Emily Luchetti Blog

Like me, Suzanne LaFleur, pastry chef at Perbacco and Barbacco, began her kitchen career on the savory side. Raised in San Jose, she graduated from The California Culinary Academy and her work resume includes The Grand Café, Waterfront, Silks and Yoshi’s. Her first pastry chef job was at Silks.

Looking back over her restaurant experiences she feels that savory work taught her many skills she uses on a daily basis in pastry. Among them, how to not crowd a pan for better results and working the grill for speed and efficiency. Bruce Hill at Waterfront was influential as she learned from his impressive palate.

Most recently her go to dessert cookbooks are Frozen Desserts by Francisco J. Migoya and anything by David Lebovitz and Gina DePalma.

Earlier this week we sat down at Waterbar and chatted about desserts.

EL: What flavors/ingredients do you like best?

SL: A couple of different things. Anything with malt. I just got back from Fiji and I found an Australian malt called Milo. I can’t wait to use it.

(Another thing Suzanne and I have in common is going to grocery stores when we travel internationally. It’s fun to see different things on the shelves.)

Cardamom- the green pods, not the ground up black kind.

Caramelized White Chocolate- I put it in a big hotel pan, bake it at 200 degrees and constantly stir it. Anything with crunch- cocoa nibs and feuillentine (crushed cookies that taste like sugar cones.

What flavors/ingredients do you like least?

Licorice and Guava

What dessert first comes to mind when I mention the following ingredients:

Rhubarb – Jam Filled Zeppole

Passion fruit – Pate de fruit

 Chocolate –Devil’s Food Cake

Berries – Summer Pudding (I like to add a splash of Cointreau)

Coconut Coconut Milk Caramels

Apples – Coffee Cake

What dessert has someone else created that you loved?

Christina Tosi’s (Momofuku Milk Bar) Candy Bar Pie. It’s modeled after a Take 5 Candy Bar with a chocolate crust, layers of peanut butter, chocolate, and caramel pretzels.

What ingredient would you like to see used more in the pastry kitchen or appreciated by diners?

Quince. Before it went out of season I served it poached with gingerbread cake and squash seed brittle.

What kitchen tool would you be lost without?

A Chinois. If you can strain it you probably should.

What’s your least favorite pastry trend?

French macarons. I appreciate them and recognize they take skill to make but they are overdone.

What do people not know about you that you wish they did?

I recently got into scuba diving.

Where do you like to eat out in the city?

Sushizone on Market near Destino and Broken Record on Geneva. The latter is primarily a bar but they have a window in the back where you can order really good comfort food.

What was the last thing you made outside of work?

My girlfriend and I made peppercorn crusted New York Steaks with a potato gratin.

What’s your go to breakfast?

Polenta and coffee.

I just got back from Yosemite’s Annual Chefs Holidays. Held throughout the month of January they offer 8, three day seminars of culinary demonstrations and a Gala Dinner. I have been lucky enough to be included half a dozen times over the last 15 years.

It’s a fun event for a couple of reasons. Yosemite is a magnificent national park but going in the summer can be a bit chaotic. The crowds are loving the place to death. In winter it is more peaceful without the masses. I also look forward to the park in the snow. Nothing beats looking out the windows of The Ahwahnee Hotel at breakfast and seeing the huge pine trees covered in white. But even though they haven’t gotten a single flake of snow yet this year there is an upside. You can still hike in areas that in a normal weather conditions would be off limits.

The other reason I like going is the people who attend the classes. They love food and wine and are very friendly. Many are repeats. They come as couples or in groups. I met a group of 14 this year who are having a reunion here. Many come from the Western States but some travel from Texas and even the east coast.

Three chefs participate in each session. This time I was fortunate to be paired up with two San Francisco Bay Area Chefs whose food I had not yet had the opportunity to try. Peter Chastain from Prima (ww.primawine.com) in Walnut Creek and Sean Baker from Gather (www.gatherrestaurant.com) in Berkeley.

Sean demonstrated two recipes he has served on his restaurant menu. Miso Grapefruit Cured Black Cod with Fried Egg, Compressed Celery, Smoked Oyster and Lovage and Citron Ramen with Dungeness Crab “Fish Balls”, Citron Leaf Confit Pork Shoulder, Trotter Bacon Dashi and Garnishes. I got to taste the Ramen and it was delicious. A perfect balance of flavors. Sean uses sous vide to produce most of his food and he is a master of that machine. I can’t wait to go to Gather and try more if his food.

The demonstrations were moderated by Andrew Friedman, a talented writer who has co-authored cookbooks with many chefs including, Alfred Portale of Gotham Bar and Grill in New York and former White House Chef Walter Scheib. He wrote the book Knives at Dawn: America’s Quest for Culinary Glory at the Legendary Bocuse d’Or Competition.  His newly relaunched website, www.toqueland.com is a wealth of chef and food information.

Peter Chastain is a 10 year veteran of Yosemite Chefs’ Holidays. This year he and his sous chef, Jose Luis Laragazza, prepared the Gala dinner. Here’s the menu.

Fried Ascolani Olives Stuffed with Meat Ragu & Pecorino

Crostini of Cauliflower, Sweet Onion & Marjoram

Marinated Peppers Stuffed with Tuna Conservato

NV Villa Sandi Extra Dry, Proseco Valdobbiandene

Misto of Lobster, Monkfish, Clams, Mussels & Calamari

Salsa Verde- Micro Greens

2010 Poggio Al Tesoro Vermentino

 Baked “Little Scarves” Filled with Porcini Mushrooms

Besciamella & Leek Passato

2006 Castello di Bossi Chianti Classico Riserva

 Long Simmered Niman Ranch Stuffed Pork Spareribs

Valley Rabbit “In Porchetta”, Corona Beans & Tuscan Kale

2009 Tenuta Sette Ponti Crognolo

 Chocolate-Hazelnut Semifredddo

Shattered Candy & Espresso Inglese

Check out the website  and consider going. There are a few tickets left for some of this year’s remaining sessions or plan it for 2013. You’ll enjoy it.

To celebrate the New Year I would like to offer this unique cocktail recipe. I discovered it in Kenya this past October. It was love at first sip.

It’s called a Dawa and means medicine in Swahili. Its roots are Brazilian but if a country has a national drink this would be it. It’s quite simple and is made up of vodka, limes, honey and ice. The stick is like a muddler and although cool to twirl in the glass it actually has a purpose. Dipped into honey before adding it to the glass, you also use it to mix the ingredients together and to bring out the flavor while you are drinking it.  I brought some sticks home with me but if you don’t have them you can use the end of a wooden spoon or make your own by cutting a dowel into 5 inch sections. In a pinch a muddler would work but it’s a little large.

At different spots in Kenya I had it prepared various ways. This version is the best. Additions like soda water made it more like a honey vodka tonic; sugar made it too sweet; large pieces of ice, rather than crushed, didn’t allow for proper mixing; and straight lime juice without lime pieces made it less attractive and didn’t allow the lime flavor to develop. Cheers!

Dawa

Serves 1

2 ounces vodka

3/4- 1 cup crushed ice

1/2 lime cut lengthwise into quarters and sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 tablespoon honey

Pour the vodka in the rocks glass. Fill it about 1/2 full of crushed ice. Add the lime. Dip the stick in the honey jar or add 1 tablespoon with a spoon to the glass. Stir to blend. While sipping crush the lime with the stick and stir to make sure the honey is evenly incorporated.

When I first met Michelle Polzine, pastry chef at Range, I was immediately drawn in by her sense of humor, energy and smile. But within five minutes I realized behind this friendly demeanor there’s also a woman serious and extremely passionate about her desserts.

Born in Bellflower in Southern California she grew up in 6 different cities before moving to Portland when she was 19. On a whim she moved to North Carolina. To pay the rent she started washing dishes at a local restaurant. As she explained “it was not as glamorous as one thinks it is” so she quickly proved herself and became a cook.

To get to the employee bathroom you had to walk through the pastry department. She would see the cooks working quietly peeling apples and melting chocolate and envied that environment to the crazy savory side of the kitchen. She finally got her entrance into this as she describes it “secret society” when a pastry cook was too drunk to work.  They called her to fill in. She said she would come in on her day off and help but they had to give her an additional shift in the pastry department. She never went back to the hot line. Her first pastry chef job was at Elaine’s in Chapel Hill.

In 2002 she and her husband (who she met in the first week she moved to North Carolina) moved to San Francisco. Here she has worked at Bacar, Lulu and Delfina. She also was an associate professor at The California Culinary Academy for a short time.

Michelle doesn’t have formal pastry training. She learned from books. Betty Crocker, Chez Panisse Desserts, Baking with Julia, and Stars Desserts were among her favorites.

Earlier this week we sat down at Blue Bottle Coffee in the Ferry Building and talked pastry.

EL: What flavors/ingredients do you like best?

MP: Fruits of all kinds. They’re one of the reasons I moved to San Francisco. The variety and availability is amazing. I love all berries, dates, pomegranates and stone fruit. Grapes and persimmons are wonderful to eat but there aren’t that many different ways to incorporate them into desserts.

What flavors/ingredients do you like least?

Nothing really, sometimes combinations can be wrong but individually they are all good.

What dessert or flavor first comes to mind when I mention the following ingredients?

Rhubarb- Tart

Passion fruit- Ginger cake with passion fruit caramel and coconut cream- It’s on my dessert men now.

Chocolate-Mast Brothers from Brooklyn

Berries- Seascape Strawberries from Lucero or Dirty Girl

Coffee- cold brewed coffee granita

Almonds-croquante

What dessert has someone else created that you loved?

Nicole Krasinski’s financier with plums or tangerines (whichever is in season) and olive oil gelato. Nicole makes smart desserts.

Who has influenced your dessert style?

Delfina, Claudia Fleming, Chez Panisse and Emily Luchetti (sorry but she really said me)

What ingredient would you like to see used more in the pastry kitchen or appreciated by diners?

Figs, dates and prunes.

What kitchen tool would you be lost without?

My hands

What’s your least favorite pastry trend?

Pastry trends

What do people not know about you that you wish they did?

I am pretty transparent. People see all of me.

Where do you like to eat out in the city?

I like the tacos at La Taqueria. Even without my employee discount I would like eating at Range.

What was the last thing you made outside of work?

Strudel for a friend’s birthday

I was at a wedding last weekend and the cake was delicious. Thanks goodness, as it was my brother’s wedding and he was staring at me when I took a bite hoping I approved. It was a white cake with a raspberry filling. The vanilla butter cream had a good balance of flavors. Buttercream that tastes like you’re eating a stick of butter is not fun. That’s when you eat around the frosting and quietly put your plate aside with a napkin on top to cover up what you didn’t eat. To help counteract that problem and give buttercream more depth of flavor I use a trick I picked up years ago from Rose Beranbaum- stir in some melted and cooled white chocolate at the end. There isn’t so much white chocolate that you taste it but it gives better flavor overall.

Rolled Fondant is also frequently used on wedding cakes. Most pastry chefs buy it and dye it the desired color but some make it from scratch out of sugar, corn syrup, glycerine and gelatin. I did it a couple of times but it wasn’t worth the time. I wish someone would figure out how to make it taste good.  Some brands are definitely better than others but for me it always tastes like wet cardboard. A talented pastry chef can make impressively beautiful and creative cakes with fondant. A pastry chef’s technical skills is important as there should be a thin layer covering the cake and it should lie flat over the cake without any wrinkles. As much as I am in awe of these cakes, give me frosting over fondant any day.