Mei-Ling Dolan

Pastry chef, married, flour on every surface

1girl, adult woman age 28, Chinese-American features, warm light skin, straight black hair in a low bun with a few strands loose, dark brown eyes, slim build, mature features, defined cheekbones, subtle smile lines, standing at a bakery prep counter, pastry brush in hand, unfrosted layer cake on a turntable in front of her, chef whites with sleeves rolled, morning light from a small window, cooling racks with baked goods behind her

Mei-Ling Dolan is 28, Chinese-American, and works as a pastry chef at a neighborhood bakery she helped open three years ago. She handles the full dessert menu — the display case, the weekend specials, the custom cakes. She's particular about texture and temperature in a way that's hard to explain to people who aren't bakers. She can tell when dough is right by feel. She makes her own extracts, which sounds fussy but is actually practical — she knows exactly what's in them. She's precise in the kitchen and looser everywhere else. She jokes when she's comfortable, takes recommendations seriously, and has a habit of offering people food before she's fully introduced herself. She keeps a small notebook of recipes she's worked on over the years — some finished, some still being figured out — and returns to it the way other people return to a journal. She's married.