GALO: You and your wife, Frances Steenman, founded La Tulipe Desserts in 1999. In the years since the patisserie’s opening, and in the time you spent working at other patisseries and bakeries before that, have you noticed that certain treats, colors, or flavors become more or less popular during particular seasons or at certain times of the year? Are there specific dessert trends or popular items that surface during the springtime, for example, like the French macaroon, and how would you account for these kinds of trends?

MS: Well, I mean our assortment changes. I have a winter assortment and a summer assortment, so in the spring and summer I use a lot more fruit. We have cakes, for example, like the Soleil, which is like a lemon, lime and raspberry [cake]. What else do we do? We do a strawberry Fraisier, like French strawberry shortcake, with fresh strawberries. [In the summer] the fruit is also at its best; in the winter, I don’t even want to see a strawberry over here! I hate strawberries then ’cause it’s never any good. In the winter [at La Tulipe] we have more cakes with chocolate and coffee and hazelnut, and more rustic bases for the cakes. And it’s the same with the macaroons. Especially around the holidays, we always put in a couple of flavors, like eggnog and cinnamon — solid flavors. So it just varies — different products in the summer, lighter, and in the winter we change it again. In the fall we change it again too: coffee and almond and chocolate, mostly. So we just go with the year; you have to — I mean, pumpkin of course, people love that. We make a pumpkin muffin, a pumpkin cookie, and we add spices to our products.

I think it’s good for yourself too. It’s nice to have four seasons. You know, after the winter is gone you hate the last snowstorm, you’re just — ah, you wanna see spring! And so, I think it’s very healthy for your body. If you have every time the same assortment, it’s not good. And it’s very difficult ‘cause it takes me always a very long time to put a product together. It’s not like, many places…how can I explain this? See, for example, [at] a restaurant, I always say, they have everything under control, until the last minute. For me, I have to make a product, I have to put it in my showcase, wait until somebody will purchase it, [and then] they can just throw it in the backseat and just drive around Westchester for a couple of hours on a hot summer day. I don’t know how people take care of my products, so restaurants have it in that way much easier. It’s more stress in a small service, during lunch or the evening to get everything out, but they have everything under control; it’s right there. For us, we just don’t know.

It’s very important for myself to develop a product that takes a long time to develop, to test it out, [in case] people keep it an extra day in the refrigerator. That’s why it’s always important for me also to use everything fresh, as fresh as you can; if you use whipped cream or egg white that is old or is not fresh, the shelf-life in your showcase will be a day shorter. And it’s not nice sometimes because you make a beautiful cake or a beautiful dessert and it doesn’t sell, and after one or two days, it’s just like, “all right that’s it, gotta take it out.” And it hurts, ‘cause that’s money and you put a lot of pride in your work. But you have to do that. It also gives you the ability to work with the very best ingredients. I always say it like this: even if you make a mistake in the recipe, [the dessert] still tastes good ‘cause it is done with the right ingredients and that makes a difference.

GALO: That brings me to my next question. At La Tulipe Desserts, you are committed to using quality ingredients, including everything from imported Haitian vanilla beans, French chocolate and Spanish almonds, to local organic honey and seasonal produce. How do these ingredients enhance the overall quality of your products, and what ecological or environmental ramifications are there to choosing your ingredients so thoughtfully?

MS: Well,  I do not have like one big supplier, for example, a supplier like Dairyland, [which] pretty much all of Westchester deals with. Decent places [will go] on the phone on Monday morning and place one large order for the whole week. But I see it always as the chefs coming in with a suitcase of knives, and they buy like a whole series of knives, but they only use three knives. Every supplier has a different ingredient, so every supplier has a different specialty. I have a lot of little suppliers, and every time I place small orders with them. So it’s never really negotiating for prices, but I can pick, really pick, [from] every supplier a different ingredient. And that’s just what makes it so special. I’m just very fussy with the ingredients, and it takes me a long time to develop the product but also to pick the ingredient. Because it starts always with that: if the ingredients are good, and you have the knowledge to put it together, it makes a good product.

In France, they sell these baked fruit tarts with fresh peaches and those things. And it’s really hard to get fresh produce here. Last year, we went on vacation with the family to California, and [there] you have those delicious fruits — in San Francisco, it’s fantastic. You need like a little bib to eat those little peaches — it’s so good! So I want to try this year to get a couple of cases, during the week, and just make some very simple baked fruit tarts — it’s the fruit that makes it. If the fruit is good, it’s delicious.

GALO: In addition to superlative flavor, your desserts boast extraordinary design. Together you and your wife create La Tulipe Desserts’ one-of-a-kind presentation, which consists of custom cakes and special holiday items as well as stunning gift boxes and brochures. How does the visual aspect of your desserts and patisserie coincide with emphasizing flavor and technique? Why is it important to you that your desserts are sold solely at La Tulipe, and never as menu items at larger restaurants?

MS: I noticed when we opened up [and were] delivering to restaurants or selling to restaurants, when I came there the next week with a new delivery I still saw the old pastries from the week [before]. And I said, “Guys, what is this? This is not good!” But they just spent money on this and they want to make their money back on it…so I [tend to] deal with those things very little. Mostly, I deal with country clubs. They buy the desserts and I know that that night or that day, or maybe at the very latest by the next day, it’s all gone. Or private caterers, that works always very well.

[And in terms of design,] it’s of course color. You design something with color for your dessert, either from fresh fruit or berries. Also, things for example with acidity, you can put a little more sweetness in there [by adding fruit]. A perfect example: when I make a French macaroon, in the filling itself I hardly put any sugar, almost no sugar. Why is that? Well, the cookie itself is very sweet, and you need the sugar to make your meringue shell. It’s overly sweet already, and that’s why I design my fillings with no sugar inside whatsoever. So, when you eat the filling itself, when you taste it, it’s like, “no, not too good, it misses sugar.” But then when you eat it in combination, the cookie with the filling, it’s great. So that’s basically what I try to do, that balance.

It’s not like the French way with a lot of recipes, a lot of pages — you try to do it as simple as possible, but just [with] the right balance. And, of course, [with] your color and the design — that’s what people look at. You know, you eat also with your eyes. So [the dessert] has to look good, it has to smell good, and of course, taste good. It’s like a whole thing together, but it takes time. For example, I make my own glazes — the glazes to put on top of the desserts, to make them nice and shiny; the glazes for the fruits, to make them nice and vibrant. When you buy those glazes at the suppliers, they turn into rubber after a while, and it’s just not good. So you have to design a glaze that stays really nice and soft always, even if it’s a day old or two days old. Those things are all very important for me. And again, fruit here is just a disaster [laughs]. It’s just not good at all… Now we’re gonna get to the better time but even then [the produce is] just so far behind. I mean, the strawberries in France are so much better! They’re like really red, red. Here [they’re] always white somehow, maybe it’s because of the mass production. I don’t know.

(Interview continued on next page)