- When COVID hit and almost everybody in the restaurant industry got displaced out of work, I knew I needed to find a way to take care of my family.

And this is the only thing that I really know that I'm passionate about.

And in the past, the only thing stopping me was working 16 hours a day in restaurants.

So, I had no excuse but to learn something new.

(upbeat music) Hi, I'm Seth Trissel.

I'm the founder of Passion at Midnight Macarons out of North Canton, Ohio.

I started cooking right out of college and I would dabble in desserts because I love pastries, but it was something we would just kind of do in our downtime.

So I started watching YouTube videos on baking and I watched another one and another one and I failed, and I failed, and I failed again.

And then by batch 74, we stumbled upon a batch that I was actually proud to say, "Hey, this kind of resembles food."

(upbeat music) So we started up with COVID.

A lot of people are quarantined at home, so I wanted to make something that was special, something that was fresh, and something that we could personally take care of delivering to their home.

So oftentimes, we'll bake food and we'll announce via social media what flavors we have ready for that day.

And I think the quickest we've ever sold out was 48 minutes after it came outta the oven.

We've also gone up to Cleveland and torched creme brulee for people.

Where can you get a creme brulee literally torched on your doorstep?

We did start out of our kitchen out of necessity, and it still works to this day.

I can work outta my home, I can spend time with my son.

I can start and stop whenever I want, within reason.

It's nice to be in charge of your own life.

(upbeat music) So, we have a very thorough process in which we make our macarons.

We sift almond flour, we sift powdered sugar.

We measure that out to a four to seven ratio.

We will whip egg whites.

We crack about 600 eggs a week.

Once you have your egg whites whipped into a meringue, we'll add a little bit of sugar to them, and then we'll take that mixture, add a little bit of color, whichever color we prefer to do that day, whether it's strawberry or lemon or garlic bread even.

And then we will add the meringue to our dry ingredients.

We'll let the macaron batter sit for anywhere between 35 minutes and an hour and a half.

We'll bake them, let them cool down.

We'll decorate them with our cookie makeup and then we'll package them up and either ship them out to the farmer's markets or deliver them right to your door.

- Mm, it's so good.

- I'm not doing this to get rich.

I'm doing this because I'm passionate about food.

Passion is in our name.

I want to give people a chance to enjoy something that's not mass produced and shipped and in bulk to a point where it loses its soul.

You can taste when somebody actually takes their time and makes something and crafts it.

And if six hours go into a dessert and they enjoy it, they're not gonna get that anywhere else.

(music fading out) - [Announcer] Idea Stream Public Media receive support from PNC Bank, which has made a home in the heart of Cleveland by investing in businesses, communities, and people.

Focusing on giving back is part of an ongoing commitment to the communities that PNC serves.

PNC Bank, National Association, Member FDIC.