FACES: A Q&A with Pastry Chef Brooke Mosley

FACES: Brooke Mosley San Diego native Brooke Mosley is the intrepid pastry chef at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica's stylish restaurant, Whist. Her recent confectionary creations include her "Elvis Truffles" with milk chocolate, toasted peanuts, bacon and caramelized bananas. Her "Bakeshop Peach Tart" is complemented with black raspberries, brown butter, tamarind and cognac. With desserts like that, who would need a main course? We sat down with Mosley to talk about what makes dessert an irresistible part of a meal, and the sweet surprises she has planned for the coming months. How did you get into cooking in general and desserts in particular? I gravitated toward food as a small child. In college and when working in other industries, I cooked for other people all the time. After 9/11, I re-evaluated my career path and decided I wanted to be doing something about which I was passionate and that would physically drain me. I wanted to be able to see exactly what I had done every day. So I applied to culinary schools on 9/12. In regards to pastry, when I moved to LA (the day after I graduated from culinary school), I had a short list of restaurants which interested me. Grace was one of them. They were hiring for pastry, and Elizabeth [Belkind] had a great reputation. Her style spoke to me, and upon meeting her, I knew instantly she would be a mentor. She was. And that was it. How does dessert fit into the rest of a meal? Personally, I think a synergy between savory and sweet is essential. The dessert menu shouldn't really stand alone as an entity, but flow from the menu preceding it. I think, like pairing wine with a meal or building a multiple course tasting, dessert needs to complement the rest of it. And it shouldn't be too sweet! There is nothing worse than having an experience that has been all over the map, in terms of flavor, only to be followed with a single note of sugar or chocolate. Desserts should have texture and salt and acid, too. Do you have any favorite desserts to make? Any favorites you enjoy eating yourself? Ice cream. 100%. As far as eating dessert goes? A perfect custard gets me every time. Simple, simple, simple. When making them myself, I take full advantage of a chef's obligation to taste; believe me. Last year, there seemed to be homemade donuts on the menu at a lot of restaurants, and the year before that, cupcakes were the big thing. Are you noticing any dessert trends happening right now in LA? Everything, and not just dessert, seems to be gravitating toward comfort and familiarity. If you look at what Zoe [Nathan] is doing at Rustic Canyon, for example-her desserts just make you smile-because they're familiar! Offering desserts that can be enjoyed by the entire table also seems to be something of interest. As far as I'm concerned, dessert is the most fun when it's shared. Where do you like to go out for dessert? Craft, Sona, Spago. But, to be honest, I am most interested in the dessert offerings at small ethnic restaurants. A perfect sweet sticky rice and mango combination will get me every time. Are you planning any special new desserts or pastries for Whist's menu that you can give us a sneak preview of? Right now, I am working on a dark chocolate tres leches with horchata ice cream and hibiscus flower gastrique.