The Sweet Life

Romance makes us giddy. Sweets make us giddy. Considering that, a Valentine’s Day with decadent pastries is sure to be explosive. But sweets and romance don’t have to hold out solely for February 14 each year. Local pastry chefs are serving up romantic creations on a daily basis, making sure sparks are continually flying. John Harmeier of The Lodge at Torrey Pines, Stephanie Tesnow of JRDN, Karen Krasne of Extraordinary Desserts, and Michele Coulon of Michele Coulon Dessertier offer the inside scoop on how they create their elegant desserts, and explain how a little sweetness can make any day worth sharing with someone special.

Where did you go to school?

John Harmeier, pastry chef at The Lodge at Torrey Pines: California Culinary Academy in San Francisco.

Stephanie Tesnow, executive pastry chef at JRDN: National Culinary School in La Mesa.

Karen Krasne, owner of Extraordinary Desserts: I went to two schools. In Paris, France I went to Cordon Bleu, and in Lenotre, Bellouet Conseil

Michele Coulon, owner of Michele Coulon Dessertier: I actually went to school for computer science, but I’ve been doing this for 30 years.

What got you interested in making desserts?

JH: I always wanted to be an artist but I couldn’t paint or draw, so I started playing with food and it became my medium.

ST: I used to bake at home. I love turning out something that makes people smile. Dessert can make someone really happy.

KK: When I was living in Hawaii, I worked for a woman who did similar type of work.

MC: Growing up, we weren’t allowed to have sweets in our family, so if you wanted something to eat you had to make it. My father’s from Belgium, and I went to high school in Paris. Just living in Europe and seeing how people made incredible desserts, there was nothing like that here. Eventually, my mother, who went to pastry school, taught me what she knew.

What’s so great about desserts?

JH: It’s not a necessity. It’s a treat; it’s an indulgence. People have to eat but they don’t have to have dessert. So if they’re going to do it they want to do it right.

ST: They’re great because you can make something from scratch and make it extravagant.

KK: Desserts celebrate a moment you take to be with people you enjoy and have something completely unnecessary, and with that you get a lot of joy and laughter and that’s what life is all about.

You’re around sweets all day long, but if you had to choose your favorite what would it be?

KK: That’s like asking which is your favorite child. Every day I like something different. In general I really love cookies and fresh fruit tarts and things with lemon.

JH: Baked Alaska, because it’s old school. It’s an old classic dessert. I’ve revamped it for today’s market using different ice creams inside, adding different styles to it.

ST: I love brownies and ice cream.

MC: I’d have to say Marjolaine, created by a famous French chef. It’s a torte with hazelnuts and almonds and praline and chocolate.

All artists have their own creative process. How and when do you get inspired to create?

JH: Certainly as the seasons change and new produce arrives.

ST: From the season, using what’s freshest.

KK: I either get inspired from travel, or if I’m allowed to have a quiet hour — I just need a few minutes away from the chaos and something comes up. Like today, after I’ve had the most intense week of my life, I’m in the back making a new scone, and it’s so awesome I wolfed down half of it by myself.

MC: I’ll have dreams about new creations.

Michele, you recently created the cake for supermodel Niki Taylor’s wedding to NASCAR’s Burney Lamar. What was that like?

MC: It was great. Ironically, Niki Taylor’s people called me and I told them I was booked. I already had a wedding that day, and my daughter was visiting from New York and I wanted to spend time with her. So at first I turned it down. Then Anseth Richards came in and asked me personally. And my daughter told me I had to do it. She called back after the wedding and said, "Mom, you’re in People magazine."

What’s your favorite ingredient to use?

KK: One of my favorites is caramel. It has so many personalities, whether you add salt, whether the texture has been burned or caramelized like crème brûlée, or added into a sundae so it’s liquid and gooey. You really have to understand caramel to get optimum application.

MC: Belgian chocolate and really good European butter. Real chocolate is just so much better than all this fake stuff that’s around.

Do you ever experiment?

ST: I made this goat cheese tart with roasted peaches. Everyone was kind of weirded out by it, but when they tasted it they were like, wow, this is really good.

Do you think desserts can bring people closer together?

JH: Absolutely, food is one of the world’s most common bonds we have. Whether it’s romance or family or friendship. I don’t know of anything else that brings you together.

ST: Definitely. I think chocolate is really sensual. So when you think of Valentine’s Day you think of sweets. And chocolate is so sweet.

KK: I think that when you’re having dessert with someone you really enjoy being with, it’s almost like it heats everything else up a bit more. It’s like you’re in your own bubble together.

MC: I feel that any kind of celebration should involve food — what’s better than making your lover something to eat? Have them over for dinner and make something simple and good. Cook it together, and sit down together. That togetherness has to come back into our lives.

What’s something about desserts people should know about but don’t?

JH: You should just keep it simple, use the freshest ingredients, and like chef Jeff Jackson says, keep your hands off the food as much as possible.

ST: People don’t think outside the box enough. They need to expand their horizons, try things that might not sound appetizing. With a little spin it will make it delicious.

KK: We shouldn’t have them every day. Desserts should never be that accessible. They need to be for special occasions, even if just to cure a bad day. But not all the time.

MC: Most desserts in restaurants and bakeries aren’t made from scratch. People don’t realize that there’re 1,000 kinds of yellow cake mix you can buy, the same as there’s pre-made chocolate mousse mix you can order.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. What type of dessert would you recommend for someone trying to do something romantic?

JH: Something to do together, like make your own sundae.

ST: Something warm that they can feed each other.

Any advice for the hopeless romantic who’s attempting to make a dessert at home?

KK: Go to a reputable place like Trader Joe’s and purchase something that’s frozen, or a pound cake, and then from there buy expensive caramel sauce or fresh bananas and berries and do your own things to enhance it. But it needs beauty. So go into your garden and get colorful flowers and make the plate colorful. That’s the start of wanting to eat dessert. It’s very easy to do, but takes a long time to understand.

MC: Definitely buy the best quality ingredients. Start with something like truffles, which are very simple and so good. You can go crazy with fillings and be artistic with toppings. You don’t even need an oven.

Okay, the big question — chocolate or vanilla?

JH: Vanilla. It goes with so much more. It’s highly underrated.

ST: Chocolate. I like the richness of it.

KK: For me? I’m actually a caramel and lemon fan. We have a lemon praline here — it has its own fan club.

MC: I feel like a dessert has to have chocolate. Otherwise you need two desserts. I’m not satisfied until I have some kind of real chocolate. — Ryan Thomas, photography by Vincent Knakal