B. Dylan Hollis | Baking Across America: A Vintage Recipe Road Trip

0:07Welcome to the Talks at Google Podcast, where great minds meet. I'm Emma, bringing you this episode with B. Dylan Hollis, New York Times bestselling author and social media personality. Talks at Google brings the world's most influential thinkers, creators, makers, and doers all to one place. You can watch every episode at youtube.com slash Talks at Google. B. Dylan Hollis is a social media personality who has tasked himself with baking and tasting unusual recipes from bygone years. Born and raised on the island of Bermuda, he later attended college at the University of Wyoming to further a career as a jazz pianist and arranger.

0:50He stumbled into both baking and social media fame at once in 2020, when quarantine boredom led him to film an investigation of an old cookbook he had collected from an estate sale. Hundreds of recipes later, Dylan now entertains millions across TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram with his unique style and fast jokes. Dylan joins Google to discuss his book, Baking Across America, a Vintage Recipe Road Trip. The book is a cross-country culinary journey as Dylan ventures through the culture capitals of America to savor the very best bakes that the nation has to offer. His retro recipes span the decades from the 1900s to the 2000s and feature famous and forgotten desserts from every state.

1:41Here is B. Dylan Hollis, baking across America.

1:55So if you haven't seen his book, it's amazing. The photos are out of this world. I have got to just jump right into how did you come up with the idea for the photos? How did you come up with the idea for kind of this book and this genre of writing? Well, if you folks aren't familiar, I bake through old cookbooks on social media. And I started finding them in antique stores, estate sales. I would pick them up and go through them and try to find really awful or I call them my three W's. Wild, wacky, and wonderful. Any recipe that seems to fit that descriptor, I'm interested in. But I would upload these and the responses would be, oh, I remember when my mother used to make this.

2:38Or I remember when my aunt used to make this. Or please heavens, don't remind me of that ever again. But then I would do a recipe that was famous in a particular place. We were talking backstage about St. Louis. St. Louis? The city of St. Louis. And there they have something called a gooey butter cake. Mmm. And I uploaded this video for a gooey butter cake, but the comments were very different. Instead of saying, oh yes, I remember this, I remember that, people went feral. And they said, this is the pride of my city. They were so patriotic about a set of instructions to create a dessert. But they were talking like it was a hometown hero.

3:16To circle back to your question, that's when I knew that there's got to be more gooey butter cakes. More recipes like that. So I was like, okay, we're instead of laying out my old cookbooks by decade I'm gonna lay them out by state and Then with a name like baking across America, we had to shoot them in said locations So yeah, we planned in we set out culture capitals. So we knew we were going to the Southwest. You think what's down there? 1950s Palm Springs You go to the Midwest the gem of the Midwest Chicago. So yeah, we literally did shoot these recipes on location and we also baked these recipes on location, which was rough.

3:59Normally you're in a studio, you get multiple takes and you know, you don't get that when you're on the dusty streets of Chicago carrying an atomic cake down, you know, the avenues. But it was fun and there's a realness to it that I hope came across. It's phenomenal. I mean, everybody is super excited about what you've created. And I think the nostalgia that goes around it is, everybody's got a story, just like you mentioned, which is so cool that you can bring that to people. Precisely. And it's not so much me, but it's the fact that you had mentioned nostalgia. The interesting thing about recipes is that, yes, it is more than just a set of instructions.

4:38You're actually recreating a lot of people's memories insofar as I'm not having a gooey butter cake, but now you're taking me back to 1972 in my grandmother's kitchen. So if you do it wrong, you're going to get in big trouble. Well, I will tell you when I got the book and I was looking at it, preparing for this, it reminded me of my mom's recipes. And one of the things that she used to always make is something called grasshopper pie, which is... Creme de menthe. Yeah. Creme de menthe. Whatever even happened to creme de menthe? So question, how do you find these like super old ingredients that, I mean, who even sells cream de menthe anymore?

5:13I know it's impossible. And when you do find it, you know, now it's not dyed that awful blue, that awful green. Yeah. I would hope it's not blue. But a lot of these you can still find, especially in a wonderful place like Chicago. Okay. If you go back farther, you know, sort of the 1800s, then you're dealing with difficulties. Then you're dealing with, you know, ammonium carbonate. Then you're dealing with some really hard-to-get recipes. A contemporary of mine, a friend of mine, Max Miller of Tasting History, really goes way back. Now that becomes more an issue with anthropology and, you know, piecing those things together.

5:51But no, you and I, we can find creme de membre. It's a bit harder these days. So 1800s, going back to the 1800s for a recipe, where do you find that? That can't be at an estate sale. No, no. And that's why I don't venture into that territory. I'm like, where are you finding this? That's a question for Max Miller. Okay. Certainly. All right. Excellent. So give us an idea of where this started. I know in your bio, they talked about, oh, you know, it's 2020. You were bored. You decided to film yourself making some cake or making a recipe. Tell us more about the birth of this. You know what it was?

6:24You hit the nail on the head. It was boredom. Man, when old Miss Rona came around in 2020, we had a lot of time on our hands. Now, I had always been a collector of old things. I had collected old books, old records, vacuum tube radios I had a knack for. And actually, the car on the front of this book is my daily driver. What? My first car. I named him Ernest, after country musician Ernest Tubb. But yeah, it was my first car. I convinced my mother to get that to me. Very nice. And I owe everything to my mother, which is why I dedicated this book to her. But that's my first car, 1963. Needless to say, I always collected old things.

7:06And I had just started on short format videos and uploading these shorts. And of course, when you're online, the things that garnered the most attention are normally the wacky things, the crazy things. Call it clickbait if you must. So I was going through these old collections and I was like, okay, there's got to be something that's going to jump out at people. Something that's new. Something that really sparks and piques the interest. And so I thumbed through in 1915. It was a Five Roses flower cookbook, which was a Canadian flower brand. And I was flipping through the recipes and you'd see sponge cake.

7:42You'd say, hmm. You'd say muffins. You'd say, hmm. And you'd say pork cake. And you'd say, oh. Yeah. I said, there's no way. And sure as night follows day, it was a fruitcake recipe. Except it was aberrant. Oh, I haven't even heard of aberrant. It didn't sound good. There was a pound of ground pork in there. And I said, we've got to record this and show people that this actually exists. And I did. And that is what started it all. It was August of 2020. I uploaded this short format video and everyone went crazy. The response was so heavy that I had to open a post office box. And folks started sending me old cookbooks.

8:22Oh, that's so cool. It was, until the post office called me and said, you know, Mr. Hollis, you've got 300 pounds of cookbooks here. Please come and pick them up. That is how it started. And then it became an investigation. Now, you did mention earlier sort of an expert. I've got to tell you, I am not. What? Because in 2020 was the first time that I baked in earnest. Not in earnest, but in earnest with an A. And through my uploads and through my investigations, I learned how to bake, and my audience watched me learn how to bake. Oh, that's cool. I don't know. It created some incidents. Take, for example, there's a sour milk pie.

9:02Does not sound good. No. However, I thought it was literal. I thought you actually used milk that had gone bad. Oh! where I, you know, through learning and through making these mistakes, I came to learn that sour milk was just an old school name for buttermilk. Oh. Now, no wonder I didn't like that pie. I don't know why, but now I'm thinking of my dad who used to love mincemeat pies, which I always thought was like a meat pie. I mean, you're telling that pork pound store, the pork cake. I'm like, oh man, that reminds me. And he's like, oh, can't try this. So yeah, all these funny and interesting names.

9:38I have to know, do you have a favorite? Is there anything where you're like, oh, yeah, this is my jam. This is the one I love. Well, you have to be cognizant of where you are and to whom you're speaking when you say you don't want to pick the incorrect favorite. You can be honest. We have no secrets. You can be honest with us. Which one is it? I'll tell you what. My favorite fruit are dates. Me too. Are you serious? I love dates. No way. Oh, my God. I totally do. This is phenomenal. I know. I mean, they're forgotten about. I love dates! They say they're old school, they're fogey, but the things you can create with them.

10:15I know! And my favorite recipe that I've baked so far, it's actually in the book, if you don't mind my saying. It's a recipe for Mojave nuggets, which was the name I assigned to just date confections. You know, you throw dates, you throw coconut, you throw a little bit of, you know, ground nuts, be it walnuts or almonds in there. And you process that up to a paste and you just roll it in some more coconut. It's a candy, but it is all, you know, from the earth. and it's magnificent. Boss, I love dates. I am, I love dates. I make like ice cream with it and beans, beans and dates and bananas and it makes it actually really good ice cream.

10:49It's phenomenal. Random thing that we have in common. I had no idea. This is incredible. Everybody's like, enough with the dates. I got you. But so if you think about the two books that you have out and you think about the impact that you had for people and you say, hey, this is like helping them bring back memories. I mean, how does it feel to have that level of impact? And did you have any idea it would be like this when you were just starting? I had no idea, truthfully. And not only did I learn how to bake when I was doing these things, but I learned how much recipes and food and nostalgia, the power that that had.

11:27Because I would get letters. You know, it wasn't just cookbooks in my post office box, but it was like, thank you for bringing back this memory of me making this with my grandmother. This was her favorite thing. And I was like, now I'm cognizant of the fact that it isn't just me. You know, it's a conduit. These things, I didn't create these cookbooks from 1920s. You know, if so, I look very good for being that old, if you don't mind my saying. But all that to say is that they've been there. They existed. Everything is there out in the open. I just happened to gather them all together and just show them.

12:05But no, I never expected the impact. And I still can't tell you why it resonates so much. Because people love food, and food online is a huge sphere. But you think of cutting edge. You think of these photographable, beautiful recipes, or vegan recipes, or recipes without this and that. old, wacky, and wild, wonderful recipes don't exactly fit that. So I don't know if I'll ever find an answer. But no, I never expected the response. I never expected to have a cookbook. I have a music degree. But I suppose it's beneficial because, you know, you don't make much in music. So you combined old recipes, nostalgia, and the all-American road trip, really, right?

12:56I mean, these are two huge things that, you know, almost everybody can identify. And I just, I have to know, like, how did that mashup come together? Was it just that it was recipes from everywhere? But I mean, those are two pretty, pretty heavy things. I think it was the, it was the foreigner's perspective. You know, I was born and raised on the island of Bermuda, you know, in this British colony. And I really wanted to come to the United States. I came here in 2014 for school to get that music degree. And from the outsider's perspective, Bermuda is 21 miles long and one mile wide. It's tiny.

13:30No matter where you are, you can see the ocean. And it gets a bit claustrophobic, you know. It really does. So I said, I want to go to where the skies are wide, and you can pick any direction, you know, within reason, depending on where you are. And you can get in your car, and you can drive, and you'll be in someplace completely different, a completely different biome. and if you wanted to you could you know you could say I want to live there I'm going to move there and you just can in the ocean you'll get wet you know we can't do that so that foreigners perspective we're sort of the ones who are interested in those super kitschy Americana things big old cars highways and this adoration for the interstate system which is really cool to me and those bastions of 1950s kitsch.

14:19Now, of course, it's rosy to us because we're looking at it retrospectively. And of course, there's issues back in that period. But it's that golden idea of a diner with lit up neon signs. And that's why we didn't go to LA. That's why we did go to Omaha, Nebraska. And we ended up going to Palm Springs and of course, Chicago. And we shot at the Palmer House. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. That's perfect. So you're right. It was that huge, how do we capture this retrospective idea of America? And I'm happy to report that it was a whole bunch of fun. That sounds phenomenal. What a great way to celebrate America's past.

15:05And also, you know, just to bring back those memories and that connection, I always thought when I was growing up and we would go on the road trips and we had that, you know, old Coleman. Some of you are old enough, you had like the old Coleman. green grill. What do you call those? Those thermoses. And, you know, that was the days when you would get off on the road stop or the what do you call the area where you get off on the on the side and you would have a picnic on the side because you didn't go to all the restaurants. And it just brings back all of those things. So thank you for creating something that brings that feeling back.

15:36Now, I'm curious to know, social media, there's so much on there. Do you ever have any challenges or is there ever any moment where, you know, it's not so rosy and sweet and all about bringing back great memories? Oh, yeah. I got in trouble very recently because I did a recipe for pralines. What? They're a confection of New Orleans, Louisiana. Ah. Now, the rest of the nation knows them as pralines. However, I made the mistake of calling them pralines when I first did this video. I had never got such a hefty, swift response from the people of Louisiana and from the people of the South who said, Dylan, if you can't say it right, I'm not going to take anything you say seriously.

16:29Never mind the fact that I did do both pronunciations. I said praline and praline, but praline was 20 seconds in. and that's too long so yes you do get in trouble there or if you do fudge up a recipe then you're like you know this is not an accurate representation or recently i did a recipe for it was a tater tot casserole oh sounds easy on calories oh yeah but you're right it's tater tots and you know creva mushroom soup and just you know bargain beef. But of course, Minnesota and Wisconsin and these states call it a hot dish. So the fact that I said a tater tot casserole, but you know, you know this, we know this, the online platform is you're getting up there and you're getting judged.

17:16And you know, for people who call it a hot dish, they're going to get mad at you if you call it a casserole. But no, overwhelmingly, old recipes and desserts, people seem to really just enjoy. And I've had a very good experience online doing this, which most people can't say I feel like because it's just not polarizing. And I feel everyone needs a bit more dessert these days. Who wouldn't want more sweetness? I love it. So you mentioned your mom and how much she's had an impact on you and you dedicated the book to her. Tell us more about her influence in this whole experience. Oh, I mean, I would be here for hours.

17:56What am I without my mother? My mother is the kindest person because she's given me everything. I had the great fortune that my mother put me through college, even though I squeezed my four-year degree into eight. It's okay. It happens. She said, keep going. You can do it. Now she said, you know, you go any farther, you're done, buddy. but she put me through that. She gave me all of these things that I took an interest in. I told you about the old radios and the books and the cars that I like and she provided that to me. So she nurtured something that was non-standard but she could see that I was interested in.

18:35So it's not so much the case of listing the things that I, you know, really owe her but just stating that I am because of her. Oh, that's phenomenal. I'm sure she's going to be happy to hear that when she sees this too. Yes, my mama. So what's next? So you've got now the two books. Obviously, you're promoting the one that we're looking at here today. What's your vision for what you want to accomplish next? Like where else might this go for you? Well, it's difficult when I did get a music degree and I was preparing to go home to be a music teacher, all of a sudden to be making cookbooks and to be baking.

19:11All that to say, I don't know because things are changing so quickly, on like these chapters of mine. So I can tell you that, ooh, I would love to finish baking across America this tour that I'm doing to celebrate the release of the book. I would love to, you know, just continue baking through old cookbooks. But then, you know, if I ever get the pleasure to be here again, I'll tell you that I'm now an auto mechanic in Helsinki. But just nostalgia. I like the old things. I like nostalgic things and bringing that into modernity in a way that really melds effortlessly. Because, yeah, driving this old car, for example, if we take that as an analogy, it's an old car.

19:56It drives just like regular cars. But it's the enjoyment of being in this time capsule from 63. But yet you're not driving to go get a pack of cigarettes. You're driving to get yourself, I don't know, a smoothie. And that's something that wouldn't have been done in 1963. That's cool. It is cool. It's hard to explain how I view the past through the lens of modernity. But I'm baking through it, I'm cooking through it, and I'm driving through it. Oh, man. Well, I don't think that we could have a better combination of things. And so let me ask you, as you think about you've created this, you're like completely unattached to the outcome.

20:37I mean, your answer is just like you're completely unattached to the outcome. You're like, you're going with the experience. How does one come to that? Like so many times people are like, I'm doing this so this can happen. Or I'm doing this so I can have this next thing happen. And your answer just now is like, I'm doing this and I'm completely unattached to the outcome. So tell us more about how you land there. I think it was just how I was, it's how I was raised. It's also a bit of island mentality. Oh, tell us about the island mentality. Well, in Bermuda, there's island time. And it's too hot to be bothered with, you know, what's going to happen next.

21:08You go slow. So you look at the things that are in front of you and you notice them and you say, that's cool. That's cool. I'm going to continue my little stroll. Remaining unbothered has always been important to me because I don't think there's any sense in being bothered. For example, backstage, I was enjoying some wonderful water and I spilled it all into my lap. And I even came up on stage a little bit moistened, unfortunately. but you know you just hope that people think that I'm not that nervous but no it's experiential and it's witnessing the outcome when I bake a wacky cake from the great depression I just really want to see what it's like and then you bake it and it is good or if it's bad you throw it I mean what else can you do I think it's because I am interacting with the past but no that's a hard question.

22:06I know. To answer. I know. It's just a matter of disposition, I think. And again, island mentality. I love the island mentality. Makes me want to go there. You mentioned something I forgot to ask about. That's the storytelling part of it, right? So with each recipe, there's some level of story. How do you come up with that? Is it based on what people are sending you? Or kind of what's the impetus? Or what helps you create that story that goes along with the recipe? libraries libraries okay so it's research i am so thankful to to libraries and specifically those libraries that upload newspaper archives ah or even visiting you know you know the old you know the microfiche machines oh my goodness because you can go there and you can say i want to learn what's being talked about or like letters to the editor or the food columns in 1967 omaha nebraska and you can go right there and you can see the stories.

23:03And that sort of research online, you know, helps to get a lot of these stories. I mean, that's how the stories for Bertha Palmer's, you know, Brownie came about because they were all written down in newspapers. But, you know, they sort of fizzle out because, I don't know, do you get a newspaper delivered? I don't. I don't know. But I used to have a paper route when I was younger. I used to throw those papers out there. So, yeah, I can respect it. So, I mean, that's the solid answer. And of course, the internet is of great use. Of course, Google is of great use. We'll help you search it, that's for sure.

23:40So Andy asks, hi, B. Dillon. I'm Jay Andrew. So I share your confusion at the DMV, doctor's offices, and wherever else they use our real names. How did you become B. Dillon? Did you choose this faith, or did your parents give it to you? Probably like Jay Andrew, it was because of my parents. You know, my parents gave me and my siblings, I'm one of three brothers, gave us first names, but grew up calling us by our middle names. So it wasn't until about sixth grade that I realized I even had a first name. You know, you're going through taking attendance to class, and, you know, Mrs. Hislop was, you know, saying Benjamin Hollis.

24:21I'm just there. Benjamin Hollis. And I actually did get in trouble because I didn't answer to it. Because I didn't know I had a first name. Anyway, yes, it was simply because of my parents. And my brother Tyler is the same way. It's Jonathan Tyler. It's JT. Call him Tyler. You know, if you're called Benjamin or if you're called Jonathan, it's probably by the police. That's not good. No. So then do you go by, if someone's going to call you one name, is it B. Dylan or Dylan? That's the thing, isn't it? because those with middle initials, it's almost automatic. You write it down, but they forget about that middle initial, and they do just call you Dylan.

25:03But when the B is in front, then that causes some hiccups, some confusions. It's like, did J. Edgar Hoover always go by J. Edgar Hoover? I don't know. Do you just call him Edgar? Jedger? But no, I do just go by Dylan. Just by Dylan. Awesome. I think we have a live question here. Hey, thanks for being here. I really love watching your videos and actually watch them with my kids and they love them too. And a lot of the saucier jokes go right over their head. I think one of the things that is great or one of the things about food celebrity personalities, a skill that a lot of the good ones have is being able to kind of communicate how tasty or not tasty something is in a really visceral way.

25:48And I think you do that really well. I wondered, you have a very instantaneous reaction. Is that something that occurs? Or are you as demonstrative in other parts of your life when you like or don't like something? Because it comes across instantly on your videos. And I wondered if that was just something that is just about you when you like something everybody knows instantly. You are right. And it's gotten me in a fair bit of trouble. You know, sometimes if someone does something that I think is funny and I shouldn't have a funny response, it's hard to keep that hidden. And so, yes, I've always been very expressive, sometimes to my own dismay.

26:29But yeah, with tasting these things, do I amp it up or do these types of things? No, that's the one thing that I think has to be organic. Because you, you know, your kids, your family, if it was put on or if it was in earnest, it would be obvious, very obvious. So, yes, perhaps that's one of the powers that I have. It's a weird power. But being very expressive, especially when it comes to food, yeah, I am like that elsewhere. Thank you. Is it like that at a restaurant, too? They serve you a dish and it's not great? I have never been served something at a restaurant that was that dangerous that would have me doing that.