Culture

Erik Desjarlais bakes up a comeback

|Katy McCarty, Downeast Magazine| The former hard-charging chef finds a fresh start at the New Gloucester Village Store. Tales of Erik Desjarlais’s temperament behind the line of his high-profile Portland […]

|Katy McCarty, Downeast Magazine|

The former hard-charging chef finds a fresh start at the New Gloucester Village Store.

Tales of Erik Desjarlais’s temperament behind the line of his high-profile Portland restaurants precede him. In the early 2000s, he was ill-tempered, heavy-drinking, and egotistical — a stereotypical chef. Then, he abruptly disappeared from the culinary scene. Now, 10 years later, the 42-year-old is sober, calmer, and a few dozen pounds lighter — and he’s back to cooking, as the baker at the New Gloucester Village Store, a long-standing neighborhood market near his home. Keep reading

Editor’s Note: Photos in this Downeast article are by New Gloucester photographer Jeff Roberts.