Indulgence

NDULGENCEFinding Home in Food Pg. 26

A chef’s journey to rediscover his roots

Salted Caramel cupcake recipe Pg. 17

Rising fortunes Pg. 12How a Texas bakery has risen from the ashes

QUick and easy Ingredient substitutions

Pg. 31

She Ballin’

Raking in The Dough

6

20

LASA’s Piece of the Pie

Mixing It Up

11

25

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Rising Fortunes

Finding Home in Food

12

26

Caramel Dream

Quick Ingredient Subsitutions

17

31

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BiographiesBilly Thompson loves to collect trad-ing card games but not play them. He has over 6,000 Pokemon cards, 2,000 Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and 8,000 Magic: The Gathering cards, and hasn’t played a real game with any of them in over a year-and-a-half. He enjoys play-ing DOTA 2, Pokemon, and Fire Em-blem. He has a poodle named Teddy. His favorite food is sweet onion.

Telesmar Sanchez is an avid musi-cian and has played classical guitar for 8 years and jazz guitar in the school jass band for 1 year. He enjoys riding his unicycle, telling really bad jokes, and playing video games. He has two french bulldogs named Bert and Sa-die. His pet peeves are playing music from cell phones in public areas, flat brimmed hats, and people who wear too much longorn-themed clothing. His favorite video game is Okami and his favorite movie is Spirited Away. His favorite food is bacon pizza.

Alex Kovacs’s favorite thing is going to dentists’ appointments during school hours. At home, she watches obscure shows from the UK and “Rick and Morty,” but hasn’t seen the season finale. She’s one of those people. She wants to go to Santa Fe University. Her favorite movie is the “Star Wars Christmas Special.” In her spare time, she goes into an alternate dimension to hang with her real friends. She hates everyone from this dimension. She’s one ballin’ gal. Her favorite food is cream cheese.

Kyla Hayworth’s main hobby is draw-ing. In her spare time, she tries to blog on Tumblr on blocked Wifi. She has a habit of breaking her electronics and then having to explain how she broke them. Her favorite things are high definition pictures of food and movies Nicholas Cage is in, otherwise known as every movie ever made. Her favorite food is lobster.

Indulgence

Letter From the EditorFrom the depths of the greatest kitchens in the world, the gang and we bring you the latest and greatest issue of Indul-gence magazine, fresh out of the oven! All new recipes, articles and more have been excavated from Austin’s tastiest restaurants and compagnies. Our mis-sion since the beginning has been to deliver mouth watering articles about all things sweet, and this is is proof we have you craving more. We want to de-liver all the quality our readers deserve, so get ready for your just desserts! In this month’s issue, the Indulgence team brings you tantalizing new recipes of

cupcakes, cakes and more! We take you on a culinary adventure of a lifetime, from classic Texan bakeries, to the Big Apple itself! But that’s just the icing on the cake! Answers to difficult questions ranging from ingredient substitutes, to LASA’s own favorite bakeries, all can be found tucked in the pages of this maga-zine. Peer inside the mind of one of the best chefs in the Big Apple, figure out what its like to run a bakery, and much, much more! Put on your oven mitts, you’re in for a treat!

-Indulgence Team

Indulgence

She Ballin’Juggling a family as well

as a nearly-24-hour job is tough, and almost any

mother would agree.

And yet, the owner of the baking company “Sug-aPlump”, Jocelyn Harris, manages the world on her shoulders, while still being there for her children and family.

“I’m home most of the time,” Harris said, “I thinks that’s good for them, that I am actually in the house with them. Now, am I available most of the time? Probably not.”

Harris has found a healthy, growing income in the baking business, though she faced many challenges throughout her new career., one of those being the low budget that she started on.

She laughed jovially when asked what was the hardest thing about opening up her own business, responding simply with, “Money.”

“I didn’t start here. I started at my house and I started on

a thousand dollars, it was all I had to start buying pans, business cards, and advertis-ing. That was the smallest

budget I started my business on. And I could not afford a kitchen at the time, so it was

just out of our house for the first year, year and a half.” Harris said. “And then final-ly, we started to pick up more

business so I was able to move into a more proper kitchen.”

Currently, Harris resides in a shared kitchen. Basically, it’s like an apart-ment, where she pays rent for each hour or so she spends there rather than every month. “Kitchen

prices I would say range be-tween eight dollars an hour to twelve fifty an hour,” Har-ris said, “depending on how

By: Alex Kovacs

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“I had all these amazing recipes my mother and grandmother passed down to me.” -Jocelyn Harris

A dozen cake balls for a birthday party.

All pictures rightfully obtained from Suga Plump and other sources.

She Ballin’

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long you come in, or the time of day that you come in.”

Inspiration comes in many and in Harris’s case, her inspiration resided in her family; mainly, her mother and grandmother. “I had all these amazing recipes my mother and grandmother passed down to me. Plus the fact that there was a lapse in home cooked food or soul food, which is kinda where I came from. I was sorta pushed a little bit into open-ing up my own company,” Harris said.

When she first opened, she was surprised to see that her friends and family were

Jocelyn, an Oklahoma na-tive, has honed her extensive culinary skills over the last 20 years, where she began bak-ing as a child in her grand-mother’s kitchen.

Special family recipes were shared and passed down by her grandmother, who helped develop Jocelyn’s love and passion for baking and cooking.

An honors graduate from Le Cordon Bleu, she has exten-sive training in pastry design and culinary. Jocelyn has worked for Disney World’s Boardwalk Bakery, and more recently a large public owned catering company, which inspired her to form Sug-aPlump Pastries.

SugaPlump, one of Austin’s premier companies, has a broad clientele in states throughout the Southwest. They specialize in cater-ing various functions that range from small, intimate settings to large scale events.

Nearly completed french vanilla cakeballs.


The logo for Suga Plump


rather supportive, happy to help in any way.

“I had no issues, it was all encouragement,” Harris said. “They were very help-ful, caring, and they stayed up with me all night dipping cake balls. Its kinda ended up being a re-ally good family bonding project.”

“The first thing I did before I opened up was we wrote a business plan,” Harris said, “and the second thing was to just try to figure out what our niche would be; try to figure out where we would fit in. In Austin there are about fifty

million bakeries and sweet shops, so we really needed to find out where we fit in; what was our niche.” Harris said.

“I made my first cake ball six months into my busi-ness. That ended up being

my niche, that wasn’t actu-ally in my business plan, but that ended up how I got my start and that is what has kept

me going. It was probably about three years ago that I made my first one.”

Cake balls, as Harris says, are one of Austin’s most popu-lar pastries. The problem,

“Eventually, I won’t be a storefront, I will be delivering out to other restaurants and companies.” -Jocelyn Harris

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Fresh cake balls on their way to happy customers.

Cake Pops for a charity event



though, is the price.

“I thought, ‘why the hell are people paying three dollars a cake ball?’ and I just tried to make them cheaper for people to order. I think that was my driving force on the mat-ter,” Har-ris said.

Harris sells her cake balls for a dollar seventy five each, which is almost half the price of regular priced Cake Balls.

This practically rocketed her business, but, unlike one would expect, Harris does not run a customer-depen-

dent business. She runs a bakery that she hopes will turn into something called distribution.

“Eventually, I won’t be a storefront, I will be deliver-ing out to other res-taurants and com-panies. They will be able to have my food frozen and ready to go for

their restaurant or for other places,” Harris said. “You see, consumers are very seasonal, while businesses are all the time. It makes more sense for me to aim at businesses because it gets me more money in the long run.”

“I didn’t start here. I started at my house on a thousand dol-lars.” -Jocelyn Harris

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Fondant in the process of being molded by Jocelyn.

Fresh made rainbow Cakeballs.

All pictures rightfully obtained from Suga Plump and other sources


Don’t have one? Find yours at SallySugars.comSimply the best for your recipe

Sally Sugars

LASA’s Piece of the Pie Students were asked about their favorite bakery around Austin. 5 bakeries stood out among the rest. They are: Russell’s Bakery on Balcones Drive, Upper Crust Bakery on Burnet Lane, Tiff’s Treats on Nueces Street, Quack’s Bakery on 43rd Street, and Tous Les Jours Bakery on N. Lamar Boulevard.

Upper Crust

Russell's

Tiff's Treats

Quack's

Tous les Jours

other

7, 21%

7, 21%

5, 15%

7, 21%

4, 12%

4, 12%

by Billy Thompson

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of the original owner of TFB, bought the building and decided to revamp their mother’s business from the ground up, with a large remodel, a dinner menu, and a bar. Nowa-days, TFB is making a rapid comeback. When Ben and Murph Wilcott’s mother first opened Texas French Bread in 1981, her busi-ness entailed selling artisan bread from her kitchen on 33rd Street to

various restaurants and stores. Q: Your website said that your mother began your business when she started selling french bread. Where did she learn how to make her bread? A: “She learned how to make bread first from her mother in law, and then in the 70’s, she started writing letters to Julia Child, and she responded. And then, she just made it by trial and error, and then she went to a baking school in paris.” How have you exercised baking outside of your establishment?

“Well, I grew up in it, so I was always around it, so when I was a little kid I started learning how to do it, it was already here. And I worked in other restaurants, but only one other bakery.” What occupations did you have before you inherited your parents’ bakery? “I played a little music, but I didn’t do it a lot. I did it for a while. I was a teacher, I taught in asia, that was fun, and I wrote for the Austin Chronicle and magazines for several years, and that was fun, and I worked for Dell Computers, and that wasn’t fun, that was horrible, that was boring.

Rising FortunesHow Texas French Bread is making a rapid comeback

In 2006, Texas French Bread, an old bakery opened in the early

80’s, was nothing but a stale old building- No one inside the kitchen, no breads in the windowsill, and the lack of attention made the building in des-perate need of a facelift. It was a dump. A shell of what it once was. However, later in 2006, things took a turn for the better. Ben and Murph Willcott, the sons

Artisan style breads, such as the ones shown, are Texas French Bread’s Specialty Photo from sxc.hu

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By Telesmar Sanchez

Texas French Bread offers a variety of baked goods, from muffins to pastries to cookies.

Although Texas French Bread’s menu is continuing to grow larger and larger, the restaurant still continues to boast its arti-san style of cooking.

I worked in restaurants all over New York and San Francisco.” Asia? What did you teach in Asia? “I taught english as a second language, from helping little pre-K kids all the way to teaching adults

in the evenings. I worked with a lot of high school students, I did SAT prep, I did a princeton review in Taiwan, I did a college student course where we studied a lot of literature, so we got to do a lot of dif-ferent things. It was fun.”

For a while, Texas French Bread was one of the most popular baker-ies in town, boasting 11 locations in its prime. Everyone in town flocked to Texas French Bread for their wonderful arti-san breads and pastries. However, as whole foods, starbucks, and other competing bakeries and hangouts started opening

in Austin in the late ‘90’s, Texas French Bread had to close its doors as business got worse and worse. In 2006, when Ben and Murph Willcott took over the restaurant, their main goal was to expand the menu and reinvent the restaurant to bring in as much business as possible. What made you want to inherit your par-ents’ bakery? “You know, I have always loved to cook, so I kind of inherited the passion for cooking. And for me, it’s more about the food than it is about the baking side. So, I’m kind of more like the chef around here. I kind of got the gene from my parents, and I just kind of wanted to do it. So, when I was away from austin, and I wasn’t working here and I didn’t own it, I was still doing a lot of cooking and thinking about cooking, so when I got the chance, my brother and I came back and bought the bakery from my mother.” What is it like working with your broth-er? “It’s a pain in the ass! Nah, just kidding. I don’t think everybody

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Photo by Beck

Photo courtesy of Mike Sutter at fedmanwalking.com

Texas French Bread has a rapidly fluctuating dinner menu that changes slightly every day and a lot each season, so they always have something new for you to try. From pasta to soup to salad to meat, Texas French Bread is sure to always bring something new to the table.

Photo by Stu_Spivack

could work with their sibling. There’s a long his-tory of family-run restau-rants where people work together, but I think some people are cut out for it and some people aren’t. He and I have always been really close, and we kind of compliment each other. And we sometimes argue, but I think in some ways we communicate better than we could with other people because we know each other really well.” What is your favorite dessert served at your bakery? “You know, it’s probably our rustic tarts. We do apple, and we do cranberry in the fall. Those are my favorite. They’re very rustic and very simple. They have a really buttery tart dough, fruit, and just a tiny bit of sugar, so they’re not very sweet.” What is the most popular dish served at your bakery? “It’s probably this chocolate cake we make called the Hyde Park fudge cake.”

How healthy are the foods you prepare in terms of ingredients? “You know, that’s a good question. I would say for one thing, we’re increasingly tuned in to making them healthier. I would say, it’s hard to give a short answer to that, traditional breads are very healthy. Traditional as in artisan breads, that are made with natural leaven-ing, or starter, you know? Bread is one of the only foods that’s a completely balanced food, as in it has enough vitamins and min-erals to allow you to sur-vive on bread for a very, very long time without anything else. so, bread is very healthy. Deserts are not healthy. Sugar is poison, it’s an indulgence. Now we do a lot of dinner-style food, and the food we do is very healthy. It has very healthy ingredients. The breads we make, our artisan breads, don’t even have gluten. When bread is made traditionally with whole wheat and grains, the only ingredients it has are flour, salt, and a leav-ening agent, so it’s very healthy.”

You have another brother, Teo. What does he do for a living? “Teo works for Ap-ple. He’s been with them for many, many years.” Is he involved much with the bakery? “No, he comes in and he eats and brings his kids. That’s about it.” As Texas French Bread continues to rise in popularity, Ben is continu-ing to expand his bakery into a fully-fledged res-taurant. With the recent addition of a dinner menu five nights out of the week and a large renovation to the building, Texas French Bread is continuing to evolve from a small bakery to something much larger in scale. The additions don’t stop there, as Ben Willcott plans on adding a bar to his establishment. Why did you choose to renovate your restaurant/bakery? “Well, we were overdue. The building kind of needed a facelift. I dunno, we were kind of excited to convey kind of what we do with the design, because the de-sign was kind of generic. I mean, it’s an old build-ing but there were lots of design elements from different periods in our history, and if you look around, what we’ve done is put up a lot of wood, we’ve exposed a lot of brick, to convey this sort of farmhouse, rustic feel, because what we do is very artisanal, very old, very simple, so we wanted the whole building to convey that sort of simple rustic feel.”

Your parents have opened other locations in the past, but they haven’t worked out. How do you feel about trying to open another location again some day? “It’s possible, but it’s really fun to just have one store. It’s easier to focus just on making the food. It’s less managing, and more hands on stuff.” How do you plan on expanding your menu? “We’re going to change the lunch menu. I’m working on that right now. So right now, it’s just sandwiches and a few salads, and we’re gonna have a much more exten-sive lunch menu. A lot more choices, while still staying very casual. We’ve been doing this dinner menu that’s very seasonal, it changes all the time depending on what we can get, so we’re gonna- start doing that with lunch. It’s fun, and it’s nice getting to use the local farmers rather than buying Cali-fornia produce or some-thing, but it is also kind of healthier to eat what’s in season, providing more of what your body needs.” As Starbucks and whole foods continues to spread like a virus all over town, taking over every classic cafe and hangout in town, Texas French Bread continues to thrive despite all of the hardships the store has had to overcome. What does this say about the food they prepare? There’s nothing special about it. In fact, Texas French Bread’s simplic-ity is what makes it so unique. The simplicity that Texas French Bread dem-onstrates shows that it is more important in baking.

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Texas French Bread’s Artisan-style foods were kept in mind during their remodel, as shown by their earthtone building’s new earthtone colors and interior design.

Photo courtesy of Mike Sutter at fedmanwalking.com

Auntie Anne’sFinely rolled fondant

6004 Crocker Avenue

Eat Our Food

6th Street Farmer’s Market

All organic. All the time.Every sunday on 6th Street

Caramel DreamINGREDIENTS:For the Cupcakes:

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon cocoa powder½ cup plus 1 tablespoon hot water

2¼ cups all-purpose flour¾ teaspoon baking soda

¾ teaspoon baking powder½ teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs1 tablespoon vanilla extract

¾ cup sour cream

For the Salted Caramel Frosting:1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature½ cup salted caramel sauce

4 cups powdered sugar

To Garnish:Salted Caramel Sauce

Flaky sea salt

DIRECTIONS:1. Make the Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard-size muffin pans with paper liners.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and hot water until smooth. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. Combine the butter and sugar in a medium saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is smooth, and the butter is completely melted. Transfer the mix-ture to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium-low speed until the mixture is cool, about 4 to 5 minutes.

4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and then the cocoa mixture, beating until smooth.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low, and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix each addition until just incorporated.

6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared liners, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes, rotating the pans half-way through baking. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Courtesy of Michelle, The Brown Eyed Baker, here’s a simply sinful recipe for chocolate caramel cupcakes! Tested by the “Indulgence” staff, we’ll tell you first hand that these delicious treats are spectacular! With a rich chocolate base, and garnished with decadent caramel sauce, these cupcakes are simply to die for! Try it for your self, and indulge!

Courtesy of Michelle, The Brown Eyed Baker

7. Make the Frosting: Beat together the butter and cream cheese on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. Pour in the salted caramel and beat until combined. Reduce the speed to medium-low and slowly add the powdered sugar, a little at a time, until it has all been incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for an additional two to three minutes, until light and fluffy.

8. To finish: Pipe frosting onto the top of each cupcake, drizzle with some additional salted caramel sauce, and sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.

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Breaderick’s Fine loaves and pastries.

2222 Erisol Boulevard

4892 Fairview BoulevardAustin, Texas 78766

Raking in the DoughJulia Schmitz and

Jackie Mcgrath opened Sweet Treets

bakery in 2010.

“I’ve always loved bak-ing, I’ve been doing it my whole life, and I love help-ing people create the per-fect cake and then getting to bring it to life, there’s nothing else like it!” Julia

Schmitz said. “I especially enjoy seeing their faces when they see their cake.”

They bake extravagant

cakes for all around the Austin area. Sweet Treets is most famous for their wedding cakes, of which they have won The Knot

award for best of weddings in both 2012 and 2013.

Before opening Sweet Treets bakery with Mc-grath, “I baked a lot at home for family and friends and enjoyed trying out new or challenging recipes,” Schmitz said.

She was able to hone her

“I love helping people create the per-fect cake and then getting to bring it to life, there’s nothing else like it!”-Julia Schmitz

At Sweet Treets Bakery they work their hardest to create your perfect cake, no matter what you want.Photo courtesy of Julia Schmitz

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by Billy Thompson

“Our red velvet cake balls are very popular, it’s hard to keep them in stock!”

Photo courtesy of Julia Schmitz

Photo Courtesy of Julia Schmitz

The “Leaning Tower of Cake” one of the hardest cakes Schmitz had to work on over the years.

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The bourbon chocolate dessert is another one of the popular desserts at Sweet Treets Bakery.

Photo courtesy of Julia Schmitz

craft and even create new recipes for her family to try. She and Jackie de-cided to name the bak-ery Sweet Treets Bakery because, “We bounced around a lot of ideas but this one was perfect- short, sweet, and to the point!” Schmitz said.

In addition to working with their customers to create the perfect cake, they also run a bake shop serving cupcakes, cake balls, and cookies. “Our

red velvet cake balls are very popular, it’s hard to keep them in stock!” Schmitz said.

They plan on expand-ing their menu. “We are currently researching and developing additional des-

serts like cheesecakes and mini pies,” Schmitz said.

They also offer substitu-tions for people who are gluten free, vegan, or have food allergies.

“In order to run a sucess-

ful bakery keep a con-sistent product and take customer feedback into account, and always have a good attitude,” Schmitz said, “People will remem-ber you if you’re friendly and accommodating.”

Schmitz described her and Mcgrath’s bakery as, “Always an adventure! We get to create a lot of differ-ent designs which always keeps things interesting,”Schmitz said.

“In order to run a sucessful bakery keep a consistent product and take customer feedback into account, and always have a good attitude.”-Julia Schmitz

Photo Courtesy of Julia SmchmitzChocolate Cupcakes with raspberry-buttercream icing are one of the many popular desserts served.

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1204 Bushy Ln

Chad’s Cheesecake Bakery

Cacahuate FarmWe can satisfy your veggie needs

(if you’ll lettuce)

Find us at 4656 Obamanos Drive

Mixing It Up Cooking is a timeless art with infinite possibilities. Everyone who prepares food has their own little flare of individuality in their repertoire of recipes. Although not everyone cooks, those who do often have radical new ideas to show to the world of deserts. Here are the most delicious tips around.

-Jacob Dornhofer

I bake chocolate cake and I add a touch of cinnamon and salt to make it special.

I bake cookies, and they’re special be-cause I put more sugar than they tell me to in them.

-Fiona Graham

I bake cookies, and my secret ingredient is orange juice.

I make chocolate chip cookie pie and I add butterscotch chips to make it deli-cious.

-Aiden Henderson -Jonah Shaukat

I like to bake choco-late chip cookies. I put oreos inside my cookies, and it’s re-ally bad for you, but it tastes amazing.

-Jennifer Walker-Gates

I cook pancakes all the time, and I add cinnamon to make them spencial. I also seperate the eggs... and I beat the egg whites to make them fluffier.

By Telesmar Sanchez

-Mathilda Nicot-Cartsonis

Indulgence Photo By Keegan Berry Photo By Jamieanne Photo By veganbaking.net

Photos By sxc.hu

Doron Wong knew from the start that it was going to be his pas-

sion. Or rather, he knew that it would make him money.

“I just really needed to get a job,” Wong said. “I needed

to see what a job was like.”

But in addition, he was ex-tremely interested in cooking because, “I really just wanted to see how to make it, how to do it. When you’re a kid, you don’t really know how

to make something or do something,” Wong said, “I re-ally just wanted to see how to make it, how to do it.”

Wong did learn how to cook, not going to college in the be-ginning to discover his craft

and simply jumping into the career. He was able to get a job in the industry due to his connections to professional chefs. He did, however, go to Amhurst College of Liberal Arts later, to improve his basic cooking skills.

Finding Home in Food

By Kyla HayworthHow a chef created home in the dishes he cooks

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A Chinese inspired stir fry that is a common dish at many American Chinese restaurants.

A few years after training under professional cooks, he went on a trip to Singapore and Hong Kong to discover how to cook the food he had grown up with.

There are two different, distinct styles of cooking, Eastern and Western style. Eastern style consists of food from Asian countries and Western is from European countrires, with American food falling under Western as well.

Doron Wong is a New York chef that lives in Long Island with his family.

Photo by basegreen

“I was trained for Western style cooking, and then when I went to Singapore, it showed me Eastern style cooking,” Wong said, “I was traditionally trained West-ern, and when I went to Hong Kong and Singapore, I was trained in the way of the Eastern kitchen, which was completely different. I learned a lot of different techniques, and a different type of product there, even.”

Wong attributes the way he cooks to the trip to Singapore and Hong Kong, because while living there for several years, he learned a lot of things.

“What was most inspiring was living with the culture while I was there, and that was how I connected. Anyone can cook Chinese food, but when I went there, it was more of a cultural experi-ence. You connect with the food a lot better.”

Though Wong had been trained to cook in a Western style, it was inevitable that he would eventually start cook-ing with an Eastern style.

“My mother raised me on Chinese food. And it’s more comforting to me, I know what it tastes like, and I like it,” Wong said.

In fact, he continues to enjoy the Chinese cuisine that he grew up with.

“I still like Chinese food, even though I cook and eat it all the time,” Wong said. “I don’t get sick of it.”

This duality in culture con-tributed to him deciding to combine Eastern and West-ern style cooking.

“I started in very western

cooking, but what felt normal was eastern food. Because my mother raised me on chi-nese food,” Wong said “And it’s more comforting to me, I know what it tastes like, and I like it. And it was just, connecting on the food that I enjoyed.”

His favorite food to cook, however, is not set in stone.

“I go on different phases. I go on phases. One week I like to stir fry everything. I’ll go to markets with other chefs and we go there and find the freshest and most seasonal product available out there,” Wong said.

This helps contribute to the freshness of his dishes.

“I’m constantly trying to rec-reate myself,” Wong said.He tries to vary his style of cooking as much and as often as possible, so that he may discover new things about himself.

While recreating himself, he has also created many inter-esting dishes, such as cheese-burger spring rolls.

Spring rolls are a Chinese inspired food, consisting of a thin wrapper around meat and vegetables that is fried.Doron Wong combined this already somewhat American-ized dish with something truly American, the cheese-burger.

“I really invented them for a children’s menu. They were

always meant to be a gim-micky kid’s item, but adults just couldn’t resist,” Wong said.

They were originally created by Doron at a restaurant he worked at called Delicates-sen. Though he no longer works at the Soho restaurant, it is a dish that they continue to serve.

Wong has worked at many restaurants, the most note-worty including restaurants in New York called 71ate LLC, Shang, and several hotels.

Wong now works at as the Executive Chef at TOY Res-taurant in New York City, where patrons that view the website are told that he will, “excite your taste buds with TOY’s fun Asian fusion cuisine.”

Courtesy of Todd Leong and Doron Wong

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“My mother raised me on Chinese food. And it’s more comforting to me, I know what it tastes like, and I like it.”-Doron Wong

Wong attributes his success in the kitchens of these res-taurants to the open-mind-edness that he has about criticsim that others are able to offer to him.

“I try to keep an open mind,

and accept all types of criti-cism, because even people that dont know much know something that you don’t know. And by keeping that clear mind, you’ll be able to grow,” Wong said.Wong had parting advice. for all chefs, for both expe-rienced chefs and those that

are just beginners.“As long as you say to yourself, ‘I don’t know everything’, then you can learn from everybody,” Wong said.

Photo by NatalieMaynor

A farmers market has fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season, a must for a chef like Doron Wong. His inspiration for his favorite dish of the week is based on the foods that he can find here.

“I really invented them for a children’s menu. They were always meant to be a gimmicky kid’s item, but adults just couldn’t resist.”-Doron Wong


Doron Wong in action, preparing dishes in his kitchen.

Indulgence

“Tianjin Style Steamed Red Snapper with lily bud, wood ear, cloud ear, goji berries, pea

shoots, preserved vegetables. Tianjin is a city on the coast of Northern China that has a

distinct style of preparing seafood to preserve it’s natural flavor by surrounding it with bold

flavors that help complement the main ingre-dient. The main flavors in Tianjin cooking are salty and sweet. The rich broth is made from

pork, chicken, dried shrimp and emulsified with chicken fat for a velvety texture.”


“Mala Spiced Hampshire Pork Belly with slow cooked egg and braised kale. ”Ma” mean-ing Numbing “La” meaning Spicy. We made a sauce out of broad bean hot chilies and

green Szechuan peppercorns which give it a numbing and spicy feeling on the palate and serve it with pork belly that has been braised until tender with star anise, Chinese carda-mom, ginger, scallions. It is accompanied

with a soft cooked egg that has been cooked at 135 degrees for 45 minutes.”

“Golden Shrimp Dumpling with Chinese cel-ery and Surryano ham broth. Whole shrimp is mixed with Chinese celery, Surryano Ham,

wood ear mushrooms and filled into a wonton wrapper and served with a broth made from pork bones, Surryano Ham and roasted garlic.

Garnished with 24KT gold leaf.”Courtesy of Todd Leong and Doron Wong


What Wong has to say:

Indulgence

Sam’s Cakeria

For all your cake and mini-cake needs

9876 Boulevard Dr

Help! I forgot to buy...Everyone’s forgotten to buy something at the store at one point. It’s an inescapable situation, especially when you have to whip something up quickly. Here are a few quick substitutions for when you’re baking.

Indulgence

ButterTry 1/4 cup silken tofu pureed, 3 tablespoons mayonnaise, or half a banana mashed with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder for 3 tablespoons of butter

EggTry 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds mixed with 3 tablespoons water for one egg

Sour CreamTry plain yogurt with the amount stated in the recipe

Corn SyrupTry honey or granulated white sugar and increase the liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup

HazelnutsTry either macadamia nuts or almonds with the amount stated in the recipe

Sources:http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/healthy-recipes/art-20047195http://allrecipes.com/howto/common-ingredient-substitu-tions/http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/IngredientSub-stitution.html

By Kyla Hayworth

Photo by Steve Karg Photo by Justus Blumer

Photo bySteven Vance

Photo by Daniel SchwenPhoto by Fir0002

Photo by Renee Comet Photo by Ned Jelyazkov

Photo by Gmoose1 Photo by Sanjay Acharya

Photo byScott Bauer

MOTHER. FUDGING.

CHOCOLATE.

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Indulgence

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