If you watched Bravo’s debut season of Top Chef: Just Desserts last year, you learned that pastry chefs can be just as competitive (and just as cutting) as their meat-and-potatoes counterparts. To some, the pressure on pastry chefs is even greater, as most of their creations require perfect recall of ingredient ratios, temperatures and cooking times. If a souffle doesn’t come together, it’s a lot harder for them to pivot and turn it into another dessert on the fly.
With all that in mind, Bravo is offering up a tasty treat: a second helping of Just Desserts! Season Two debuts tomorrow night, and the competition has expanded from twelve chefs to fourteen. We were excited to see that DC would be represented once again, this time by CityZen’s Matthew Petersen.
Petersen has been at CityZen for a little over a year now, and he’s been earning praise for his blending of classic techniques with creative twists. We caught up with him over email as he was getting ready for his next big thing: a three-course “Simply Dessert” tasting menu ($25) that will change weekly on Thursdays – conveniently the day after each episode of Top Chef: Just Desserts airs.
Questions and answers are reprinted in their entirety without any editing or revision:
Capital Spice: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Chef. Let’s start with the basics: What inspired you to compete?
Matthew Petersen: I decided that it would be a great opportunity so I decided to apply.
CS: You studied baking and pastry in culinary school – what drew you to them?
MP: I always knew, from about the age of 15, that I wanted to work in a kitchen making pastry of some sort. I didn’t know then that I would end up in mostly fine dining restaurants working with some great chefs. At an early age I was surrounded by great, simple, homemade pastry.
CS: CityZen is well-known for the creativity of its menu, from appetizers to desserts. What is it like working in that kind of environment?
MP: I love working with [Chef] Eric [Ziebold] at CityZen. The constant rotation of the menu pushes my creativity more than any other restaurant I have been at. I would say that I thrive in this kind of environment where you are pushed to your limits in every capacity. It is a grueling effort sometimes but the rewards are great.
What it’s like to follow a Beard Award-nominated chef and more after the jump. (more…)
