Jason Licker, Executive Pastry Chef of The Venetian Macao Resort – Hotel, a three thousand room property. Jason oversees the pastry and bakery service, twelve outlets and sit down banquets for up to ten thousand.
This is the second largest building in the world and the foundation of the Cotai Strip in Macao.

Q: Firstly, Chef, Welcome to Pastrypros.com
Thanks, its great to see such a cool website dedicated to pastry..

Q: Secondly, may I call you Jason? lol!
Yeah, definitely, I have been called much worse…..

Q: The infamous first question is, why pastry? Did you start there or move over from savory like so many of us?
I can’t cook.. I don’t even know how to cook a hamburger, but I can eat a few… I started in pastry pretty much as most, by accident… My mother was ill at the time and wanted muffins, has to be low sodium, low sugar and so on.. I made them and it was fun and then did everything I could do to absorb information on pastry…

Q: Where are you from ( born)?
I was born in raised in Dix Hills, Long Island, just 45 min from NYC… so was regularly pigging out in Manhattan as a kid.

Q:Where is Macao? Overseas, I take it.
Macao is in China… Its the Las Vegas of Asia… I am one hour boat ride to Hong Kong and just 15 minutes to mainland China. The Venetian is a part of the Cotai Strip with will eventually consists over over fifteen brand name hotels. Venetian is currently the largest casino in the world and the second largest building in the world. Macao actually out grosses Las Vegas at the moment, so you can say we are quite busy! ahhh..

Q: List of awards,etc. that maybe we can start with?
I was a Rising Starchef in 2004 at the Peninsula New York. I coached my team in Shanghai won a total of three gold medals, a silver and two bronze at the Shanghai Culinary Competition in 2005 and 2006. Other then that, I think I won a cookie eating contest in sixth grade.

Q: Favorite dessert to eat?
Dam, this is a tough question… In Tokyo at Pierre Herme’s Pastry Shop I his Praline Mille Feulle. Was layers of perfect puff pastry, rich butter cream and feulletine. Was a double crunchy, creamy praline piece of heaven.

Q: Favorite items or desserts to make?
I love make chocolates. Molded, dipped or whatever… I actually love every aspect of pastry….

Q: Other chefs whose work you are into.
I am a fan of all Pastry Chefs. It takes passion and love of our craft to do this job. The dedication everyday to do what we love. Some of my favorites are Dominique Ansel of Restaurant Daniel, Vicki Wells of Mesa Grill, Jason Casey of Jean Georges in Shanghai and of course Sam Mason and Johnny Iuzzini who have brought our profession to the forefront.

Q: Did you just decide to go to culinary school or were you working in restaurants before?
I interned at Union Square Cafe for a summer before I went to Culinary School. I wanted to see if this is what I really wanted to do. Pastry Chef Stacie Pierce taught me well and really was hard on me. That made me even more hungry to succeed. I enrolled at The French Culinary Institute and felt I already had a solid foundation, so I was lucky to get a pastry cook job at Jean Georges under Pastry Chef Eric Hubert. He is a genius… Was an amazing experience on another level…

Q:Where was your first gig?
My first Pastry Chef job was at Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur. I was 22 and really had no idea what I was doing… ha ha.. I learned, made mistakes and had my first opportunity to manage a staff.

Q: Your history is chock full of really great schools & locations.
The Valrhona school, ” L’Ecole du Grand Chocolat”, is like a mystery to many of us in that people rarely see what happens there. The biggest look inside for me has been off of Christophe Michalaks Passions Gourmandes site.

Q:Was it as great as one would think?
I was the last class of the old L’Ecole du Grand Chocolat.” They opened a new school that same year. Its just amazing. The town smells like chocolate. The production facility is mind blowing. I wish I could have slept there overnight!

Q:Who was teaching classes and is it OK to not be fluent in French?
The classes were taught in English… I went with a bunch of Chefs from the states. Was super cool

Q:Does Kim ‘O’ Flaherty teach there or run an operation here for them?
Hmm.. Kim was working for Valrhona in the states, but I believe she is raising her three children at the moment. She was a gifted, talented Pastry Chef.

Q: You also went to renown Chocolatier Andrew Schotts “Chocolate Loft ” school. I saw some great pictures of the School, which Pastrypros.com Publisher Timothy Horst also attended.
Some great equipment in there! The Chocolate Loft was a school and also a production facility for Andrew’s line of chocolates. He had every piece of machinery. He moved out of the city, but he was producing some crazy good chocolates.

Q: With culinary education getting a bit dissed sometimes here in the states, especially now when money for education is tightening up even more, perhaps you can tell us what these schools gave you in competitive terms, The French Pastry School also, if that’s cool.
The FCI was an amazing experience. It builds a foundation of knowledge. Yes, you can be self taught and learn on the job, but I think its always good to have a base of knowledge.

Q:Favorite gigs: You’ve had the opportunity to work at some really great places. From Union Square Cafe , Jean George’ and Nobu, vast differences in what you needed to bring to the table or were these early days?
I was a Pastry Cook at Union Square Cafe and Jean Georges.. they were amazing. Totally different dining experiences. At Nobu I was the Pastry Chef and I just loved the simplicity and lightness of the Japanese ingredients. I could not choose a favorite one. All were great and made life long friends.

Q: Now you’re doing BIG places, hotel properties in particular. Can you talk about transitioning from more intimate solo focused work to being in charge of… I guess you could have a fine dining and a casual restaurant, room service menus, banquets and so on.
Well… where to start. This is a 3000 room hotel, second largest building in the world and the latest casino in the world. I manage a staff of thirty and we can do banquets sit down up to ten thousand. You have to be organized, be able to teach and check everything… I mean really check everything. We can have 50-60 functions in a day and have to be on top of everything to ensure the best quality and consistency. As you get the larger operations, its less cooking and more managing. Everyday is an adventure..

Q: A typical day in your chef life?
I wake up at 8am and get into work about 830.. Have a ridiculous amount of coffee and then drink more coffee.. I have the morning meeting to go over the events at 930am. After that I check the countless emails and then go through the events with the sous chefs and my assistant. I do some production and check everything and at noon I make my round to the outlets and then to the banquets. Have lunch at 2pm and then check emails, do some production and prepare for dinner service and the banquets for the evening. I will stay to about 8pm and make sure everything is running smooth, but if there is a VIP event I will stay til the end. Its a bit hectic and lots of last minute things, but chefs love pressure…

Q: What kind of gear do you have in your lab?
This is a mass production operation. So we don’t have anything high tech super cool. I have 80 quart mixers, combi ovens and all the standard things. I would love a liquid nitrogen kit, you can do some real cool things with it

Q:We LOVE pictures of kitchens, if you want and have time to include!
A: Will send pic!

Raspberry Passion Mousse

Praline Crunch Bottom –
Milk Chocolate 150 grams
Cocoa Butter 50 grams
Praline Paste 350 grams
Feulletine By eye

Method:

1) Melt the milk chocolate and cocoa butter together
2) Add praline paste and whisk till smooth.
3) Fold in feulletine.
4) Spread on a silpat and roll thin.
5) When set cut oval shape corresponding to the flexipan mold.

Passion Fruit Gelee –

1000g – liquid
500g – sugar
20g – gelatin
20g – agar agar

Method:
1) Boil the passion puree and sugar
2) Burr Mix the agar agar powder in and then the gelatin.
3) Pour in a half frame
4) When set, cut in oval shapes.

Raspberry Mousse–
1000 gr Raspberry Puree
600 gr Sugar
13 gr Lemon Juice
27 gr Gelatin
800 gr Whipped Cream

Method:

1) Boil the lemon juice, raspberry puree and sugar
2) Add the softened gelatin sheets.
3) Cool down till cool to the touch.
4) Fold in whip cream

Chocolate Glaze –
240 gr Cream
290 gr Water
360 gr Sugar
150 gr Cocoa Powder
25 gr Gelatin

Method:
1) Boil the cream, water, sugar and cocoa powder.
2) Add gelatin.
3) When cool, ready to glaze

Assemble Mousse:

1) Pipe some raspberry mousse in the flexipan half full.
2) Place a layer of passion fruit gelee.
3) Place the crunch bottom.
4) Freeze, pop out of mold and spray red.
5) Glaze half the mousse.

Luca Lacalamita, Pastry Chef, Osteria Francescana, Modena Italy

Starting in a local pastry shop at the age of 16, Luca then took his passion to Great Britian to start his tours of the best restaurants in the world. PLease join us as he graciously answers our questions about his life in pastry.

Can you tell us a bit about your background? How did you get started in your work as a Pastry Chef?
I actually started in culinary school and in the meantime i was working in a restaurant in my hometown Trani, which is a nice small city in the south of Italy in the Apulia region,as a regular commis. So I started practicing as a cook, and when I got to age 16, I started working with a friend in his own pastry workshop, so I was practicing pastry and….. I liked it a lot!

The things where simple now that I’m thinking about them, but at that time were so hard! There where classics and like 30 different kind of small pastries, it’s been my first approach to pastry and I will always say thanks to my friend. Then I finished my studies,and I went to London at 18 years old, I worked at the Dorchester Hotel and in Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus Restaurant. These were both great experiences that started to ampliate my pastry background, then back in Milan at Cracco and another good experience as a Head Pastry Chef.

After that I went to El Bulli, that actually gave me the big inspiration about the way of creating ,and after it in Modena at Osteria Francescana as Head Pastry Chef….

Tell us a little about your current position. What type of menu, how many menu items, etc.

My menu is always structured with 7 dessert that involves fruit, vegs, chocolate and 2 unusual desserts which are always changing every month as my inspiration, and also we recommend a small tasting “dessert non dessert menu” — 5 small plates that starts from a savory and sweet to end up with the real dessert.
I started this kind of modern and progressive way of structuring the menu because the dessert has to be a gradual experience, not just 1 single dish , and obviously the customer enjoy more this kind of formula.

How do you find the times at the various restaurants you have worked in influenced your own desserts?

Well i had so many influences , like the terroir and the way of thinkin of each chef where I worked and obviously the technique , but I’m sure the only one is to choose the great and the best product on the market otherwise the result will not be the same , in every case , for that i really thank Ramsay for teaching me that.

How do you come up with your flavor combinations? Some are inspired by nature, some by architecture … I myself am usually inspired most by the first bite of something new. Right away flavor combinations will flood my head… What are your favorite flavor combinations?

Absolutely from nature and architecture for the final plating, I started to make these reconstructions of gardens and fields just because i wanted to find a concept for every single dessert I made and I will make, is the only way to let the customer feel emotions. For the flavour combinations I have quite a lot of favourites, but the best are passion fuit and milk chocolate , raspberry and greek yoghurt , mint and coconut , as well as coconut and saffron, pineapple and tonka beans and tomatoes and white chocolate which sound weird but i guarantee it’s really good!

I see through your photographs that you favor using herbs and vegetables in your desserts. Do you find that well received? I know here in America, it’s taking a little getting used to for our patrons sometimes!

In italy sometimes yes, sometimes no, obviously a gourmet will understand more the meanings of these ingredients , but most of the customers understand the concept and apprieciate the flavours.
Recently I’ve been to wd 50 and Alinea, and I guess that in the US you are starting to appreciate more herbs in desserts, but not everyone thinks in the same way.

Your stage at El Bulli really stands out of course, tell us about your time there. How did you find working for the Adria brothers? Was it what you’d hoped it would be? Can you give us some thoughts about what is new at El Bulli?

I probably spent the best time there , the way of working is really good and Ferran and Alberto are always in the kitchen with us to try , think, write down every single thing they make. It’s impressive the way they always research the new teqnique and the new combination, most of the people think elbulli = foams… but it’s not like that, in the whole season in pastry we made like 2 or 3 kinds of espumas and that’s it, the rest was normal and traditional pastry technique. I’m going there in august to say hello , they are wonderful people . This year Alberto will come up with his new book and he said that it’s gonna have the same effect the movie matrix had when it came out, so you will see a lot of new stuff…

Do you find that you concentrate mostly on plated desserts, or do you find time and opportunity for centerpieces of chocolate and sugar? Do you enjoy that part of pastry work? Do you compete in pastry competitions at all?

I find that I’m concentrated on plated desserts, but at the restaurant we always make sugar and chocolate centerpieces for anniversary and birthdays. We all enjoy that part of work, well no I never compete because I don’t feel that I want to be better or worsse than everyone else , I like to be simple ,to do what I like and follow my passions.

What are your plans for the future? Do you envision your own restaurant or Chocolate business?

First I will start something in Spain and I will let you know, that’s the early future for the long one I have to say that I really the loved Will Goldfarb restaurant formula. So I have this kind of vision in my head , it’s gonna be in some years but it’s always good to know where you want to go, no?

PANINO ALLA NUTELLA
recipe courtesy Luca Lacalamita, Pastry Chef, Osteria Francescana, Modena Italy

Milk chocolate cremeux

250 double cream
25 tremoline
240 jivara lactee vahlrona choc

Creamy nutella ganache

750 nutella
500 double cream
4 sheets gelatine

Raspberry and hazelnuts gallette

300 flour
160 icing sugar
100 freeze dried rapberry powder
275 butter
100 hazelnuts powder(toasted)
2 salt

Milk chocolate mousse

50gr yolks
35 sugar
100cream both the mousses need to spreaded one on top of each and
freezed,then cutted with a circle mould in order to put them
275 jivara lactee in the brioche

White chocolate mousse

200 milk
40 sugar
400 white chocolate
500 double cream

Brioche

750 flour
20 salt
135 milk
65 sugar
15 fresh yeast
286gr whole eggs
230 butter

Proove 2 h and then cook in steam pots 6 mins,freeze and then
fry them till golden brown

espresso ice cream

750 milk
100 cream
30 dextrose
4 ice cream stabiliser
100 sugar
70 nescafè

Hazelnuts praline

300 hazelnuts
150 sugar

Luca, that you very much for taking the time to talk with us. We wish you the best luck in your future!
If you’d like to contact Luca directly, you can email your thoughts or comments here.

Jamie Ronan, Pastry Sous Chef, Food for Thought Catering, Chicago,IL

Where did you get your start?
Okay, so I started out as a live in nanny and loved to cook for the family, desserts being my fave. I went to the French Pastry School to learn more about classic French desserts.

I’ve worked in restaurant kitchens most of all.

What and Who are your greatest influences?
My greatest influences would be Pierre Herme and Oriol Balaguer .

Who do you consider your mentors?
My mentor would be En Ming Hsu.

Do you keep up with pastry in the media? How?
Media up keep, I read a lot, go to the latest hot spot, several times over if it’s really good like Nomi and Scylla.

Are you a cook book reader? What are your favorites?
Cook books I love are The Food Lovers Companion and Devil in the Kitchen.

Tell us a little about how your day goes?
Daily Grind- I get in @ 6:45 a.m., look over my prep list., “Place” every thing out, go to town so to say on some of the major things, assign my assistants some of the rest. Place my orders, print up menus, go over them with Chef etc..

What gear do you use in the kitchen? What’s your go to
tool you can’t live without?
Gearing up- Love my bowl scrapper, can go where no other spatula can. And my baby off set is a charmer for me all the time.

Do you have a favorite dessert item that you make?
Sweet on preparing plated desserts with a lot of beautiful and innovative components. Like cellophane sprinkled with edible flowers right out of the oven. That would accent a nice hazelnut mousse covered in shinny mirror glaze and silver leaf flecks.
I like to make different gastrique’s and powders. I feel it gives the plate depth and creativity with out being sloppy.

Pave

Crust:
8oz. milk chocolate
8oz. praline paste
2cups fieutine flakes

Mousse:

1# 12oz. white chocolate, armed slightly.
12oz. milk
1 vanilla bean split- heat with milk
3 cup whip cream w/ 1tsp. cinnamon
6 sheets gelatine- bloomed

Combine all ingredients for the crust, melt over a double boiler.
Spread onto a half sheet pan, lightly sprayed with pan spray.
Dust with cocoa powder. Freeze for half of an hour.

Whip cream and set aside in cooler. Heat milk with vanilla bean.
Warm the white chocolate, pour the milk over this, squeeze the gelatine
And toss into the milk mixture. Whisk over an ice bath, when cool fold in
Cream. Pour and spread onto crust. Put in cooler for 3 hours.

Derek Chervenak, pastry chef at Restarurant David Drake, Rahway, NJ

Where did you get your start?
I first began as a waiter at Trap Rock Restaurant in
Berkeley Heights, NJ. I was more interested in what
was happening in the kitchen so I asked the Chef,
Bruce Johnson, if he’d teach me how to cook. I began
on the savory side of the kitchen.

What and Who are your greatest influences?
The people I have worked with influence me a lot.
Working at the Hilton Short Hills exposed me to many
new techniques. Tim Koch and Patrick Muller exposed
me to new ideas, books, and techniques. Working in a
pastry shop in Motsumoto Japan for 3 months gave me
strength and perseverance. I learned a lot about
myself as well as pastry.

Who do you consider your mentors?
The first two chef I worked with, Bruce Johnson and
Matt Conway are a big part of who I am in the kitchen.
They set a certain standard for me and instilled a
lot of great habits in the kitchen. I use something
they taught me every day. Masu, the Japanese Pastry
Chef, is a huge mentor. His kindness and respect for
me is overwhelming. We worked very well together and
even though there was a language barrier we had so
much fun trying new ideas and showing each other our
techniques.

Do you keep up with pastry in the media? How?
I subscribe to Pastry Arts and Design, Pastry’s Best
and Cooks Illustrated.

Are you a cook book reader? What are your favorites?
I never went to culinary school, so my education comes
from books. I love the simplicity and fresh
ingredients of Claudia Fleming’s Last Course, and the
over-the-top approach of Richard Leach’s Sweet
Seasons. I think there has been a surge of high end
pastry books in the past few years. Frederic Bau and
Pierre Herme are great books to pull recipes from.
Oriol Balaguer’s Dessert Cuisine and Bernd Siefert’s
Sweet Gold are good for inspiration.

Tell us a little about how your day goes?
My day is about 12-13 hours, but it goes by quick.
Working in such a small kitchen I’m right in the
middle of everything which is a lot different than the
extremely large kitchen of the Hilton. I just keep my
head down and work. I’m not a big talker, and my back
is to everyone when I’m standing at my station, so I’m
really in my own world sometimes. I like working
alone and manage my time well so I can accomplish the
necessary prep as well as try new recipes and ideas.

What gear do you use in the kitchen? What’s your go to
tool you can’t live without?
It’s so trite, but the mini offset spatula can be used
for anything. I have a Japanese bowl scraper that was
given as a gift to me from the pastry chef I worked
with in Japan. I gave the pastry chef some silpats
and in return I got these. Its design is like a
rubber spackle knife that conforms to bowls a lot
better than your usual spatula. I like it also
because of its rarity.

Do you have a favorite dessert item that you make?
I’ve always liked making chocolates. Once I learned
how to temper I went to JB Prince and bought some
plaques.

Praline Cr�me Brulee
Heavy Cream 1 Cup
Milk 1 Cup
Sugar 3 oz
Egg Yolks 5 3/4 oz
Whole Egg 1 each
Vanilla Bean 1/2 each
Gelatin 2 sheets
Praline Paste 1/3 Cup

Dragee Nuts
Sugar 5 1/2 oz
Water 1 1/2 oz
Whole Nuts 1 #

Cranberry Cake
Butter 1#
Sugar 2#
Whole Eggs 8 each
AP Flour 1# 14.5 oz
Baking Powder 1 1/8 oz
Salt Pinch
Buttermilk 15 oz

Founder and chef at pastrypros.com ,Timothy Horst, can be found cooking up desserts in his home lab in wilton, nh. It’s here that he’s ended up after a career in the restaurant industry spanning 16 years. Now as the main contributor to pastrypros.com, and a consulting pastry chef, Tim finds his life very balanced. ” I came to new england to find a nice, hometown place to raise my son and love life with my wife Danielle”.

When asked about his philosophy in making desserts, he replies “Elements of contrast. In my eyes, the interaction of different component temeratures, textures and flavors is paramount over anything else. Contrary to some the last thing on my mind is how it looks on a plate. Sure it’s got to be visually appealing, but that’s the last step”.

Has he any unfulfilled dreams and aspirations? “Mostly, to be a wonderful role model for my son and the best husband I can be. I’ve accomplished everything my pastry career I’ve wanted, and gotten more recognition than I expected. I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with some of the best culinary minds in america”.