Ellyn Hopper holds her gingerbread cake with orange buttercream, chocolate ganache and candied cranberries. (Photo by Jay Paul)
At the tender age of 26, Douglas Freeman High School graduate Ellyn Hopper has gone from dorm room baking to head baker for Johnny and Katrina Giavos’ restaurant and grocery empire, anchored by the iconic Stella’s — named after the couple’s culinary matriarch, Stella Dikos. Hopper isn’t just entrusted with the production of RVA’s favorite baklava, she’s also creating new favorites such as the coconut cream pie at the Giavoses’ latest restaurant, Little Nickel.
Richmond magazine: What set you on the path to becoming a baker?
Ellyn Hopper: My dad used to be a chef, and I grew up in the kitchen with him. Later, I went to college in South Carolina, USC, to study art history, and I tried baking in the dorms. I started reading blogs, and it was really when blogs were just popping up. I learned a lot from the pictures and experimenting and watching YouTube videos.
RM: What were you cooking in the dorms?
Hopper: It was almost always cookies because that was the easiest thing to make and share. A couple of years later, when I moved out of the dorm and had a real kitchen, I started making mini cakes, 5-inch cakes that were three layers, and scones and pies.
RM: Did you draw inspiration from a particular style or chef?
Hopper: There were a handful of blogs that I picked my styles from. For me, I looked for beautiful, but homestyle and accessible. I’ve never been, like, a fondant person. It looks great, but I want my cake to taste good. I looked for blogs that were kind of on the same path that I’ve gone down and figure it out as they’ve gone along. I was looking for what real people were doing.
Coconut cream pie at Little Nickel (Photo by Alexis Courtney)
RM: How did you transition from amateur to professional?
Hopper: After my sophomore year, I was in Annapolis with my family and decided to put myself out there and applied for a bunch of different places. It was that moment when I realized I really have no idea what I am doing but I have to start somewhere. I worked at this French patisserie for only three months, but it taught me the most valuable skills I’ve learned to this day. The basics of the classics — the methods and the procedures.
RM: What’s been your career path landing in Richmond after college?
Hopper: I started out working at a little place in the North Side called Stir Crazy, where I instituted some in-house baking with them. Then I went to WPA Bakery in Church Hill and managed there for a couple of years. It was a total contrast to what I had learned at the patisserie. [WPA owner] David Rohrer started out as a chef and was more creative. He taught me what I could change and substitute and play with. It really helped me loosen my concept of baking.
RM: Was going to Stella's a little intimidating?
Hopper: Yes, it was. Totally. I saw Katrina’s ad for Stella’s, and I was back in my mindset from college — could I just put myself out there and do this? I didn’t know I would be working with Stella herself. It’s been very different. I’ve learned so much, especially Greek recipes that have been in her family for decades and generations and things she’s entrusted to me.
RM: Has anything gone horribly wrong?
Hopper: [Whispered] Yeah. Absolutely. Like learning to make baklava. You’re rolling it, and you’re doing all of this other stuff, and all of a sudden the phyllo dough splits. And you’ve got to take the whole thing apart and restart it.
RM: That sounds like working with sticky LEGOs.
Hopper: It is.
