Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Named one of the “Top 10 Pastry Chefs in America” and Pastry Chef of the Year in 2010, Nathaniel Reid had job offers all over the world, but the 35-year-old from Farmington chose St. Louis as the stage for his first pastry shop, Nathaniel Reid Bakery, which is slated to open early next year. Reid’s recruited “some of the best cooks in the country” to help with the endeavor. “We’ll be doing some new things,” he says, “and doing what’s familiar better.”
When we last spoke, in 2013, you said the best pastries in the world were now found in Tokyo, not Paris. Is that still the case? I haven’t been back to Tokyo since then, but I have been to Paris. The best shops in Paris are still better than the best ones in Tokyo, but overall, Tokyo outweighs Paris. In Tokyo, there’s a passion and a willingness to make the best things they can make. In Paris, lifestyle, not hard work, is more important. In Tokyo, guys work 60 to 80 hours a week; in Paris, it’s about half that much.
Talk about your stint at The Ritz-Carlton. My job was to streamline the operation and make it more profitable, and The Ritz appreciated that. The customers appreciated the newness… They experienced creations and flavors they hadn’t seen at this hotel or a lot of hotels. Opening a pastry shop at The Ritz would have helped and given local people a reason to come there, but since [the hotel] tried that not long ago, there were reservations about trying it again, which I understood completely.
So what came next? I had the ability to take the regulator off the four-wheeler and just go. I helped open the new Ritz in Aruba. I got to hang out with guys like Daniel Boulud and Rick Bayless at the Cayman Cookout, in the Cayman Islands. I went to Switzerland and France to work with two different chocolate companies. One of them, Valrhona, sent me all over the country to teach chef seminars, where I made my pastries using their chocolate and nut pastes. I get invited to Las Vegas every year, along with chefs from all over the world, to teach a class that chefs fly in from all over North America to take. Next month, I’ll go to Johnson & Wales University to teach 30 pastry chef instructors.
Are there any new advances in pastry-cooking equipment? I use a minimal amount of equipment. I want to be the catalyst that makes something better, not keep chasing after a new piece of equipment that might be inferior. The best mixers are the old Hobarts, the ones that look like they’ve been around for 100 years. Give me solid gears, not a bunch of electronics that I’ll never learn how to use. I don’t want to have to read a manual to know how to use a piece of equipment.
Is 3-D printing creeping into pastry? It’s a big thing everywhere, I think, but for me, the acid test for pastry is still what you can do with your hands. It’s not as special if it’s machine made. There’s a wow factor, for sure, but more wow when the user realizes the pastry or sculpture was done by hand.
How many tools does a pastry chef need to be successful? I tend to use the same five or six tools for 90 percent of the things I do.
Generally, how much money can a pastry chef make? I can’t comment on St. Louis specifically, but in a Midwestern city this size, a restaurant pastry chef may make $35,000 to $50,000. At a luxury hotel like The Ritz, Four Seasons, or Mandarin Oriental, it’s about $50,000 to $80,000. In New York, Vegas, or Orlando, the bigger properties naturally pay more—$100,000-plus, maybe $150,000 if all bonuses are realized.
What’s your advice for young pastry chefs? Work for the best chef you can find, the one who can teach you the most, irrespective of pay. Accepting a few dollars per hour less than you think you’re worth is a small price to pay for what that knowledge may net you down the road. It could bump your pay by $20,000 per year or at least increase your job opportunities. That’s how I started out: I was in a small apartment with no furniture, sleeping on an air mattress…but I worked with some great chefs. Those were the best memories of my life.
How has pastry changed over the past decade? What’s changed the most is color. The macaron trend opened the doors to a rainbow of new colors. Today, greens, oranges, and purples are legitimate pastry colors. Ten years ago, there’s no way people would have eaten anything blue. Also, more savory flavors—herbs, salts, vinegars—have drifted into pastry. And there are international influences; Japanese flavors, for instance, are now woven all through the pastry world.
How long have you wanted to open your own pastry shop? Ever since I started in the industry. St. Louis is home. It’s my heart. My family is nearby. The risks and costs of opening a shop in a market like New York or Chicago are too high. It’s practical here. Plus, the food scene in St. Louis has completely blown up: the sausage makers, breweries, new butchers… I thought, if I open a shop, it should be here.
What’s in store at your new shop? If all goes according to plan, it will be located in Kirkwood, near other businesses that sell locally made products. There will be pastries and baked goods, which both tend to be grab-and-go. There will be few seats and only 600 square feet of retail area. The space is designed to get the best products available to the customer—and quickly. There will be several display cases, including take-home cakes for birthdays and anniversaries. We’re not doing wedding cakes, though; other shops here already do that well. For us to do one or two a week would be cost prohibitive.
What’s the projected opening date? First quarter of 2016, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
What specifically will you sell? I’ve been thinking about this for 10 years, so I have to be careful how much I divulge when we’re still months out. Conditions change. People imitate.
How can you use the best products, hire the best people, and keep prices competitive? I have long-standing relationships with companies—and I have other ways of making it affordable. [Smiles.] This is what I’m good at. What do you think I’ve been teaching all these years?
