A Cookbook with a Mission: Orla Shillingford '26 Bakes with Purpose

Orla Shillingford ’26 is doing her best to make the world a better place, one recipe at a time. She’s off to a great start, considering the 52 delicious recipes that make up "My Kitchen Staples," a cookbook she wrote and is self-publishing this spring.

The book is far more than just a passion project: Orla plans to donate half of the book's proceeds to World Central Kitchen, the nonprofit that provides food relief to people affected by disasters.

"This is something that I'm super passionate about," said Orla, who plans to pursue a culinary career after leaving Holderness. "I was lucky to find that at such a young age."

Orla discovered her passion for baking by watching hit shows like "The Great British Bake Off" and its younger sibling "Junior Bake Off." She can easily recall the exact episode of "Junior Bake Off" that lit a fire under her. "The girl who won it made a two-tier super-plain vanilla cake," Orla said. "I got so mad because I was like, 'I could do something like that! There's no way she won the TV show doing something like that.' That's when I started getting really into baking."

It wasn't until the COVID pandemic that Orla found the extra time to truly build out her culinary repertoire. "That's when I went from being your traditional kid who liked to bake to someone who actually started to develop these serious skills," Orla said.

Orla '26 bakes her Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies in the school Snack Bar.

FINDING JOY IN THE KITCHEN

As her talents in the kitchen improved, she began developing her own recipes. Many of those original recipes made it into "My Kitchen Staples," which is the culmination of nearly six years of tweaking and fine-tuning in the kitchen. Her recipes run the gamut from caramelized leek and onion frittata to crispy pork dumplings to brown butter chocolate chip cookies. "These are the dishes that I've made so much throughout my life - and then some of them were ones that I wrote completely from scratch," Orla said. "I said, 'I want this recipe for my cookbook, and I'm going to write a recipe and keep doing it until I like it.' "

She never even considered publishing her book until friends raved about the pastries and meals she shared on social media. "I would post the things that I would make on social media, and all my friends would be like 'Oh my God, I wish I could cook something like that!'" Orla recalls. "Then my friends said, 'I'm so excited for you to publish your book, so I can buy it.'"

Orla's friends aren't the only ones who've recognized her talent. Her tireless work in the kitchen eventually led her to jobs as a prep cook and line cook at the White Hart Inn in her hometown of Salisbury, Connecticut. Today she works in the inn's pastry department, waking up early to make buttery croissants, rhubarb muffins, and other seasonal desserts.

"I think the most satisfying part of baking is when I'm making a more complex pastry," Orla said. "Like some kind of pastry puff or croissant or Danish or something - seeing it go from just flour and all the basics to a fully-polished dessert."

BAKING FOR GOOD

She has also used her baking talents for good outside the kitchen. At Holderness, Orla is a member of the Service Council and the leader of Food Group, a volunteer student organization. In Food Group, students cook meals for Snack Bar, Coffee Cart, and Dorm Dash - all campus snack programs that use their proceeds to help local charities. The group also helps cook meals for Bridge House, a shelter in nearby Plymouth.

It was only fitting, then, that Orla would choose to donate half of the proceeds from “My Kitchen Staples” to World Central Kitchen, an organization that sends food relief to disaster-stricken areas across the globe. In just the past few months, World Central Kitchen has dispatched aid to victims of the Southern California wildfires, the war in Ukraine, and the Myanmar earthquake.

"I started looking more into their organization and as I did more research, I realized this is an organization that I want to donate my profits to," Orla said.

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About My Kitchen Staples

Orla’s cookbook entitled “My Kitchen Staples” includes over 50 recipes ranging from Classic Chocolate Chip Pancakes to Braised Short Rib Ragout. The book is self-published and dedicated to her mother. 

“To my brilliant mother, whose determination and passion have always been my greatest inspiration. Seeing you start your own business from the ground up taught me the value of perseverance, hard work, and devotion. I will always be thankful to you for inspiring me to follow my own career path in the culinary arts with your courage and tenacity. This is my dedication to you.”