Make It Right

There's a lot of obsessions in an autistic's life. Everything from various media franchises, various routes to school or work, various attractive young women, and pipes and cigars have been the case with me. Sometimes these obsessions are benign, if useless, such as obsessing about always taking the same route somewhere, and other times they can set me up for a profound emotional fall, as with developing obsessive crushes on attractive women. Positive outcomes can come from some of the obsessions, however. Such is the case with my love of baking and pastry arts. Although it led me down a path that includes an ultimately failed company, it's a lot of fun. As I proceed to make a serious attempt to attend The Culinary Institute Of America In San Antonio, I have been giving a lot of thought to my philosophy about dessert. I get that most people over the age of twelve just think of it as this sugary snack after the meal, but, in my opinion, dessert is important. Let me explain why.

We pastry chefs are in a different boat than our general culinary counterparts. How many big-name restaurants do you know who would offer only a couple of savory items on their menu, all of them bought as cheaply as possible, with no mind whatsoever given to the quality of the ingredients? Not too many, I'm guessing. Yet that is precisely the dessert situation in most restaurants I've ever eaten in my life. In the back, they have a big tub of vanilla ice cream with so much overrun it's like eating air flavored with imitation vanilla extract, a frozen cheesecake or cream pie that came through the door already made, and some pre-made cookie dough discs that opening shift throws in an oven when they clock in. Getting a good dessert with a good meal is a damned pipe dream most of the time and I'm not sure why we let it get this way. They'll take the time and effort to make Peking Duck, fresh yeast-risen table bread, short ribs, and Beef Wellington, but can't be bothered to make a batch of cookies? That's unacceptable.

What's interesting about the mediocrity of so much dessert out there is that it's so simple to fix it. I've had people marvel at my cakes, cookies, pies, cupcakes, muffins, candies, custards, and more, but the fact is that I'm just an autistic good at absorbing concepts and possessed of relevant training. All I'm ever doing with that dessert you're so bowled over by is making it with good ingredients the right way, by which I mean the way that countless years of experience and food science have shown is most effective. Innovation isn't something I've done much of yet, and I hope to become better at it if I get into CIA. Dessert doesn't require innovation though. All it requires is a little effort, a lot of knowledge, and the right ingredients and anybody should be able to make basic dishes of sweet items. After all, dessert is a celebration. Celebrations are the only time we take dessert seriously. Being that celebration and dessert are connected, if we allow mediocrity in dessert, are we not celebrating mediocrity?

-Frank