Pastry chef and Chocolatier are not the usual occupations you see on a Waterloo engineer graduate’s resume but that is exactly the path alumnus David Chow (BASc ’02) decided to take after his time at Waterloo.
With over ten years of experience working in the industry as Executive Pastry Chef at the Drake Hotel, Albany Luxury Resort and Trump International Hotel & Tower to name just a few, David now offers his beautiful confectioneries at various locations across the GTA and soon online at David H. Chow.
David takes an artistic approach to his mouth watering chocolates and desserts, making edible wonders that could easily pass as works of art, enticing customers with his creations on his Instagram page, CAUTION: you might drool on your keyboard.
We caught up with David to talk about his delectable company and life after Waterloo.
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Can you tell us about your change in gears from UWaterloo engineering graduate to successful pastry chef/chocolatier in the GTA?
I graduated right around when the tech bubble had burst and a lot of graduates were suddenly faced with downsizing and layoffs. The marketplace was flooded with lots of qualified people with experience. While competing for interviews I figured I would formalize my love of cooking by attending Le Cordon Bleu to study pastry. I loved it so much in fact that I decided to take a risk and stick with it, moved to Toronto and dedicated myself to the craft in order to get where I am today.
Many people ask if my engineering degree is still useful these days. When the concepts of pastry and baking are broken down they are based on scientific principles and are simply a form of organic chemistry. Ingredients mixed together in very exact proportions in a sequential order at the right time using specific methods to yield a predictable and consistent result. Chocolate is an even more demanding and technical ingredient where slight changes in temperature or humidity can greatly affect the outcome.
I read that your love of food came from taking over cooking duties for your family as a young boy after your mother became ill. Can you tell us about this and how it ignited your passion for food?
It was in grade 6 or 7 I believe that I first became aware of it. Obviously my dad and brother (also UWaterloo alumni) and I took on more household responsibilities. Cooking somehow fell to me and it was very satisfying helping to feed my family through the very rough patches we were all facing together. I remember that friends would run home to watch afternoon cartoons but I excitedly ran home to watch classic cooking shows by Julia Child, Jacques Pépin, Madeleine Kamman (this was well before the advent of food TV as we know it today) to absorb as many new ideas and techniques as possible. It was probably where my love of classic French cooking and technique stems from.
I threw myself into cooking wholeheartedly as a kind of escape and began informing my palate as to what tasted good when combined and what didn't and began refining both my cooking and baking techniques (I'm a pretty good savoury cook as well). In one of my more experimental phases I remember covering a chicken that was to be roasted, in copious amounts of cream of tartar for some odd reason. My brother thought I was trying to poison him. Definitely lots of trial and error back then and even to this day.
You have worked for some high caliber restaurants including the Drake Hotel and now offer your own products around the city of Toronto, how does feel it to be working for yourself now?
Whether in the food or tech industries I think a lot of people have dreams of owning their own business. It is always eye opening being an entrepreneur as you have to put on so many hats to succeed – business/finance, sales, marketing, design, etc. It’s funny how the higher up you get in a kitchen (I have been fortunate to be Exec Pastry Chef at a few places) the less cooking you actually do. There is always tons of paperwork no matter what industry you are in. I will say the one thing I do miss about working in large kitchens is the camaraderie and being surrounded by people who are just as passionate as you are all working collaboratively to make a great product.
Just as with any tech startup it is constant innovation, leveraging my adaptability to quickly meet a market demand or need and consistent engagement with customers that will allow me a competitive advantage to succeed in a crowded market. Everyone in the industry has access to the same basic ingredients and equipment and uses the same techniques but I love combining chocolate with other locally-sourced ingredients in surprising ways to produce very unique confections not found elsewhere.
Your pieces look like works of art. How do you incorporate such an artistic approach to your chocolate making?
It's funny you ask since I nearly failed art in high school. As with any artistic field it takes lots of practice, trial and error, and of course constantly absorbing info and techniques through other chefs. It is always about keeping my eyes open since inspiration can strike at any time from even the most unlikely of places. I can be inspired by a beautiful plate of food I saw on social media just as easily as be inspired by seeing graffiti on the side of a building while walking down the street.
I love taking a whimsical and colourful approach to everything I make but at the end of the day it does not matter how great something looks if it does not taste good. Taste and texture are paramount in my books.
What advice do you have for alumni looking to get into a similar field?
What I tell anyone wanting to get into the field is to have realistic expectations and that talent and passion are usually not enough. The constant bombardment of media has skewed the public's general perception of what is means to be a chef. “I bake a lot at home” is a phrase that my colleagues and I hear far too often from people starting out. Working in the food industry is not all rainbow cupcakes and instant success and stardom. It takes years of working very hard from the bottom up and LOTS of sacrifice and study to become a good cook left alone a great chef. Even to this day, 10 years after my career change, I find it odd that people address me as “Chef” in the kitchen as I don't see myself there yet as I’m constantly learning and improving.
What was your all-time favourite item to make?
There have been so many of note throughout the years and difficult to choose from and it changes all the time. However I will never tire of making candy bars. I love taking the bars I grew up eating and loving as a child and reinterpreting them with higher-quality ingredients and unusual flavour combinations. My current favourite is my candy bar with a peanut butter nougat base studded with toasted salted peanuts with a peanut butter and Valrhona milk chocolate chipotle meltaway layer on top. It’s dipped in Valrhona dark chocolate and finished with a splash of colour and sea salt. It’s sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy, and creamy… it hits all the right notes for me!
