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Gene Gathright went to graduate school over 10 years ago with the intention of carving out a career in political science and international affairs. Along the way, he became sidetracked and enrolled in cooking classes.
Eight years ago, he and two like-minded friends - pastry chef Kate Jansen and former investment banker Pierre Abushacra - started Firehook, a bakery and coffeehouse in the Old Town district of Alexandria, Va., an upscale suburb of Washington, D.C.
As Firehook's head baker, Gathright has his master's degree from American University firmly tucked in the past.
Today, there are five Firehook coffeehouses in the Washington, D.C., area serving freshly made European-style, naturally leavened breads and pastries. Business has boomed for the young, Alexendria-based enterprise, which generated $4.5 million in sales last year, 15 percent of which came from wholesale bakery accounts.
Among the specialties of Firehook Bakery and Coffeehouse are items the Zagat Survey refers to as "habit-forming focaccia" and a "popular and infamously savory cookie," which neighborhood regulars say are a hit with First Lady Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea.
So popular are those cookies that dozens of the appropriately named "Presidential Sweet" made with oatmeal, chocolate chips, dried cherries, pecans and a little coconut - are said to be delivered to the White House regularly.
Firehook's head pastry chef and co-owner, Kate Jansen, who came up with the recipe, would neither confirm nor deny the White House "connection."
"It's nice to have a cookie sell very well," was all the former educator ventured to say of her recipe. With the addition of such ingredients as dried cherries, pecans and some espresso powder, her recipe falls within her definition of what an "adult" cookie should be.
"I'd like to come up with more `adult' cookies," she said.
The "Presidential Sweet" retails for $1.25 a piece, and can be ordered by mail.
Other "adult" cookies include the chocolate espresso chew and "Sweet...