After 11 years as a pastry chef in Boston, Alyx Abreu came to New Orleans to work at the St. Vincent Hotel and currently is the pastry chef at Arnaud’s. She’s also on the current season of Food Network’s “Holiday Baking Championship,” where she’s prepared local favorites including bread pudding and baked Alaska. She also used a recipe that’s similar to one of her desserts on the restaurant’s special Reveillon menu, available through Dec. 23. For more information about the show, visit foodnetwork.com. For information about Arnaud’s, go to arnaudsrestaurant.com.
Gambit: How did you get interested in pastry and baking?
Alyx Abreu: It really started in high school. I was given the option to bake a dessert for some sort of school project. People really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed the process of doing it, so that became my process in high school. Any time I could bake cookies or something like that for a grade, I would do that. My mom had a fit. She was like couldn’t you do some kind of project? But teachers like cake.
The school I went to also had a great relationship with the local technical school, Cumberland County Technical Education Center. I was able to go there during my final year of high school and start learning about culinary arts, hospitality and all of that. I went from there to trying to do savory, which wasn’t for me. But once I got my foot in the door at various places pastry-wise, I got my footing. Then I moved to Boston and my career started moving in the direction it is now.
(In Boston) I was all over the place. I started working in a small bakery. I worked at a couple cupcake shops. I went to culinary school. I worked at a brewery and made pretzels. I jumped around a lot. I worked at a wine and cheese shop and got to make really cute rustic-style pies and tarts.
I got my foot in the door at a corporate caterer called Milk Street Cafe and met my first mentor there. She really gave me the resources and training to take the next steps both in pastry and management.
On a whim, I put in an application at the St. Vincent Hotel. They flew me down to do a tasting, and within a month I moved down here. It’s been a real joy because New Orleans was a place I wanted to live my whole life.
Gambit: What drew you to the TV competition?
Abreu: In Boston, a restaurant group I worked with had a few chefs who had been on some other shows. The PR team asked me if I was interested. I had done TV interviews for our pastry program, and a lot of PR training went with that. It was something that I liked.
There were circumstances that kept me from participating, like it didn’t fit my work schedule. When I moved down here, in a brand new city, my focus was on getting acclimated. But when I transitioned from the hotel to Arnaud’s, there was more flexibility.
I had done a few news segments where I prepared things. It’s not the same thing, but you get used to the camera being on you.
In terms of preparation, a lot of it was watching previous seasons of the show and studying my own recipes and just believing in yourself. Just go in there with the mindset that I am going to do the best I can and that’s all you can do.
What’s great about the show is that everything we bake is our choice. There’s no one telling you what to bake.
(My team) did bread pudding. Bread pudding is a Louisiana staple, everybody has a recipe they say is the best. I thought it was going to be a safe bet. But one thing that is real about the competition is the time. You really are only given two hours. Bread pudding usually needs a lot of time to soak. The one we make at Arnaud’s is made with banana bread, so it’s literally a cake that’s soaked in custard. I tried to condense that into two hours.
For the bread pudding on the show, I used challah bread because it’s an enriched bread that will soak up that custard. I added spices and rum. I also added bananas in there. I made a caramel sauce. I wanted it to get that bananas Foster feel. Not totally traditional, but a love letter to New Orleans.
The second episode, I won the episode for our team with baked Alaska, one of our signature desserts at Arnaud’s. I made home-made chocolate ice cream with chocolate stracciatella throughout the ice cream. I did chocolate cake, and then the entire thing is coated in toasted meringue. Technically a difficult dessert, but something I make all the time.
Normally you make a yellow cake or something that complements the ice cream. I went with chocolate on chocolate.
At least 3,000 tortillas a day. That’s how many nixtamalized corn tortillas the kitchen makes at Tacos del Cartel in Metairie. About 500 of th…
Gambit: What desserts are you making at Arnaud’s for the holidays?
Abreu: We have our Reveillon menu. On a recent episode, I did a Black Forest mille feuille. (At Arnaud’s) we’re going to be serving little individualized versions during Reveillon. Some of the proceeds go toward the Teddy Bear program (which distributes Teddy bears to children in need).
We’re also doing a chocolate chip panettone. Panettone is one of my favorite things to make during the holidays. It’s an Italian bread cake situation. It’s usually an enriched bread that’s studded with pistachios, orange and candy and fruits. This is a miniaturized version. It’s going to have chocolate chips in it. It’s going to be served with a little sidecar espresso mousse. Nice for the end of the meal.
