VOLANT

Chef’s patience, talent take the cake

The first thing we all learned in the April 30 puff pastry class at Volant’s Kitchen Shoppe was don’t even think about making puff pastry from scratch.

Our teacher, Candy Domain, executive chef at the Hickory Bar and Grille, was very firm about this. The commercial brand she recommended was so good, she said, that we would have to practice a long, long time before we could come up with a homemade puff pastry that was even close to being as light and flaky as that one.

She used the commercial brand herself, Ms. Domain said, and that was good enough for our little group. We turned our attention instead to the delicious concoctions we could make with this pastry -- like apple dumplings and chocolate chip pretzels.

Taking a cooking class taught by Ms. Domain, it should be noted, is more like going on vacation than taking a class, except that it’s even less stressful. You just sit, watch, take a few notes and try to figure out how your hands are ever going to be able to deftly tie a puff pastry bow around that Granny Smith apple in quite the same way Ms. Domain’s do.

She is calm. She is patient. She demonstrates the puff pastry pretzel twist once, shows it again to a member of the class who doesn’t quite get it the first time (that would be me), goes through it again a little slower and never once does her face or voice show even a hint of frustration.

According to The Business Journal, that’s just the way Candy Domain is -- even during the long, 14-hour days she spends at her job, supervising the kitchen at the Hickory Bar and Grille.

Business Journal writer Dennis LaRue followed Ms. Domain from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. on May 19, writing about her every move for his story on a day in the life of an executive chef. He observed that she is up at 6 a.m., in bed around 1 a.m. the next morning, and has a cup of coffee "always within reach" during the day. He also noted that "nothing fazes her." "Ernest Hemingway’s phrase ‘grace under pressure’ suits her as well as her white chef’s uniform," LaRue wrote of Ms. Domain.

It’s obvious in her classes that at least part of this grace comes from her great love of cooking, and a natural bent toward creativity.

"Don’t be afraid to try new things," Ms. Domain urges her students.

She tells us of the "old German baker" she first learned from in Pittsburgh’s French Culinary Institute, an exacting teacher who taught her to mix doughs and batters with her hands, not a mixer or spatula, to get a feel for texture and moisture. She encourages us to do the same, and to "be creative," and not stick with a plain old pie crust -- even when many of us haven’t quite mastered that step yet.

"Use a little lemon peel," she suggests, "or some frozen orange juice, or some ground walnuts." Maybe even a little cheddar cheese would be nice in a pie crust for an apple pie, she notes.

Besides the old German baker, Ms. Domain credits a few other sources for her successful 27-year career in cooking and baking. She studied management training at Pueblo International, Florida, which she said has helped a lot in supervising a large busy kitchen. There are around 35 people in the kitchen staff at the Hickory Bar and Grille. And then there’s Richie Herrera, executive chef for the Springfield Restaurant Group, Mercer, the restaurant chain that owns the Hickory Bar and Grille. Herrera, Ms. Domain said, set up the procedure she works with.

"Richie taught me everything I know to become chef of this restaurant," she said.

Ms. Domain has been executive chef at the restaurant for two years, and the crowds waiting in line for dinner most nights attest to her skill. So can her classes at the Kitchen Shoppe, who learn more than just ingredients in recipes. We learn that a big part of having fun cooking is being organized, and planning ahead. Although it’s doubtful many of us will ever match Ms. Domain in planning ahead ("I already know what desserts I’ll serve at Christmas," she told us), we’ll all probably be better than we used to be.

As for being creative -- well, we’ve got some big oven mitts to fill there, too. While we’re trying to work up the courage to add cheddar cheese to our pie dough, Ms. Domain is inventing whole new desserts.

How can you hope to catch up to someone who is ready to unveil her White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie, and something she calls "Hickory’s Sinful Sensation," billed as a "chocolate lover’s dream?"