Sweet smell of success
Ronnie Caruana's unequalled palate of sight, taste and touch has been displayed through his award-winning competitions. He was kind enough to take time out his busy schedule to talk to Marika Azzopardi.
Gold and silver medals aren't just the stuff of sporting champions. At age 33, Ronnie Caruana, executive pastry chef at the Hilton Malta, has already reached the height of his profession. He may not be an athlete on the sports track, but give him flour, sugar and a few other staple ingredients plus a clean table top, and he may well create a prize-winning sweet to wrench your taste buds with irresistible desire.
The first time Ronnie tried his hand at creating a sweet dish, he was still a teenager. With a restaurant chef for father, he was accustomed to jostling behind the scenes where food preparation was always in progress and at 16 he even joined his dad, sharing work in the same kitchens for the same restaurants. Sweets beckoned him and he found that of all the cook's tasks, he preferred working with pastry and sugary stuff than with any of the other item on the menu. Sweets motivated him - by age 17 he embarked on professional training which quickly took him places.
"My career moved at a steadily, fast pace from day one and at 22 I was already pastry chef for a leading four-star hotel, The Coastline. Twenty-two is a very young age for somebody to become a pastry chef. The setting was a huge operation, with up to 1,000 covers a day, so it was a big challenge all round."
Training opportunities abroad beckoned and Ronnie started combining travel and training and within a few years' time experienced professional culinary settings in various countries from Switzerland to Belgium, Luxembourg, the UK and others. He joined the Malta National Team of Chefs as pastry chef and also started competing locally and abroad. That is when the medals started pouring in.
His most recent achievements are gold, silver and bronze at the Salon Culinaire de Malte. But for him the most prestigious honour of all goes back to the Culinary Olympics held in October 2004, in Erfurt, Germany. "This is an international event, so I was competing with other similar professionals from all over the world, which is quite something. I won a silver medal which although was not a gold, is a great achievement by Olympic standards."
Having said this, Ronnie points out that the rest of the Hilton team accompanying him included seven other chefs who all won medals in various categories.
But what does the role of pastry chef actually include? "Baking, preparing sweets, pastry and sugarcraft all come into play. Surely a touch of art is required coupled by finesse and a predisposition for elaborate work.
Ronnie admits that coordinating a large team of chefs takes quite a good number of qualities. "Here at the Hilton, my team comprises 10 people which can go up to 13 during the busier summer months." Personally, I strive to bring out the best in my individual team members. Then there is team spirit which motivates the group to work better together - everybody is encouraged to participate in whatever is at hand, so nobody feels left out. I am a perfectionist and a stickler for details but I believe it is the detail which makes work stand out in a certain distinguished style."
I couldn't help myself from asking what his favourite delicacies include and which he loves preparing most. "My favourite? Plaited sweets. But then again anything with dark chocolate included. Sugarcraft? Yes, I am good at that, but would not prefer that to cooking desserts and preparing their decoration - you know, things like gateaux and petites fours."
We talk on about the sweet, sweet world of sweets and Ronnie gives some time-tested advice. "The trick to preparing excellent sweets is to taste as you go along, to learn to recognise the differences in tastes. This helps when you are mixing ingredients of which incidentally you need to have a good understanding. Not simply recognising their taste but knowing what they are made of, the sugar or fat content. This will help gauge if a sweet will be too sweet, too fatty, etc. The perfect sweet is about merging a combination of flavours and textures, keeping sugar to a minimum and including as many fruits as possible."
The first time Ronnie tried his hand at creating a sweet dish, he was still a teenager. With a restaurant chef for father, he was accustomed to jostling behind the scenes where food preparation was always in progress and at 16 he even joined his dad, sharing work in the same kitchens for the same restaurants. Sweets beckoned him and he found that of all the cook's tasks, he preferred working with pastry and sugary stuff than with any of the other item on the menu. Sweets motivated him - by age 17 he embarked on professional training which quickly took him places.
"My career moved at a steadily, fast pace from day one and at 22 I was already pastry chef for a leading four-star hotel, The Coastline. Twenty-two is a very young age for somebody to become a pastry chef. The setting was a huge operation, with up to 1,000 covers a day, so it was a big challenge all round."
Training opportunities abroad beckoned and Ronnie started combining travel and training and within a few years' time experienced professional culinary settings in various countries from Switzerland to Belgium, Luxembourg, the UK and others. He joined the Malta National Team of Chefs as pastry chef and also started competing locally and abroad. That is when the medals started pouring in.
His most recent achievements are gold, silver and bronze at the Salon Culinaire de Malte. But for him the most prestigious honour of all goes back to the Culinary Olympics held in October 2004, in Erfurt, Germany. "This is an international event, so I was competing with other similar professionals from all over the world, which is quite something. I won a silver medal which although was not a gold, is a great achievement by Olympic standards."
Having said this, Ronnie points out that the rest of the Hilton team accompanying him included seven other chefs who all won medals in various categories.
But what does the role of pastry chef actually include? "Baking, preparing sweets, pastry and sugarcraft all come into play. Surely a touch of art is required coupled by finesse and a predisposition for elaborate work.
Ronnie admits that coordinating a large team of chefs takes quite a good number of qualities. "Here at the Hilton, my team comprises 10 people which can go up to 13 during the busier summer months." Personally, I strive to bring out the best in my individual team members. Then there is team spirit which motivates the group to work better together - everybody is encouraged to participate in whatever is at hand, so nobody feels left out. I am a perfectionist and a stickler for details but I believe it is the detail which makes work stand out in a certain distinguished style."
I couldn't help myself from asking what his favourite delicacies include and which he loves preparing most. "My favourite? Plaited sweets. But then again anything with dark chocolate included. Sugarcraft? Yes, I am good at that, but would not prefer that to cooking desserts and preparing their decoration - you know, things like gateaux and petites fours."
We talk on about the sweet, sweet world of sweets and Ronnie gives some time-tested advice. "The trick to preparing excellent sweets is to taste as you go along, to learn to recognise the differences in tastes. This helps when you are mixing ingredients of which incidentally you need to have a good understanding. Not simply recognising their taste but knowing what they are made of, the sugar or fat content. This will help gauge if a sweet will be too sweet, too fatty, etc. The perfect sweet is about merging a combination of flavours and textures, keeping sugar to a minimum and including as many fruits as possible."