Made in Heaven
Taylor Foster has traveled the world, modeled for Vogue, and worked with some of the most prestigious brands—but she's not just a pretty face. With a degree from the Culinary Institute of America, an upstate empire and now a holistic skincare line, Foster proves that she can do just about anything, and then some.
Interview by Michael Mundy Photography Ruobing Li Creative Direction John Paul Tran Styling Yuiko Ikebata Beauty Kaori Soda
Brown plaid jumpsuit by Electric Feathers, necklace model’s own
It’s so nice to speak with you again. I’ve known you for a long time, mostly as a model, but I also remember that you were a great pastry chef, and that you’ve worked with some amazing people. Can you tell me about what you’ve been up to?
I got my associate degree in baking at the Culinary Institute of America. I had always wanted to open up a bakery. That was my lifelong dream, but I was flat broke. So I thought that maybe I should try modeling to save money to open up a bakery. When I started modeling, it was like this moment that kind of hit hard—it was great, and I ran with that. But then I got burned out on fashion and that’s when I started working at Daniele in the city.
I think that’s where I met you.
I think it was actually; because I remember I had short hair then. I had gone from traveling the world and shooting for Vogue, and watching all the runways, and then I went into the kitchen of an amazing five-star restaurant in New York City.
When did baking start for you?
Always. I was one of those little kids. At 4-years-old, if you asked: What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I would respond, ‘I want to be a bakery.’ My mom would try to correct me and say, you mean a baker? And I’d say ‘No, a bakery!’
So you moved to Manhattan, became a model, then became a successful chef. When did you find your way upstate?
I think it was just shortly after I met you. I got laid off after 9-11 at Daniele. I was one of the last that had been hired, so I was one of the first to go. That threw me back into modeling. I also bought my first house just around then in this little town called Grahamsville in Ulster County. It was right on the border between Ulster County and Sullivan County. That was short-lived. I was engaged to someone, and we bought it together, and that relationship fell apart. I didn’t get the house. Then a good friend of mine had a place in Roscoe, and he had this one-room schoolhouse that had been converted on 60-acres. He bought the house for $100,000 and was paying $600 a month, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, this is doable.’
Sweater and pants by Marissa Web, scarf by BLK DNM
Top by Baja East, pants by TSE, overcoat by Marissa Web
I came up to Delaware County, and it struck me in a whole other way. I fell in love with the openness of it. The beauty: it was a different landscape than Roscoe, where I had been spending my time. I went back to the city, started looking online for things that were for sale, and a building on Main Street in Bovina popped up. I just fell hard.
Why?
It was this 1860s building that had been a restaurant. The main floor was a commercial restaurant space, and it had two beautiful lofted apartments upstairs. Two days later, my then-husband and I drove up, saw it, and I just started crying. It was one of those rainy, crappy days. I remember it precisely. We walked through the whole thing; we got back in the car; and I looked at him and just started crying. I was so in love with this place, and I didn’t even know how I would buy it. But I called, made an offer, it was accepted, and I was like, okay, I’m going to figure this out. That’s how I got my first place here.
Amazing. And that became what?
That was Heaven, the cafe I opened.
Your dream came true.
My dream had come true. I wasn’t quite expecting to start it at that time. As I said, I didn’t have tons of money to pour into it. I didn’t know the area at all. I didn’t know a single person in the town. I didn’t know anything about it, but I just fell in love with this building.
So then, how did you end up finding your spot where you are now?
I ended up also buying the house across the street from the cafe. It was a five-bedroom house, and I did a bed and breakfast there for a minute. (This was before Airbnb.) I had so many people coming in because there was barely any place for anyone to stay in the area. We did three rooms and then literally had four guests and I was like: I can’t do this. I was running the cafe; I was baking everything; I was running the whole business side of it; and it was hard to find someone that I could trust and work with. So adding on top the bed and breakfast, I was heading fast to the burnout phase. And I was still modeling and going back and forth to the city. It was a lot.
Black dress by LINIE
That is a lot.
I ended up saying, you know, this isn’t for us. We need to move out of town. I wanted privacy and I wanted to get off main street. We were living above the cafe initially and then we moved across the street. Once we were across the street, we had a bit of separation, but it still wasn’t enough. I ended up running into a friend on the street outside a house I was looking at, and he said, ‘If I had to do it all over again, I’d start from scratch and not fight an old system and do exactly what I wanted.’ I hadn’t considered that I could build a house. I asked my friend if she knew of any great properties, and she did. So again, we went up, came back, put an offer on it, and got it.
Definitely meant to be.
Yes, very meant to be. My husband at the time and I got this property and then he started building. He was a fashion photographer, but he always had this penchant for building. And he always wanted to do it himself. So we built this cabin.
Let’s talk about the cabin then. It’s a pretty rustic.
Yeah, there’s no running water, no electricity. It’s super rustic and it’s amazing. I have a great community of friends here. It would be more challenging if I didn’t have them. We rely on our friends’ to do laundry, to take showers in the winter, and to fill up our water bottles.
So what’s home like when you’re here? Are you baking? Are you creating?
The only oven on the property is in the sunset trailer. There’s a propane oven in there that I can use if I want to bake bread, cookies, quiches, and things like that. Things unexpectedly transitioned about a year ago when I started making all this skincare. I suppose I enjoy having a lot of different things going on and following whatever I’m passionate about.
What’s your skincare line called?
It’s under the Heaven brand, but it’s Cloud Nine. Skincare is something I’ve always done for myself. I just started doing skincare as something fun for myself and I didn’t need a professional kitchen. I find the alchemy similar to baking.
Is there a typical day up at your cabin?
The cabin is very dependent on seasons. It’s a lot of work. To wash any dishes, you have to go and get water. We have this great little run-off pipe that comes off the mountain. We fill our bottles there and bring them back. It’s labor: we’re filling bags, hanging them, then boiling water to wash the dishes. The water drains into the pot underneath the sink, and then we have to bring that huge pot outside and dump it.
It certainly puts things in perspective.
Yeah, it does. We’re so disconnected from that. I have such a different viewpoint. When I do go to the city, I’m like, look at all this free-flowing water!
You mentioned a couple of times in this conversation, the word “community.” It’s a word that is sometimes not used enough these days, but it seems people are becoming more aware of the importance of it.
It’s a big part of why we moved up full-time. I’ve been in this community now for ten years, and it’s amazing. Even from the beginning, I remember thinking I’m much more social up here than I am in the city—it’s odd. Then I thought, is that because I’m running a business that I know everyone? But the dinner parties and the level of comfort that’s here is so different than the city environment. Especially at this point, with my son, I feel more isolated in the city. There, I’m surrounded by tons of people, but I feel incredibly isolated, and I barely have anyone to reach out to. When I am up here, I instantly know who I can call. Not even have to call—just stop by and have a cup of tea and chat with. When I’m stuck up here, or I need help with something, they’re there for me.
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