Pastry Chef Musings. on complacency, competition, worry & innovation.

In lieu of my recent restaurant departure I've come to have a few thoughts about how there are a lot of different kinds of pastry chefs, and how "comparing one's inside's to another's outsides," can lead to dangerous territory.

By this I mean-- competition and self doubt and keeping up with the Joneses and all those icky feelings that crop up when we're worried about who we are and what we do, and instead of just being who we are and doing what we do, we stop, and peer around the edge nervously, spying on our counterparts, and reading each others press, and worrying.

We worry that we have the wrong desserts and we employ the wrong methods.

We worry about how we might be too boring, or not boring enough.

We worry we're too old fashioned or not sticking to the Classics.

We worry about how closely we're sticking to the seasons and if any Eat Localvores are going to arrest us for putting strawberries on our menu one day too soon.

We worry our menu is not approachable enough for the clientele we are serving. We worry our chef will keep making her/his portions bigger and bigger and keep complaining that dessert sales are too low to keep us on. We worry our desserts are better than our chef's savoury food & one day he'll notice and fire us for some bogus reason.

We worry.

We worry even when we're drunk or asleep or lounging easily on the bar or flirting with waiters or yelling at our cooks or trying to fix our Kitchen-Aid with masking tape or hiding our chinois in our lockers or doing our endless laundry or on a date or walking around nonchalantly as if we've not got a care in the world, on our one day off.

Sometimes the worry takes a vacation and ends up in a place it gets stuck because a volcano has decided to erupt or an earthquake has taken over the newsreels or someone in our family has died and

for a minute

we can breathe, worry-free.

But then it starts again.

We pick up a food magazine and see yet another recipe for a stupid dessert or a cliched pairing or the name of a pastry chef who's been getting press since dinosaurs opened ice cream parlours

and then the worry begins again.

 

Of course I'm being a little silly.

Not all pastry chefs worry around the clock. There are a few cool, calm & collected ones. A few Clark Kents who are just as wonderful even before they do a quick-change in a diminutive telephone booth. A few who know exactly who they are, where they came from and make desserts from their heart, their heartland.

But I do think a little worry is alright.

Because a lot of complacency is what I see on most dessert menus, wherever I eat, wherever I work, whenever I travel.

It's all too easy to make dessert cliches. It's all too easy to easy to conform. It's all too easy to become the undead pastry chef. It's all too easy to do only what you were taught in school. It's all too easy to perpetrate crimes against plated desserts, pastries, sweet thangs.

Because the masses want same. Sameness sells. Lowest common denominator flies off the shelf. Boring rules. The bottom line is infatuated with mass production.

Sugar is a siren.
The population is its ship.
Sugar spins web of deception.
The blind lead the stupid lead the lemmings.
All to their creative death.
And so it goes, round and round.

Because sugar, or the taste of sweetness, harkens back to our childhoods so strongly, and nostalgia is at the root of most classical dessert creations, it's difficult for people to allow pastry chefs to take chances with flavours/ingredients/pairings they love and hold close dearly.

Perhaps so close they suffocate pastry chefs!

So I beg of you this:

stop worrying and----->

start thinking outside the pink box.
start coming up with some slightly new flavor pairings.
stop only ordering from your purveyors and begin going to health food stores and online sources for some of your ingredients.
start reading of-the-moment chef blogs and start looking more closely at food photos and buy some food magazines & cookbooks not written in your native tongue and get your mind out there-- even if you can't afford to travel your body on that culinary airplane.
delve deeper into the ingredients you think you know-- try different animal eggs, animal fats, animal & grain & nut milks, various flours with and without gluten contents. toast your flours, taste new salts, experiment with as many kinds of sugars as you can find-- jaggeries, muscovados, raw/turbinado/demerarra, coconut sugar. taste honeys from all over the world. taste all strengths of Manuka honey. attempt using miso in replacement of salt, or even sugar.
substitute labne or Greek yogurt or sheep's milk yogurt for creme fraiche. substitute fromage frais for ricotta. or better yet-- make your own ricotta!
if you always use mascarpone, look into Crescenza or other triple cream wonders. try goat butter for your next batch of shortbread.
challenge yourself to a week of vegan baking. gluten-free baking. nut-free baking.
if you've never used fresh herbs in your muffins, cakes, cookies, buttercream, try it today. buy small batches of Organic non-irradiated ground spices and see what a difference they make compared to what your dry goods supplier is sending you. think they're too expensive? you only need 1/4 of the ginger root powder if it actually tastes like itself.
go to restaurants just for dessert.
get yourself out of your personal cave of dessert making and try someone else's creations. for all you know they're on twitter or facebook too and if you have questions imagine how happy they'll be to learn that you, another fellow pastry chef, came to eat their food & now has questions about some of their plates!
do something besides sleep on your next day off.
try getting inspiration from not just other food related sources. go to a gallery, a museum, get on a rollercoaster, take someone's kid to the zoo, or lay in the moss under some redwood trees and look high up into their canopy for perspective.

what are some other things you do to clear your head when your chef or the owner or your customers want you to make the same boring desserts they

remember from their childhood
had their last pastry chef make
know how to pronounce/eat/serve
think they know how to make themselves
eat year round whether those ingredients are in season or not
are oppressing you with only boring dusty 1980's (or earlier!) ideas

?

Enquiring pastry Chefs want to know.

Remember this:

the first chef who made something which strayed from his tradition/culture/local ingredient list/ etc. had to work hard to convince others of his and its merit.

the comfortable spot you've cornered yourself into keeps you and me and other chefs and future diners dumb.

guerilla acts of change are necessary to facilitate education, growth, change and to open one's mind one might sometimes need a crowbar as well as a spatula.

Comments

[chris]

Wow, this couldn't post couldn't have come at a better time, as the place I work is about to embark upon its first dinner service. Tensions are high, egos huge, and menu...all over the place.

Thanks for taking the time to post this!

[Suzana]

I couldn't agree more, Shuna! And it's not just Pastry Chefs. As a lecturer, I feel pretty much the same. Worrying a little is perfect because it helps you see where you stand - it keeps your eyes wide open and makes you improve.

[MaryMcC]

Oh, what a wonderful post! This baker from the heartland thanks you for some needed perspective (oh, other bakers' owners think they can make all this stuff ) AND thank you for the KITA and the support. On! On!

[msmarmitelover]

ah yes the worry...I'm no stranger to that...

[Laura]

Shuna,
your post couldn't come at a more appropriate time. I was hired to work in my home town. I have been out of work for 18 months so I was so happy to finally get a job and not have to drive all over the place. I have a "reputation" among the locals who know me from my dinner parties or from school events, so I was so proud to finally show my full range in a local restaurant. Then came reality with his brutal truth...the owner wants ordinary desserts, and insisted on having a carrot cake for dessert (!), the chocolate pave sounds too fancy, and adding chevre to the cheese cake is horrifying to him. A carrot cake for dessert....believe me I can make simple things, but I am always trying to use unusual ingredients like cardamom instead of vanilla for example to make thing less ordinary. In this restaurant only common things will sell, commonness will rule, sad....

I will have to bite the bullet, do my best and be grateful for what I have. I know one day I will have another job where I can be more creative, but that has to wait.

In the meantime I will dream through chefs like you and your desserts.

[Paige]

Thought provoking as usual... It seems the worry is almost universal. I love your thoughts/suggestions on keeping your inspiration--great, practical stuff.

[jenny]

Wow. I was hoping that one day I might feel a little more competent and less worried about my work, but I think the day that comes is the day I'm becoming too complacent. I agree with people being boring and not liking change too much, but some of the classics really are the best. I'm brought to my knees by a really good sticky toffee pudding!

[Christian]

Thank you for resisting the siren's song of sugar. Nice to see I'm not the only one thinking most desserts are too sweet. (Most) desserts need a sweet note, but it should be that, a note, among others. Not a steamroller.

[Katherine Gray]

I'm an eater. And I'm gluten-free and my kids (really little girls) are dairy/gluten-free. Dessert is almost always off limits to us. It's pretty disappointing. So thank you for speaking up for using alternative flours. I know you've always kept this issue front of mind.

It's so dejecting to hear from the comments that chefs think we don't want something different. When I go out I *want* more than anything to be surprised, delighted, taken-aback. Why would I go out to eat something I could make (cheaper) at home? And I don't need sweet or chocolate (though those are lovely things). Knock me out with peaches, do something crazy with nuts, give me some coconut ice cream in a way I haven't tried yet. Give me something pickled!

[Ellie]

This post is wonderfully written and why I enjoy your blog. You write at the heart of the matter. I share your feelings in my own struggle which has little to do with presenting food but way much about having a profession I love and need to nurture properly. I can relate also being a baker and of many desserts as well in the past. What I love about certain desserts when they are a perfection in all their glory is they do become a classic in that I want to have them again and again. If you lived and worked still in the bay area I would be at your restaurant instant pronto and taking a few of your classes too. Thanks again!

[leena!]

What a great post, and I think it applies to more than just pastry chefs, but anyone who wishes to be innovative in their field.

I love the phrase "guerilla acts of change". It's so fitting. Thanks for this post.

[nakedbeet]

Yes! I'm a dessert fanatic and I've pretty much stopped eating desserts at most restaurants because of the usual suspects on the list: chocolate lava, creme brulee, flan, sorbet, apple crisp. YAWN! From reading your blog this last year, I'm really angered by how pastry chefs and desserts are underrated. I realize that a lot has to do with the economics and efficiency of using ready made desserts delivered to your kitchen, but really, really? Are there no other alternatives? My only dessert indulgence out of the house is through a tasting menu where ingredients and all the courses are treated with respect, although I do have to shell out $80+ just to get a decent dessert. If I only had the patience to stand in line for chikalicious, but mostly, I resort to my own.

[Debbie Bello]

I have never met a pastry who was not an obsessive worrier, but than again all of the one I have met are REALLY good. You have some great tips.Thanks.

[Rachelino]

Will stretch my limits now! *THANK YOU!*

[Sally]

I am not a pastry chef (anymore) Should I worry about that? I would, except I have so many more things to worry about now. I loved this post!

What I've noticed is that once one worry has been solved, another pops up. I've contemplated worry, since it's my modus operandi: what it provokes in cooks and pastry makers is a lot of obsessing over details which produces really good results. In cooking it's all about the details.

I feel your pain about the constraints of pleasing people (=boring!) On the other hand, there is something beautiful about creating a simple dessert well. Really, really well. There's satisfaction in that. May each day have one less worry!

I don't have to worry
.

[Jitti chaithiraphant]

"Not all pastry chefs worry around the clock. There are a few cool, calm & collected ones. A few Clark Kents who are just as wonderful even before they do a quick-change in a diminutive telephone booth. A few who know exactly who they are, where they came from and make desserts from their heart, their heartland".

= one of my favorite part of this post. I love how you provoked thought, perception, and linked those chefs. The heartland? Just great:)

I believe every cook, every chef do worry about their work because of their desire to grow, passion, and love in what they do, not just care about public perception or fame. When I worked @ Chef Schlow's restaurant, I spotted a Japanese friend of mine/pastry girl walking in Beacon Hill on a day off thinking of what to put on the prix fix menu. She constantly worries, thinks outside the box, finds inspiration from others, wants to do better, and has so much passion in baking n cooking. Later, she was offered a pastry chef position after she worked/baked there only 8 months (her 1st restaurant experience)without former baking experience or school. Just a real hardworking genius. She turned it down, began to regularly stage (because she saw how I spent my day off staging to learn), and finally moved to the best restaurant in Boston to be a Pastry sous chef and continues to learn from others.

Thanks for another great post n sharing thought. I really think you should write a book sharing your experience.