Pastry chef took adventurous, unique path to kitchen

Well-traveled and steeped in the lore of pastry arts, Brad Spates, who is the pastry chef at the cooking school Cookology at Dulles Town Center, is a cooking inspiration, a one-of-a-kind guy, someone who turned down a place at MIT to bake; who travels to Tibet with his dog; who has owned and cooked for his own tiny restaurant in Beijing and who, as executive chef, makes cupcakes for Lola’s in Leesburg. Aside from all that, he works long hours at Cookology, baking, cooking and teaching. A graduate of both the Culinary Institute of America and the James Rumsey Technical Institute in Martinsburg, W.Va., Spates also has polished his baking skills with some of the best in his profession, including Master Chef Judeth Stains and Culinary Institute Award-winning chefs Steve Brown and Steve Weiss, executive pastry chefs of the Trump Taj Mahal and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

For someone who acknowledges that his earliest culinary training was working at a Dunkin’ Donuts in New York City, Spates has come a long way, baby.

“I loved making doughnuts,” he said. “I loved the fast pace, and the fact you could think about 110 things at once, which I loved. I love working 80 hours a week. I love to keep moving.”

Imagine that at the age of 16, after turning down a scholarship to MIT, a teen turns up at the Culinary Institute.

“I was really too young to be a student, because the youngest they take you is 17 years old,” he said, adding he then went to the Cordon Bleu in Paris. When he returned to the Culinary Institute later, Spates spent a year studying classical French cooking, and the second year studying pastry.

“I love the art side of cooking, so I really love pastry,” he said.

After graduation, he went back to Paris, where he signed on to a restaurant as a line cook, but advanced to executive chef and pastry chef after six months. After five years in France, Spates took a year off to travel throughout Asia, ending up in Beijing owning his French-American restaurant.

“At first, we sold only sandwiches,” he said, admitting that since he did not speak Mandarin, he relied on his English-speaking staffers for some rather critical help: ordering food, helping customers and organizing his cooks. “After a year, it became popular and we served Italian and American duck recipes. I hate cooking duck.”

After selling his restaurant and moving to the D.C. area, Spates began baking in earnest, first by working at the from-scratch Lola’s Cookies and Treats, and then coming to Cookology as its pastry chef and teacher. Now, Spates pitches in to help the executive chef, Ian Douglass, with some of the savory cooking classes and wine dinners. For all his work, he draws upon his background in classical French and American cuisine.

“The food I make,” he said, “I just use a lot of cheese, spices and pepper flavors with such unusual components as agar, aloe, liquid nitrogen, guar gum, agave root and yak butter. I like things that are complex.”

So it should surprise no one that this offbeat guy looks for inspiration in hundred-year-old cookbooks and spends whatever spare time he has dreaming up crazy desserts such as the “Alice in Wonderland”-themed cake the studio hired him to produce for the film’s premiere. It also should be no surprise that he has spent the past three years perfecting cupcakes and making big, splashy cakes, such as the $24,000 “steam punk” cake he created for a nightclub.

“It fed 1,500 people,” he said. “It had 7,500 steam pumps, and it was all edible.”

Although he said he has settled down, who will be surprised that at some point this young guy goes off to fulfill another dream?

“I want to go back to the [Culinary Institute] because I want to earn a grilling master’s chef jacket,” he said.

Q&A with Chef Brad Spates

What is your comfort food?

Vanilla wafers, yeah, vanilla wafers. I love everything about them.

Which is your favorite dessert?

Anything with bitter fruit or desserts with heat, that are spicy. Any sorbet, but nothing that is an American classic.

What has been your luckiest moment?

It has to do with my fiancee. I don’t know what to say; we’ve been together forever.

Which is your favorite restaurant?

Tad’s Steakhouse in San Francisco. It reminds me of Waffle House. It’s greasy, heavy food … covered in onions. Wine glasses are covered in Saran Wrap. It’s delicious food you don’t have to think about. It’s open 24 hours.

What’s in your fridge?

Haven’t been home in about two weeks. Jell-O pudding cups, ice cream sandwiches, Mountain Dew — mostly Mountain Dew.

From the Chef’s Kitchen

Lemon Layer Cake

Serves 12

“This is my all-time favorite cake recipe. It’s a super-rich lemon cake made with fresh lemon juice and zest — no artificial flavors here. I like to coat it with my dark chocolate-and-sea salt ganache,” Spates said.

2 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted twice

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt, optional

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp lemon zest

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup lemon juice

Dark chocolate ganache, see recipe below

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Flour, line with parchment paper, and grease two 8-inch round cake pans.

Combine sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and lemon zest until fluffy. Gradually beat in the sugar as slowly as possible until completely combined. Add the eggs one at a time, then beat 2 to 3 minutes until the batter is light and fluffy.

Beat one-quarter of the dry ingredients into the wet batter, and then add all of the milk. Beat until combined. Add the remaining dry ingredients, alternating with lemon juice, beginning and ending with the dry. Divide batter between the two cake pans and smooth with spatula. Place pans on the middle rack in oven.

Bake for 25 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched. Cool in pans on a rack for 10 minutes.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

12 oz. dark Scharffen Berger chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 cup heavy cream

2 tsps coarsely ground sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium heat-resistant bowl.

Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it just reaches a boil. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and pour the cream over the chocolate. Stir gently to make sure all of the chocolate is covered by the cream and allow it to sit for a minute. Stir well, until it is smooth and blended. Add the sea salt and vanilla, and mix in thoroughly. Use the ganache immediately to cover the cake.