Adding salt to desserts helps to balance and pronounce flavors. Almost all of my desserts have salt in them. They don't taste salty per se, but if I gave you two of the same item - one with salt and one without - side by side, you would realize something was missing.

Johnny Iuzzini

Categorized in : You Realize Missing Balance

Every few years, I change my look for the simple reason that I get bored. If you Google Image me, you will see so many different looks: long hair, short hair, clean shaven, beard, etc.

Johnny Iuzzini

me you change simple

The true mark of professionalism is the ability to respect everyone else for their styles and always find something positive in every dining experience and highlight it in your thoughts and words.

Johnny Iuzzini

thoughts respect experience positive

If you take everything personally and to heart, it will tear you apart. Take criticism, learn, adjust, and move on.

Johnny Iuzzini

will you criticism heart

I didn't come from a wealthy family. My dad told us if we wanted spending money, we had to earn it. So I developed an early work ethic.

Johnny Iuzzini

dad family money work

Whenever a chef cooks for his own ego rather than his guests, he/she set themselves up for ridicule and failure. In the end, it's the service industry. Our goal is to make our guests happy through our cooking.

Johnny Iuzzini

service failure cooking happy

Part of what makes a great chef is the ability to adapt, cook, and to taste. A great chef will use all their food knowledge, food memories, and senses to work with each ingredient and apply themselves to the dish they are creating.

Johnny Iuzzini

work food memories knowledge

Baking is about multi-tasking. If you are organized and prepared, that's half the battle.

Johnny Iuzzini

you baking battle half

As chefs, especially pastry chefs, your creativity plays such an important part in your daily work. We truly do have a blank canvas to work with every time we create a new dish.

Johnny Iuzzini

daily creativity work time

I fell in love with pastry because I felt I could be much more creative. It's precise, and you don't have to kill anything.

Johnny Iuzzini

more you creative love

Chocolate is one of the backbones of the pastry kitchen. It is one of the most important ingredients in our pantry. It is very versatile, it is complex, and it is extremely temperamental.

Johnny Iuzzini

pastry kitchen chocolate important

Cooking is about imbibing different cultures and putting them in a plate on the table.

Johnny Iuzzini

table about different cooking

Desserts are last, but don't let them be least.

Johnny Iuzzini

desserts least them last

My mom was a rescue veterinarian, and I grew up helping her nurse injured animals back to health. Any deer hit by a car, fox caught in a trap, whatever it was that got hurt, everyone brought them to my mom.

Johnny Iuzzini

car health mom hurt

A savory chef must first master his knife skills and understand the basics of sauces and soups, etc., before he/she may move on to become a great chef. It is no different for pastry chefs. If you do not have a strong foundation and are a master of the basics, then you will never be that strong - you will never be a master of the trade - period.

Johnny Iuzzini

great you strong chef

Everyone has days when things can go wrong. That doesn't make you a bad pastry chef - that makes you human.

Johnny Iuzzini

everyone bad you chef

I have pictures of me feeding deer and possums with baby bottles. I am such an animal lover.

Johnny Iuzzini

pictures i-am me animal

A pastry chef's lifespan in a restaurant is limited. You have to open a bakery or pastry shop. There's only so far you can go in a restaurant.

Johnny Iuzzini

restaurant go you chef

First and foremost, food needs to be delicious. It should pop and explode with flavor. Food should please all the senses.

Johnny Iuzzini

first delicious flavor food

I dislike cloyingly sweet desserts - sweet is not a flavor - so I suggest dialing back the sweetness and focusing on what the dessert is about, whether it is a ripe fruit, chocolate, etc.

Johnny Iuzzini

back fruit chocolate sweet

I love biscuits. I have a real thing for a biscuits, and if it's not made right, I'm gonna come down hard on somebody.

Johnny Iuzzini

down hard real love