Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
A Farmington boy goes to Mizzou, then to Paris’ Cordon Bleu. He’s named among the Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America and Pastry Chef of the Year 2010 at the nation’s most prestigious pastry championship. He’s eventually recruited by Joël Robuchon (once named “chef of the century” by French restaurant guide Gault Millau), possessor of more Michelin stars than anyone. Reid’s pastries will be featured in a forthcoming book, The New Pâtissiers. Yet the 33-year-old is still as humble as Gandhi. As of mid-May, the city’s most acclaimed pastry maker works at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis. Don’t look now, but the local pastry bar has just been raised to pole-vault level.
When was your "a-ha!" moment? Since kindergarten, I wanted to be a scientist. I was the only person in my family who knew what I wanted to be. But after a summer internship at Trail of Tears State Park in Cape Girardeau, I realized it was more statistics and lab study than field study—I wanted to be the Crocodile Dundee of scientists. So for the first time in my life, I was clueless as to what to do with it.
That's a bit discomforting. At a family gathering, my mom reminded me how much I loved to cook and that I should become a chef. The room got quiet, and everybody knew. It was an a-ha moment for all of us. So I went back to Mizzou and changed by major to hotel-restaurant management, with a minor in biology.
Did your cooking career begin in Columbia? I was working the fish station at Chris McD's when the pastry chef developed health issues and had to stop working. I wanted to give it a try. The owner said I was a "fish guy" and didn't know what I was doing. But I was persistent, and one day he let me try a few things and gave me the job. He still doesn't know I threw out half of what I'd made that day and gave him only my best stuff. I took out the trash before he came to work.
Where did you learn to make pastries? Only from reading recipes in books.
And you ceased being the fish guy? No, I'd make pastries in the morning, pretty much sleep through school, and come back and work the fish station at night.
Did you eventually go to school to study pastry? I studied both savory and pastry at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, but subconsciously remembered pushing my way through the Metro to get to pastry class. That's when I knew.
How's your French? Um, I know all of the French culinary terms. Just don't ask me to have a political debate.
Were those classes taught in both French and English? Beginning and intermediate were; superior classes were taught in French only. By that time, I knew enough to get by.
Did you have a mentor at Cordon Bleu? Nicolas Bernardé, who was an M.O.F, [Un des Meilleurs Ouvriers de France], a designation given to select few French workers across all trades. It's a high, high honor.
Are the best food and pastries in the world still found in Paris? Oddly, no. That answer is Tokyo. In Japan, chefs are the equivalent of rock stars—big ones. There are more Michelin-starred restaurants in Tokyo than in all of France. And here, it's more about the star chef's personality than about the quality of their work. Japanese farmers compete to be the best, chefs strive to be the best, and their customers demand the best. Japan is the perfect culinary storm. A perfect watermelon can sell for thousands and thousands of dollars over there.
I'm told that it takes a different mindset to be a pastry chef. There are what we call chef's desserts, ones that allow for freelancing and interpretation, and things like entremets, which follow a more structured formula.
Can you make quality pastries at home, or do you need special equipment? Sure. Chocolates, tarts, cakes—those can be made well at home, but some of the more advanced things, like layered mousse cakes, simply take too long. A blast freezer is invaluable, but I've never seen a home that has one.
Are convection ovens still preferred by pastry chefs? Yes, but a lot of great pastries come out of deck ovens, pizza-type ovens. Product may not get as perfectly browned as in a convection oven, but having no fan means the product does not dry out. Financiers, pound cakes, madelines—they're much better when baked that way.
Are there any new advances in pastry-cooking equipment? There's an oven that accepts and rotates an entire rack of sheet pans, rack and all.
What's the most common shortcoming with pastry chefs? Patience. Today, all of us want everything right now. It takes time, overnight, for pastry dough to rest and for things like ganache to properly crystallize and ice cream to freeze the right way. And it takes time to discover the tricks to make something better, how to push and coerce flavors. There's no better teacher than yourself...but you have to pay attention and feel and absorb it on your own. That's the only way to make your own mark in this industry, the only way to be great.
Most pastry chefs do custom orders, right? All the time. One time in Vegas, a whale [wealthy guest] who had been gambling elsewhere was staying in the chateau inside the MGM Grand, a secret property under a 73-degree bubble that at the time went for $5,000 to $30,000 a night. I was asked to recreate a cake for him shaped like a specific make and model of Ferrari, which I did in perfect detail and scale, and he and his guests devoured it. He was then escorted outside, and there it was: that exact car, keys inside—a gift from the hotel.
Wow. I made a cake shaped like a baccarat table for another guest and decorated it with $30,000 in chips. The chips were for the guest to go gamble with. This was Vegas in the '80s. There are a lot more stories like that.
You were named "Pastry Chef of the Year" in 2010 and "One of the Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America" in 2012. Did either accolade change anything, or are they just accolades? I don't think chefs make any decisions with awards in mind. They just happen.
So what's your plan for the Ritz? I just want to elevate what I see as an already elevated pastry program. I have a signature style that I want people to see and experience—things that people are not doing. I'd love to further St. Louis on the national or international pastry scene.
So I guess vacation is a little-used word? I am going to Switzerland soon to learn more about Felchlin, a high-end bean-to-bar chocolatemaker that does not retail in the U.S, which is really unfortunate.
I hear that pastry chefs are stingy with their recipes, that you have to earn the right to receive a recipe. That's old-school thinking. Most of us are willing to share. Half the time, they're not their recipes anyway. There are few genuine creations.
Any future aspirations? Your own pâtisserie in the South of France, or maybe South St. Louis? All that's premature. I've only been back here three weeks.
How does a pastry chef relax? Running, fishing with ultralight gear... Now that I'm back, I hope to do things I've been unable to do for awhile, like foraging for mushrooms, collecting rocks. Deep down, I'm still that geeky science guy. What I like to do most is just hang out with my wife.
We better not call that a hobby... [Laughs.] She says that's my career... Seriously, in the last 10 years, my career's been pastry, and my hobby's been pastry.
I saw a spectacular chocolate sculpture that you created live in front of an audience. What happens afterward? Do people actually eat that thing? Different things can happen. You can eat it. It can be refurbished by changing some of the elements...or you can make a lot of hot chocolate. Most often, it's displayed for a time. Sculptures stay intact if the temperature stays under 74 degrees. If it starts to look tired, you airbrush it again, and it's as good as new.
Airbrush it? Colors and finish are applied and layered with an airbrush. I mix all my own colors.
I used to know a motorcycle painter who did that... It's close to the same process, except the material is cocoa butter and food coloring instead of paint.
I didn't realize pastry chefs use spray guns like they do. Home Depot is a pastry chef's best friend. If you want to get a pastry chef a gift they'll appreciate, get 'em a gift card to a home-improvement store.
You've had job offers around the world. Why St. Louis? Why now? It's true. I could have worked in Japan, in Dubai. But I'm from the country, and I've always missed Missouri. I'm one of its biggest spokesmen. When I'd visit, I didn't even have to open my eyes—I could tell I was home by the smell, by the sounds of the birds.
Do you live in the country now? [Laughs.] No, I live in Creve Coeur.
So when does a chef finally say I'm home? I'm saying that now. My plan is to be here for the rest of my life. The cost of living here, the people, the politeness, a supportive family. And it's time for me to start a family.
