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Did you get what you wanted out of your culinary school experience?

Not exactly. It was a little challenging for me, because I had already owned my own restaurant and been in the restaurant industry for years. I sort of found myself with all these really young people out of high school who had no idea what they were doing. They’d never made anything at all, ever before, and I sort of had this experience. It was a little challenging for me in that respect, but I got the science side out of it. It was great for connections, and it was great to meet people, and meet other people who were interested in what I was doing and I definitely sort of learned the textbook business side of it, because when I opened my restaurant in Costa Rica, I just sort of taught myself everything. I had never owned a business before, and I had no idea what I was doing. I sort of taught myself everything, but the business classes you take in culinary school really showed me. I was like, “Oh wow. So I’m learning here now, in a class, what I had to struggle with and teach myself on my own.” But it was sort of rewarding because I was like, “Oh, I did do that right. I did do, in the long run, what they told me to do. I just figured out, the long way, on my own.” I found it beneficial, but I have mixed feelings on culinary school, if I’d recommend it or not.

What was the progression from culinary school to fōnuts?

I ended up working with one of my instructors from culinary school [Michael Gillet], who’s a chef, at a country club. On one hand, it was like, yeah, I was just out of culinary school, but I had my own restaurant and had been in the industry for years. I knew what I was doing, and I was really, really passionate and really, really driven. And I made it a point that I was going to sacrifice everything and dedicate everything to it, and work really, really hard, and my chef instructor saw that, and took me under his wing and gave me a job.

Then he got a job as executive pastry chef to open The Bazaar at SLS, and he brought me on as his sous chef. I was pretty much thrown to the wolves in opening that property. I did so much. So much of my blood, sweat and tears went into that place, working on creating recipes, and typing recipes, and research and development, to somehow finding myself writing the training manuals for the servers and the kitchen staff, just everything, which was an amazing experience to be able to be involved in such an amazing project like that, and such a large project, from the ground up, and to really have put my mark in every aspect, in the training and the vision and the passion, to instill that into a manual, to get that point across to people, as well as the food, I gave up everything, and I was there, always, and sort of became the face and name of The Bazaar and patisserie, because that was sort of my baby. Then he had sort of taken charge more of the hotel side of it.

Then I sort of got to a place where I wanted to step out, and go out on my own. I’d had some differences and just thought it was time to leave The Bazaar. I’d been there for a year and a half. I left and didn’t have a job. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to go even more into the sort of fine dining route, but oddly enough, I found myself working in another hotel, The Huntley, in the Penthouse. But I think it was a good transition for me. It sort of helped me develop and mature as a chef, and I really had free rein to do what I wanted to do there. Everybody always asks, “What’s your specialty? What do you want to do?” Genuinely, I love doing all of it. I love making cakes, I love making breakfast pastries, I love doing high end chocolate and bonbons and sugar work and candies and plated desserts, so it was fun to go to another hotel where I could utilize all of my skills, and do all of that.

Then I got a call from Tony Esnault, the chef of Patina, and was completely shocked and terrified. Here’s this 3-star Michelin French chef calling to ask me to come in for a tasting. I was beside myself and didn’t sleep for days and figured out what I was going to do for my tasting, and went in for the tasting and pretty much, I made four different desserts, and an assortment of chocolates and petit fours and things and pretty much after the first dessert, it was like, alright, let’s do this.

How did you decide what to serve Tony Esnault and Joachim Splichal?

I have no idea. I really spent a lot of time, and I really wanted to not be too simple. I wanted to show things visually that I felt would – because with four desserts in a tasting that would maybe last an hour, you really need to not go over the top, like, “Oh my gosh, here’s what I can do and I’m going to shove it down your throat in one tasting.” I just wanted to show a plating style and visually, my style, and my sort of artistic creativity, so some of the dishes really started from a vision that was inspired by a flower, colors or architecture that I had seen, and then I sort of found the flavors and found the basis to fulfill that. Then, these are some of my favorite flavors, I want to find a way to incorporate that. And it all just sort of came together. I was given specific guidelines to do half chocolate desserts, half not chocolate, so that sort of helped sort of figure everything out. But I just took my favorite things, and my favorite flavors, and what I loved, and the sort of vision, visually, of what a sexy dessert in my style looks like. It’s very fun and whimsical and playful, and brought that all together in a tasting.

What was the dessert that hooked them?

The first dessert that I brought out was a crème fraiche panna cotta with a cassis sorbet and just some fresh berries, and just a very, very delicate isomalt nest. That was sort of like a bird’s nest, with flower petals stuck into it. So it was very springy, it was very sexy. Visually, to this day, it’s still one of my favorite desserts. Visually, that stunned them, and stunned all the cooks in the kitchen. They were all very blown away.

But I think the one that really, really got them was a dessert that I did there, obviously, and also at The Bazaar, which was the tres leches, where I did a tres leches cake, and I made a tres leches espuma, and did caramelized pineapple frozen in liquid nitrogen. And I don’t think Tony, the chef, had ever seen that technique used before. Nor had Joachim. I think they were blown away and impressed by the new technique, as well as it tasted really good and amazing. That’s why I love using liquid nitrogen and using those things. I don’t just use them to be showy and because I can. I only use it if it will maintain the integrity of the food and the ingredient, but also make it taste better. Why I love using liquid nitrogen is you can get this hard, frozen outer shell with this soft, creamy inside. Until recently, and until using liquid nitrogen, you can’t really achieve that texture and that characteristic. That was the one thing that they were just blown away and sold. On my first day, Tony said to me, “That, that has to be on the menu right now. Put it on the menu today.” I’m like, “I kind of need liquid nitrogen, and I don’t think I can get that today.” I think that was the one thing that won it for me.

Why did you decide that donuts need rethinking?

It kind of ties back into my whole realm of I love doing everything in pastry. I love breakfast pastries, muffins, scones, donuts, chocolates, plated desserts, everything, and really just that sort of entrepreneurial spirit in me sort of started to show itself. I knew at some point I really wanted to own my own business, but didn’t really know how or when that would happen. I was sitting with my friend, my partner Nancy [Truman]. Her sort of fun concept, she was making this amazing wheat and gluten-free, vegan banana bread, and baking them in donut shapes and calling them fōnuts and seeing the reaction and everything. It was sort of like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” And donuts right now – donuts have been around literally since the early 1900s. Donuts aren’t going anywhere. Donuts are amazing comfort food. People love them, always have, always will. And in New York and Chicago right now, I feel there’s this very big popularity in donuts and sort of high-end donut shops, and whatnot. I was like, “There’s nothing like that in L.A. right now.”

The countless, endless amounts of people who would always come up to me and be like, “You need to open this,” or “You need to open that.” Or, “There’s nowhere you can get a good cup of coffee or great baked good together in the same place. They’re like, “I love the coffee at that place, but I don’t love the baked goods,” or this or that. I feel like Los Angeles right now is finally a serious food town, and I think that we’re a little slow, and we’re a little bit behind, and always have been, Chicago and other places. Seeing the donut craze there taking off and really wanting to be cutting-edge and introducing and doing something new, I would never do something that’s already been out there. I’ve very much been out there and listened to the people and seen what the people want, and what I like and what’s fun. Why not take an all-time American classic and favorite and put a new spin on it? I don’t think you can really go wrong with that. It sort of came from a place like, “I want to take something that people love, and make it better and make it different and make it new.” I think that there’s no reason and no excuse as a chef and as a pastry chef, in this day and age, with all the technology and the kitchen tools and gadgets and knowledge that we have that you can’t make certain things better and new and different. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with the original in any way, shape or form, but why not use the knowledge that I have to make it a little healthier – where it’s baked, not fried – my dessert style has always been, nothing I do is overly sweet, nothing I do is really overly indulgent and heavy. That’s just not my dessert style. It was natural to me, especially living in L.A., and we’re a little more health conscious here, to, yeah, why not make a donut, and make it as great as a donut is, but don’t fry it. Make it healthier. Offer it baked, offer it vegan, offer it wheat and gluten free. I think there’s such a demand for that, and so many people fall short and don’t get to share an experience and eat good baked goods because of that. That was sort of the reasoning behind it.

You’re going to have savory fōnuts too?

I will have a couple savory fōnuts as well. I love savory. I definitely like to have savory options as a break from all the sweet all the time. I think that I want everybody to be able to walk in there and find something that will make them happy, and not everybody’s in the mood for something sweet. Maybe in the afternoon or during lunchtime, you don’t have a lot of time and you want to come grab a coffee and you want something more savory because you don’t want to eat a sweet donut for lunch, or a snack on the go. I really want there to be something for everybody, where everybody can walk in and find something. If you’re vegan, we have something for you. Gluten free, we have something for you. Not a big sweet person, we have something for you. A totally down and dirty sweet tooth, we have something completely indulgent and over the top for you as well.

Have you decided on the coffee that you’re going to go with?

We are going to go with LAMILL. I tasted a lot of coffees from Stumptown and Intelligentsia and Blue Bottle, and I really went with LAMILL because they just really, to me, seemed to have a superior product. And I really believe whole heartedly in how they run their operation and how serious they are about it. I love that it’s an L.A. based company. I really want to support that and be a part of that, so it was a very natural partnering. They’re very excited, and they know me and have followed me from different restaurants throughout my career. I’ve done tastings and gone to their place in Alhambra where they do all their roastings and sat and done tastings for them and sat and done chocolates and bonbons for them to pair with their coffees. We’ve already had a long working relationship, so they know my style and they know how passionate I am and I think that they share that passion. It was a good partnership and we’re working really closely together to really have a very serious, very good high end coffee program and offer a lot of tea and coffee beverages that you might not find anywhere else.

Will you incorporate their coffee into your fōnuts?

Yeah, definitely.

Would you say that you have any pastry mentors?

There are pastry chefs, I’ve followed their careers and I’ve read their books, that I admire. I never really had a chef that taught me and showed me everything and really was my mentor, which has been challenging in my career, but I think, ultimately, it pushed me and moved me along much faster because I really had to be driven and focused and really had to study and learn and ask questions where I could, read books.

I would say, Adrian [Vasquez] from Providence was one of my favorites. I loved his desserts, his style, his textures, his depth, his flavors.

Sherry Yard, I grew up eating at Spago as long as I remember, so growing up with her desserts, she was one of those people that, when the desserts would come out to the table, and the little plates of cookies and petit fours would come out at the end of the meal, I would just smile and get so giddy and happy, and they were so cute and fun, and I think that definitely played a major role in me wanting to become a pastry chef for myself. As far as L.A.’s concerned, I would say those are two of the chefs that early on in my career were influential.

Jordan Kahn is amazing, and a genius, and his style is phenomenal.

Do you have any favorite outdoor activities?

I have lots of favorite outdoor activities, not that I do any of them anymore. I’m a big surfer. Obviously that’s why I moved to Costa Rica. I love surfing. I have a motorcyle. I love riding motorcycles. I have two dogs I love playing with. I grew up riding horses and I used to compete riding horses, so that’s a big, big, big love of mine. I love snowboarding. Those are probably my big favorites.

If you could only eat one more dessert, your last dessert, what would it be?

That’s a tough one. I would have to say, there was a dessert that Jordan Kahn did at XIV, and I don’t even remember 100% what it was, but it was a cedar ice cream with smoky notes and wood, and it was in this glass with liquid on the bottom, and it was layered. It was beautiful. There are not a lot of desserts, even in savory dishes or desserts, that really stand out in my mind, but that is definitely a dessert that stands out in my mind. If I had one last dessert, I would be happy with that.