by Chef Cody Middleton, a professor and department head for the Baking and Pastry Department at the International Culinary Institute of Myrtle Beach. Before joining here, he was the head chef instructor at the Augusta Escafier School of Culinary Arts, a graduate of Johnson and Wales University with an associate's degree in Baking and Pastry Arts and Culinary Arts and a bachelor's degree in Food Service Management.

with an entrepreneurship concentration, Chef Cody Middleton also completed a fellowship at the College of Culinary Arts. His studies continued in France through... pause.

continue. Across his career, he has served as a pastry chef and executive pastry chef for country clubs throughout North Carolina and Florida, creating desserts for professional athletes, senators, governors, and international dignitaries. He earned best pastry presentation from the North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association Chef Showdown and holds three major credentials. A certified executive pastry chef,

the Certified Culinary Educator, and the Retail Bakers of America Certified Master Baker. Super excited to bring this conversation to you today. I hope you enjoy.

Kimberly Houston (00:01.167)
And welcome back to the Perfect Rise. Friends, I am joined today by Chef Cody Middleton. Chef Cody, welcome to the podcast.

Cody Middleton (00:09.085)
Thank you, glad to be here.

Kimberly Houston (00:11.446)
I'm finally glad you're here. We've been talking about this since this summer. So I'm very excited to have you on as one of our certified master bakers. Definitely looking forward to this conversation. So we're going to jump right in. My first question for you is, you've built an impressive career bridging industry and education. What originally drew you to baking and pastry as your

Cody Middleton (00:15.625)
Mm-hmm.

Cody Middleton (00:35.337)
Hmm. So a lot of us know like right from the get-go that they wanted to do baking and pastry. I wasn't exactly like that. When I was in high school, I actually wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I thought about something with law. I thought about something else. you know, growing up, my grandparents, both my grandmas were great cooks. So I was in the kitchen with them.

And we had somebody from Johnson and Welles come and do a demonstration. And they were talking about culinary, of course. And at that time, baking and pastry was very hard to get into. And I was like, I kind of like that. I like the science of it. So I was like, maybe I'll try this and see what happens. So my thought process was apply for the baking and pastry program. If I don't get into that, I'll try culinary and then go into pastry, hopefully afterwards.

But luckily I got in and I was set. I loved the science part especially. I loved the artistic aspect of it as well. And then while I was there I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do culinary. I was gonna finish in a year anyway. So it just kind of worked out like that. But I definitely didn't have the traditional like, hey, right from the get-go I want to go into pastry. But I'm glad I did. Once I was in I never got out. It's something I really enjoy. Every single day is different.

Kimberly Houston (02:01.934)
I don't think I was a traditional student either. I wasn't. I didn't go to culinary school until I was 30. So it was definitely not traditional at all. Okay, so you talked about Johnson and Wales, but you've also studied abroad. So talk to me about your time while you were in France. What was that like? How did that opportunity come up for you? Would you recommend?

that people do it.

Cody Middleton (02:32.649)
So this is again something I never thought I would do. I never left the country when I went to study abroad. At Johnson and Wells we had a connection with the school in France so we used that as like an internship experience. they were recruiting for students to apply to that and I said I'll hear about it, see what it's about. I wasn't sure about leaving the country. Never been on an airplane before but it was something that

you know I heard the spill and I was like it's interesting I'll apply it was at that time there were four Johnson and Wales campuses so it was between all four campuses students competing to join the program so I got in and it was awesome they treat food differently like they have such a respect for the food for tradition not saying we don't hear but it's France we all know

cuisine in France go hand in hand. So it was my first time going on a plane, learned a lot just in with that experience. But it taught me that I didn't know anything, know, oddly enough. It was after I'd finished my program and it was very humbling because, you know, when everybody graduates, whether it's middle school, high school, college, you know, you think you're the bad person on the block, you know everything.

And when I got there it showed me what a different level like they are at the top of their game always the level is Unsurpassed it's crazy, and it was just really eye-opening because I was like man I thought I knew so much and then when I go over there. It's like I have so much I need to grow they do it a little bit differently we didn't learn this and it was just it really set me for the rest of my career because

It just humbled me from that point on that, yeah, there's always something to learn. Even if I've gone through school and have this much experience, I learned so much. The program was awesome. The way it was set up was very helpful. But it really set the tone for the rest of my career that, no matter where I go, I'm always going to act like I know nothing, that I'm starting from the bottom. Even though I'm starting a new job,

Cody Middleton (04:53.531)
I have experience. Always act like you don't know anything. Be humble. And it's just really made things a lot easier in the long run.

Kimberly Houston (05:02.07)
Nice. Do you teach your students that same philosophy?

Cody Middleton (05:06.883)
absolutely. First day I started out I said, you know, nobody here is perfect, myself included. I'm gonna mess something up, I'm gonna stumble on my words, I'm gonna forget how to say something. It's okay, you know. Nobody comes out of the womb baking by far and away. The biggest thing you can do is own up to your mistake and equally important as a student, know how you can fix it because things are gonna go wrong, always.

You're going mess something up, you're going to forget something, something's going to get forgotten. The biggest thing you can learn is not, ooh, how can I hide this? How can I not let my chef or my boss know that I messed this up? No. The biggest thing is, hey, what happened? What went wrong? Why does this look like this? And how can I fix it? And just having that responsibility, because when you're working on somebody else's dime, that's food cost right there. That's money.

So if you're just trying to hide stuff and throw stuff away, eventually it's gonna catch up with you, but just be like, hey, I messed this up. Can I fix it? Yes. We're gonna add this. We're gonna warm it up a little bit, re-emulsify it, call it a day. But if it's just, everything's perfect, God touched this. no, you're wrong. That's not right. You're wrong, even though you have more experience. So, you know, I tell my students, I'll admit, when I mess up, I expect the same from you, and that, you know.

Being able to have self-critique is such a huge skill in our industry. Because if you know why something went wrong or what you could do better, nobody else can tell you differently. And that just makes you even better if you just think, hey, it's good because I made it. Or, OK, the recipe is good. I'm just going through the motions. You really never grow in your career.

Kimberly Houston (06:53.762)
That's so good. I need everybody to take notes on that part, rewind it, and listen to it again if you need to. Okay, so we're gonna kind of stick with classroom lessons, but from your life, okay? So, working in elite hospitality, you serve athletes to diplomats. What lessons from that environment do you carry into your classroom?

Cody Middleton (07:19.657)
So the biggest thing, not necessarily about food itself, but the logistics of it. Getting stuff served at the right time so that it's presented to your guests and so that it holds up is super important. Usually when we're doing those events, it's not for 12 people. It's a couple hundred people that we're serving. teaching my students, hey, what can you do one day in advance, two days in advance, a week in advance?

to make that event go smoothly because if you're doing it the morning of, you're way behind. Like you're gonna be chasing your tail, you're gonna be stressed out, nobody's gonna be happy, the product's gonna suffer, your guests are gonna know. So teaching that logistics part and knowing, hey, what can I put away in the freezer, tuck that away, or what can I scale out and have mise en place ready for me to go, and that way leading up to the event, everything falls into place. The worst thing that could happen is, hey,

I thought I could do this in advance and it's totally ruined but I was just, you know, having my heads in the clouds and looking and now I'm trying to serve these really important people and I can't have that. So being able to know, this can stay, no problem. This has to be a la minute and then I'm good to go. Because the food, you know, with country clubs, which is what my background is and you're serving very high.

I'm not saying for snickety people, but people with high standards, you're serving them every day. So the level of quality is always there, but just knowing how can you do the same dessert for 12 people versus 500 people and still have the same end result is something I like to teach them.

Kimberly Houston (09:04.802)
I think that's lovely. I don't remember learning how to do that when I was in culinary school. So I think that is a great skill for you to pass on because I learned that later on in life all by myself.

Cody Middleton (09:16.999)
Yeah, absolutely. Because the same way you're going to make creme anglaise for a quart is not the same way you're going to make it for, you know, say 20 gallons of creme anglaise because you cook it to the same degree of cooking and as you're pouring it out of the pot, it's curdling because it's going to carry over much more. things like that, I teach them like, we're going to do it like this. Just know if you go work somewhere else, you may do it a little bit differently because the operation is different, how much they're making.

Kimberly Houston (09:44.91)
and

Cody Middleton (09:46.419)
They've all got those logistical things figured out. So the best thing you can do as a cook, as a student, write that down, put it in your back pocket, and figure out why they did that, most importantly. And once you know that, you know, everything else is so much easier. And when you're the boss, guess what? You can do whatever you see fit. But if you're just, hey, my chef instructor in school said this, well, when you're out in the industry, nobody cares. They probably don't know who your chef instructor is.

They want to know, hey, can you make this? Can you follow directions? That's what they're looking for. again, Banquets is a great teacher of how to do things differently, not only in terms of how you produce it, but efficiency as well. And sometimes we're really concentrated with traditional methods and techniques in school, which is good. But at the same time,

you still need to be up to speed when you're in industry. So it's a balance between those two things. Definitely I try to teach my students.

Kimberly Houston (10:47.724)
love that. Okay so let's talk about your personal mastery and your craft. So you've earned three major certifications including Certified Master Baker which is with the RBA and yes I introduced your other ones in the beginning but what did that pursuit of the CMB mastery teach you about your discipline?

Cody Middleton (11:10.281)
Cool. So, as I'm sure a lot of people know, the Certified Master Baker Exam, it's no joke. The thing, and many of us have said this and I'll reiterate it, it looks so easy on paper. Making a chiffon cake, doing some baguettes. We all know how to make these things. one thing, figuring out how to get at the level, exactly what the exam is looking for. Yes.

Kimberly Houston (11:36.566)
Hey, Cody.

Can you hear me? Okay, you froze. So I need your whole answer over.

Cody Middleton (11:40.382)
Yes.

Cody Middleton (11:47.535)
Okay, do want to re-ask it?

Kimberly Houston (11:49.903)
Yes, yes. I'll re-ask it and then answer. I was like, where'd go? It froze. So I'll re-ask you. Okay, we'll start at the what did the pursuit of it do and then answer it again, okay? All right, start. What did the pursuit of the certified master baker teach you about your discipline?

Cody Middleton (11:59.378)
Well, well.

Cody Middleton (12:08.859)
Okay.

Cody Middleton (12:17.459)
So one of the things with the certified Master Baker exam, it's not a joke. It seems like such an easy exam on paper. You're making a chiffon cake, you're making a baguette. Okay, doesn't seem that hard. But getting up to the level of the exam, knowing exactly what the judges are looking for. Your baguette has to be a certain length. It's gotta be 21 inches. It's gotta weigh a certain weight. Getting to that is not...

easy. Most places that you're going to work you don't have to hit it exactly 250 grams. Looks about the same, looks similar, no harm, no foul, good to go. But the exam really teaches you those fine details that you need to be extremely accurate and you need to be being sure that hey if it says it's supposed to be 10 inches it's not 10 and a half it's 10. If your chiffon cake needs to be an inch and a half

It better be an inch and a half because each little bit off points off your exam and that could be a fail. So that's something, that degree of accuracy, I think that was one of the most challenging things is getting it on the dot. And especially when you're adjourning the exam, you've practiced it, which is what helped me a lot, but you're working in different equipment. You're not in your home kitchen for most of us when you take the exam. So.

having to make those adjustments and a lot of the exam is based off of weight. So different ovens have different fan speeds, they bake a little bit differently. So being able to say, hey, it's gonna be done and at the right weight, that's a little bit challenging for that. But especially the time management, it's a two day exam and the first day I really tried to push as much as I could get done in the first day because

As most people know, the latter part of anything, whether it's a test, an exam, your production, second day is usually where stuff starts to go a little bit crazy. figuring out, okay, what can I do to set myself up and be able to have an easier, in quotations, second day, knowing, okay, I've got five minutes here, 10 minutes here. What can I get done to set myself up?

Cody Middleton (14:40.681)
That was one thing because inevitably something's gonna go wrong during your exam. I remember I miss scaled my pretzel dough which was our undisclosed product and I'm mixing it on the second day and I was like, that looks like focaccia. I don't believe that's a pretzel dough. And knowing how to correct that as well. the one thing that why I love pastry maybe a little bit more than culinary, everything's by weight, you know?

If all it's fells, put it on the scale, compare it what it's supposed to weigh. And I looked, I'm a kilo short of flour. So I was like, okay, easy fix, throw a kilo in there, call it a day. But being able to work on your feet and be adaptive definitely is something that the exam taught me. But also knowing what this certification means.

Being a master for me and with this exam, and especially because of the specifications of the exam, we have a responsibility, I feel, to know and to carry on what this product is. You you can't just call something that's long and skinny a baguette. You know, we go out in the grocery store, it's labeled, okay, French baguette. That's a little bit of a stretch, so.

Kimberly Houston (15:57.582)
you

Cody Middleton (16:05.821)
having the correct crumb structure, the correct flavor, is it scored properly, did it open up properly, is it crispy, is the inside chewy but not overly chewy? All those things are what the exam taught me. Is the crumb structure too large, is it too small, or is it just right? And I'm a stickler for rules, so that's one thing, that's a challenge I took head on. Okay.

My chiffon cake crumbs too big and my challah the crumbs too large. Okay, let me correct this and then be good to go for the exam. And you'll drive yourself crazy honestly a little bit because you're like, you know, I've never had to be that finicky with a challah. It looks nice cut into it. Okay, a little bit too large on the crumb structure and you're like, okay, let's mix a little bit more for a minute a little bit less a little bit quicker with the shaping and you're like, okay.

Knowing, you know, and that's one thing I love as an instructor, knowing how to make those little adjustments as well goes such a long way and it's a good test for yourself to be like, hey, I can make it good, but how can I make it up to this level?

Kimberly Houston (17:21.108)
I it. I love it. That is the perfect segue into my next question for you. So for young pastry chefs, what do you believe separates good from great in both skill set and mindset?

Cody Middleton (17:24.883)
We

Cody Middleton (17:33.811)
So I'll answer the mindset one first. think the biggest thing is just being honest with yourself and knowing that, like I mentioned, not everything you make is going to be perfect. Knowing that right from the get-go is... because otherwise it just holds you back at the end of the day. If you have blinders on and be like, okay, I made it so it's perfect, you're doing yourself a disservice. You're never going to grow. You're just going to stay at your level.

You're not going to rise to what's out there. And not any of us are the greatest pastry chefs. know, we all have flaws. We all have things we can improve upon. So being able to look at something and be like, man, I really messed this up or I did better last time or this is good. How can I make it better? And just always looking for how to improve your skill sets to get a little bit better each and every time you make a product goes a long way in terms of technical skill.

One thing that I think is being well-rounded. That's one thing that the Certified Master Baker exam teaches. You can't just be good at bread. You can't just be good at cakes. You can't just be good at viennese. You have to be well-rounded. In my background, I loved country clubs because I would get bored. If I just worked in a bread bakery and just did breads all day, yeah, I'd be awesome at it.

But I'd be like, okay, now what we're doing today, we're doing breads. At country clubs, every day was different. One day we might do little pettifors, some gelato, and then a cake. The next day we might do breads and do plated dessert. Each day was different. But the reason that I enjoyed it so much, well, I didn't get bored. But also, I could work on those skills a little bit each and every day and each and every week. It wasn't, okay, I haven't done chocolate work.

in two years. It was like, okay, I did it two weeks ago. Let's make some more bomb bonds. But being well-rounded, that really sets yourself apart, I think, because you're going to work at different places in your career and their focus might be different from the last place you worked. But if you stay on top of the basic techniques and can let those shine when you go into a new place, it's just going to make you look that much more impressive.

Kimberly Houston (19:53.103)
Agreed. I love that. I think that is incredible advice for young pastry chefs. Continue with that. So in reading over your bio, while you were at Johnson & Wales, you had an entrepreneurship track for pastry. So here is my question for you as I'm learning as I interview people that some people are like, entrepreneurship? Yes. And other people are like, entrepreneurship? Absolutely not. Where do you fall on that?

Cody Middleton (20:22.461)
Okay, so may sound surprising for a lot of people because that was my concentration in school. Going into college, I thought I wanted to open my own place. That's kind of what a lot of people think. Okay, I'm gonna study baking and pastry, study culinary, then I'm gonna own my own place. My entrepreneurship degree taught me that I did not wanna do that. They taught, okay, if this goes wrong,

you can do this. Okay, you need to plan for this in case this happens." And I said, uh, nope, I do not want to have that responsibility. Oh, what if the economy goes bad? Oh, what if somebody sues you? Then you need to get this insurance and then you need to worry about that. I was like, yeah, that sounds stressful. Oh, they could come out after your house and car. Yeah, I don't want that to happen. So it taught me that I wanted to be in charge, but not have my whole head on the chopping block.

You know, I'd work for somebody else, place shuts down, okay, I find a new job. I don't have to worry about starting over. And especially with a lot of the TV shows, good or bad, they're brought to light some of the things that can happen if you don't do well in business. And kind of reinforce that, hey, you know, those people, while it's good for TV, it's true at the end of the day.

You know, those people are stressed out. They have problems with their family, problems sleeping, all those things. And until you see that and then let it click like, hey, this isn't just for the show. These people go through this. Yeah, I was just like, nah, I don't want to open my own place. I'm good to go. So I didn't have the traditional track with that. But I tell students, know, even if you don't own your own place, that doesn't mean you're not successful.

You know, quite the opposite. Many people do better when they're at the top of somebody else's totem pole because, again, they don't have those responsibilities. They can focus on other things. So, again, not a traditional track, but I'm glad I went that way for sure.

Kimberly Houston (22:36.002)
think that's fair because that I didn't get that when I was in culinary school and I was one of those people had to go figure it out on my own as a bakery owner and we've definitely talked to other entrepreneurs on the podcast who share their stories and what those things look like this year particularly has been real interesting with tariffs and know taxes and layoffs and you know all these things

that now these bakery owners have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. So being able to bring to light the career pastry chef track, I think it's helpful. And the educator track is also super helpful for people as well. So I'm going to segue a little bit. How have professional organizations like being a part of ACF or the RBA influenced your development and your approach as an educator?

Cody Middleton (23:10.227)
Mm-hmm.

Cody Middleton (23:26.003)
So when I was in school, I didn't know what all these things were. ACF, RBA, know, acronym error. I had no idea what it meant. Nobody really sat down and said, okay, these professional organizations are gonna make you look that much better when you go to apply for jobs. So I wanna start with that. But for me, it's a thing that tests skills. It shows, these things are in place and

To get it, you've got to meet a certain quality. You've got to be at this level to earn this certification. So one thing that I really think is important is just knowing, hey, again, I've mentioned it before, be humble, but at same time, be humble enough to put yourself out there and earn the certifications. Because one thing, when I go for these, and you're like, what if I don't pass?

with the certified Master Baker, most people don't pass on the first try. So it's really kind of stressful. Like everybody knows you're going through this and you're like, what if I goof up? What if, you know, I have a big mistake and I fell, you know, how does that make me look? And you kind of have to, you know, take a look at yourself and know even if I don't get this certification, that doesn't make me any less of a person for trying. I think that's what a lot of people with certifications.

They're afraid of it. They say, what if I fail? there's nothing, you know, if you don't try, you're never going to achieve anything, but failure comes with it. You know, people have bad days, especially with certifications. Timer doesn't go off, you forget something in oven, it burns. Nobody knows that, but that's the thing that separated you from passing or failing. And again, the one thing that I think is also important to remember

is even though you get these certifications, if you don't come up and show up every day, they're just letters. That's all they are at the end of the day. If you're like, I got my Certified Executive Pastry Chef certification, and they go, okay, can you make a ganache? What's that? Then it's kind of embarrassing. You know, it's one thing to get the certification, but it's another thing, you know.

Cody Middleton (25:51.881)
The other thing that I say with certifications and with professional organizations, they set a level of quality, but at the same time, that doesn't mean that everybody out there is exactly where they should be because they don't continue to improve where they say, okay, I got this, I'm just gonna, you know, take a seat in the shotgun, I'm just gonna do whatever, I'm not gonna really care anymore. And then they suffer.

At the same time, that doesn't mean that chefs that don't have certifications aren't any good. Well, that's not true. There's plenty of chefs out there, and a lot of the ones that are most well-known on social media don't have certifications. Well, that means they're not good chefs. Well, of course that's not what it means. But it definitely, it kind of makes you have to be on your game. Because if you're going to say you're a certified Master Baker, and somebody says, can you make a croissant? And you go, ooh, I don't know if I can. And they say,

Hey, do you know how to braid challah And you go, what's challah? challah at who? So, you know, it kind of makes it where you've got to be even more at the top of your game, which isn't a bad thing.

Kimberly Houston (27:03.16)
agreed. So at this phase in your journey, what continues to drive you to want to stay as one of the best of the best in the industry?

Cody Middleton (27:14.483)
So I do it for my students. At this point in the game, I tell them, my goal is to educate you well enough where you can be a certified Master Baker or you can be a certified Master Baker and a certified Master Pastry Chef. I want you to be better than me. That's my goal right now. What can I learn? How can I teach you? How can I change my approach so that you're better than me?

That's what I want them to do because, you the legacy of not only chefs but our industry is in the next generation. So if we as chefs are so selfish in saying, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? We're doing it to service for everybody because we're just one person. I'm just one chef. But if I can teach a whole classroom how to do something, how to master a technique, how to do things properly, then they grow.

and their career path and then they flourish and then they become certified master bakers, certified executive pastry chefs and then that continues. That's what it's all about. Our industry is about sharing so that's my approach on that.

Kimberly Houston (28:25.486)
So my last question for you is if your students remember one lasting lesson thing years from now, what do you hope it?

Cody Middleton (28:35.741)
Hmm. That's a tricky one. Because we talk so much about technique, technique, technique. But I think the biggest lesson is just do the right thing. Whether it's making the product right, serving the customer in the correct way, or in this day and age, basic sanitation. You know, everybody's like, you know, we have all these medicines and all this. But I was like.

No, you need to have some integrity. We're serving clients, and especially my background in country clubs. I was serving elderly people, so I jokingly say, don't kill grandma, like wash your hands. You see what you just touched? You just touched all over your face. Wash your hands. But if you do the right thing, whether it's serving a product that's safely made, if you're serving it and you know it's at the proper quality.

You just feel that much better about yourself. You don't have that feeling in your stomach where you're like, I hope nobody catches me for this. Like, I've done that, you know, early in my career where I'm like, ooh, can I get by with this? And you don't feel right about it, you know. We're serving people. We're supposed to be saying, hey, we want to have this special occasion be perfect for you. We want your wedding or we want your anniversary. We want you to remember it.

That's what food is for a lot of us, especially in the baking and pastry world. We're with a lot of special occasions with when we serve people. So just integrity, doing the right thing, everything else just falls into play after that.

Kimberly Houston (30:16.942)
I love it. Chef Cody, this has been absolutely incredible. I know everyone is going to love this episode, taking a look at life as a pastry chef and as a pastry instructor. Thank you so much for taking time to chat with me today. I will make sure that we list down below places where people can connect with you. They can also take a look at the program that you are teaching at in Myrtle Beach.

So if there are students that are listening and they may be looking for things we'll definitely make sure all of that is in our show notes. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Cody Middleton (30:53.935)
Absolutely, a pleasure Kimberly. Nice to be on the show.