THE CHOPPING BLOCK – CHEF PROFILES
Kim Schwenke
Favorite class to teach:
Anything baking and pastry related….
Training/education:
French Culinary Institute-Pastry Arts 2001
Cooking since:
Professionally since 2000
Favorite childhood food experience:
Going crabbing when we lived in Florida then taking them home to cook and eat.
What made you want to become a chef?
My favorite thing to do in the office I was working in was to spend days thinking about and then preparing the monthly birthday dessert.
What is your signature dish?
My ricotta cheesecake, I make the ricotta from scratch before making the cheesecake.
What are the 5 ingredients you can’t live without?
Salt, lemon, nuts(esp pistachios), bittersweet chocolate, olive oil
What do you love about cooking?
I love the end result, feeding people and making them happy.
When you’re creating a new recipe, what influences and inspires you?
I always love to create seasonal dishes. I always start with what fruit and vegetables are in season at the time.
What advice would you give a new cook?
Try to learn and master the techniques behind the recipes, then you will be able to cook whatever you want.
What are you doing when you’re not cooking?
Going back to school and hanging out with my eight year old
If you had friends in from out of town, where would you take them to eat?
An ever changing list but if they wanted to see the city then cocktails at Maudes, appetizers at the bar at Girl and the Goat, dinner at The Bristol then late night snacks at Avec….or we would go to Andersonville and drink beer and eat mussels all night long at Hopleaf.
Where are you from?
We moved a great deal when I was young but mainly Cincinnati, Ohio.
What was your favorite vacation?
When I was young we drove to Boston, then traveled up through Vermont and ended up in Maine. We then spent a few days on an old-fashioned sailboat cruising around the coast of Maine.
What are your hobbies?
When I have time, I love to ride my bike by the lake or take a walk through a neighborhood I’ve never been in at look at the architecture. In the winter I love to stay in and read the Sunday paper cover to cover.
What is your favorite sports team?
I really don’t have one….but going to baseball games in the summer are great.
If you could have dinner with one person, who would it be?
My eight year old Claire, everytime.
What are your guilty pleasures?
I have a weakness for Reese's Pieces, anything with bacon and I am glad Girl Scout cookies are not year round.
Who is your favorite celebrity chef?
I don’t think he is a celebrity chef, but I love David Lebovitz, his recipes are great and his writing is fantastic.
What 5 tools should every new cook have in the kitchen?
A great chef knife, a microplane grater, a good whisk, a wooden spoon and a set of measuring cups and spoons.
What resources would you suggest for Chopping Block clients?
I always turn to cooks illustrated online or the Mark Bittman phone app How to Cook Everything is invaluable.
List/describe three of your favorite tips or techniques you use in the kitchen.
Always use your eyes and nose to tell if something is done, the times in a recipe are only a guide.
I always add coffee or espresso extract to recipes with chocolate, you can’t taste it but it deepens the taste of the chocolate.
Parchment paper is your friend…..you can use both sides when baking and still not dirty your sheet pans. Plus you can use it to cover a pot or make a piping bag.