Baker's Recipe For Success: Week 7 Picks

Photo Image by Chris Sorrell

"Wise men have an inward sense of what is beautiful, and the highest wisdom is to trust this intuition and be guided by it,”

-Aristotle. 

Theia Mary used to say "the hungry man dreams of loaves." She was the baker in the family. From artisanal village bread, to succulent pastichio, crispy spanakopita, luscious baklava and gluttonous galaktoboureko; she could do it all.

Her creations were the envy of lesser homemakers and the lust of listless men. The oven she inherited from pappou seemed outdated and cantankerous to the unfamiliar, but in her hands it was her instrument, the faithful accomplice to her filo-fantasies. 

But it wasn't always like that. She had struggled if everything wasn't just right. An unexpected visitor joining for dinner, a missing ingredient, the wrong music. Anything could distract her and cause her to lose focus.

When she married theio Yanni, she had found someone that was a distinguished chef in a higher, lighter and looser dimension. His profound strength was innovating with whatever was at hand and allowing spontaneity and joy to infuse the cooking.

He’d pluck rosemary from the garden or pine nuts from the hillside cones and sometimes scrape sea salt from tide pools to complement a delicacy. Flavors were notes and Yanni was their maestro. He’d ebb and flow through the kitchen sometimes with a maddening intensity and other times with Zen-like ease. Intuition was his guide and it led him to the most delightful and delectable masterpieces. 

In turn, Mary adopted those strengths coupling them with her technical precision to become the prolific baker she is. That was when she opened Kalimera Bakery and won a Golden Egg Honoring Greece’s finest baker. 

Baker Mayfield is missing some ingredients typically needed for an MVP season. His best lineman missed the beginning of the season. His three best receivers have never played together and only Mike Evans may be available this week. The Bucs list him as questionable for Monday night against the Lions. The starting running back Bucky Irving is about to miss his third straight game.

So how are the Bucs still winning games? 

Some would offer a mythical tale about Baker learning how to play quarterback a few seasons ago during those magical weeks when he went to play for the Rams. There Sean McVay made him who he is. Or maybe Liam Cohen fixed him last season. Some people would rather point to some guru than admit that they were wrong about the player.

The truth is that baking and being a QB are similar in that you often learn as much from your failures as you do your victories. Mayfield's professional career was considered a failure up until recently when he unexpectedly led the Bucs, his fourth team in an eight years, to the back-to-back division titles.

He threw for 41 touchdowns on 4500 yards passing and 71% completion rate. This year he has been winning on the last drive of games while throwing to rookies and unknowns, or scrambling for first downs. He’s a hungry man but instead of dreaming of loaves, he’s baking them himself. 

Take the Bucs to cover against the Lions (+5.5) and for Baker to rely on his trusty tight end, Cade Otton, to score a TD (+115). The Greek Uncles in Chicago also like the Eagles (-1.5) to crush the Vikings.

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