Samantha Santiago Torres

I used to try to bake a lot when I was young because I love sweets. I took my mum’s books and tried recipes from there. My family was my guinea pig and I’m sure that more than one time they ended with a stomach ache, but when I made something good their faces filled happiness made me feel like I didn’t want to do another thing in my life.

I think that everything that I did led me where I am today, and I’m pretty happy with my career and my life, so I don’t think I would change anything.

My philosophy is ‘elevated simplicity’. I really like making desserts based on old dishes with a modern twist, I also like to work with flavors from my childhood, (my husband used to tell me that I’m Peter Pan).  I get my products from local farmers as much as I can and try to work in seasonality to be more sustainable. My goal is to make people smile, the kind of smiles that I got from my family when I started baking. Pastry chefs give the last touch to a meal, it depends on us to make the customer feel happy at the end of a meal, so I take my position really seriously and i work with pride.

I think health- conscious baking. People are really worried about health and that is changing the culinary world.

Instagram! These days, if you are not on Instagram you are a nobody. That means that we just don’t need to create desserts and work hard in managing a team; we have to be photographers, have the time to post every day, be entertaining and have a gift for speech. I don’t have any of those gifts or the time to improve on them. I manage a really busy restaurant group where I spend basically my whole day, then  I have my husband  and toddler at home when I arrive exhausted from work, so that means hard working mothers are completely out of the picture when it comes to success in this new world. This is really frustrating honestly.

I don’t really have a specific baking style. I create things that are really different from each other. For me everything is about flavor, I think about the flavor combination and then I try to put things together. It’s all trial and error until I find something that I really like. And about my philosophy… Have fun whatever you are doing, if you enjoy what you create, people will appreciate it too.

My favourite comfort food…  I really like pizza and Spanish omelets. I really miss my country so these are things that I enjoy eating a lot. About baked products… I really love something that in my country we call ‘locas’, it’s a puff pastry with pastry cream in the middle and yolk cream on the top. Then it is covered in icing. I really used to love it and it is something that I always get when I’m going back home.

 If I tell you the truth, my career began the day that one of my pastry chefs told me that I will never be a good pastry chef. Those words motivated me to prove her wrong and to work harder on my path. I really appreciate what she told me because without that I think I will not be who I am today. Not everything is positive in our life, and I think that talking about things like this is something that not many people do, and is part of us.

Keep working hard. Not everybody is born with a gift of creativity or a family that already works in the industry or have enough money to give you the education and the tools to be a successful pastry chef. Many of us have to grow on our own and walk our way through a hard path to become what we are, but there is always a reward in every hard step. And remember; you can learn from anyone, so keep your mind open and be kind.

I would love to have my own bakery, but I still have to save a lot of money for that!!

I don’t consider myself an artist. People tend to think that to be pastry chef you have to be an artist but I don’t think that is true. You just need to love food and be able to work hard.

I’m not inspired by any artist, I inspire myself in memories and flavors.I love remembering things that I used to have in the past and that bring me to a happy place, I try to recreate that memory through my desserts.

I think the key of my creations is the dedication, the use of good ingredients and the ability to create moments of joy and nostalgia for those who enjoy them.

Seasonality is a pretty big one, after this I try to create something that my team can plate fast since we are a really busy place, but with my whimsical touch.

I could never be a vegan chef. I’m really aware of the world situation and I feel a huge respect for people who can do it, but I like the ingredients too much that I will not be able to eat if i turn vegan. That said, I make some vegan desserts because I feel everybody should be able to enjoy our work no matter what their ideology or allergies. Being a vegan pastry chef is a challenge. I did a 3 month course about how to create desserts with less fat and for vegans and it’s really hard to do it. Also people are still not ready for this and every time I tried to put a vegan dessert in the menu, it wasn’t too welcome by customers so I had to remove it.

I don’t have any signature dish, I change the menu too often for that!

I think more information will help a lot. Educational initiatives such as cooking classes, information sessions and tasting events will help people to try new things and learn more about what we can create with ingredients that they are not comfortable with and that will taste good anyway. Also I think that it would help if these kinds of ingredients and products weren’t so expensive. We have a budget in our workplaces and sometimes we can’t afford to pay for the products that we need.

I think my fig and chocolate dessert is one of my favorites. I don’t like chocolate in desserts so for me it is really hard work. This dessert is really chocolate but had the perfect balance with the balsamic fig to not overpower. I think I’m pretty proud of creating something that a chocolate lover will like and someone that doesn’t like chocolate can enjoy too.

Chocolate and fig

Size: 16 x 2.5

We need 4 sponges

Chocolate fudge sponge (1 tray)

• 400 g tainori chocolate
• 400 g butter
• 120 g yolk + 200 g sugar
• 160 g whites + 300 g sugar
• 80 g GF flour

1. Melt chocolate with butter
2. Make sabayon with yolk and sugar
3. Make meringue with whites and sugar
4. Fold the chocolate mix in the yolk mix
5. Fold the meringue and then fold the flour
6. Bake a full tray with paper touching the top without bubbles at 325F, fan 2 for 7 min. Then turn it and another 7 min. Put it in the blast chiller and freeze before removing the paper.

 

Bahibe chocolate cremeux

• 1400 g heavy cream
• 570 g milk
• 430 g yolk
• 1575 g bahibe

1. Bring liquid to boil and temper the yolk
2. TAke off the heat and blend the chocolate inside
3. Sieve
4. Pour 1500 g in the first and last layer of the cake and 750 in the middle

Balsamic fig jam

• 1400 g dry fig
• 1200 g sugar
• 400 g balsamic vinegar
• 1600 g water

1. Remove the steam from the fig and cut it in 4 pieces, Cook it for around 10 min, and then blend it leaving small pieces.
2. Cook it around 10 or 15 min more until it is thicker.
3. Put 1500 g in the middle layer of the cake and cremeux on the top. Use the rest to decorate

Chocolate glaze

• 600 g sugar
• 480 g water
• 12 g pectina nappage x58
• 280 g glucose
• 400 g 70% chocolate
• 200 g cocoa butter
• 40 g black cocoa powder

1. Mix pectin with sugar. Heat water at 40C
2. Add little by little the mix of sugar and pectin, whisking constantly . Bring to a boil and add glucose. Bring to boil again.
3. Remove from the heat and mix it with the chocolate and cocoa butter. Emulsify with a hand blender. Cool to 4C for 24 hours. Reheat between 35C and 40C to glaze.