CONFECTIONS OF A BELTWAY INSIDER.Byline: Natalie Haughton Food Editor Imagine spending almost 25 years in the White House pastry kitchen as the executive pastry chef A pastry chef or pâtissier is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, and bakeries. for five presidents and first families, doing your work surrounded by pounds of butter, chocolate, cream, fresh fruits and sugar. While the job may sound like a dessert lover's dream, it's not always as sweet as it seems. Just ask French-born patissier Roland R. Mesnier, who retired last July. Lately he's been traveling throughout the country promoting his first cookbook, ``Dessert University'' (Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster U.S. publishing company. It was founded in 1924 by Richard L. Simon (1899–1960) and M. Lincoln Schuster (1897–1970), whose initial project, the original crossword-puzzle book, was a best-seller. ; $40), which took four years to write with help from Lauren Chattman. The 545 pages are filled with all kinds of show-stopping desserts, many from his White House years. During his time in the White House (1980-2004) he designed and created some 3,000 different desserts with the help of one full-time assistant. ``It was a great challenge. I didn't have much of a personal life for 25 years,'' Mesnier says. He was in charge of ordering all the pastry ingredients and arranging for pickup. ``There was no delivery at the White House - and all vendors were checked by the Secret Service.'' Starting with Nancy Reagan, Mesnier presented dessert tastings to the first ladies for approval, prior to state dinners. After a lot of research, he always tried to include something in his desserts that reflected the invited leader's country. For instance, blown-sugar giraffes for Kenya, flower leis made of sugar for the Philippines, tiny chocolate replicas of Big Ben for England, and a white tiger White tigers are individual specimens of the ordinary orange tiger (Panthera tigris), with a genetic condition that causes paler colouration of the normally orange fur (they still have black stripes). out of white chocolate white chocolate n. Cocoa butter combined with milk and a sweetener, often flavored with vanilla. Noun 1. white chocolate and a lotus flower out of sorbets for India. ``Mesnier never repeated the same dessert in all the state dinners,'' notes Francois Dionot, owner/founder/president of the culinary school L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Md., who has known the pastry guru for 30 years. ``To me, he is the king of sugar work - spun sugar, poured sugar, rock sugar, pulled sugar. Very few people know how to do this anymore. He makes roses that look real.'' Mesnier was known for making cakes just so he could put them under a sugar piece. ``He's very talented in everything in desserts,'' says Dionot. Every first lady put her stamp on the White House - and Mesnier says he's enjoyed them all. ``Mrs. (Rosalynn) Carter spent less time worrying about what was served at a dinner party, but she loved desserts,'' he says. During Nancy Reagan's time, ``the White House became a showcase of grand cuisine. She was determined to have new desserts for every dinner, and she was very demanding.'' Mesnier recalled the time, two days before the arrival of the queen of the Netherlands for a state dinner for 150 people, that Nancy Reagan rejected four different desserts. She told him to make 14 sugar baskets decorated with half a dozen sugar tulips and filled with assorted sorbets and fresh fruit. She then said, `` 'Don't forget you have two days and two nights Two Days and Two Nights is the 24th episode (production #125) of the television series . Synopsis The crew of the Enterprise find more than pleasure during shore leave on Risa. ,' '' Mesnier remembers. The chef pulled it off without any help: ``Mrs. Reagan made me a better pastry chef,'' he says. With the witty and smart Barbara Bush, ``the house took on a different dimension - with children laughing, dogs barking, etc. She didn't make waves with what was served. ``The Clintons, very charismatic people, were very casual - and the only family that ate in the kitchen. Mrs. (Hillary) Clinton was very political - it was like having a second president in the White House.'' During their eight years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time number of people invited to the White House increased dramatically, as did Mesnier's work load. Mrs. Clinton favored leaner cuisine and plated service for desserts. ``First lady Laura Bush is meticulous - and the house is sparkling,'' he says. ``She has a great knowledge of food and how it should be prepared and (how it should) taste.'' Over the years, Mesnier has focused on reducing calories in desserts but without sacrificing flavor. His strategies include reducing sugar A reducing sugar is any sugar that, in basic solution, forms some aldehyde or ketone. This allows the sugar to act as a reducing agent, for example in the Maillard reaction and Benedict's reaction. Reducing sugars include glucose, glyceraldehyde, lactose, arabinose and maltose. , butter, cream and eggs, using low-fat or regular milk instead of cream and sometimes cornstarch cornstarch, material made by pulverizing the ground, dried residue of corn grains after preparatory soaking and the removal of the embryo and the outer covering. It is used as laundry starch, in sizing paper, in making adhesives, and in cooking. to make a thicker base. ``There are at least 50 recipes (out of 300) in the book that would qualify as low-calorie desserts.'' His penchant for desserts dates back to the summer fruit tarts of every color and flavor he enjoyed during his childhood. ``My mother was a wonderful chef - an unbelievable home cook.'' His five golden rules for making great desserts: ``Learn the basics and then practice, practice, practice; respect the classics; value economy and simplicity; focus on flavor; and be an artist, develop your talent.'' Natalie Haughton, (818) 713-3692 natalie.haughton(at)dailynews.com SPOTLIGHT ON... ROLAND R. MESNIER Age: 60. Profession: Pastry chef. Hometown: Bonnay, France. Food background: Mesnier began a three-year apprenticeship in a pastry shop near his home at age 14. He went on to stints as a pastry cook/assistant in pastry shops and hotels in Paris, Germany (Hannover and Hamburg) and London. Eventually, he became head pastry chef at the Princess Hotel in Bermuda. After a stint at The Homestead, a resort in Hot Springs, Va., he landed the ultimate pastry job: In December 1979, Rosalynn Carter hired him to be the White House pastry chef - and for almost 25 years his desserts were on view to the world - until he retired in July 2004. Kitchen secret: Work with all of your ingredients at room temperature (including eggs). Three favorite foods: A good steak, a good apple pie apple pie typical, wholesome American dessert. [Am. Culture: Flexner, 68] See : America a la mode, honey ice cream. Favorite junk foods: A good hamburger and a good doughnut. Foods he hates: Cilantro, dill, onions. Secret food passion: A good pate. Favorite kitchen gadget: A homemade cherry pitter (made with a wine cork and a ladies' hairpin hairpin a secondary structure that occurs in single-strand RNA during protein synthesis in which the strand turns back on itself. The structure is the result of base pairing and hydrogen bond formation. ). Pet peeve pet peeve n. Informal Something about which one frequently complains; a particular personal vexation. Noun 1. pet peeve - an opportunity for complaint that is seldom missed; "grammatical mistakes are his pet peeve" : Mediocrity in the hotel and pastry industry. Ideal vacation: Alaska. Favorite restaurant: Jean Marc Raynud in Tain L'Hermitage (near Lyon), France. Pastimes: Fishing, gardening, cultivating roses, working on recipes for upcoming cookbooks (a cake volume is in the works). Family: Wife, Martha, and a 35-year-old son, George. If he couldn't be a pastry chef, what would he be?: An actor. Worst White House kitchen disaster: The time the eggs for the hot raspberry souffles for a state dinner wouldn't whip (guests were in the dining room). ``I was sweating bullets (and could visualize this as my last day at the White House).'' But fortunately, he started with new egg whites, adding sugar to them instead of an Italian meringue, to gain time, and the souffles came out beautifully. Worst part of being the White House pastry chef: ``The inside politicking among the White House staff.'' CAPTION(S): 9 photos, box Photo: (1 -- cover -- color) Roland R. Mesnier Tina Burch/Staff Photographer (2 -- color) SUNFLOWER TART From ``Dessert University,'' Simon & Schuster (3 -- 4 -- color) Roland Mesnier Roland Mesnier (born July 8 1944) is a French-American Pastry chef and culinary writer. His creations during his twenty five years as Executive Pastry Chef at the White House have earned him the reputation of a creative genius. presents President George Bush with a heart-shaped coconut cream pie A cream pie is a type of pie typically made of usually firmer versions of dessert-style puddings. It is a typically American dessert. The filling is usually a rich custard made with flour and/or cornflour, eggs and milk. with a puff pastry puff pastry n. A light flaky pastry that is formed by rolling and folding the dough in layers so that it expands when baked. puff pastry or US puff paste Noun a light flaky pastry crust and top for Valentine's Day Valentine's Day: see Saint Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day Lovers' holiday celebrated on February 14, the feast day of St. Valentine, one of two 3rd-century Roman martyrs of the same name. St. . Flora Bunda, left, is a dessert Mesnier created for a Senate ladies luncheon. The vase, made from lemon sorbet, and the top, fresh fruit cut to look like flowers, are surrounded with rasberry sauce. (5 -- color) JIMMY CARTER Carter liked low-calorie desserts such as a yogurt and fresh fruit tart, but he also splurged on chocolate cake and strawberry napoleons. (6 -- color) RONALD RONALD Rocketborne Optical Neutral gas Analyzer with Laser Diodes REAGAN Reagan had a sweet tooth. ``He was a chocolate lover and loved a crunchy chocolate cake along with my quick chocolate mousse (with crystallized ginger Noun 1. crystallized ginger - strips of gingerroot cooked in sugar syrup and coated with sugar candied fruit, crystallized fruit, succade - fruit cooked in sugar syrup and encrusted with a sugar crystals ) and raspberry mousse.'' (7 -- color) GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH Noun 1. George Herbert Walker Bush - vice president under Reagan and 41st President of the United States (born in 1924) George H.W. Bush, President Bush, George Bush, Bush Mesnier says Bush liked creme brulees, silky chocolate cream pie and a cheesecake served with lemon curd Noun 1. lemon curd - a conserve with a thick consistency; made with lemons and butter and eggs and sugar lemon cheese conserve, conserves, preserves, preserve - fruit preserved by cooking with sugar Britain, Great Britain, U.K. . (8 -- color) WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON Since Clinton couldn't eat dairy or chocolate, Mesnier baked special desserts for him - low-calorie strawberry cake, cherry pie, apricot sunburst and hot dried pear souffle souffle /souf·fle/ (soo´f'l) a soft, blowing auscultatory sound. cardiac souffle any cardiac or vascular murmur of a blowing quality. . ``He loved apple pie.'' (9 -- color) GEORGE W. BUSH The president was a fan of Mesnier's chocolate cherry cake, cherry trifle, bananas in raspberry cream and sunflower tart. Box: SPOTLIGHT ON... (see text) |
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