Probably each of us harbors the fantasy that life as a pastry chef and dessert creator is simply a sugary delight. What could be so hard about whipping up creamy concoctions or assembling a towering cake?
Well, meet the master, Steve Klc, baker and dessert maker extraordinaire — and a three-time RAMMY nominee for “Best Pastry Chef” in D.C. and chosen as D.C.’s first “Rising Star” pastry chef, in 2003 by Starchefs.com — whose sweet concepts have originated from the imagination of someone who attended Georgetown University as a “total science geek” with an eye toward medicine. But the problem was, he had only one real passion: cooking.
“I would talk my way into kitchens around town, and I worked for local catering companies,” he says.
To satisfy that inner cook, Klc [pronounced “kelch”] enrolled at Maryland’s L’Academie de Cuisine determined to be a chef. “I thought I knew all about cooking, but little did I realize I knew nothing,” he says. He also knew nothing about pastry work.
“I’d never even made brownies from a box,” he admits, and didn’t want to know anything about the sweet side of the kitchen. But he joined the pastry courses taught by pastry chef Mark Ramsdell — and that changed his life.
“I discovered that I loved desserts, working with chocolate and sugar, the precision, the science and the techniques,” he says. “Desserts are refined and sophisticated, and to make them successfully, you need to be skillful. What I discovered was I was grateful for being a science geek. … That’s what appealed to me more than marinating and grilling shrimp. I had found my calling.”
After graduating, Klc’s first job was working withRamsdell, helping him teach and to make wedding cakes.
“I loved the architectural form of the cake,” he says. “I loved the artistry.”
After several years of chocolate craft and sugar work, Klc became the first person in the United States to create very lifelike chocolate art flowers for cakes.
“I made a thin, organic magnolia entirely out of chocolate in 1996, and that put me on the map as a talented cake artist,” he says.
Commuting to New York in 1999, Klc created desserts for an avante-garde Indian restaurant and taught pastry classes at the French Culinary Institute, where he also taught his future wife, a pastry student who was a career-changer from D.C. Eventually, the couple settled in Washington, and as it happened, Klc was hired by José Andrés in 2002 to create desserts for Zaytinya, Andrés’ Mediterranean tapas restaurant; for Jaleo, his Spanish tapas restaurants; for Café Atlantico, his Nuevo Latino restaurant; and later, for Oyamel, his Mexican restaurant.
“He gave me a free hand with the desserts,” Klc says. “I also work in his style. For us, there is no distinction between savories and desserts, for the desserts are tied to his food. … It’s a la minute presentation.”
A busy man, Klc and his wife still keep the wedding cake and consulting businesses going, but as Klc notes, what makes him the proudest is to create desserts for the “best chef in the United States. … When the most amazing chef working in the [United States] comes calling, you can’t say ‘no.’ ” That’s some distinction.
If you go
Zaytinya
701 Ninth St. NW (Corner of Ninth and G streets)
Washington, D.C.
202-638-0800
» Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, Monday; 11: 30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to midnight Friday, Saturday. Brunch, Saturday, Sunday
Zaytinya’s Red Fruit Salad
(adapted for home cooks)
Any leftover syrup and red wine reduction will keep in the fridge for weeks. Use a quality red wine that you would drink with dinner. Look for ouzo, the Greek anise-flavored liqueur, in a liquor store. Use store-bought sorbet, because it will have a better texture than a made-at-home sorbet.
Ouzo “Jello”
2 tbsp. powdered unflavored gelatin
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. ouzo
Put 1/4 cup water in a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the water. Stir to prevent lumps. Let sit for two minutes. Combine the remaining ingredients in a saucepan and heat just enough to melt the sugar, but do not boil. Remove from the heat. Stir in the gelatin until combined. Pour into a small, covered container and refrigerate until set.
Simple syrup
1 cup granulated sugar
Combine the sugar with 1 cup water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Red wine reduction
1 bottle (750 mL) red wine
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Pour the wine into a saucepan, add the sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and cook for about 30 minutes or until liquid is reduced to about 1 C. Remove from the heat, and set aside to
cool.
Yogurt sauce
8 oz. plain yogurt, preferably Greek
1 tbsp. simple syrup
lime zest
Stir syrup and zest into yogurt and refrigerate.
Red fruit salad
Watermelon cubes, strawberries, raspberries, as desired
Garnish
Fresh mint and basil leaves, as desired
Crushed pistachios, as desired
Sorbet
1 pint raspberry or strawberry sorbet, or as desired
To serve, spread some yogurt on an individual plate and arrange the fruit on the yogurt. Add a few cubes of ouzo Jello, drizzle with the red wine reduction, sprinkle with a few herbs and pistachios, and finally add a scoop of berry sorbet.
In Klc’s own words
What is your cooking philosophy?
In order of importance: take risks with new flavor combination and create new forms for “old” desserts. Ingredients don’t have to be local, seasonal, organic, fresh or expensive in order to produce a great dessert. Reduce the sugar, use wine and spirits, and don’t be afraid to use grains, herbs, vegetables and other savory elements, like olive oil and salt, in desserts.
What is your comfort food?
Of my own desserts, probably my version of “tres leches” at Café Atlantico or at Oyamel and the liquid center chocolate cake versions I do at Zaytinya and Oyamel. Warm cakes, to me, say “comfort food.” To me, they are the equivalent of roast turkey with stuffing at Thanksgiving.
Which ingredients are your must-haves?
The basics for baking, obviously water, sugar, flour, butter, salt, etc. But the equipment is more important, more of a “must have” for a pastry chef than ingredients. Do I have an oven, fridge, freezer, ice cream maker, etc.? Then I turn to the ingredients and think about what I could make.
Do you cook at home?
My domain at home is pizza. So that means in a typical week I cook once. [Wife] Colleen, who worked for Susan Lindeborg at Morrison-Clark and for Michel Richard at Citronelle, cooks everything else.
