Chef Profile: David Guas
Pastry Chef Speaks Softly and Carries a Big Torch
The Chef: David Guas, former Executive Pastry Chef at Acadiana and Passion Food Hospitality in Washington, D.C. Now runs DamGoodsweet Consulting Group in McLean, Virginia.
The Toolbox: Guas carries his tools in a standard hinged tool box. During the decade he spent at Passion, he used four different toolboxes because he had to go from one restaurant to another.
The Tools: Propane torch, handheld blender, rubber mallet, microplane, digital scale, mortar and pestle.
The Analysis: Compared to their grill and saute counterparts, pastry chefs are a more tempered lot, less likely to lose their temper and hurl a rash of colorful epithets towards waitstaff or culinary school interns. But they’re only human: they still need to vent. As such, they typically need a handy outlet or two so they can vent in broad daylight and none in the kitchen would be wiser…except for another pastry chef.
Guas called his digital scale his lifeline and the microplaner a handy tool, but the item he singled out was a propane torch. And why not? It’s the perfect tool for a mild-mannered pastry chef to vent.
For instance, Guas uses the propane torch to—in his own words—burn the creme brulee, and gleefully pop air bubbles in the liquid base just before it goes into the oven to prevent a skin from forming.
(Editor’s note: emphasis added.)
Next up, his trusty rubber mallet. He first puts chunks of chocolate into a large zip-top bag, sets it on a hard surface, and then, as he says, “The therapy begins. I whale away at the chocolate until it forms perfect chips.”
Whew! You’ll never look at a pastry chef the same way again.
They say often that you can tell alot about a woman by the state of her purse. I would guess that the same can be applied to the chef, no? Great post!