Hi there! I’m Ava, a 35-year-old pastry chef and home-cook-in-training based in Asheville, N.C., where the mountain air is perpetually scented with vanilla and cinnamon. I didn’t get my start in the world of sweet creations by attending fancy schools or looking lovingly at glossy magazine covers. Instead, I got my introduction to the creation of goodies in life by a chocolate-streaked mixing bowl and a grandmother who thought of dessert as the language of the soul.
When I was a little girl, I’d sit on a stool next to my grandmother as she folded whipped cream into ganache like it was a religious rite. The gentle way she coaxed her cakes to life, like a distant she-guru coaxing her feral youth devotees, was appealing: patience with a twist of warmth, like a well-made supple rope. I still converse with my bakes, but now it’s practically all about comforting a temperamental mousse or coaxing a shy sponge to be proudly fluffy.
I didn’t head right into the kitchen professionally. I flirted with the concept for some time — studying art, toying with design — but sweets kept calling me back. Finally, I took a pastry program in Chicago, where I found out how to temper chocolate with more grace than I’d ever imagined possible and how to transform butter, sugar, and eggs into dreams you can eat.
Now, I’m all about the rich, the gooey, and the outrageously indulgent. Chocolate is my love language — dark, milk, and especially white — and I believe a good cake can be as moving as a love letter. My creations are to linger over, to have fingers sucked and eyes shut.
I love to experiment with flavors (smoked sea salt in a caramel truffle, for example, or lavender infusing in white chocolate mousse). Of course, some ideas crash and burn (the time I attempted balsamic ganache, what was I thinking?), but half the fun is in the attempt.
What keeps me going is the smiles, the wide eyes at the first cherubic bite, and the times someone tells me that my dessert tasted just like home. I bake for those moments. For people who think of dessert not as an afterthoguht, but as a party.
So, whether you’re like me and have a thing for chocolate, a cream lover, or if you just happen to think cake is always a good idea, welcome to my sweet little world. So shake me up something great.