Raised in South Carolina and working as a pastry chef in Maine, you probably only recognize Lexie Mangum by her username, @undercoverbettycrocker.
Lexie works as a pastry chef on Mount Desert Island in Maine, and you’ll often see videos of her documenting her daily life at work, her alternating weekly dessert menus, or her love for the local farmers.
We got the chance to sit down with her to talk about pastries, how food is political, and what it was like when Martha Stewart tried her danish.
Spoon University: What’s the origin of the username @undercoverbettycrocker?
Lexie Mangum: The origin is that it was my tumblr name back in the day. I like it when people have a fun Instagram or just a fun username in general. Like my Instagram is @lexiebakes22, which was picked out when I was in seventh grade and I’m kind of like, I’m emotionally attached to this, like I can’t get rid of it.
SU: How did you get into becoming a pastry chef?
LM: I started baking with my grandma when I was really young. Around the time that I was like 9 or 10 years old, that was the heyday of Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss – which I’ve actually never seen Cake Boss, which is kind of crazy – but I was addicted to Ace of Cakes. So it was coming up on my 10th birthday and I was like, “I think I can make a cake like that” and my parents were like okay… But I was like, you guys aren’t gonna help me and I’m gonna bake my own birthday cake alone. It had a peace sign on it and I decorated the whole thing. When it didn’t fall apart or anything, I was like, “oh my god, I’m gonna do this for the rest of my life.”
SU: In your videos, you often mention how you work on an island in Maine. How has your location impacted your creativity and your work as a pastry chef?
LM: I feel like it has, mostly because Maine’s very intentional about working with their farmers, and I really love that. Here, people really care about where their food comes from, who’s making it, where the farmers are producing it, all of that sort of thing. And especially with the season being so short for seasonal produce in the Summer, I feel like there’s especially an emphasis then. In Maine, I feel like I can really experiment with what’s really good and local in a way that I don’t feel like I have before.
I’m from South Carolina and people do care about food there too, but it’s in a really different way. I also feel like I have been moving around for a while, like I moved from South Carolina to New York and then back to South Carolina as an adult before moving to Maine. If I hadn’t lived in South Carolina as an adult, I don’t think I would’ve appreciated the southern cuisine as much because I spent my whole childhood there being like, “get me out of here.” But being able to go back and take some of that southern cooking with me has also been nice.
SU: Do you have any local farmer’s markets you want to shout out?
LM: The Brunswick Farmers Market is my favorite farmers market in the Portland area, mostly because it’s in the grass. I really love a farmers market that’s just in a park. Additionally, the Portland Farmers Market is one that’s a little small but it’s good.
I’m also going to shout out my hometown. Greenville, South Carolina has one of the greatest downtown farmers markets in the country. It’s on Main Street and it gets really packed. They have literally anything you could ever want.
SU: You’ve spoken about how food is inherently very political in your videos. Could you tell us a little more about that?
LM: With where politics are right now and so many people suffering because of it, I feel like it’s kind of blasting in your face how food is political. We are actively driving immigrants out of this country when they are the backbone of the restaurant industry. Every single restaurant and every single bakery is built on the backs of immigrants. I’ve spent so much time working with people in the food industry from all over the world and I’ve learned the most from them.
So when people are being stripped of SNAP benefits and kids in schools aren’t able to eat, that’s political. Going to the grocery store and spending $100 on a bag of food, that’s political. Every single step of the food industry is impacted by the government. Especially if the government isn’t funding the farmers and the farmers can’t produce any food, it creates an entire system that doesn’t have a foundation anymore. In this day and age, I feel like we’re really seeing the effects so if this administration continues how it is, we’re going to continue seeing just how important it is to fund the food in this country.
SU: Being a queer woman in the male-dominated food industry, how have you had to make adjustments along the way to find success?
LM: I feel like I am not one to back down. I’ve been disliked by a lot of men because I’m a young woman who’s in charge of the kitchen, but like I was the one who got hired so someone out there thought that I could do this. It’s not like I’m just showing up and I don’t know what I’m doing. I think so many women are driven out of this industry by men.
On top of that, being a queer woman, especially working in the south. I feel like it’s very different between the south and the north, because I’ve also worked in New York City and so I didn’t feel like my queerness came into play in those places, but in the south, I definitely felt like an outsider in the kitchen. In general, I just think you can’t let them squash you. You have to take up the space that you deserve and not let people run over you because they will try.
SU: What was it like when Martha Stewart tried and posted your danish?
LM: I actually found out about it because of a TikTok. Somebody commented and was like, “oh my god, Martha Stewart ate your danish and she posted it.” We knew that Martha Stewart was in town because she owns a house here on the island. She comes here for Memorial Day every year because apparently she’s in a parade or something.
But yeah, one morning, people were screaming and one of my co-workers came in and was like, “Martha Stewart just came in.” So I was like, “oh my god, yay,” but she walked out without buying anything so my co-worker ran out with one of my danishes and brought it to her. Martha took it and was like, “it’s beautiful.” But in my head, I’m thinking like she could just say that and then throw it in the trash because you know, it’s Martha Stewart. So for her to post it and show everyone was insane.