I sat down with Marilu Gunji, chef pâtissier at Bronte to talk about her art. I walked in to her kitchen to find 2 trays of small, pink round cookies. What are these, I asked her? "They are macaroons," she replied. "They are for a wedding."
"Where did you study?" " I studied the pastry program at Cordon Bleu in Ottawa. I started to cook when I was 15. I studied in Japan for 3 years and got a chef license... and learnt the basics of french pastry at the Cordon Bleu, " she told me.
"Pastry requires a lot of skill. It is about texture. How much you dry it; how you mix it; how you fold it. It changes everything," said Gunji.
What type of desserts do you like to make ? I asked.
"I like to make ice cream and doughnuts... I make palm sugar doughnuts... they are South American inspired. (on the menu)"
I asked about the ingredients they use.
"We use good quality ingredients. I like to use chocolate, vanilla, caramel, salt," she said.
She offered a taste of her ice cream.
Outbursts of flavour:
The first was chocolate chipotle. The first had a texture like mousse and was a little spicy. She described chipotle to me as smoked jalapeno.
The next was honey and white sesame ice cream. I told her I thought these combinations were really good and asked her if she created these recipes herself and she said yes.. I don't think my taste buds have tasted anything quite so energetic.
The last one was roasted coconut ice cream.
Gunji said she has a lot of room to create her own recipes.
How do you come up with recipes, I asked her.
"Sometimes a recipe comes out, sometimes it is about a flavour; a combination is there. I can create in a day or month. ...it depends what is in season, what goes with strawberries, black pepper, coconut...start playing around... sometimes i start with a shape-a square... "
Would you describe your pastry as a fusion of various cuisines (asian, south american, European) ' I asked her.
"Yes", she said.
Gunji told me she wished she had more contact with customers. That is what is missing for her. She plans on one day opening her own pastry shop. She will be featured in En Route magazine alongside other chefs in the fall issue. The dessert they are featuring is Japanese inspired. It is strawberries with rice flour, is chewy, looks like a snowball made with azuki bean paste which is a red bean and is a base for japanese pastry and contains whole strawberries inside.
She uses two types of cocoa powder: cocoa de barry and valrhona.
I asked her if her ingredients were organic and she replied they were not but they were of a very high quality.
The end.
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