Julia Palfrey: Milk & Honey

Julia is the Pastry Chef at Eden at the Rimrock Resort in Banff Alberta Canada, 5 Diamond BCAA rating, one of three 5 diamond restaurants in Canada. She grew up in Victoria, British Columbia, and started cooking at 19 years old. She did a 4-year apprenticeship while completing her Culinary Certification at the Hotel Grand Pacific in Victoria’s downtown core.  She has lived in 3 different provinces and worked in luxury hotels across Canada, as well as training under a Michelin star pastry chef in Ontario.  When not in the kitchen, you can find her at the CrossFit gym, or at home working on whatever project that she is momentarily obsessed with. At the moment she is taking some online courses in food journalism and Adobe Photoshop to build her skills and improve a baking blog she started last year.  To honor all the employees who have lost their jobs in the hospitality sector due to COVID, I want to highlight some of these talented people.

Julia welcome, what made you decide to become a pastry chef?

I started my career as a cook. I spent 5 years working my way up through the ranks of the restaurant – prep cook, garde mangier, entremetier, and saucier. I finished my culinary red seal and did a few competitions – Chaine de Rotisseurs and Hawksworth Young Chefs scholarship. I decided to leave the line and switch to pastry because I liked the creativity it offered. Generally, a pastry chef gets to create their own menus, whereas line cooks and sous chefs do not. It is also a totally different skill set in regards to technique and that was something I wanted to learn. 

As a pastry chef, where do you get your inspiration from when making desserts?

I get a lot of my ideas from memories – things I would make with my family as a kid, a dessert a person I know loves, or a place I have been and I try to recreate that memory with flavors. I made one dessert entirely out of corn when I was in Ontario to reflect the farmland that was near the restaurant. Another example is a chestnut mont blanc with gingerbread ice cream because we always play “the Christmas song” while making gingerbread cookies as children. I also get ideas for recipes and presentations from the previous chefs I have worked with and books like “The Elements of Dessert” and “So good magazine”. And there is always Instagram. Instagram is a stellar tool to get some ideas going. 

Name me some of your favorite ingredients you like to work with as a pastry chef?

At the moment my favorite ingredient to work with is Ruby Chocolate – It is quite unique as it is a newly discovered chocolate that is naturally pink with a light, fruity flavor profile. It is relatively new to the Canadian market and I am quite excited about this new type of chocolate to play with. 

Walk me through a day in the pastry kitchen?

The first thing I do is get bread going. I pull any dough made the previous day and let it rise for service. I feed the sourdough culture and make the starter for our sough dough and multigrain bread that needs a 24 hr fermentation period. Then I make raisin bread that will rise for at least 8 hours before continuing the fermentation in the fridge overnight. After that, the sourdough and whole wheat doughs are kneaded from the previous days’ starter for the next day’s service. 

Next, I check our take-home gifts – a hand-made Twix bar made with shortbread & salted caramel and enrobed in chocolate. I usually make 60 – 120 bars at a time depending on business levels. 

After that, I start topping up our desserts and make any components that will be needed before assembly. This includes a hazelnut cake, praline caramel and hazelnut mousse for the hazelnut entremets, lemon fluid gel and honey parfait, sweet pastry, cheesecake, mirror glaze all need to be made before assembly. I make ice cream and sorbet a day in advance as it needs to freeze solid before being put through the paco jet. 

Next is petite fours – we serve each guest 3 petite fours at the end of their meal and I like to have a rotating, seasonal menu for this that changes often. Sometimes I make hand-painted bonbons, a variety of pat de fruit, fudge in rotating flavors, toffee, and other confections. We also serve a selection of coffee service items that I rotate as well. Gingerbread and mincemeat tarts for Christmas, ruby chocolate dipped shortbread, Financier, and other treats. 

Lastly, I top up the garnishes for each dessert as these take the least amount of time. Poached fruit, fluid gels, tempered chocolate work, creams, and crumbs. 

On days that I have a bit of extra time, I sort out and test ideas for upcoming menus. 

In short, pastry takes a lot of planning. Start with the jobs that take the most time, like bread, then anything with a multi-step process. Next are items that need time to set overnight before being processed or cut, and lastly, jobs that are quick. 

Help me understand how the mentality is changing toward women in the kitchen?

Honestly, it really depends on who you’re working with and how you decide to present yourself. I believe it is both parties’ responsibility to influence change. I find with the younger generation of chefs, there is equal opportunity for men and women, hard work is rewarded and promotions are given to those putting in effort regardless of gender. But in saying that I have also worked with some older chefs that refuse to put a woman on the hotline, touch meat or move out of a commis position. There was one chef that called me “sweetheart” instead of learning my name, but even then, I still had every opportunity to advance if I worked hard. I think some of the certain behavior is used to test people, see what they are made of. The boys get yelled at, and the girls are underestimated. Kitchens are high-stress environments and if you can’t take being treated poorly sometimes it probably isn’t for you, and that goes for both men and women.  At the end of the day, the kitchen needs hands, and nobody cares what gender those hands are attached to. 

Talk to me about what women empowerment means to you?

Empowerment is allowing yourself and others to pursue what is meaningful for personal success.

To empower another person is to encourage them to try new things, make mistakes, learn something and celebrate their success. It is a process of trying, failing, refining, and trying again. 

What are your future goals?

This is a tough one, there are a lot of things I would like to do. For now, I want to continue building my skills as a pastry chef, as well as working on my food writing and photography skills through Instagram and blogging. I would love to work abroad, and maybe write a book down the road.  

How do you cope with the long hours in the kitchen?

There was one job I worked at last year, it was a brand new hotel opening with a full-service restaurant. That was probably the hardest job I have had when it came to long hours. In my first few weeks, I worked from 9 am to 11 or 12 pm for 13 days straight. When things settled down we all continued to work 12 hour days 5 days a week. I learned a lot about myself and others, and we really bonded as a team. A good team definitely makes the long days easier. Right now I am at a new restaurant and the hours are much better, still long days here and there but not every day. I think the most important thing for me when it comes to dealing with long stretches is making time for myself. I do my best to stick to a weekly schedule of going to CrossFit a few days a week before work as well as having a project or two on the side so I feel like I still have a life, and that I am working towards my personal goals as well. Over time, a person gets used to the long days in some respect. There is a flow to the season; work hard in the summer and chill in the winter. 

Can you also talk about something challenging you have been through and how you dealt with it?

I think my biggest challenge was dealing with my own lack of self-confidence and the depression that went with it. It controlled my life for quite a few years and stopped me from doing what I wanted and experiencing life in a happy way. At that time my life was just working (5 am shifts) coming home in the afternoon and sleeping, I basically did nothing with my life outside of work for like, 3 or 4 years. Its probably going to sound silly, but I started watching youtube videos with themes around living your best life, and Jordan Petersons 12 rules for life and started applying those principles to mine, one at a time. Eventually, I started setting goals and actually accomplishing them and over time it has completely changed my views. 

If you had a choice to get rid of a few ingredients in the pastry kitchen what would those be and why?

As a pastry chef, I make everything from scratch, so each ingredient serves a purpose in a recipe and to simply omit one would yield a different product. The trend these days leans to vegan and gluten-free baking, and if thoughtful swaps are made to replace eggs, butter, and flour, a product can be made, but it will never be the same as the original. Baking is a series of formulas and each ingredient is there for a reason because someone has tested it and found that this recipe was the best way to make it. 

If I had to get rid of something, it would probably be convenience products like fake flavored syrups. It is easy enough to make your own infusions. 

Any special music you listen to you while working?

I don’t usually listen to music when I am working – sometimes I’ll listen to chill step, electronic music and sometimes I listen to podcasts. 

Some Rapid Fire Questions:

Favorite food – Any type of fresh seafood – oysters, scallops, salmon, and sushi. Sushi is the best. 

Favorite drink – A latte from discovery coffee.

Favorite dessert – Cheesecake, but I think most people love cheesecake. 

Tequila in dessert – I’m not really a tequila person, If I use alcohol in desserts I usually go for rum or Grand Marnier.