Emily Luchetti's Blog, page 7

Michelle Polzine Pastry Chef at Range Restaurant

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

Buttercream and Fondant

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.

Lincoln Carson- Corporate Pastry Chef for Michael Mina Restaurants

Lincoln Carson

As corporate pastry chef for all 19 of Michael Mina's restaurants, Lincoln Carson moved his home base from Las Vegas to San Francisco when Michael took over the Aqua location on California Street. Lincoln wanted to have one spot where he could be involved on a daily basis with the menu and the pastry staff.

He studied pastry at Johnson and Wales in Providence, RI and worked extensively in New York under many chefs. Working with Francois Payard at Le Bernardin influenced his dessert style the most. There he learned a pastry chef's should evolve and not be stuck in one place.

The dessert service at Michael Mina is not your typical a la carte menu. The waiter asks you if you would like dessert or not. If you say yes, you get served several different desserts. More of a tasting size portion or a bite or two they are presented one right after another. You can nibble on them in any order you want. Lincolns' desire is to offer customers multiple flavors and get them to try something they might not normally order. He also believes it brings added energy to the table near the end of the meal. Lincoln is serious about his craft but has fun with it too. Lincoln and I first met years ago at Culinary Institute of America Pastry retreat. Now that he has moved to San Francisco we had the opportunity to reconnect.

EL-What flavors/ingredients do you like best?

LC- Acidic fruits. They have a lot of punch and hold up well to being manipulated in a dessert. Balance is crucial too. I prefer yellow peaches over white as the latter are too sweet. Passion fruit and pineapple in season.

What flavors/ingredients do you like least?

Not many things but- licorice and anise. Too much sugar in a dessert.

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

Rhubarb- vanilla, rhubarb soda

Passion fruit- panna cotta

Chocolate-brownies

Berries-whipped cream

Coconut- sponge cake

Almonds- Almond Joy

What dessert has someone else created that you loved?

Stephen Durfee's (Pastry chef instructor at the CIA at Greystone) Deconstructed Cocoa Cola. Coke has many ingredients and Stephen was able to pull them out and create a dessert. It was amazing.

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

Bitter flavors like coffee and chicory. They need to be used with restraint but they balance sugar. Rose and orange blossom waters.; floral notes

What kitchen tool would you be lost without?

A Vita Prep

What's your least favorite pastry trend?

The misuse of modern techniques and ingredients. You need to understand the basics of fundamental pastry techniques before trying new things. You can't experiment on guests.

Where do you like to eat out in the city?

After spending so much time in a kitchen I like straightforward food. Boot and Shoe Service and Namu.

What was the last thing you cooked at home?

A bone in rib eye with pardon peppers.

What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Grapefruit Juice

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

I know that I can come off as imposing in the kitchen, and I suppose I am at times, but mostly I'm a pretty nice guy…and I love to ride fast motorcycles.

No More Desserts in Jars

This past summer a trend seemed to pop up overnight: Serving pie and other desserts in jelly jars. Recipes and photos were all over the Internet. Restaurants put versions on their dessert menus—key lime and chocolate cream pies with Graham cracker crusts and fruit pies with and without bottom crusts. I found it silly and shrugged it off as another passing fad.

As someone who strives to make great tasting desserts on a daily basis, what bothers me is part logistics and part pleasure. Ground cookie-style pie crusts work fine but all the ones I've tasted that featured a traditional pie crust were under-baked and soggy. Glass jars serve one person and in a small container the fruit cooks faster than the crust can brown. If you get the crust brown the filling will be overcooked.

Also when you dig in all you get is filling, and you have to go to the edge to get the crust. I know some may think I'm no fun and being picky. Yes, they might be a cute hostess present, but when I am making desserts cute is not what I strive for.

I was willing to let pies in a jar go unmentioned, but I recently saw cupcakes in a jar. This is just plain dumb. The one I sampled had the cake part with a paper liner in the bottom of a one pint jar and frosting piped on top. To fill the jar required about 2 1/2 inches of frosting. The frosting stuck to the sides of the jar making it practically impossible to eat the cupcake; you had to dig through all the frosting to get to the cake. Then you have to avoid mistakenly eating the paper liner. I have seen them without paper liners, a definite improvement, but the proportions of frosting to cake are still off and they still require a spoon. This negates one of the best things about eating a cupcake— using your fingers.

So please no ice cream sandwiches, napoleons, muffins, or Rice Krispies Treats in jars

Guittard Chocolate Tasting

Monday morning I started my work day with a chocolate tasting. Good thing I squeezed in an early morning trip to the gym before hand as it was a marathon.

Guittard Chocolate located in Burlingame invited a bunch of pastry chefs for a blind tasting of some of their chocolates to get feedback of the styles and characteristics we like or don't like in chocolate.

Founded in 1868 Guittard Chocolate has always been a family run company.  Etienne, Gary's great grandfather, was first at the helm followed by his grandfather Horace, and then his father, Horace A. Under Gary's stewardship and vision the company developed its E. Guittard line that is used by pastry chefs and home cooks worldwide.

We sampled chocolate made with 60, 70 and 100 percent cacao. For each percentage we tasted three different types. For the 60 and 70 percentages we tried the chocolate as is and also made into a chocolate mousse with a chocolate center. For the 100 percent we tried it plain and in a brownie like cake with a ganache. When tasting chocolate it is important to taste it in something as well as on its own. The characteristics change once you add other ingredients.

The 100 % which is unsweetened was tricky to taste solo as it is so strong. Most of us, myself included, were a little overwhelmed by the straight-up 100%.  You have to be a veteran taster like Gary Guittard, current president and CEO of Guittard Chocolate, or Michael Recchiuti of Recchiuti Chocolates, to pick up nuances through the bitterness.

While we all picked up on similar flavors in the different chocolates- red fruit, coconut, coffee, cocoa, even peanut butter and agreed on whether they were acidic or creamy, the preferences for these were all over the map. Some preferred the chocolates with a deep cocoa taste while others liked softer more subtle ones. There were no wrong or right answers and that's what makes tasting other pastry chef's desserts interesting and important. You get to look at things in a whole new light.

Some chocolates have a consistent flavor profile throughout. Others have a first hit of one flavor and then morph into something else entirely. When I get a new chocolate I make it in one of my tried and true recipes. That way I can discern differences. Interestingly, Michele Polzine, pastry chef at Range, tries the chocolate and lets it tell her what to do with it. I am going to try that approach next time.

Candy Canes in Julyh

Recipe development for national magazines and large companies can be tricky. You have the obvious challenge to make something new and delicious, but the harder part can be getting ingredients out of season. The lead time is up to six months, from creating the recipe to print and the Internet.

Scoring rhubarb in early February I thought was a no-go, but I miraculously found a few overpriced forlorn stalks in a local grocery store. The check out woman gave me a weird look as I spent $20 for pretty sad looking fruit, but I didn't care. I bought it all.

Berries can be easier to locate as South American fruit is available in winter. Frozen peaches work as long as they aren't packed in sugar, and you have to dry them off to get rid of excess moisture. Neither of these fruits tastes the same as the local in season counterparts so you have to channel the summer fruit and adjust accordingly.

Recipes for winter publication pose problems even though they don't rely on delicate summer fruit. Need cranberries in July? You won't find them at Safeway. Luckily I found a half a bag in the back of my freezer. Here's a tip I learned later on: Whole Foods has them in their freezer section all year.

Candy canes and fruit cake were last week's search. I looked all over and asked a couple of stores if they had any stashed in the back leftover from last year. Thank goodness for Amazon. In a day they were on my door step.

Now that I am provisioned I have to get my head wrapped around the idea that even though I am cooking in shorts and flip flops I have to think Christmas. The good news is gingerbread men and women are as good in August as they are in December.

East Coast Recycling

 

In the Bay Area we are, and should be, proud of our recycling efforts. We have one of the highest recycling rates in the country.

Whenever I travel I keep an eye out for what and how much other cities don't throw in their trash. In the South Coast of Massachusetts where I recently visited, each house pays by the garbage bag. You can only dispense of garbage in official orange bags. They have normal curbside recycling but they also have something unique.

They pay a 5 cent deposit on bottles and cans for soda, other bottled drinks and beer. To redeem your deposit you take your empties back to the grocery store or liquor store and put them in what I call a reverse vending machine. Bottles and cans go in, one at a time, in separate machines and get crushed. It makes quite a noise but you feel very efficient and productive doing it. At the end you get a ticket which you take inside and get your money back.

Wineberries

I thought I knew about all kinds of berries but when I stopped by a local fruit stand in Massachusetts, I was surprised. On the counter were baskets of wineberries.

With all the fruit produced in Calif0rnia, you'd think we would find them here.  However they grow on the East Coast from Canada to about Virginia, and west to Michigan and Tennessee. While found in the wild, they are not native to this country. Originally from Asia, wineberries were brought here as an ornamental plant and as a cultivator for raspberry plants. Many find the plant to be a real menace as it quickly overtakes native plants.

Wineberries are related to raspberries but are smaller and tarter. When you put one in your mouth it doesn't dissolve into a juicy perfection like a raspberry and the berries have a tendency to stick together when sitting in the container. Wineberries are mostly made into pies or jam as they need sugar to sweeten them up. While my jam turned out fine, and it's fun discovering something new, I wouldn't trade them for a raspberry from Sebastopol Berry Farm or Dirty Girl Produce

Signature Desserts

When I write a dessert menu it is always interesting to think about which of my creations may become a signature dessert. Not all great tasting desserts raise to that level. Some  can be really popular but for some unexplainable reason they don't become signatures.

What makes a signature dessert? It's a dessert that if you take it off the menu you get phone calls and disappointed faces when diners scan the menu and don't see it listed. It's the dessert ordered by practically every table for individual hoarding or to share with the rest of the table.  Plate comes back clean every time.

I know restaurant owners who want chefs to create signature dishes even before a restaurant opens, but it doesn't work like that. It's more organic. Customers make a dessert a signature, not a chef.  You make desserts and over a six month period or so you see how they sell.  A dessert has to remain popular even with competition from your other desserts and over several seasons. For that reason, signature desserts are often chocolate based as chocolate is available all year long.

At Stars it was Chocolate Paradise with Champagne Sabayon; at Waterbar it's Chocolate Pudding Cake. Other San Francisco restaurant signature dishes that come to mind are Coco500′s Vacherin with Coffee Gelato, Chocolate Sauce and Almonds; Elizabeth Falkner's Rose Petal Crème Brulee; Delfina's Buttermilk Panna Cotta; and Town Hall's Butterscotch and Chocolate Pot de Crème.

What signature desserts did I miss that you love?

Ginger Ice Cream Sandwiches in a Snap

 

In the summer, when I'm not at work, I want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. A go-to dessert for minimum effort and maximum flavor is ice cream sandwiches.

Make a batch of cookies, sandwich two with a scoop of ice cream, and you're set.

You don't even have to make the ice cream. Buy a quart of your favorite flavor(s) at Bi-Rite, Humphry Slocombe, Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous, Swensen's — or even Haagen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's from the grocery store.  Luckily in the Bay Area you can get great ice cream without making a custard base and dragging out the ice cream machine.

It's more important, however, that the cookies be homemade. Even when frozen you can taste the difference.. Select a cookie that when frozen is still soft and chewy, because a rock hard cookie is no fun to eat.

You can make the ice cream sandwiches any size: Make them small and you can pop them into your mouth; Large and you can eat it slowly and savor every bite.

Here's my recipe for ginger cookies. It's not only a perfect ice cream sandwich cookie, but it goes well with all flavors of ice cream. I originally paired them with lemon but have also used coffee, chocolate chip, raspberry sorbet, and coconut. Let me know what combinations you come up with.

Ginger Cookies

Makes about 60 cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

8 ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

1/3 cup light or dark molasses

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, the brown sugar, and the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the egg and beat until mixed, and then beat in the molasses until blended. Reduce the speed to low, add the dry ingredients, and mix until incorporated. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Spread the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar in a small, shallow bowl. To shape each cookie, using a small spoon or ice cream scoop, scoop up a spoonful of the dough and roll between your palms into a 3/4-inch ball. As the balls are formed, roll them in the sugar, coating evenly, and then place on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 to 3 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly with 2 fingers.

Bake until golden brown and set around the edges but still soft inside, about 12 minutes. At the midway point, switch the pans between the racks and rotate them 180 degrees to ensure even baking. Let cool on the pans to room temperature. Bake more trays if necessary.

Planning Ahead: The dough may be made up to a week in advance and kept in the refrigerator. The cookies may be baked a day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. 

In the summer, when I'm not at work, I want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. A go-to dessert for minimum effort and maximum flavor is ice cream sandwiches.

Make a batch of cookies, sandwich two with a scoop of ice cream, and you're set.

You don't even have to make the ice cream. Buy a quart of your favorite flavor(s) at Bi-Rite, Humphry Slocombe, Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous, Swensen's — or even Haagen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's from the grocery store.  Luckily in the Bay Area you can get great ice cream without making a custard base and dragging out the ice cream machine.

It's more important, however, that the cookies be homemade. Even when frozen you can taste the difference.. Select a cookie that when frozen is still soft and chewy, because a rock hard cookie is no fun to eat.

You can make the ice cream sandwiches any size: Make them small and you can pop them into your mouth; Large and you can eat it slowly and savor every bite.

Here's my recipe for ginger cookies. It's not only a perfect ice cream sandwich cookie, but it goes well with all flavors of ice cream. I originally paired them with lemon but have also used coffee, chocolate chip, raspberry sorbet, and coconut. Let me know what combinations you come up with.

Ginger Cookies

Makes about 60 cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

8 ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

1/3 cup light or dark molasses

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, the brown sugar, and the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the egg and beat until mixed, and then beat in the molasses until blended. Reduce the speed to low, add the dry ingredients, and mix until incorporated. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Spread the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar in a small, shallow bowl. To shape each cookie, using a small spoon or ice cream scoop, scoop up a spoonful of the dough and roll between your palms into a 3/4-inch ball. As the balls are formed, roll them in the sugar, coating evenly, and then place on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 to 3 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly with 2 fingers.

Bake until golden brown and set around the edges but still soft inside, about 12 minutes. At the midway point, switch the pans between the racks and rotate them 180 degrees to ensure even baking. Let cool on the pans to room temperature. Bake more trays if necessary.

Planning Ahead: The dough may be made up to a week in advance and kept in the refrigerator. The cookies may be baked a day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. 

In the summer, when I'm not at work, I want to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. A go-to dessert for minimum effort and maximum flavor is ice cream sandwiches.

Make a batch of cookies, sandwich two with a scoop of ice cream, and you're set.

You don't even have to make the ice cream. Buy a quart of your favorite flavor(s) at Bi-Rite, Humphry Slocombe, Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous, Swensen's — or even Haagen Dazs or Ben and Jerry's from the grocery store.  Luckily in the Bay Area you can get great ice cream without making a custard base and dragging out the ice cream machine.

It's more important, however, that the cookies be homemade. Even when frozen you can taste the difference.. Select a cookie that when frozen is still soft and chewy, because a rock hard cookie is no fun to eat.

You can make the ice cream sandwiches any size: Make them small and you can pop them into your mouth; Large and you can eat it slowly and savor every bite.

Here's my recipe for ginger cookies. It's not only a perfect ice cream sandwich cookie, but it goes well with all flavors of ice cream. I originally paired them with lemon but have also used coffee, chocolate chip, raspberry sorbet, and coconut. Let me know what combinations you come up with.

Ginger Cookies

Makes about 60 cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

8 ounces (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 large egg

1/3 cup light or dark molasses

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar, the brown sugar, and the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the egg and beat until mixed, and then beat in the molasses until blended. Reduce the speed to low, add the dry ingredients, and mix until incorporated. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Spread the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar in a small, shallow bowl. To shape each cookie, using a small spoon or ice cream scoop, scoop up a spoonful of the dough and roll between your palms into a 3/4-inch ball. As the balls are formed, roll them in the sugar, coating evenly, and then place on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 to 3 inches apart. Flatten the balls slightly with 2 fingers.

Bake until golden brown and set around the edges but still soft inside, about 12 minutes. At the midway point, switch the pans between the racks and rotate them 180 degrees to ensure even baking. Let cool on the pans to room temperature. Bake more trays if necessary.

Planning Ahead: The dough may be made up to a week in advance and kept in the refrigerator. The cookies may be baked a day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.