[ HAWAII AT WORK ]
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Chef has a feel
for bread
Jeff Walters fell into his career
as a pastry chefI'm a pastry chef at Chef Mavro.
Everywhere I work it's something different. Here I'm pretty much responsible for everything from bread to truffles. I do some chocolate decorations on the side, but mostly I just work here now.
I was at the Halekulani when Chef Mavro (restaurateur George Mavrothalassitis) was there. Then he went to the Four Seasons on Maui and I eventually wound up at the Ritz-Carlton on Maui.
Right about the time I got back to Oahu, he was opening this restaurant. It wasn't really planned, but I've been here ever since.
I got started in the business when I moved to Hawaii in 1982 by driving a delivery truck for a bakery.
I decided I didn't want to drive a delivery truck for the rest of my life, so about a year later I stared baking. When I got to a hotel, they put me through an apprenticeship program.
It's nothing I even thought I'd do, I just sort of fell into it.
I sort of have a feel for it so that helps. Say the bread, for example, I have a recipe I work from, but I just sort of feel it through. I scale the water out until it feels right. Tempering chocolate is the same way. And I've found over the years that in a chiffon cake, the less I whip my egg whites, the nicer the cake comes out. In school they always tell you to whip them a lot.
So, I prefer to sort of do things by feel rather than follow a recipe.
I like physically doing things. If I wasn't doing this I'd be doing some other kind of physical work.
The diversity of baking keeps it interesting. I started with breads, and I still enjoy that, but I also like doing chocolate work and pulled sugar, which are the sugary flower and fruit shapes.
If someone is interested in becoming a pastry chef, the sooner they start the better.
I got started kind of late. I stated baking when I was 22, and didn't start pastry until I was 29.
That's a little late. The more time you put into it, the better you get.
Hawaii At Work tells what people do for a living in their own words. Send submissions to: business@starbulletin.com
