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Tag Archives: pastry chefs

A KITCHEN’S ELEGANT LAST IMPRESSIONS

07 Wednesday Oct 2020

Posted by harvestamericacues.com in Uncategorized

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bakers, chefs, desserts, kitchens, pastry chefs

As a chef, I have long admired the craft of the Patissier and Boulanger. Chefs readily admit that the skill set of a dedicated pastry chef or bread baker is quite different from that of the savory chef.  Aside from the innate artistic talent for detailed presentations – the pastry chef is far more adept at applying the exactness of chemistry to food, and far more intent on the details and patience required to present incredible works on a plate.  Pastry chefs are in a league of her own – a club of amazingly talented individuals who make every chef shake his or her head in disbelief at the art of individual with a pastry bag in hand.

One of my favorite “wake up” moments was working in a competition kitchen many years ago when the famous Pastry Chef – Lars Johannson walked by my station.  I was busy piping a salmon mousse on canapés at the time.  He looked at me and

said: “You do very nice work, but you have no business holding a pastry bag.”  He walked away and I knew for certain that pastry work was not in my future.

I have always subscribed to the importance of first and last impressions to the overall experience of dining.  Think about it – I would dare to say that many guests understand that those initial experiences in a restaurant and those that end the meal are the ones that stick with us.  They define the food experiences that we have and create benchmarks for others to follow. 

Whether it is a trip to your local retail bakery, a walk through a well appointed grocery store, that first impression of food when seated in a restaurant or the final course before the presentation of the check – I guarantee that the visual impact,

deep aromas, and first bite of an artisan bread, or luscious plated dessert are some of the most satisfying parts of the guest experience.

Why is it that a simple ham sandwich from a bistro in Paris can be so extraordinary?  Sliced ham on a buttered baguette – that’s it!  Why does this rival the finest complex sandwich found in a New York deli?  It’s the quality of the bread.   Why is it that no matter how full we might be after a restaurant meal – it takes very little prodding to convince us to order that feature dessert?  It’s our nature to crave something sweet and our desire to see just how exceptional the kitchen might be with this last impression. 

That commitment to great bread and the focus that a chef places on a dessert menu that rivals a restaurants signature entrees is one of the most important drivers of a successful restaurant.  That beautiful retail bakery window display that highlights the skills of a pastry chef with cakes, tarts, petite fours, profiteroles, Madeleines, and meringues is impossible to resist. 

People crave the luxury and innocent pleasures that sugar, pastry, fruits, genoise, chocolate, and crème fillings bring.  It is in our DNA to want and our limited willpower to resist the temptations of the pastry chef.  If a chef loses sight of this

reality then he or she is limiting the full experience for the diner.

Bobby Flay once said:  “First Impressions are Everything”, but I would add – it is also true that: Last Impressions are Forever Impressions.  The pastry chef and baker are responsible for both.

It may have been Chef Careme who first brought the concept of Grand Cuisine and the art of cooking to the event tables of his day, but today’s pastry chef has refined and re-defined the art and the importance of food for the eyes as well as the palate.

Carême, as you may remember, gained fame in Paris for his elaborate centerpieces made of pastillage, sugar, and marzipan.  He did free lance work for Napoleon and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand to name a few.

A pastry chef to those operations large and complex enough to support the position is the visual signatory of the operation.  Hotels, resorts, clubs, and caterers crave those signature pieces to make their food events stand out as memorable and sought after.  A grand wedding deserves the grandest of cakes; a conference or convention seeks out those centerpieces on buffets and individual tables that reflect the objectives of the event; holiday festivities in hotels and resorts demand those structures that align the property with the joy of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Hanukah, and other ethnic and religious celebrations as well as welcoming in the New Year.  It is what is expected and it will always be what guests talk about for years to come.

The talent of the pastry chef may be innate, but the skill to produce centerpieces and individual plated works of art is built from hard work, countless years of practice, and loads of patience.

A SINGLE DAY OF EXCELLENCE:

The pastry chef – Suzanne Holmes, enters a resort kitchen just shortly after 4 a.m. – the bread baker is pulling crusty whole-wheat boules and crunchy baguettes from the oven – his day is nearing an end.   She pulls down the clipboard with today’s prep list and smiles nervously at the breadth of detailed work to be done.  Her apprentice will arrive shorty and Sam – her counterpart for the evening shift will take over sometime after 3 p.m.  This is a week of high profile events including the unveiling of the hotel’s new spa.  Chef Holmes will need to concentrate much of her effort today on completing an elaborate chocolate sculpture of male and female figures in a yoga pose.  This has been a project that she has worked on for the past two weeks in addition to her normal onslaught of pastry and dessert work.  Additionally, two weddings will require triple tier fondant cakes and nearly 1,000 individual petite fours glace.  The dessert menu that has brought fame to the main restaurant must be stocked with individual components that Sam will assemble in the evening.  Chef Holmes breathes easy when she touches base with Addie – her bread baker and breakfast pastry aficionado – she knows that this part of her department will always take care of itself.

The petite fours cakes have been layered and trimmed so all that remains is to wrap them in marzipan, coat with fondant, and pipe a simple rosette on the top of each bite size piece.  Her apprentice has been with the department for six months now so aside from delicate chocolate filigree work and important sauce reductions – the apprentice can handle the restaurant dessert work.  Sam always keeps up with ice cream work since the operation added two Pacolet machines that make the work much easier.  So – it looks like centerpiece time.  Chef estimates that the finish work on the sculptures and final spray with cocoa butter will take her about three hours – plenty of time to let everything set and move the showpiece to the spa entrance.  The resort GM is counting on the chocolate work to be front and center when local press arrives to take pictures at the opening.  Another three hours on the petite fours and the two weddings tomorrow should be set except for assembly and final piping on the three tier cakes.

As pressured as Chef Holmes feels she knows that being patient and methodical are essential traits with the detail work before her.  Her dedication to excellence and insistence that every piece of work that comes from her shop meet exacting standards makes the work fun, but always stressful.  She re-hangs the prep sheet clipboard, sets her station and begins a typical day in the pastry shop – a day where her last impressions will help to define the quality of the whole operation.

PLAN BETTER – TRAIN HARDER

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JENNIFER BEACH – ALL THE WORLD LOVES A PASTRY CHEF

20 Friday Dec 2013

Tags

bakeries, bakers, Jennifer Beach, pastry chefs, Popovers, Popovers on Main

JENNIFER BEACH - ALL THE WORLD LOVES A PASTRY CHEF

From a very early age we are mesmerized by the smell and appearance of pastries. It would be very difficult to walk into a well-stocked bakery without a smile on your face. It is not just the intoxicating smell of sugar and butter, but even more so – the memories that go along with holding a warm pastry in your hands, peeling back the paper on a cup cake, or stabbing your fork into a light as a feather piece of cake. We can all close our eyes and stir up our aroma memory of fresh baked apple pie or a loaf of crusty artisan bread right from the oven, sliced and lathered with creamy butter.

This time of year, in particular, seems to focus on baked goods in the home, on the street, in the shopping center, and at the restaurant table. We celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah and the New Year with gingerbread houses, decorated sugar cookies, sculptured breads, lightly iced cupcakes with coconut snow, petite fours, chocolate truffles, black forest cake, and stollen. It is a right of passage that each of us over-consumes those things without guilt at a time of the year that allows this to be “the exception to the rule”. We can’t resist – we must have it.

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination – pastry proficient. As a property chef I always sought out talented bakers to fill in those gaps in my resume. Now, I know great baking when I see it and taste it, but a pastry chef I am not. It always amazes me how much can be done with so few ingredients. Flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk and a leavening agent and a whole world of options open up. Unlike savory cooking (my area) where there is significant poetic license in how ingredients are combined, in what order, and using what method; in baking it is all about process, timing, and temperature. There is a science to baking that I guess I never had the patience or aptitude for – just an appreciation for the end products.

Pastry work, like some types of cooking, attracts many frustrated artists. People who have an innate talent for structure, detail, color and texture. There are many pastry chefs who could find a home for their sculpture and pastry painting skills using museum mediums, but choose to work with materials that can be appreciated for short periods of time and then consumed. They prefer their art lovers to press their noses against the pastry case rather than stand behind a velvet rope and simply admire, but don’t touch.

As a chef, knowing that your pastry department is under the wings of a passionate, talented, smiling artist is parallel to a quarterback knowing that his wide receivers are always ready for that catch that puts the game in the bag. Great bread and desserts in a restaurant can put that dining experience over the top. The guest will likely remember that fabulous dessert much longer than the entrée.

I know many great bakers and pastry chefs, those individuals who set the olfactory tempo in a kitchen and push everyone else to keep up with plate presentations and finishing touches. Sometimes these stars of the kitchen knew what they wanted to do from a very early age and sometimes they fell into that role. One of those fabulous pastry chefs that I call “friend” is Jennifer (Bennett) Beach. Jenn is now the Director of Baking for “Popovers on the Square” with another one of my pastry hero’s: Certified Master Baker, Steve James. My connections with Jennifer go back many years when she started as a student enrolled in Culinary Arts at Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks and then later as the number 2-pastry person at the Balsam’s Resort in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

Jennifer has agreed to this interview as an opportunity to share parts of her story and maybe inspire others to pursue a career in the bakeshop.

1. What or who influenced you to pursue a career in the kitchen or bakeshop?
When I was freshman in high school I signed up to take Spanish, but was bumped to Culinary Arts, as the Spanish class was full…. I was really upset, until I found out what Culinary Arts actually was.
At first I did not like the class as the instructor was tough, demanding and made us learn about knife skills, sanitation, ingredients and was all book work, etc.
It took me a bit to realize why she didn’t let us in the kitchen for a few months. The class size dropped by more than half, as many dropped it thinking the class was ‘lame’. I’m really glad I stuck with it because once we had the fundamentals down, she allowed us in the kitchen to cook and bake based on the unit we were studying. This was her way of weeding out those that thought it would be an easy credit. She wanted serious students. By the end of the school year, I knew that I wanted to be a chef.

2. Who mentored you in your pursuit of this career?
At Paul Smith’s I had the opportunity to learn from the instructor’s there. Paul Sorgule was instrumental in helping me secure an internship at The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch, NH. I had hoped to work as a line cook, but the only open spots they had were in the hotels Bakeshop.
I worked under Master Baker Chef Stephen James for one winter season and realized the bakeshop was where I wanted to be, not the hot line. I worked at the hotel for 14 years, honing my pastry skills and had the opportunity to travel the country during the ‘off seasons’ to work in other large resorts and clubs during their busy time. It was the best learning experience ever, almost like an apprenticeship.

I have been working with Steve James now for over 20 years.

What style of cooking or baking best portrays your passion?
Our style, at Popovers on the Square is simply food that tastes good, presentation is important, but if it doesn’t taste good, what was the point of the fancy garnish? To me there is nothing worse than a beautifully stunning wedding cake that is dry without flavor.

Do you have a food philosophy that drives your menu decisions? If so, can you describe this philosophy?
We try to bring in the best possible ingredients, follow proper procedures and fundamentals to produce a product that is of high quality and consistent. If it is not right, “DON’T SERVE IT”. We all make mistakes, but we cannot sell or serve them. The loss in food cost is not worth the loss in customer loyalty. We also need to be aware of what our customers want.

3. Can you name a particular food experience in your life that was your epiphany? An experience that stands out as the moment when you said, yes, this is what I need to do.

I’m not really sure there is one experience or event…. it was more about things just falling into place… ending up in the culinary class in high school, ending up working in the bakery instead of the hot line…it almost seems like it was fate….

4. What is your pet peeve about working in restaurants?
It would have to be the amount of time spent away from family and friends over the years. Our families really pay a price for our career choice. I’m lucky that my immediate family understands and since my husband is also in the industry, our kids know nothing else….

5. Who are your most valuable players in the restaurant or bakery where you currently work?
In our company (Popovers on the Square) we have 18 pastry chefs and bakers in three different locations. I am so proud to lead them all.
I cannot name one as an MVP, as I believe I have an MVT, most valuable team. It takes everyone to run the day-to-day production and deliveries. They each have job to do and I hold each of them accountable for that job. My team leaders are Katie Green, Hannah Joy Waechter and Jason Perry.

6. If you had an opportunity to provide some guiding light to young cooks and bakers looking to make their mark in kitchens, what would you tell them?
First, learn the basic fundamentals of baking. Mixing methods, time and temperature controls and measurements. Know your ingredients-where do they come from and how do they work in a formula. Be humble and find a mentor. Find someone willing to teach and train, this needs to continue long after schooling. Keep your head down, but your eyes and ears open. Watch what others are doing around you. Taste everything and use your sense of smell. Each time you bake that pan of brownies, really take in the smell and aroma when they are finished baking. If you are in tune to that, you will be amazed at how many things you ‘save’ when a timer was not set.

7. When you hire people to work in your kitchen what traits are you looking for?
I hire people that I like. I need people on my team who want to be there to better themselves, not just someone looking for a “job”. I hire people that have a ‘whatever it takes attitude’. I’m looking for maturity, responsibility, punctuality and professionalism. I have a zero tolerance for profanity in the bakeshop. I expect my team to be respectful of the bakeshop, the ingredients and each other. I tell everyone I hire: “if you do your job and work hard each day, I will teach you all that I know”.

8. If you were not cooking or baking, what would you choose to do for a career?
I have often thought of this question and I’m not really sure how to answer it. I always thought it would be fun to work in a greenhouse or garden center, which is funny because I can’t keep a houseplant alive for more than a year. Ha, ha.

9. What would you like people to know about your current restaurant/bakery and the food that you produce?

The original Popovers opened in 2006. We took over the commissary facility in 2010 from a sister company and in August just opened our second Popovers location. In September we began an extensive renovation of our wholesale facility. The owners John Tinios and Steve James are committed to hospitality at its best. They have built a great company and I’m proud to help them run it.

_______________________________________________________________________________

A few words about popovers (the product): Unlike other baked goods, the only leavening agent in popovers is steam. Making sure that you do not over-mix your simple ingredients of eggs, milk, salt, oil and flour and insuring that your pans and oil are very hot will allow this magical concoction to seal and immediately begin to rise in the pan forming a crust while growing to 2-3 times the height of the muffin or popover pan. Making sure to not prematurely open the oven, giving a small poke to the top of the popover, allowing steam to escape and finishing in the oven until they are set and dry will leave you with one of the most incredible treats.

Serving them hot with lots of butter and jam or if you prefer to use them for savory applications- drippings from a roast beef, will typically leave the consumer speechless.

Popovers are actually an America version of the English Yorkshire pudding. American settlers referred to Popovers and Yorkshire Pudding in the following fashion:

“Yorkshire Pudding, a fortunate blunder: It’s a sort of popover that turned and popped under.”

I vividly remember the numerous times that I dined at Anthony’s Pier IV in Boston (seats something like 1,000 people), home to the famous restaurateur Anthony Athanas (worked in the restaurant until he was in his 90’s), and enjoying more than anything else the popover server who walked the dining room with a warmer, freely passing out popovers to diners. This was New England hospitality in full motion.

With regards to the importance of pastry, I find this quote most appropriate:

Brillat-Savarin’s great aunt, on her deathbed stated how important pastry chefs were to her when she said: “I feel the end is approaching. Quick bring me my dessert, coffee and liqueur.”

What has always impressed me about pastry chef Jennifer Beach is not just her talent and passion but the fact that she has always seemed perpetually happy. She truly loves what she does and the impact that her products have on others.

If you would like to view more about Popovers on the Square, visit their website at:

http://www.popoversonthesquare.com

or better yet, visit their bakeries in the following towns:

Popovers on the Square – Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Popovers at Brickyard Square – Epping, New Hampshire

Ask for Jennifer!

*The picture is of the pastry case at Popovers on the Square. Jennifer wanted their work to speak for itself.

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