Everybody loves a plot twist.
When Niall Duffy, owner of Richmond’s Two and a Half Irishmen bakery, moved his family from Ireland to Virginia, he had a choice to make. With a degree in chemistry, Duffy’s career back in his home country was overseeing sensitive explosives that removed rock without reverberating shockwaves. Upon arriving in Virginia, a red tape delay of Duffy’s work papers left him temporarily sidelined in his new home. And so, he baked.
“I wasn’t intending to do this,” Duffy explains. “Our kids were all small, so I looked after them; baking was just something to do in the beginning.” Now, he’s a culinary talent, specializing in traditional Irish breads and scones as well as Virginia-rooted baked goods…