Tag Archives: chef

The Key is Innovation

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three glazed cronuts

Image by: Sean Guzman

Whether if you are majoring in pastry arts or any other major, food culture and trends are heavily appreciated and have such a tremendous impact on us as Americans. While the job of a chef is tedious and was often not readily as renowned as it is now, it has become this phenomenon. Everyone wants to own their very own restaurant and establish their own style on the culinary or confectionary scene. It has become this career choice that became an easy venture as it opens huge possibilities from a business standpoint, in that you can readily market anything. Before the days of rainbow bagels and extravagant over-the-top milkshakes, there was a food trend that started a dessert war all on its own due to this new innovative idea…the cronut. Dominique Ansel of the Dominique Ansel Bakery created this amazing dessert in his New York City shop. The cronut was a hybrid dessert that was a cross between a croissant and a donut. The dessert has since been trademarked although many other franchised bakeries have tried to mimic the readily famous dessert.

a kiwi fruit and a sorbet representation of a kiwi

Image by: Thrillist

His dedication as a pastry chef has shown throughout the years as he continues to stun the pastry world. After the extended success of the cronut, Ansel has experimented and had other popular desserts as a part of his dessert menus around the world. Another innovative dessert being his cookie shots which are chocolate chip cookie dough shaped glasses that are served after being filled with milk. It serves as a new-age spin on the classic pairing of cookies and milk. But the latest dessert from Dominque Ansel creates the façade of a kiwi fruit while having the appearance of a Klondike ice cream bar. Its innermost layer is a Tahitian vanilla ice cream that is enrobed with a layer of kiwi sorbet and then covered with a layer of milk chocolate and cocoa powder to create that fuzzy outer layer that a kiwi has. This once again proves the talent that is Dominique Ansel as he constantly challenges the dessert world with new ideas and provides a whole new spectrum of flavor concepts readily involved in desserts.

One of the most amazing things, no matter what career that you partake in, is to always stay updated and to try to create something new or innovative that has not particularly been created beforehand. As I work towards being a pastry chef, I hope to challenge myself constantly in order to create new recipes and taste combinations for new desserts. I wish to create my own food trends by way of my ideas to influence the pastry world. I believe that we as humans should always push ourselves to be relevant and create a brand within our talents. No matter who you are and regardless of whether you have your entire future planned out or not, you should always be aware of how talented you are and acknowledge the fact that there is only one version of yourself which makes you already unique as well as what you have to offer this world.

Which Side is Best?

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piece of aluminum foil

Image by: Chris Bruner

There is so much going on in the world today…natural disasters have affected so many regions, the recent political issues that have faced America, the constant struggle of racial injustice, the strife that life tends to naturally bring, and trying to find a perfect balance between college as well as a social life. This is a whirlwind of craziness that has wreaked havoc on America. So for today, I decided to go for a lighter subject to counteract these difficult happenings currently occurring in the world right now. As someone who aspires to be a pastry chef, people often assume that I am always well-inclined to all things in the pastry world but the truth is that I don’t really know everything in the pastry world. There are many things that are still unknown to me…things that I am still inexperienced in, yet I push myself to have a greater sense of those things in order to become more well-versed as a pastry chef. But as I share and post my experiences with the confectionary arts world and write about up-and-coming food trends, I realize that there are still many questions that I face on the daily basis in terms of baking.

There is one question that I still have…that often follows me around when I am baking and in all four years of college, I am still faced with this question. What is the right or wrong side to use for aluminum foil? Should the shiny side be facing up? Or should the dull side be facing up?

crumbled foil

Image by: David

My misconception was that you interchange the foil sides for specific cooking purposes…so the shiny side conducts heat better so if you looking to get something crispy then shiny side up but if you are looking to lock in moisture then use the dull side. But regardless, both sides can be used interchangeably…there is no difference between each side of aluminum foil. While the shiny side has more reflection which creates more radiation…the only thing that matters when baking is convection and both sides of the foil conduct the same amount of heat. The truth is that both sides of foil are exactly the same and the reason that the foil visually appears differently between a shiny and dull side results from the manufacturing process in which the way that the sheets of aluminum is rolled out, the side that is in contact with the rollers comes out shiny while the other side does not.

To me, this is still a mind-boggling notion and honestly, it is one of those things that haven’t changed much for me since understanding this information. I understand that both sides are the same logistically yet I still, when faced with the decision of how to place aluminum foil for baking purposes, I believe my standards as I still somehow believe that the shinier side is more important in holding and conducting heat. But I still wanted to share this and hope that it helps fellow day-to-day bakers.