MAY 9 • 2024 | 13

Josh White, manager at Dakota 
Bakery and Jacob’s boss, says 
what Jacob brings to the bakery 
environment is priceless. 
“When Jacob walks in, there’s a 
smile on everybody’s face. And when 
he walks in, you know he’s there,” 
White says. “He walks in every day 
and the first thing he does is give 
people hugs, to the front of the bakery 
all the way to the back, and he’s not 
starting his day until he makes sure he 
says ‘hi’ to every single person in that 
place. It’s a great environment when 
he’s there.” 
White has witnessed Jacob’s passion 
for baking up close and in person 
for a while now, and he’s seen how 
talented he’s become at it as a result. 
“I’ve never seen the kind of passion 
he has. He wakes up and breathes 
baking,” White says. “He calls me 
every day. He’ll talk to me for an 
hour about what he’s going to do the 
next day, and then he’ll tell me all the 
desserts and food he made at home 
that evening as well. He lives for it.”

A CREATIVE TOUCH
Jacob loves doing a little bit of R&D, 
or research and development. He 
often bakes original ideas for desserts 
at home and then brings it into work 
for his bosses to try. If they like it, 
they’ll start making it and selling it at 
the bakery. 
“Our kitchen looks like a 
professional bakery, and it’s not 
like we have professional bakery 
equipment. Right now, we’re at our 
kitchen island and there’s a bag of 
flour, a bag of sugar and a food 
processor full of something,” Ethan 
said over the phone. “Jacob comes 
home, he takes a nap and then instead 
of going and watching TV or whatever 
else, he just starts baking again.” 
Jacob loves interacting with 
customers. The table where he 
perfects his R&D and his baking is 
right up by the register.
“He has no problem asking people 
if they want to try this or try that,” 
White says. 
Jacob takes great pride in his work, 
but his favorite aspect of baking isn’t 

about himself — it’s all about 
what others get out of it due 
to his hard work. 
“When customers come 
into Soul or Dakota and they 
eat my treats, it makes them 
happy,” Jacob says. 
Since childhood, Jacob has 
been going to Camp Morasha in 
Pennsylvania as part of its Yachad 
bunk, which provides Jewish camping 
opportunities for individuals with 
disabilities and offers a wide variety 
of programs catered to each person’s 
needs. 
Jacob spent several years working 
in the baking room as part of its 
vocational program, and last year 
they pulled him into the camp’s main 
kitchen where he helped bake for 
the whole camp. Jacob was gifted a 
chef jacket because of how much he 
excelled in that role.
For Ethan, seeing his son’s passion 
and hard work lead him to such 
success brings great joy. 
“It’s exciting because he’s a sweet 
kid and has an amazing work ethic. 
But obviously, as a child, we really 
didn’t know what his future would 
hold, and we wanted him to be happy 
and productive. And now he’s doing 
something he loves, and it’s very 
fulfilling for him,” Ethan says. 
“He works a job he likes, everybody 
there is very nice and they treat him 
well. They love his ideas, because all 
he thinks about for the most part is 
baking, and occasionally cooking. 
And then Legos, those are the top 
three.” 
A major goal for Jacob in his baking 
endeavors is making a cookbook. 
It makes sense, considering he has 
a massive library of cookbooks at 
home and almost exclusively follows 
cookbook authors on social media.
“We’ve been talking about it for 
a while; it would have a lot of his 
recipes,” Ethan says. “It would try to 
make it simple so that anybody, even 
someone with special needs, can 
follow along and bake like he does.” 
If there’s one thing Jacob could tell 
someone, it’s to do what he’s done: 
“Follow your dreams.” 

RIGHT: Jacob with 
his cookbooks and 
his puppy, Babka. 
BELOW: Jacob with 
his father Ethan 
Gross in the kitchen, 
of course.