Find out the latest from pastry chef Richard Ruskell

About a week and a half ago I was auctioned off at The Geffen Playhouse’s charity event:  Backstage at the Geffen.  It was a stellar affair honoring Barry Meyer (Head of Warner Bros.) and Kristen Chenowith (and who doesn’t know her).  I was part of the silent auction.  I was bartered for $2100!  Not bad.  So what did they get for their bid?  A pastry class for 3-4 people and a cake for up to 200 of their closest friends.  I have no idea who bid on me.  All I do know is that most of the night my bid sheet was empty.  It wasn’t until the end of the night that it filled up.  I would have been devastated had I not gotten anything.

The night was great!  We heard from Clint Eastwood, Beau Bridges, Matthew Morrison (from Glee), Rita Wilson, Hank Azaria and others.  Listened to songs from Alan Cumming and Dick Van Dyke (unbelievably impressive at his age), Christina Applegate and star watched for most of the evening.  Swelling with the swells.

One of the bids, which at the beginning of the event had a low bid of $6k(!) was to sit in on a table reading of The Simpsons and join Hank Azaria’s table on his poker night.  That would have been.  There were also unique items such as a week in French Polynesia (valued at $29,000) and various other one of a kind giveaways.  I didn’t bid on anything…..ahem.

But I did make a cake.

finished product

The bottom platform is solid chocolate.  Dark and white which I painted all sorts of bright colors:

in the shop

The theater building was fondant.  Hand painted and airbrushed with royal icing ivy. The L.A. blocks were solid chocolate, weighed a lot.

Balanced on top was a large piece, covered in fondant, with the event’s logo.  The whole contraption was held together with pvc, threaded pipe, washers and bolts……the usual.  I arranged some sugarpaste flowers and got some micro-lighting to add a little drama.  They lit it well and I was able to have a primo location for it.  Honestly I don’t think people knew it was cake.   Sometimes that’s not to my advantage.  I think I should just put up a big sign that says:  IT’S CAKE!

For the actual event we served red velvet cupcakes, passionfruit white chocolate cake, banana deutsch cake, and white chocolate chip cake.

A good time was had by all.

And boy does Clint Eastwood look great!  I should look so good when I’m whatever age he is.

later

My calendar is fast filling up.  Can’t believe it.  I am a guest chef at the Culinary Institute of America’s Napa campus.  Part of their Vintner’s Induction ceremony.  Should be fun.  I’m doing a Food Network Challenge at the end of March.  Backstage at The Geffen is a benefit for the theatre.  I’m one of the items you can bid on for their silent auction.  My brother and his family are coming sometime during all of this.  I’m giving a demonstration for the chocolate company, Michel Cluizel, in mid-April.  My absolute all time favorite chocolate, btw.  and then May 1st I’ll be part of the Disneyland California Food & Wine Fest.  Whew.  All that in 2 months.

Next week we have a great opportunity at the hotel to show off some of our culinary muscle.  We’re hosting a wine dinner.  Finally, some real foodies to entertain.  My dessert is called, Chocolate Ice, with compressed banana, blood orange and mint.  haven’t figured out how it will all go together, but the mint will probably be spherified (is that a word?)

Below is the chocolate/banana tart served at a banquet the other day.  Shiny chocolate glaze over banana mousse, sitting on a speculos crust.  Served with peanut sauce, chocolate dust and milk chocolate curd.

Just a short note to tell you the L.A. Times corrected my misspelled name.  Check it out.  And here is a pic of the cake.  It wasn’t very visible before

Kinda small.  I’ll work on it!

Lates!

For those of you who have kept up with my blog, the previous one and now this “new” one : Thanks!

As you may also know, and those who don’t will now find out, I have been doing opening night cakes for a theatre here in town (L.A.).  It’s the Geffen Playhouse and I would venture to say it is the premier professional venue in the city.

To make a long story short, I saw a show there, loved it, and emailed them saying I would love to see others.  They had invited us to the Playhouse as a thank-you for a function they had at the hotel.  They were very gracious and said, “any time.”  Being a former actor and lover of live theatre, and also someone who is NOT going to let opportunity walk away, I offered to make opening night cakes for the cast as “payment” for seeing the shows.  I gave them my laundry list of qualifications, years of service, TVFN Challenge wins, blah, blah, blah.  The Geffen, also seeing an opportunity, suggested I make cakes for not only the cast but for the opening night audience as well.  That was the birth of a beautiful relationship.  Not only has this become a wonderful opportunity, but it has allowed me to meet some fantastic people!

So, last night was the third show in their season.  I did a cake for the closing performance of their previous season.  The show was called Farragut North and starred Chris Pine (of the new Star Trek movie) and Chris Noth (Big on Sex in the City).  The opening play of this new season was Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas, starring, yes, Matthew Modine, Perry Gilpin (Fraiser) and French Stewart (3rd Rock….).   The second show was Equivocation, starring Harry Groener (original cast of Cats, and Dear John) and Joe Spano (Hillstreet Blues and others).  The play last night was The Female of The Species, starring Annette Bening, David Arquette and Julian Sands along with other recognizable faces.

After the first two cakes/shows, we (the Geffen and myself) realized that the cast never gets to see the cakes. They are displayed in the lobby preshow and during intermission.  Neither of those times can the cast come out and see it.  The cake is cut after intermission and served when the audience exits the theatre.  So, no cast.  I was disappointed because I never got my picture taken with the cast.  I admit I’m a bit of a star stalker.  It’s fun, what can I say.

We figured out a way to make this work.  I would make fake cakes for display purposes only and have sheet cakes cut up in the back for service.  Voila, cast comes out, they see cake, Geffen gets pics of cast with cake, and I get pics of ME with cast and cake.

And last night didn’t disappoint!  The show was a lot of fun.  The afterparty was held at a restaurant close by the theatre and it was pretty star studded.  I not only got to meet Annette Bening, David Arquette, and the whole cast, but I got to meet the significant others.  When it’s Annette Bening that means Warren Beatty.  Both very charming and gracious.  David Arquette, for five minutes, was my new best friend!  Courtney Cox was there, Kirk Douglas, well, you can read the article.

And yes, the L.A. Times spelled my name wrong.  What is wrong with these people, don’t they know who I am!!!?

hope you like the pics (All photos by Jordan Strauss)

Pretty neat huh?

Who is that handsome guy in the background?

I just got back from a 24-hour instant-spur-of-the-moment day away from L.A. drive up Highway 1 to Carmel-by-the-Sea.  Our friend, Kim, mentioned that it’s a great place to visit and the drive is remarkable.  She, her husband, Jim, and son, Jack, seem to make Carmel the place they go to deflate.  Far enough away from the “ugh” that is Los Angeles and work, but close enough to drive (and the view ain’t half bad).  About 5 hours, depending on weather and if any of the Coast Highway is washed out by rain.  So, we took them up on their suggestion.

We managed to get a friend to stay at the house last night (thanks, Andrea) so Bubba wouldn’t be lonely, and we took off at 5am Saturday morning.

We took the 101 to Santa Barbara and San Louis Obispo.  We have been this far before.  Several trips to Hearst Castle made this part of the drive seem familiar.  Don’t get me wrong.  It’s beautiful.  To see the giant sea lions lounging around and groaning on the beach just north of San Simeon is a real treat.  There’s something kind of scary, to be honest, about them.  They are so huge and so foreign looking that I am repulsed and in awe at the same time.

I should preface this blog by explaining that we’ve had some seriously wet weather here in California.  The downpours also brought surf advisories.  Waves of up to 20-30 feet were predicted.  Now mind you, these were the waves I expected California to have when I first moved here.  But no.  Not even slightly.  The waves around Huntington Beach, Surf City, Beach Boy Mecca, aren’t even a quarter of that.  But there is still a lot of surfing.  When I saw these “weather-warning-waves” I was pretty amazed.  That was one angry ocean named for peace.  All the way up the coast we saw some curls and washouts that were really wild.  I caught some of them on film.

When we broke away and finally got onto the real coast highway I was first surprised at how high we were.  Antoinette, a good friend, warned us to take highway 1 up the coast (meaning north).  She’s a little shy of the sheer drop-offs you face if you take highway 1 going south.  We heeded her advise.  Man, the drive was awesome.  I hope I don’t overstate that. I think we were lucky that it was right after all of the thunderstorms.  The highway was pretty deserted.  There are hairpin turns galore, some flagmen and stoplights along the way because of washouts due to the storm, I guessed, and just a general feeling of “pay attention” that had to be respected.

For all the trouble California is in:  Taxes, Debt, Housing, Orange County, Medical marijuana.  The one thing it truly has is beauty!  Wyoming has always been my favorite state.  I’ve been to all 50.  There is something about the wildness of Wyoming, the mountains in the west, the prairies of the southeast.  But it will have to step aside now that I have seen a fairly large share of California.  Yosemite,  Redwoods,  The Far-north, San Francisco, Joshua Tree, the Hollywood Sign (come on, you love it, you know you do) and now, the drive up Highway 1 to the Monterey Peninsula.

I hope these pics do it some justice.

Don’t worry, I’ll calm down.  You have to understand it was my first time and I didn’t have real high expectations.

Carmel is a charming town with a lot of rich people.  Pebble Beach, a lot richer people.  Spanish Bay, the same.  Monterey is kind of slumming (sorry).  We had to pay $9.25 for the privilege of driving through the “rich part of town” and hobnobbing with the swells.

But the Monterey Bay Aquarium is, again with that word, Awesome.  A real work of art and science.

We tooled around the aquarium, had a great dinner at Pacific’s Edge restaurant at the Highlands Inn, walked through Carmel in the morning, this morning, and then took highway 101 back to L.A.  It was one day very well spent.

So…………if I had such a great time, why is the name of the column “Kvetching”?  Because in all our wanderings every pastry shop, bakery, dessert place we could find, the product was TERRIBLE!!!  Nothing looked appetizing!! I was so downhearted that amongst all this so-called high quality there wasn’t a single bakery that lived up to the standard these people should be accustomed to!

God, why can’t I have my own place!!!!

a beedabeeedabeedabbed, that’s all folks!

lates

Who said it never rains in California?  Some song from the 70’s, I think.

Well, right now, it is coming down like 40 days and 40 nights.  I think we’re gonna be in trouble here.

And the worst of it is: I have to go out in it and I don’t have an umbrella!

I have a meeting in about an hour and a half.  It’s on Hollywood and Vine.  I have to get in my car, battle with all the Angelenos who can’t drive (I’m not one of them), find a parking space that doesn’t cost me a fortune and then walk to the meeting.  It won’t even pay to get myself dressed up.  I am going to be a shambles by the time I get there.  And I’m bald!

For those of you with hair on your head, let me tell you:  Even just a smidge of fur on your pate protects you.  Being bald makes everything colder, wetter, sweatier, and more susceptible to those burning rays of the sun.  You have to protect yourself from the elements all the time.  And today, that rain is just going to schloose off me like on a rain slicker.  Down the back of my neck and into me.  great….. I wish I had a hat.  Don’t get me going on the wind.  Santa Ana my ass.  I can hear it groaning outside.  Bubba is right at my feet, worried.  I love how dogs lie at your feet.  He keeps me warm.  Hmmm, he just moaned.

To be frank, we are just not prepared for rain of this magnitude.  Oh, it happens, about every 3-4 years.  But, come on,  you’re supposed to buy an umbrella for that?

Maybe I’ll be lucky and they’ll cancel.

Just watched Big Love (what else you going to do on a rainy day off.  It’s what TV is made for) and I haven’t a clue what is going on.  But I love it.  I never watched it until this season.  Now I have to rent the previous episodes so I can catch up.  Can’t wait for HBO to air The Pacific, about WWII in the Pacific Ocean.  Produced by the same folks, Tom Hanks/Spielberg, who brought us Band of Brothers.  How can it not be good!

What does any of this have to do with pastry?

cake topper a la chihuly

Lates……

I’m just about to wrap up work for another day.  We have a group here celebrating Japanese new year.  I had to write, in Japanese characters, Year of the Tiger on French macarons (eggnog flavored).  Okay, I had a guide to go by, but honestly….. each one of them looks a little different.  I hope a slight twist of a line doesn’t completely change the meaning of the word.  I might very well be saying, “your mother’s hung like a horse”.  That wouldn’t be so good.  Also on their buffet were Red Velvet Cake (I actually take red velvet and sandwich white butter cake in the middle using cream cheese mousse.  I am not a fan of cream cheese icing.  I avoid 10x like the plague in icings.  The slice of white breaks up all  the red.), pineapple/lime tarts, white chocolate with glazed cranberries, boca negra “corks”, praline eclairs, and miniature ‘American’ cookies (i.e., choco-chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, you get the picture).

Other than that I worked on a wedding cake for my good friend, Anil.  Getting hitched tomorrow.  For real.  They were married in Vegas several months ago.  The families were pissed when they found out so now they have to have a ‘real’ ceremony.  Pretty simple todo.  But the reception is at a great steak house in Orange County (yes, the OC); Mastro’s!  Can’t wait.  Bet you can’t guess what flavor their cake is.  Red Velvet.  A flavor I actually like.

I managed to break our sheeter (laminoir) today.  That sucked big time.  I hope engineering can fix it.

One of my cooks keeps shrinking the size of tea pastries to one bite morsels.  I reminded her that they are not petits fours, but pastries that are put on a plate and eaten with a fork.  I also reminded her that all the pastries have to be pretty close in size with one another.  You cannot have a cake slice that is 2″ tall by 1″x2″ and then have a Paris-Brest next to it that is the size of a quarter.  Everything in harmony.  She’s a very good cook and catches on quickly.  Her biggest qualm was that the pastry tiers are so small and oddly shaped.  She’s right, but I have to balance that against how many pastries a person actually eats.  If we make them too small they will eat a lot.  AND, we would have to put a lot more on the tiers.  As it is, our afternoon tea is like a smorgasbord.  A great price and you can eat all friggin afternoon.  What a bargain!

I’m coming in early tomorrow (about 5am) so I can get everything on track before I finish the wedding cake and take off.  I have to load the cake, drive back to the house, walk the dog, feed him and then get my butt down to the OC by 4pm, set the cake up, and then get to Laguna Beach by 5:30.  Whew!

Then, no work for two days!

lates………….

hmmmmmmmmmmm

Welcome to the real blog.  This will be my first of what I hope are many inclusions.  Hope someone out there is reading these.

My previous blogs were primarily based on my past experiences with cake decorating.  This blog I hope will contain all things pastry.  Be it Viennoiserie (breakfast doughs), plated desserts, buffets, chocolate work, sugar, and of course cake.  I have found that I actually can do it all.  Along with pastry/dessert I am venturing into the dreaded world of savory cooking.  I am helping out with a neighborhood bar, creating the menu, helping design the kitchen space, dishes, hiring, training.  Seems like old times.

My first job was as a short order cook.  I was, perhaps, all of 15 or 16 and it was at my local diner in downtown Chatfield, Minnesota.  That was a while back.  But funny how we all come full circle eventually.  And it keeps me going.  Sometimes I think if i stop, if I lay down my spatula and say, “no more”, I will cease to be.  Hmm, probably not.  Hope not.  But right now I don’t feel like giving it a chance.

I have been doing a lot of reading lately on the new “chemical” cooking thing going on.  Since this has been going on for years I feel like now is a good time to jump on board.  Most of it will probably fly by us, a trend whose time will come and go before anyone even knows what it was/is.  But some of it will stick.  Spherification.  Liquid Nitrogen.  Powders.  Well, maybe not powders.

I have a friend who works with companies on marketing their new product.  There is actually a company out there that wants to market a “sniff of chocolate”.  Literally, you put this device in your mouth and suck in.  A small blast of cocoa powder coats the inside of your mouth.  My first thought was, “How much goes into your lungs?”  I didn’t give it a moment’s thought until I saw a blog where a pastry chef/chocolatier actually had conceived of a more elaborate contraption to do the very same thing.  Some fads will become trends and they, in turn, will become staples in our daily life as pastry chefs.  Well, I’ve already cast my vote on that one.

chocolate on plywood

Anyway, I found a great recipe for making perfect pastry cream.  Actually, not a recipe.  Any recipe will work.  It’s a new, scientifically thought out, method of making the cream that allows us to not return the cream to the heat to cook the egg and starch.  Pretty great, huh?  How many of your cooks out there either burn the pastry cream because they are cooking a huge amount over a slow flame?  Or, maybe worse, undercook it so you have unusable sludge.  This method is supposedly flawless.  Meaning:  I don’t have to stand over them!  I will try it and give you an update.

As I said, I am still trying to get the hang of this.  As I get more proficient I will post many more photos. I am beginning to carry my camera with me always.

More later, Folks.  And I hope you keep me posted.  Stop by.  Say hi.  Pass it on.

This is my new website and it’s going to be awesome.  But you have to give me a chance to get it up and running.  I’m working with a friend (thanks, Maria) to get it where I want it to be.  Soon, I’ll be blogging for real again.  So, let’s keep in touch!