Pastry Arts Podcast

Tavel Bristol-Joseph is the Pastry Chef and Partner at Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Kalimotxo, Henbit, TLV and Canje in Austin, Texas. He began his culinary journey as a young boy, spending every Saturday afternoon baking cookies, cakes, and pies with his aunt. After moving to the United States from Guyana when he was 17 years old, Bristol-Joseph attended the New York Restaurant School. He then worked in a variety of restaurants in New York before moving to Tucson in 2006, where he joined Fox Restaurant Concepts. He worked within the restaurant group for two years before going to Zona 78 where he met and began working with Chef Kevin Fink. Fink and Bristol-Joseph decided to move to Austin to open Emmer & Rye in November 2015. Emmer & Rye has been included in Bon Appétit’s “America’s Best New Restaurants 2016” list, as well as named Austin American-Statesman’s“2018 Best Restaurant in Austin.” In 2020, Bristol-Joseph opened Hestia with Fink which has been named “#1 Best New Restaurant in America” by Robb Report. Bristol-Joseph also received the StarChefs Rising Star Award in 2017 and was named one of FOOD & WINE Magazine’s “Best New Chefs of 2020.” Bristol-Joseph is a proud father to teenaged twins and currently resides in Austin with his wife Brittany and his dog Gus Gus.

In this episode we discuss:

• Growing up in Guyana
• How Tavel got hooked on baking when he was young
• Moving to New York and enrolling in the New York Restaurant School
• Tavel’s work experience and meeting his future business partner
• Opening Emmer & Rye in 2015, and the challenges that came along with it
• Building the business, opening five more restaurants
• What makes Tavel’s Basque Cheesecake so good!
• How he motivates his team
• Being named one of Food & Wine Magazine’s ‘Best New Chefs of 2020’
• And much more!

Chef Pfeiffer’s exceptional career began with an apprenticeship in Alsace at the famous Jean Clauss Pâtisserie. Following his apprenticeship in Strasbourg, Pfeiffer went on to establish himself as a leading figure in the art of pastry working with some world-renowned families and establishments. Some of these include: the Royal Family in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Sultan of Brunei; the Hyatt Regency, Hong Kong; a prestigious pastry shop in Palo Alto, California; and both the Fairmont and Sheraton hotels in Chicago, Illinois. These experiences led Chef Pfeiffer to teach and consult for some of the most prominent properties and companies worldwide, such as the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the Atlantis Hotel in the Bahamas, and the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, Texas.

In 1995, Pfeiffer, along with Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F., founded The French Pastry School, which is considered one of the leading pastry and baking institutions in the world. He is the author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook, The Art of French Pastry, and has received numerous awards, including the French Legion of Honour Award, the highest honor awarded in France and the equivalent of knighthood.

In this episode we discuss:

• Surviving an apprenticeship at an Alsatian patisserie
• Working as the Executive Pastry Chef for the Sultan of Brunei
• New challenges: working in the U.S.
• Starting the French Pastry School in Chicago
• Winning silver with Team USA at the Coupe du Monde 1997
• A new challenge: Going for the MOF in Lyon
• Star role: being the subject of the documentary ‘The Kings of Pastry’
• Writing The Art of French Pastry, winner of a James Beard cookbook award
• And much more!

This episode is sponsored by:

Savencia Cheese USA: Creator of the revolutionary new Smithfield Pourable Cream Cheese. Created for chefs, by chefs, the pourable cream cheese eliminates the need to heat, bring to room temperature or paddle and is made with all-natural ingredients, no additives or fillers and whips beautifully to save you time. It’s time to rethink cream cheese. Find out more at: https://savenciafoodserviceusa.com/foodservice/domestic-foodservice/pourable-cream-cheese.html

Cydni N. Mitchell (aka Cyd) is a Bakery Consultant and the Sweet Business Coach behind Sweet Fest. Based in Atlanta, GA, Sweet Fest is an online company that supports the business needs of the Sweet Community in the areas of professional development, marketing, branding and web design. By trade, Cyd is an Accountant & Financial Analyst with a Masters from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the Head Instructor of the Sugar Coin Academy, an online business academy for business owners in the baking and sweets industry, and she is also the organizer of The Ultimate Sugar Show, Georgia’s Largest Annual Baking and Sweets Expo in Atlanta. She is also a Columnist for American Cake Decorating Magazine and has served as a judge on the Holiday Kids' Baking Battle on the CW.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Cyd's background and how she got started in the pastry and baking industry
• The challenge with pricing that many owners face
• A big mindset shift in determining pricing for products
• Marketing channels that are working now
• How other dessert business owners are marketing products
• And much more!

Get complimentary samples of The Perfect Purée to experience flavor first-hand delivered directly to your business. Samples are available to foodservice professionals in the United States to sample the robust flavor line-up of fruit purees, concentrates, zests and blends. Visit www.perfectpuree.com/pastryarts to request your samples now.

In 2006, while pregnant with her first son, Chef Nicole Patel made a batch of chocolate truffles as last-minute holiday gifts. To the delight of her friends and family, truffle-making became an enjoyable pastime for Nicole that relieved the stress of her corporate engineering job. In 2008, a serendipitous trip to the Texas Wine Country led to Nicole being the first person in Texas to make truffles using local wines. Thanks to her dedication and self-taught skills, Delysia Chocolatier quickly rose to become one of the Best Chocolatiers in the Americas, as recognized by the International Chocolate Salon and Taste TV.

Nicole has most recently been named 2023’s Best Chocolatier in the Americas with the highest honor, Six Star Award: Grand Master Chocolatier, an impressive designation she has received a total of ten times. Her most recent accolades comprise over 88 awards in total, among which are 20 gold medals and 22 silver medals. Notably, she has demonstrated unmatched mastery in the Spicy Chocolate, Hot Chocolate, Ruby Chocolate, and White Chocolate competition categories.

Nicole now pairs the process efficiency skills from her Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering degrees from Texas A&M University with unbound creativity in the kitchen to keep Delysia successfully moving forward. Nicole never could have imagined how her experience working at a Fortune 100 company as a supply chain, quality, and business process improvement expert would prime her for distributing her own products across the country.

Nicole lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Rahul and their two sons, Sébastien and Colin.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Nicole made the transition from a corporate career to chocolatier
• Juggling her day job with her chocolate business sideline
• The construction challenges of opening a brick-and-mortar business
• How she cultivates partnerships with other food artisans
• The big pivot: promoting virtual chocolate tastings during the pandemic
• How Nicole develops and maintains her corporate gift giving accounts
• Nicole’s top tips for cleaning chocolate molds
• And much more!

Episode Sponsored by

Dobla - IRCA

We know pastry chefs are busy. Ordering from Dobla and IRCA means not having to make everything from scratch, and instead spending time assembling final products for sale. It means getting more products in one place, which cuts down on the time spent browsing catalogs, placing orders and visiting with sales representatives. That means you spend less time focused on the business and more time on the thing you love: creating succulent sweets and savories that will keep your customers coming back for seconds. For more information, visit www.dobla.com.

Nathaniel Reid is the chef and owner of Nathaniel Reid Bakery in Kirkwood, Missouri. After graduating from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with a Grand Diploma in Culinary and Pastry Arts, Chef Reid worked in top pastry kitchens around the world, including Michelin 3-star restaurant, Joël Robuchon, in Las Vegas and the AAA Five Diamond St. Regis hotel in California.

In August 2016, his longtime dream to own his pastry shop became a reality with the opening of Nathaniel Reid Bakery. With his namesake brand, Reid takes thoughtful consideration into every detail of the guest experience. Each guest is greeted with a friendly, professional welcome as they are guided through his carefully curated menu of pastries and confections. From the twelve flavors of macarons to the spellbinding specialty cakes to the perfectly executed croissants and French pastries, each offering showcases Reid’s care for quality ingredients and expert technique. He built his bakery to be a place for the community and, in just a short amount of time, it has become just that – a community bakery led by a man with a superior talent and an even bigger heart.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why Nathaniel switched his studies from biology to pastry
• His decision to move to Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu
• Overcoming a setback, when a promised job in NYC didn’t materialize
• Working on the opening pastry team at Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas
• His first gig as an Executive Pastry Chef at the St. Regis Monarch Beach
• His position at Norman Love Confections in FL
• Nathaniel’s tip for making perfect pâte à choux
• And much more!