New Pastry & Baking "Focus" 1/17-1/23/06

[tan319]

Award-winning pastry chef and eGullet.org member Sam Mason, of wd50 restaurant on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, NYC, is often spoken of as a "Pastry Provocateur" or rebel because of his willingness to explore and experiment by combining solid pastry technique with new ingredients--at least new to non-food scientists that is.

All of this comes together in an explosion of taste, temperature, and textures that have garnered Sam a ton of media exposure nationally and internationally, including a Rising Stars Award from Starchefs.com as well as a 2005 Pastry Arts and Design "Top Ten Pastry Chefs" award.

Sam also finds time to teach a course or two at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, give demos across the country and participate in various seminars abroad. Mason wrapped up 2005 with trips to Japan, a brainstorming session with Chef Heston Blumenthal of the forward-thinking UK restaurant The Fat Duck as well as providing a dessert course to the World Gourmet Festival in Bangkok.

A website, his work in progress, features some great pics of his desserts as well as some of the places he's been in the past and is well worth a visit.

This article

on wd50, written by eGullet's Andy Lynes will give some additional insight into Sam and his restaurant work.

It's with great pleasure we welcome Sam Mason in the sophomore edition of the Pastry & Baking Forum 'Focus'!

Welcome, Sam!

[Sethro]

SUPERGOOD!!!

He is my fav.

[Bond Girl]

I can't wait. Love Sam's dessert.

[docsconz]

I'd like to pose a question for Sam.

Sam, your desserts are always delicious and stimulating, at least by the time they make it onto the restaurant's menu. Given that some of your techniques and combinations are not necessarily intuitive to most of us, how much time and effort does it generally take you to get from an idea to fruition? Have you ever almost given up on a particular item to suddenly find the very thing to make it work? Where do you get your inspiration from? How much of a collaborative effort is there between you and Wylie on either side of the sweet/savory spectrum?

OK, I lied...it was a few questions.

[Bond Girl]

Welcome to eG, Sam. Here's a question I've been meaning to ask...You had one told me that most of your dishes are some sort of de-constructionist/reinterpretations of classics like french toast or carrot cake. Are there any classic desserts warrant no deconstruction or reinterpretation and should just be left the way it is?

[alanamoana]

I'm going to move away from food and pose a more political question:

Historically, pastry and cooking in general for that matter, have been dominated by a sort of "old boys' network". Sure, some female chefs have encroached on this territory and become wildly successful but it is certainly a minority.

In seeing photos of many New York kitchen staffs, yours for example, the staff is mainly made up of male employees. Putting aside the fact that most culinary schools are pumping out people unfit for working in a real kitchen, it seems that the majority of culinary school students are female. So how can females be underrepresented in top kitchens? I certainly know many female chefs who hire males in their kitchens.

In your personal opinion, why does this happen? Is it generally felt that women can't take the so called "heat" both figuratively and literally?

I, for one, ride a much larger motorcycle than many of the chefs I know, have a dirtier mouth, tell raunchier stories, can create disgusting sculpture with food...oh yeah, and I can bake the hell out of a pastry! I think the only place I'm lacking is having no ink to speak of...

Can I be inducted into the private club?

p.s. please take the above rant with several grains of fleur de sel, but do attempt to answer truthfully!

[tan319]

Just to throw in here, the first pix I ever saw of Sams kitchen ( in Fader Magazine) showed 3 woman in the kitchen.

[tan319]

Hi Sam, Thanks for doing this FOCUS.

Firstly, You graduated from Johnson & Wales Culinary School.

Did you take a general culinary course or did you take their pastry program?

Also,

What made you want to do pastry?

Is it in your "blood", so to speak?

Mom or dad a great cook or pastry person?

[WillieLee]

First of all, I want to say Thank-you to all of you. You have been very supportive of Wylie and I and we appriciate it. I do realize that the food we do here at the restaurant could be considered "contraversial", but at the end of the day, it is the food that we enjoy creating.

As far as this focus, Im going to try my hardest to get to everyones questions in a timely manner. Being that Wylie is in Madrid for the conference, we have to make sure this place does'nt burn down......

Once again its a pleasure to be invited to this focus, and I hope it proves itself informative, and maybe even inspirational..

sam

[WillieLee]

I'd like to pose a question for Sam.

Sam, your desserts are always delicious and stimulating, at least by the time they make it onto the restaurant's menu. Given that some of your techniques and combinations are not necessarily intuitive to most of us, how much time and effort does it generally take you to get from an idea to fruition? Have you ever almost given up on a particular item to suddenly find the very thing to make it work? Where do you get your inspiration from? How much of a collaborative effort is there between you and Wylie on either side of the sweet/savory spectrum?

OK, I lied...it was a few questions.

←

Doc,

You have been one of our biggest champions, so you can ask as many questions as you desire.

As far as new menu items go, it really depends on many variables. I must say that one character flaw of mine(and the list is long.....) is I tend to lose interest in dishes before they come to fruition. Not to say that I lose sight, they do manage to come around eventually, and it's at that piont they materialize. One gift I have aquired is that I can usually see all the problems that Im going to have with a certain dish in my head before even starting. So it never takes too long to come together. When something is stressing me as far as execution or flavor dynamics that may not be working, I make a point to put the concept away and revisit it in a day or two. At this point something entirely different comes from the original idea.........

Inspiration is a funny thing, and a difficult thing to quantify. I am lucky to live in my opinion the most inspiring place in the world. architecture, fashion, music, women, women, dogs in sweaters......... I have no idea where it comes from. I think its just the enviroment I choose to inhabit.......

When it comes to me and Wylie, it is just a handball game of concepts, and ideas. There is no stupid idea because there all fodder for a final concept that could in turn be amazing.

[WillieLee]

Welcome to eG, Sam. Here's a question I've been meaning to ask...You had one told me that most of your dishes are some sort of de-constructionist/reinterpretations of classics like french toast or carrot cake. Are there any classic desserts warrant no deconstruction or reinterpretation and should just be left the way it is?

←

I do prefer the term reinterpretation above deconstruted, but as far as untouchable classics go, I dont know. I use classics more of an outline for new desserts. Its usually a play on a concept, used in order to make people feel comfortable with an ingredient they may not relate to. i.e. a hot apple dessert with crushed tart dough and miso ice cream. the dish is remarkbly like apple pie a la mode. The person later realizes how pleasent the miso was... I like to play on childhood memories as much as possible. They may not be references everyone can enjoy, bit the ones that do get it are enough for me. Ive been in this position long enough to know that Im not going to make everyone happy. Im fine with the small percent of appriciating patrons I have.......

[docsconz]

Sam, Thanks for the responses. Are there any concepts that you are toying with in your mind that you haven't done that you are itching to? are there new techniques that have caught your fancy? How did you do those cotton candy truffles that look (and I imagine) taste so good?

I must say I love the way you manage to come up with interesting, novel and fun desserts that look awesome and taste as great as they look.

[Wendy DeBord]

Welcome to the eGullet Society For Arts & Letters Chef Mason. I was wondering if you'd mind telling us/me how you got involved in pastry? Did you ever work on the hot side?

[tan319]

As far as this focus, Im going to try my hardest to get to everyones questions in a timely manner.  Being that Wylie is in Madrid for the conference, we have to make sure this place does'nt burn down......

Once again its  a pleasure to be invited to this focus, and I hope it proves itself informative, and maybe even inspirational..

sam

←

The great thing is you can answer questions whenever you have the time.

Very much a pleasure to have you!

Couple of questions more for you...

I'm with doc, how do you enrobe those cotton candy 'truffles'?

Also,

You recently took a kind of whirlwind tour of the Far East ( Gourmet Summit in Bangkok, a trip to Japan) and a bit of an Research & Development week at the Fat Duck in the UK.

Can you tell what kind of things you were up to?

Anybody else you've had the pleasure of having some time to commisserate with?

_________________________________________________________________________________Have to add, are you going to check out Will Goldfarbs new space soon?Room 4 Dessert

[pastrymama]

Hi Sam, I see in a lot of your desserts that you puree and gel a lot of items that those of us that do a more traditional style of pastry would leave in a more recognizable form. Such as your "carmelized apple"

Do you feel that presenting them in these different forms makes them taste better or do you do them that way because you want them to be different in looks and texture than the original dessert may be.

Is it all for looks or for taste or both. Thanks Marilyn

[tan319]

Yeah, I'm going to throw a few more up here

How did you end up doing your stages with Pierre Herme and Michel Richard?

Having eaten at Citrus and Citronelle a few times and knowing he dug ( as most french people/pastry chefs do, that milk chocolate hazelnut combo, is your Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Parfait with Tangerine sauce sort of an homage to him?

I had one remarkeablt like yours at Union Pacific in '999/'2K?

Could that have been you?

Thank!

[WillieLee]

I'm going to move away from food and pose a more political question:

Historically, pastry and cooking in general for that matter, have been dominated by a sort of "old boys' network".  Sure, some female chefs have encroached on this territory and become wildly successful but it is certainly a minority.

In seeing photos of many New York kitchen staffs, yours for example, the staff is mainly made up of male employees.  Putting aside the fact that most culinary schools are pumping out people unfit for working in a real kitchen, it seems that the majority of culinary school students are female.  So how can females be underrepresented in top kitchens?  I certainly know many female chefs who hire males in their kitchens.

In your personal opinion, why does this happen?  Is it generally felt that women can't take the so called "heat" both figuratively and literally?

I, for one, ride a much larger motorcycle than many of the chefs I know, have a dirtier mouth, tell raunchier stories, can create disgusting sculpture with food...oh yeah, and I can bake the hell out of a pastry!  I think the only place I'm lacking is having no ink to speak of...

Can I be inducted into the private club?

p.s.  please take the above rant with several grains of fleur de sel, but do attempt to answer truthfully!

←

I could not agree with you more. We agreed before opening this restaurant, that it would not be a fraternity. The matcho, male dominated kitchens we have worked in the past are enough for us. We try to make sure the staff is as proportional as possible. There are times when a position just has to be filled and there arent enogh female resumes., and We do have to hire the most capable person at any given time. My point being, we are concious of a male - female ratio. I have just hired a female today as a matter of fact, and to be honest, all the male candidates were at a lose due to the fact that I did want a female to fill the position. So, dont get me wrong I do agree that it is a tough professio for a woman, but it isnt like that everywhere, and Im sure alanamoana could tell a few raunchy stories that would set me back in my seat........................

[WillieLee]

Sam, Thanks for the responses. Are there any concepts that you are toying with in your mind that you haven't done that you are itching to? are there new techniques that have caught your fancy? How did you do those cotton candy truffles that look (and I imagine) taste so good?

I must say I love the way you manage to come up with interesting, novel and fun desserts that look awesome and taste as great as they look.

←

There are so many concepts that keep me awake at night. Anything from vacuum evaporation, to freeze drying, to carbonation. Im always looking into different ways express myself.

As far as the cocoa cotton balls, I will post pics of the process on tomorrow.

[ablosh]

I'm going to move away from food and pose a more political question:

Historically, pastry and cooking in general for that matter, have been dominated by a sort of "old boys' network".  Sure, some female chefs have encroached on this territory and become wildly successful but it is certainly a minority.

In seeing photos of many New York kitchen staffs, yours for example, the staff is mainly made up of male employees.  Putting aside the fact that most culinary schools are pumping out people unfit for working in a real kitchen, it seems that the majority of culinary school students are female.  So how can females be underrepresented in top kitchens?  I certainly know many female chefs who hire males in their kitchens.

In your personal opinion, why does this happen?  Is it generally felt that women can't take the so called "heat" both figuratively and literally?

I, for one, ride a much larger motorcycle than many of the chefs I know, have a dirtier mouth, tell raunchier stories, can create disgusting sculpture with food...oh yeah, and I can bake the hell out of a pastry!  I think the only place I'm lacking is having no ink to speak of...

Can I be inducted into the private club?

p.s.  please take the above rant with several grains of fleur de sel, but do attempt to answer truthfully!

←

I could not agree with you more. We agreed before opening this restaurant, that it would not be a fraternity. The matcho, male dominated kitchens we have worked in the past are enough for us. We try to make sure the staff is as proportional as possible. There are times when a position just has to be filled and there arent enogh female resumes., and We do have to hire the most capable person at any given time. My point being, we are concious of a male - female ratio. I have just hired a female today as a matter of fact, and to be honest, all the male candidates were at a lose due to the fact that I did want a female to fill the position. So, dont get me wrong I do agree that it is a tough professio for a woman, but it isnt like that everywhere, and Im sure alanamoana could tell a few raunchy stories that would set me back in my seat........................

←

I am very pleased to read that. Although I've always tried to look at success in the industry as dependent on hard work, drive and passion, I've realized every lately that it is indeed an "unfair game" (for lack of a better phrase) for women, especially when it comes to the top positions.

In my country, most of those jobs aren't even handled by local fellows. Rather, executive chef positions are landed by men imported from France, Germany, China, Japan etc. So it really makes me happy to read that there are great chefs like yourself who does not discriminate.

[Wendy DeBord]

I could not agree with you more. We agreed before opening this restaurant, that it would not be a fraternity. The matcho, male dominated kitchens we have worked in the past are enough for us. We try to make sure the staff is as proportional as possible. There are times when a position just has to be filled and there arent enogh female resumes., and We do have to hire the most capable person at any given time.  My point being, we are concious of a male - female ratio. I have just hired a female today as a matter of fact, and to be honest, all the male candidates were at a lose due to the fact that  I did want a female to fill the position. So, dont get me wrong I do agree that it is a tough professio for a woman, but  it isnt like that everywhere, and Im sure alanamoana could tell a few raunchy stories that would set me back in my seat........................

←

You just became truely 'cool' in my mind, the fact that you didn't back off from a politicly sensitive question! You'll really be a hero if you can ever effect the guys around you to understand why you saught balance by looking for a female specificly.

I'm often the only female in all male kitchens. I think guys have alot of misconceptions about having a girl hanging around 'being one of the guys'. Once they get past the beginning aukwardness I find guys really dig having me around, it takes a little of the macho shit out of the air and makes work more fun for them too.

Anyway..........can I see this as a possiblity that your not scared to talk about the business (good, bad or indifferent)? (Personally, I get so sick of our 'leaders' in this field shying away from talking about anything meaningful about the industry....being ever so politicly careful, it's sickening. And, I think it keeps things from progressing in the industry.)

I was wondering, with all your current travel if your seeing anything new, trend wise happening? As much as many people hate to label what's happening today as a "trend"..........it is a trend. All the deconstructed and reconstructed, etc.... everyone is doing it, everyone is plating similarly........ Do you see any end to it on the horizon or do you think it's going to stick around longer?

[tan319]

Another one for you...

I saw an article in a old Arts Culinaire that featured Paul Leibrandt of Atlas, it had a picture of the Atlas crew which you were part of .

Do you think Leibrandt and to a certain extent Will Goldfarb opened the doors for what you & Wylie Dufresne are doing at wd50?

In America, that is?

Thanks!

T

[WillieLee]

Another one for you...

I saw an article in a old Arts Culinaire that featured Paul Leibrandt of Atlas, it had a picture of the Atlas crew which you were part of .

Do you think Leibrandt and to a certain extent Will Goldfarb opened the doors for what you & Wylie Dufresne are doing at wd50?

In America, that is?

Thanks!

T

←

I was indeed the pastry chef at Atlas with Paul, and sure I think there are alot of people who have helped lead this "movement" . Its all an interpretation of other chefs styles which keep the mentality moving forward. There also is the competitve aspect which helps further our work as well. Were all trying to stay ahead of each other in some respect. I however must say, in order to keep things moving in a forward motion, there must be an exchange of ideas and tecniques. A forum ,if you will, to share thoughts and concepts.

[tan319]

Another one for you...

I saw an article in a old Arts Culinaire that featured Paul Leibrandt of Atlas, it had a picture of the Atlas crew which you were part of .

Do you think Leibrandt and to a certain extent Will Goldfarb opened the doors for what you & Wylie Dufresne are doing at wd50?

In America, that is?

Thanks!

T

←

I however must say, in order to keep things moving in a forward motion, there must be an exchange of ideas and tecniques. A forum ,if you will, to share thoughts and concepts.

←

Have you found a venue or a forum that's useful for that yet?

Besides here, of course?

What could be made better here for that kind of exchange?

Because, sometimes, I think the pros want something a bit more out of here and the bakers/semi-pros/ home bakers want something else.

Feel free to say anything.

[iheartoffal]

Were dogs in sweaters the inspiration for your grapefruit in grapefruit pre-dessert?

[tan319]

Were dogs in sweaters the inspiration for your grapefruit in grapefruit pre-dessert?

←

I could see this...

pink poodle/pink sweater/Park Ave. South, around e.22nd/elite agency or Casablancas?...