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American master pastry chef Nick Malgieri loves calamansi

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Angelo G. Garcia

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/news/08/03/chef-1.jpg"/><figcaption>Renowned master pastry chef Nick Malgieri is here in the country to do a demo about chocolates at WOFEX 2018. Photo by author</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA -- If there is one Filipino ingredient American master pastry chef Nick Malgieri wants to be readily available in the US, it would be the citrus fruit calamansi. When asked what local ingredients he has worked with, the award-winning chef cited several, including eggs and calamansi.“Some of the local eggs and I mean the yolks of the eggs here are almost red. The ones in the United States can barely make it to pale yellow,” he said during a recent press conference at Conrad Hotel in Pasay City. “I like calamansi though. I&#x27;d love to be able to get it at home and use it for something,” the pastry chef shared. The Italian-American chef is here in the Philippines for an upcoming demo at the World Food Exhibit (WOFEX) 2018 on Friday at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City. Dubbed “A Date with Chocolate,” the demo was made possible Innobake, a distributor of fine chocolate products for baking. Chef Malgieri is renowned across the globe and was inducted into the Who&#x27;s Who of Food and Beverage in America and was voted several times as one of the best pastry chefs in the US. He is also an accomplished author publishing several books including the James Beard Foundation-awarded &quot;How to Bake&quot; (1995) and the critically acclaimed &quot;Chocolate&quot; (1998) published by Harper Collins. <div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/news/08/03/chef-2.jpg"/><figcaption>The critically acclaimed &#x27;Chocolate&#x27; book by chef Nick Malgieri. Handout</figcaption></figure></div>The chef was born and grew up in New Jersey and was highly influenced by his grandmother in the kitchen. “You know, people are influenced by so many things and you would probably hear 99 out of 100 chefs say this, &#x27;by my home and my family because I came from a home where cooking and baking are important.&#x27; My mother, she was a good cook but she hated to cook but her mother was a very, very fine cook and baker and that really made all the difference in the world to me,” he shared. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has worked in various kitchens around the world including the US, Switzerland and France. He is also a beloved educator, teaching in different culinary schools in the US like the New School Culinary Arts Program and the Institute of Culinary Education. For the demo, he will be focusing on chocolate and for him the best chocolates are the ones that allow the intrinsic flavor to come through. “The standards are changing a little bit. But you know, the real standard for good chocolate, I think is, careful fermentation that is really, really important,&quot; he said, noting that lack in fermentation results in &quot;some kind of weird chlorine notes in the flavor,&quot; while overfermention can make the chocolate taste &quot;a little yeasty.&quot; &quot;Chocolates that are normally meant to be sweet like milk chocolate still need to have the sugar handled judiciously and not overdo it. Basically, the best chocolates allow the intrinsic flavor of the chocolate to come through and they don&#x27;t mask it with anything,” he said. So what does he think about modern chocolate trends? A lot of artisanal chocolate bars makers love to incorporate unusual ingredients in chocolate. Sometimes, these new chocolatiers use raw unfermented chocolates. “Nowadays, people are making these unheated chocolates or raw chocolates but they&#x27;re putting lavander flowers and peppercorns, you know everything you can shake a stick at, and use it to flavor the chocolate. But what are you tasting? If I want a big hint of cinnamon, I&#x27;ll eat a cinnamon bun not a chocolate bar, right? I think that&#x27;s a little bit confused. Anything that tries to be everything usually winds up nothing in particular,” Malgieri said. <div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/news/08/03/chef-3.jpg"/><figcaption>Chef Nick Malgieri shares his baking insights during the press conference with host Karen Kabuhat. Handout</figcaption></figure></div>But according to him not all new standards are bad, if one does it the right way. Some baking techniques have changed, thanks to new technology. Flavors have evolved as well and chefs are innovating more and more. “The last time I went to a chocolate place in Switzerland, they were making the center of the truffles in a sterile vacuum environment so that there couldn&#x27;t be possibly anything in the center mixture that could spoil. There&#x27;s lot of innovation in terms of technology, whether it&#x27;s in sanitation or in mechanization in doing particular jobs. But I think what&#x27;s happening is, people are using those new methods to achieve results with traditional recipes, they&#x27;re just improving on them a little bit,” he shared. “There is a strong trend, if I&#x27;m looking at the best of it, for making some standard things with a twist. I think that worked out really nicely though, in some of the ways. A friend in Gramercy Tavern, the people at Ovenly in Brooklyn, they&#x27;re using more herbs and spices in new ways. Again, it can be a lemon meringue pie or raisins scones and they&#x27;re kicked up a notch with an ingredient that it might be new and a little bit surprising,” he added. In terms of baking, he advises home cooks and aspiring bakers to not be intimidated with the craft, because it&#x27;s all about attitude.“Anybody who hasn&#x27;t tried baking should make either a plain cake or cookies but specifically with chocolate, I think brownies are a great thing. First of all, who doesn&#x27;t like brownies? And secondly, 90 percent of the time, they&#x27;re really easy to make,” he said. “I think it&#x27;s more question of attitude more than anything else.”

If there is one Filipino ingredient American master pastry chef Nick Malgieri wants to be readily available in the US, it would be the citrus fruit calamansi.

If there is one Filipino ingredient American master pastry chef Nick Malgieri wants to be readily available in the US, it would be the citrus fruit calamansi.