Sandra Holl

Sandra Holl

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  “I hate chocolate-chip cookies. I have never liked chocolate-chip cookies. Everyone always asks me, ‘Why don’t you like chocolate cookies?’ Because I hate them. That’s all I’m gonna say.”

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  “We’re hoping to do something kind of like this—like a sourdough, a French country boule—because the plan is to make all of our breads for the sandwiches we’ll be serving. I’m really excited, but I really want it to be good, and I don’t have that much experience with bread, so it will be seen if we can actually do it. We better, because we bought an oven.”

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  “That’s our starter for baking breads at the bakery. It’s got nice bubbles, so it’s alive. We started him last year out of Asian pears from Oriana at the Green Market.”

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  “We always have lots of cheese. This is Capriole, and I love pecorino, and dipped ricotta. I love sheep’s-milk feta. Actually I love any sheep’s-milk cheese. Goat cheese, too. We always have lots of butter, lots of cheese. We always have bacon—you have to have bacon. I’m not the most healthy person. I would live on pasta with cheese.”

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  “This is a broken scale that doesn’t work. I’m not like a crazy pastry chef that’s like gram crazy. It’s terrible. I’m really bad about it. I look at a recipe and I’m like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’”

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  “[At the bakery,] we’re gonna do herbs, lots of herbs, because we want to grow all our herbs there, and we’ll probably do some Sungolds and stuff like that. I’m a plant killer. I should not say that, because I’m not going to be this year. I will not over-water or under-water.”

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  “It’s quiet here. It’s you and the cookbooks. I love it. I sit right here, and I just look and pull things out or bring them over to my bed and just look at them.”

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“I hate chocolate-chip cookies. I have never liked chocolate-chip cookies. Everyone always asks me, ‘Why don’t you like chocolate cookies?’ Because I hate them. That’s all I’m gonna say.”

Photos: Jill Paider except books, scale and fridge, Nicole Radja

For one of the city’s most beloved farmers’-market vendors, Floriole’s Sandra Holl is awfully self-deprecating. She starts counting the number of years she’s lived in her Streeterville high-rise, but then stops herself: “We’ve been here about five years, because this will be the fifth [Green City] Market—if we get in. Every year I’m really worried about it.”At home on a Saturday morning, making preparations for her soon-to-open Floriole Cafe & Bakery (1220 W Webster Ave, 773-252-0095), Holl expresses half-serious doubts about everything from baking (“I’m terrified to tell anyone we’re going to make bread”) to gardening (“I’m a plant killer”) to putting down roots (“It’s scary, expanding”). But as she comments on the items in her home kitchen, and the details about her new bakery unfold, the only thing we’re concerned about is how speedily the city’s inspectors will green-light the opening (which is slated for next week). Because chocolate macarons aren’t just going to eat themselves.

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