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Simple! Sensible! Sensational!® A MASTER BAKER SHARES HIS MAGICI’ve written previous columns about cookies and quick breads, but that’s not “real” baking. Oh sure, my recipes are delicious, but I’m not (yet) a true baker. In my ongoing goal to bring you knowledge and education, I was fortunate to be able to get a talented baker, award-winning cake stylist and Master Sugar Artist to answer some questions about baking that you can use in your own life. I first encountered Mark Seaman (or rather, his work) when I was at the Chicago Botanic Garden about three years ago. Mark had given a demonstration on wedding cakes (he recently won the gold medal at the “Academy Awards of the baking world, the Annual Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show and Wedding Cake Competition for his Lucille Ball inspired wedding cake), and though I missed his presentation, there were still samples left. I took one, put it in my mouth, and my immediate reaction was, “Wow! This is the best wedding cake I have EVER tasted.” I reached out to Mark shortly after that via email, and he graciously invited me to visit his facility. Well, time passed, and I saw Mark occasionally on TV (various competitions on the Food TV Network around the country), but I could never find time to schedule a visit to his facility. Every time I reached out to him, he again graciously repeated his offer. He’s just a generous kind of guy. Recently, the Culinary Historians of Chicago, of which I am a member, announced that Mark would be presenting a talk (with samples!) on the history of French pastry. I had an “Aha!” moment: Why not invite Mark to do an interview for GOD-DESS? My schedule was opening up, and when I reached out once again to Mark, he again was gracious in accepting my invitation for an interview, and he once more extended an invitation to visit his facility. I visited his impressive facility recently (it’s only a five-minute drive from Casa Beall!), and later conducted this phone interview. I was blown away by Mark’s knowledge, life, activities and worldview. I think you’ll be blown away as well. Bret S. Beall (BSB): Mark, I want to thank you for taking the time to speak with me. I know how busy you are with your retail business and other activities. Mark Seaman (MS): No problem. I’m happy to do it. BSB: I’d like to start with the beginning. When did you first start baking, both for pleasure, and professionally? MS: I have been baking personally for many years since learning with my mother in a small town in Pennsylvania. Professionally, I’ve only been baking about ten years, though some days its feels like 100 years, while other days it feels like two weeks. BSB: I'm a cook, and a damned good one, but I'm not really a baker. People talk about the need for precision when baking, and that this precision is one of the key differences between general cooking and baking. Do you care to comment on that dichotomy? MS: What I would say is that people who have the kind of propensity for being exact are better geared toward the baking end of things, while people who are more relaxed might be better suited for the savory side of things. Lack of precision might change the outcome minutely, sometimes dramatically, but you must pay attention to those sorts of things when you bake. BSB: One of the things that really impresses me about your approach is that you use what we both use and call "real food": real butter, real sugar, real flour ... none of the fake facsimiles of these ingredients. When did you adopt this philosophy to use only "real food" and how did you make it happen? MS: The interesting thing is that I never really consciously adopted this philosophy because it’s all I ever knew. When I was first learning to bake, that’s all I ever knew and used. When I discovered that the use of artificial ingredients was a widely accepted practice in the professional world, I was turned off. Ingredients that are fabricated with chemicals artificially don’t really fit well with our taste buds or bodies. It isn’t natural to put them into our bodies, so we shouldn’t put them into our foods. BSB: Let's say I want to get started as a rudimentary baker. What basic equipment will I need to be able to create the more elementary types of baked goods? And do you recommend any particular purveyors when it comes to sourcing ingredients? MS: On the equipment side of things, I think a really fine set of knives is necessary, even though knives may not be the first thing one thinks of with regard to baking. We own measuring cups and rolling pins and the like. Really fine knives like those from Wüsthoff are my favorites. You may spend $300 on a good knife set, but they will serve you forever. MS: For ingredients, it depends where you live. Find a store that understands the products it is selling. If you have access to a farmer’s market, make use of those products, as they are more locally grown. For grocery stores, I recommend smaller, more independent stores. You can find unique and local ingredients there. BSB: Once I've followed your advice and have created all of these fantastic goodies, how do I follow your lead and avoid becoming fat? I'm serious about that, but I'm also interested in your opinion about the shelf life of "real" baked goods (ie, no preservatives), and what you advise would be regarding refrigerating and freezing baked goods so they don't have to be consumed immediately, and I can spread the calories over several days, LOL. MS: On the obesity issue: in this country, I think that we have many issues that lead to the obvious obesity problem becoming prevalent especially in the teenage population. We don’t really pay attention to what we put into our bodies, either the content or the volume. After living in France and Italy, I know that all of their food is prepared properly on a daily basis. To use your term from earlier, “real food.” They eat at proper times, and don’t snack throughout the day by filling their drawers at work with junk food. If you watch TV and observe the number of “food” commercials, you will have your mind blown. Restaurants over serve food here, and most of their food is rather fatty. We eat too much, and consume too much of the bad types of fat that we do not need. When it comes to dessert, we are never really satisfied by the “food,” and this comes from not having really high quality ingredients. For example, with higher quality European chocolate, you get real chocolate flavor. If you don’t get that chocolate flavor, you don’t satisfy your cravings. The same is true of any desserts made with artificial ingredients; it just isn’t the same as using real butter and real sugar. You will feel better satiated when using real ingredients. Instead, we prepare food differently from how we should prepare it, and we prepare too much of it. And we eat too fast! Our culture doesn’t get it. MS: With regard to preserving a baked good, it depends on what it is. Some items have a good shelf life. Right now, I have a fruit pie on my counter on its third day, and it’s doing just fine. With other things like coffee cakes, you can cut them up into individual portions, wrap them in plastic bags, and yank out a piece when you have your morning coffee. Some things can be stored at room temperature, while others should be refrigerated. If you keep quality desserts on hand, you may actually reduce your desire to consume too much quantity. BSB: What techniques should the novice baker start with? What general words of advice do you have for the novice baker? MS: What most people may not realize is that all ingredients should be at the same room temperature when they are starting a recipe, so that the ingredients can emulsify. If you are making chocolate chip cookies, you are using the creaming method to combine butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. You can use this as a basic method for many recipes. Leave the butter on the counter for a while, or microwave it at brief intervals. You can put the eggs in warm water to bring up their temperature. When you combine these ingredients at room temperature, you get a more homogenous mixture, and that leads to greater success. BSB: Your sugar designs are inspired by nature. As a trained biologist, I can attest that your sugar work is amazingly realistic. What are your design influences, and how did you learn to design? Tell me a bit about your designation as a Master Sugar Artist. MS: My design influences for either a sugar sculpture or a cake can really come from anywhere. Everything that I see is essentially a cake. I’m looking at a lampshade right now that has this really interesting beaded pattern, and that would be a cool effect on a cake. When I walking down a street, I might see a church with gargoyles and other features, and that can inspire a cake. Now as far as nature is concerned, I travel, and there are some interesting places I’ve visited that have incredible flowers we don’t have here. For instance, I visited Costa Rica a few years ago and saw orchids there that aren’t seen anywhere else. I visited many orchid gardens and sanctuaries, and that provided much inspiration. I use personal observations like that when I’m in Chicago, for instance when I visit the Lincoln Park Conservatory. I’ve also taken inspiration from various kinds of formal art. There is a painter in the same building as my baking facility, and I used her organic style of work to inspire a sugar sculpture of the same color tone and feel. MS: How I learned design? I think it is something personally innate: you have a natural sense of style; you understand what looks good to the eye and what doesn’t look so good. There are certain mathematical equations related to good design, but as far as coming up with a definitive look, I think you have an innate feeling for the medium you are working on. You need to figure out how to use that medium to create the effect you are going for. Through trial and error, you need to figure out what is okay, and what isn’t. MS: Oh, “Master Sugar Artist”: about a year ago I won first place in a national wedding cake contest. The organizer of that show, Kerry Vincent, told me that I should be calling myself a “Master Sugar Artist.” I laughed, but she explained that when one reaches the gold level in the US, one is entitled to use the term Master, and I have reluctantly done that. Because I work with so many Europeans, and French in particular, how could I possibly call myself by the same name when they do so much more? But, as I said, I reluctantly do so here. BSB: As you alluded to above, your exceptional sugar work is part of the reason you won the Gold Medal in the Matchmaker’s Division for your wedding cake design at the 14th Annual Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show and Wedding Cake Competition. Congratulations! Tell me about that competition and your awesome creation, and about your history and future in competing. MS: Thank you! That show was the third time I competed in that particular show. I was really excited about it as the theme was Hollywood glamour. I was drawn to the theme, and that really helps my work on a design. I came across some pictures of Lucille Ball from before her “I Love Lucy” days; Lucy was actually voted “Best Dressed in Hollywood” in those early days, and was very glamorous. What I really liked were the different patterns and textures and colors of the outfits she was wearing in those pictures, especially the feathers that she used in her stage show. She also really liked orchids. As I kept going through the pictures, I made a list of those items that seemed to represent her. Feathers and orchids became the overall theme. Over a week, I created a pedestal made of black fondant that became the foundation for my “Feathered Fantasy.” That pedestal features over 400 hand-made feathers from hand-rolled fondant. I allotted one day to make the pedestal; it took me 48 hours. I spent about 200 hours making the entire piece. It had 80 orchid blossoms, each made out of sugar, plus an additional 100 feathers. I recreated tiny earrings cast from a piece of jewelry like what Lucy wore to further decorate the cake. And the piece de resistance was a 24-inch diameter cast sugar mosaic presentation board. This piece fit in between the cake and the feather-covered pedestal. It was a translucent piece made out of sugar cooked to about 310 degrees Fahrenheit, then tinted purple, poured out, allowed to set, then broken into many pieces resembling mosaic glass, and framed out in a 24-inch ring, and then covered by another poured batch of clear melted sugar, resulting in a presentation board that looked like mosaic glass. It was supported above the table on the feathered pedestal and that allowed the light to pass through and reflect off the mirror on the table that had its own decorations. MS: The table dressing itself was spectacular. For the competition, you have a 40” diameter table to decorate. I decorated mine in ivory satin and purple pheasant feathers; there were three thousand of them in concentric circles. It was amazing. BSB: It’s a testament to your talent that you are also doing quite a bit of judging. How did this come about, and what competitions will you be judging in the near future? MS: I’m taking 2009 off from competing. I’ve just returned from North Carolina where I judged the National Gingerbread Competition at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. There were about 200 entries to judge, so it’s a very large show. I’ll also be teaching more, including at a cake show in Austin in February. I’ll also be both teaching and judging at the National Capital Area Cake Show in Washington, DC. BSB: A few years ago you opened up a retail bakery in Libertyville, Illinois, about 30 miles north of Chicago. What kind of goodies can people expect to find at your bakery? MS: I try to keep a very approachable line of desserts and pastries. Cookies are our #2 seller after custom cakes. We have a variety of cookies, though chocolate chip is the most popular, as are brownies. We also have a cold case filled with French pastries like cream tarts, éclairs, pies, and this time of year I’m doing pumpkin cannolis, tiramisu, and specialty cupcakes. We have breakfast items, like coffee cakes and scones. Our signature muffin is the triple berry with white chocolate chunks; the berries are raspberries, blueberries and blackberry, and when combined with the white chocolate, the muffins are very popular. This time of year I’m doing a pear ginger muffin as well. BSB: Mmmm. Everything sounds delicious. Unfortunately, I know your wedding cakes and baked goods are only available locally. If someone in the greater Chicago area wanted to order one of your wedding cakes, what is the procedure? Please talk me through the process. MS: It’s pretty straightforward. Give me a call (773.761.3800) or email (mark@markedfordessert.com). We first set a date to make sure I can accommodate since I travel extensively for teaching and judging. I need to be in town for at least one week prior to a wedding. I invite the person, ideally the couple, into our offices so that they can taste fillings and cakes, and so that we can talk about decisions; we can incorporate design elements from the dress or the stationary or the table dressings or the linens or the colors and/or architecture from the room. We like to have some kind of tie-in with our cakes. We’ll develop a quick sketch to help the person visualize. Then I come up with a budget. Of course, people have had their cakes taken to other states, so if someone is getting married in a state adjacent to Illinois, we can sometimes accommodate that, but that will naturally affect the overall budget on their end due to logistical issues on my end. BSB: You also teach classes. Having heard you speak, I can vouch that you are an excellent teacher, being both knowledgeable and entertaining. When did you get the "teaching bug," as it were? Can you tell us a bit about the format and goals of your classes, which people can learn about at http://www.markedfordessert.com/? MS: I think I’ve always enjoyed sharing my knowledge; watching people have that light bulb effect. The very first time I ever taught anything was in high school. I was the only student in fifth year French, so the teacher was always coming up with things to keep me interested, and one of the things she did was having me teach a French 1 class, and that was a great experience. MS: The format and goals of my baking classes are straightforward, informal, and designed to be as interactive as possible and to encourage the class to ask as many questions as possible. I think people get the most knowledge by asking questions they have formulated themselves. If it is technical task, the goal is to be able to repeat that task. If it is a language skill, they need to use that language in a real life setting. BSB: You are starting a new venture leading culinary tours of France. I heard you speak about it during your presentation for the Culinary Historians of Chicago, and it sounds absolutely fantastic, and your website http://www.markedfordessert.com/ offers all kinds of information, including how to register for the first tour. You have set up some truly amazing opportunities for the people taking these tours. Would you care to share a bit of what you have planned for this inaugural trip, and beyond? MS: Sure. We have lots of exciting things for the first tour April 28 to May 7, 2009. I think one of my favorite things is spending a day with a food historian who currently lives in Rome and spends her time in France and Italy. She is taking us to the world’s largest commercial food market in Paris to see the process by which food is brought to dinner tables and restaurants and hotels in that city. Afterwards, she’ll take us on a walking tour of Paris to see many things, but to help us understand the development of pastry in particular. We’ll visit a number of pastry shops, and look behind the scenes with her. One highlight of that walking tour is that we’ll visit Alain Ducasse at the Plaza Athenee, where we’ll see his pastry chefs at work. We’ll be taking hands on pastry classes at the Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon. Each subsequent tour that we plan will change things around a bit. Paris will always be the core, but a second city always will be attached. This trip has Lyon. The next trip will include Nantes, where I lived for a while. We’ll eventually be going to Bordeaux, and we’ll also be adding other French speaking countries like Switzerland and Belgium, and one very exciting and unexpected future spot will be Morocco. BSB: Competing! Judging! Organizing a tour of France! Teaching workshops. Operating a retail bakery! How do you do it all? And while you are answering that, tell me what does Mark Seaman offer that is special, rare and even unique in your industry? What do you want people to know about your career that they may not know? MS: I don’t think I do anything differently from any other busy person. I organize my week so I have a plan for each thing. I try to not have any idle time. I try to accomplish as many things as possible throughout each day. I don’t want to go to bed feeling like I have ten things I’ve saved until tomorrow. As far as rare and unique, I think probably the most unique thing I do is turning people down. In business, everyone is out to make a buck, and most will do anything, even when they are already overextended. It has always been my policy that if my staff and I are physically maxed out, we tell people, “No, we can’t help you.” It is better to refer them to trusted colleagues elsewhere where they get what they want rather than to allow our final product to suffer, which it will if we overextend ourselves (and which happens when others overextend themselves). That allows us to offer the best products at all times. It may not be the best practice from a strictly income perspective, but it is the best practice from an overall human perspective. MS: What people don’t know about me is that I’ve not always been a baker. My past life involved going to college to study foreign language. I’m fluent in French, with basic understanding of Italian, Russian, American Sign Language and Swedish. As language is culture, this knowledge has helped me to avoid becoming too ethnocentric in the way I operate my life and bakery. I also did Microsoft training for corporations, and worked in the Internet group for one of the country’s largest corporations; that has allowed me to bring many skills to my business unrelated to baking. BSB: Are there any final thoughts you'd like to leave with my readers? MS: I’m really excited when people bake something at home. But if you don’t have the time to do it properly with the real ingredients, go to a good bakery and buy well-prepared baked goods. BSB: Thank you, Mark. I knew we'd have a great time talking, but the more I learn about your outlook, the more I realize how closely allied you are with the goals of GOD-DESS. Thank you for taking the time to share with other like-minded individuals. And thank you for the delicious recipe for crepes that you’ve shared below! You rock! Readers, please visit Mark’s website, http://www.markedfordessert.com/ to learn more about Mark’s creations and educational opportunities. You can also contact his Libertyville bakery at 847.367.9898 if you are in the area. I’ve already learned a LOT! And if you are intrigued by this man of many talents, I’m sure he’s available to speak to your group if you contact him at 773.761.3800 or mark@markedfordessert.com. He’s an amazing speaker! To emphasize Mark’s generous nature, he’s provided the following history of, and recipe for delicious dessert crêpes.
Dessert Crêpes History and Terminology Although crêpes are often considered to be a French delicacy, crêpes originated in Brittany (Bretagne), where they were used as bread. Brittany, a separate country until 1491, still has a very unique culture and cuisine. The word crêpe is French for “pancake”. Crêpes were originally called galettes crêpes, meaning “flat cakes”. Today, the term galette refers to a savory crêpe served as a main dish, usually made with buckwheat flour. A crêpe is usually made with wheat flour and is generally sweeter than a galette. The word crêpe refers both to the individual “pancake” as well as the filled product. Fillings include a wide variety of both sweet and savory foods from fresh vegetables, seafood and meats to fruits and even chocolate. Mixing Techniques Shaping and Filling Techniques Some of the most common shapes are:
Storage Recipe for dessert crêpes
Filling ideas: beurre sucre, banane chocolat, whipped cream & nuts, mousse, cinnamon apples & Calvados flambée, candied chestnuts and whipped cream Orange sauce
Hold the oranges over a large skillet and rub the sugar cubes all over the skins. When the cubes start to crumble, let them drop into the pan. Halve and squeeze the oranges and strain the juice. Set the skillet over a medium heat and sprinkle in the sugar. When it starts to caramelize and turn golden, stir in the strained orange juice and simmer for a few minutes. Lay a crepe in the sauce and turn it to coat both sides. Fold it into quarters and place on a plate. Use the lemon juice to thin the sauce if it looks sticky or thick. Bring a pan of water to boil and blanch the orange zest. Remove with a slotted spoon. Add to the orange sauce and boil. Lower the heat and whisk in the butter, until the sauce is shiny. Stir in the Cointreau and pour over the crepes. Heat the Cognac and pour over the crepes. Light.
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