Thoughts on a dream job
Friday, Oct 16th, 2015 Hello all! My name is Danielle, and I’ve been working in various pastry departments for the past three years. Over a year ago, through a stroke …
Friday, Oct 16th, 2015 Hello all! My name is Danielle, and I’ve been working in various pastry departments for the past three years. Over a year ago, through a stroke …
Monday, Sep 28th, 2015 I’ve recently let go of my position in the pastry department at Blackbird and Avec. No easy decision, these two restaurants have been my home away …
Thursday, May 7th, 2015 I share recipes. All of them. It’s one of the deepest arteries of our pastry kitchen at Blackbird, pumping fiercely through our body of work. It …
Saturday, Apr 25th, 2015 There are very few moments when I will sit down and eat dessert just for the sake of it. It seems counter intuitive, a pastry chef …
Tuesday, Dec 30th, 2014 I’m not sure I look up to anyone in this industry quite like Sherry Yard. When our paths crossed, I was at a point in my …
Thursday, Dec 4th, 2014 I have a theory. It goes something like this. Chocolate goes with everything. Not in the cultish chocolate-is-better-than-fill-in-the-blank kind of way. I believe with the high …
Friday, Nov 14th, 2014 I’d firmly say I’m the type of gal that doesn’t stray, but when it comes to cuisine I am often tempted to wander. Last September, a …
Friday, Mar 28th, 2014 Spring has yet to spring here in Chicago. Temperatures still hover around freezing, and snow flurries obscured my vision as I walked home from work earlier …
Sunday, Mar 2nd, 2014 With the flow of younger cooks in and out of the restaurants I work at, I hear snippets of conversations here and there often describing dreams …
Sunday, Jan 12th, 2014 We professional pastry chefs have at our fingertips access to something home cooks could never dream of. High quality fruit purees. They come to us frozen …
Friday, Dec 27th, 2013 Crème Brulee. Pot du crème. Panna Cotta. Custard. Pudding. Pastry Cream. Yogurt. Crème Fraiche. A pastry professional spends a lifetime setting dairy. Every time we do this we …
Sunday, Nov 3rd, 2013 A long time ago, in a city far away, I worked at a restaurant named Lampreia. It is the first restaurant I list on my resume, …
Thursday, Sep 19th, 2013 This morning I walked into my kitchen to another pastry chef working on my counter. She was rolling peeled medjool dates between two pieces of acetate. …
On a characteristically grey British day in April of 2005, I was standing in a tin covered addition attached to the back of old British house in the village of …
Saturday, Nov 21st, 2015 Harry Staging in Singapore We have a new writer joining the community here at The Pastry Department! Harry Flager has just returned stateside after staging in …
March 28th, my first book was published, a cook book about ice cream, called Hello My Name Is Ice Cream; the Art and Science of the Scoop. You can find …
Sunday, Feb 26th, 2017 The term “annual review” doesn’t garner the same excitement as “staff party.” While I had attended staff parties with regularity throughout my career, I had honestly …
Wednesday, Feb 15th, 2017 Admittedly, it’s been a little quiet over here at The Pastry Department. A fact that can only mean one thing, we have been anything but quiet …
Chapter Two: The Stage We all know the stereotype: an imposing, mustachioed man outfitted in a crisp white chef coat, dumping all of your mise en place into the garbage …
Pumpkin Cheesecake puree 50g crème fraiche 4g cornstarch 240g pumpkin puree 5g cinnamon 2g nutmeg 1g clove 4g ginger 150g sugar 300g cream cheese room temperature 2g salt 2 eggs …
Wednesday, Aug 24th, 2016 I’ve recently taken a new pastry chef position at a collection of restaurants with the same name, The Publican. What was once just a beer hall …
Wednesday, Aug 31st, 2016 I visited my friend Amanda Rockman recently in Austin, Texas. She’s taken up residency at The South Congress Hotel, where she fills pastry cases, dessert menus, …
Saturday, Sep 3rd, 2016 There comes a time in every young cook’s life where they start to ask themselves bigger questions. What am I looking to accomplish in this industry? …
Compressed green almonds 2 green almonds 15g cardamom syrup Working directly next to the vacuum machine, shave the green almonds on the mandolin and immediately place them in a small …
Posted February 21st, 2017 by Harry Flager & filed under Uncategorized. If you want to start a lively debate, put a savory chef and a pastry chef in a room …
Posted January 3rd, 2017 by Danielle Snow & filed under Uncategorized. Chapter Two: The Stage We all know the stereotype: an imposing, mustachioed man outfitted in a crisp white chef …
Wednesday, Feb 3rd, 2016 “So, I think I’m moving.” “No way- you’ve said this before and you never do- you would never leave Chicago.” “No, really. Leigh. I’m leaving Chicago.” …
Tuesday, Mar 29th, 2016 My latest installation for Lucky Peach’s Pastry School is about ganache, the chocolatey backbone to so many pastry techniques. Read about the not-so-simple mixture of cream and …
Posted April 19th, 2017 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized. March 28th, my first book was published, a cook book about ice cream, called Hello My Name Is Ice …
Saturday, Apr 9th, 2016 Change happens slowly– or so I’m told. In a professional kitchen, however, change is just part of the day-to-day. Controls are in place to anticipate change and …
Friday, Jul 29th, 2016 Almost 3 years ago a friend asked me “if you were to open your own place, what would it be?” As a pastry chef, it was …
Posted March 27th, 2016 by Leigh Omilinsky & filed under Uncategorized. One of the most interesting parts of my job at Nico is the exploration of a different cultures’ food …
Tuesday, Jul 5th, 2016 While the last few posts I’ve written have been singular in focus (palm sugar, mochi), this one is a grab bag of techniques. Not only did …
Posted July 29th, 2016 by Ron Mendoza & filed under Uncategorized. Almost 3 years ago a friend asked me “if you were to open your own place, what would it …
Thursday, Feb 4th, 2016 The first 2 years of my cooking career was spent as a savory cook. I really liked it. The day after I graduated from culinary school …
Sunday, Feb 28th, 2016 What I’ll always remember about Singapore is the haze. Unbeknownst to me, my month of staging would directly coincide with the peak of Indonesia’s palm sugar …
Wednesday, Dec 23rd, 2015 This is the second installment in a series of posts I’m writing on my experience staging at a few restaurants in Southeast Asia. Last time, I …
Thursday, May 28th, 2015 I’m doing something really mean to my staff this week. I’m taking away all their mingardise recipes. Not to test their memorization skills, or make their …