Susan Kolman is the new Pastry Chef at Ardeo restaurant in Washington, D.C. In a way, she says, since she became a pastry chef she’s stopped working. 

Of course, she spends many hours a day in the kitchen and many more thinking about the dessert creations that have earned her accolades from D.C. area critics. “But I’ve never had so much fun,” she says. “Mark Ramsdell, Head Pastry Instructor at L'Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, MD, who has been a mentor, often says that once you find something you love, you never work another day in your life. That seems pretty true for me.”

Perhaps the main reason Chef Kolman is having so much fun is that after seven years as a corporate executive—she was Vice President of Aon Consulting in Owings Mills, MD—she is pursuing her real dream. “I’m a career changer. I left a big deal job in corporate America to pursue my passion for baking. I enrolled in the Pastry Arts Program at L'Academie in January 2004,” she says.

As she has grown in her new career, she says, “My appreciation of chocolate has evolved. Prior to my pastry training, I thought of chocolate as dark, milk or white. But in fact, the flavor of each chocolate is largely dependent on where the beans were grown, how or if they are combined with other beans, how they were treated after harvesting, and what additions are made during manufacturing (sugar, dairy products, etc.).”

As her appreciation of chocolate has increased, so has her confidence in working with it. “I was lucky in my externship placement at L'Academie. I worked at Caves Valley Golf Club north of Baltimore. My supervising chef, Jay Lampart, gave me sole responsibility for creating the after dinner candy plate presented to each table. While I had baked most of my life, I had done very little with candy. That spring/summer, I gained confidence in tempering chocolate and huge respect for the medium itself. Chocolate can be both temperamental and forgiving - you need to work with it, not force it to work with you. Jay would be amazed to watch me now, compared to how tentative I was then,” she says.

With confidence, came a desire to learn more, experiment and express her creativity, she explains. “In my first job as pastry chef at Persimmon in Bethesda, I pushed myself to experiment further, creating various flavors of truffles for special events and amenities, experimenting with different methods for décor, and taking advantage of vendor-sponsored demonstrations, where I could watch expert chefs and taste a variety of chocolates. When I left Persimmon, I enrolled in a candy-making class at Albert Uster Imports. The teachers, Chef Guiliano Sargenti, head of Uster's candy production in Switzerland, and Chef Anil Rohira, a world gold medalist and recently recognized as one of the top ten pastry chefs in the US, helped me understand more of the technical issues of working with chocolate successfully and also introduced a broad range of flavor combinations.”

She has developed her own style of working with chocolate. “I prefer bold, natural flavors and work to create desserts that enhance the ingredients. I prefer bittersweet chocolate for its complexity of flavor. I play a lot with contrasts and am using more herbs and savory ingredients (e.g., vinegars) to compliment and contrast the sweetness of chocolate. My presentations tend to be simple both for consistency in plating in the kitchen and also for the comfort of my guests. The presentation should be attractive, but not so contrived that it becomes art rather than something wonderful to eat.”

Chef Kolman’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombe (recipe) is good example of her philosophy of contrasts. Like her philosophy, the creation evolved as she worked with the chocolate. “Originally, the dessert was created as part of a special Easter brunch menu. It was something I thought would appeal to both kids and adults. The bombe went over so well, I spruced it up with more chocolate for our regular menu. The bombe itself is a surprise of layers. Hiding underneath its shiny chocolate glaze is a deep chocolate mousse. Then comes peanut butter mousse and at the bottom a hint of crunch from a base of milk chocolate mixed with peanut butter and feuillitine. The desserts is all about contrasts: sweet (chocolate and peanut butter), salty (homemade caramel popcorn), bitter (caramel in the popcorn), soft (chocolate and peanut butter mousses), crunchy (chocolate peanut bark), cold (bombe), and warm (chocolate sauce).”

Ardeo is a popular neighborhood restaurant located in the heart of D.C.’s Cleveland Park. It offers modern American cuisine, incorporating Asian, Mediterranean and traditional French flavors. Christopher Bradley is Executive Chef.