The cook and the baker do not inhabit the same part of the day, let alone the same part of the restaurant kitchen.
It makes sense that they don't inhabit the same brain, either.
One works alone, in the morning, creating and leaving behind masterpieces of confection for the delight of customers who haven't even made their reservations yet.
The other works with line cooks and sous-chefs and servers in the steamy pressure cooker of dinnertime.
"Left brain, right brain. Male, female. Dog, cat. All those things and more," said Tim Ryan, president of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
Just as the baseball player who can field and hit is precious, the kitchen stars have their strengths and they play to them. (If they don't, there can be trouble: The judges on this season's Top Chef sent a contestant packing when she played out of position and delivered a lackluster pineapple upside-down cake.)
"There is a dominant hand," said Ryan. "The number of chefs who are great pastry chefs is very limited."
That this should be so is no mystery to those who practice each craft.
"When it comes to cooking, you can make soup according to what you have on hand or what you are feeling," said Donna Crivello, founder and owner of six Donna's bistros and a cooking teacher.
"But when it comes to a cake or pastry, you have to have the right ingredients and you have to follow directions. You are the kind of personality who wants it to be the same, time after time."
That is the crux of it - personality. Throw ingredients in a hot wok and yell, "Bam," or thread piping on a cake with a hand as steady as those of a brain surgeon.
One is all spontaneity and impulse and sexy free will. The other is restraint and precision and delicate perfection.
A restaurant kitchen might not be room enough for such divergent personalities. To find them inside the same chef's coat seems impossible.
"What I love about this," said Mark Bittman, cookbook author and New York Times columnist, "is that you can go to a restaurant and the food can be terrible and the desserts are great. Or the food can be of one genre and the desserts can be another.
"I've asked head chefs what's going on with the pastry chef and they just shrug their shoulders. It is not entirely clear he is giving orders to the pastry chef."
Sure, you can do both, and plenty of home cooks do. Any chef can make a poundcake or a batch of cookies, says Chris Kimball, founder of Cook's Illustrated magazine and host of the television show America's Test Kitchen, who says his baking shows garner the highest ratings.
"Everyone cooks, but not everyone bakes. You are probably going to excel at one or the other because you not only have to put the time in. You have to love it like a religion."
Kimball is a baker. "Bakers have a large percentage of their childhood intact," he said. Wonder is the essential element, he says; the magic that turns a pile of white dust and a couple of eggs into something entirely new - a loaf of bread, an apple pie, a layer cake. "Stir-fry looks pretty much the same at the beginning and at the end," he said.
English and art majors make great cooks, but if you want dessert, ask an engineer, say the kitchen wags.
Or a lawyer.
Warren Brown, host of the Food Network show Sugar Rush and owner of Washington's CakeLove bakery, which will open a shop in Canton soon, left the law for the kitchen, but he brought with him a devotion to process.
"In both, you have to recognize the procedure and honor that. You have to recognize there are nuances in both the law and your ingredients. And you can trace both back to where they came from."
Brown is insatiably curious about ingredients, their impact on each other and their response to heat. That makes him a good baker, but it makes him pretty good with a grill, too.
"I like playing with the charcoal and the wood, playing with the temperature. It's a guy thing."
If there is one misconception about cooks and bakers it is that one can play with his food while the other cannot. The professionals disagree. Though the baker must be precise in his measuring, he has freedom in his choice of flavors.
"You can be just as loosey-goosey about baking as you can with cooking," said Maria Springer of Baltimore, who has taught cooking classes in her home for 16 years. She finds that her students divide themselves into the two camps.
"Baking is more creative in a visual sense, that's true," she said. "But there is a challenge in cooking to bring out certain flavors."
Author Bittman, who wrote the foreword to the reissue of Beard on Food, is heavily biased toward cooking. "James Beard had a theory that each meal could have only one great thing, but I don't think that one great thing can be dessert," he said.
If the worlds of the savory cook and the pastry chef intersect, it might be on the bread board. Though there is chemistry in bread making just as there is in baking, the world of ingredients has exploded far beyond white flour, warm water and yeast.
"Personally, I have always felt that the bread bakers are the Zen masters of cooking," said Barbara Fairchild, editor of Bon Appetit magazine.
"Bread making allows for the personal expression of cooking. It requires attention but there can also be personal flourishes."
Lauren Groveman, whose career was launched when she collaborated on a baking cookbook with Julia Child, said the legendary French chef described herself as a cook and was "in awe" of bakers. It is possible that this great woman suffered the same intimidation that many home cooks do when they face their Kitchen Aid mixer?
"When people are busy, and they have 15 minutes of time, they are going to gravitate toward a known outcome, a favorable outcome," said Groveman, author of cookbooks and a series of teaching videos.
She, like Fairchild, describes herself as one of the rare ambidextrous ones in the kitchen. "I love it all," she said.
Women do dominate among pastry chefs. Eighty percent of the pastry students at CIA are women. Seventy percent of the culinary students are men. At Baltimore International College, the same is true: 71 percent of the baking and pastry students are women; 66 percent of the culinary students are male.
This is a chicken and egg quandary. Are more women interested in baking and pastry because it is a female thing? Or was this their only route into the male-dominated world of the professional kitchen?
"I used to think it was because women might have gotten their first exposure to the kitchen while baking with mom," said CIA's Ryan.
"Then I decided there were more practical reasons for the division. Women say that being a pastry chef, with the early hours and the flexibility, made it easier to have a family.
"But there is something else going on there. Pastry chefs are cats. They are apt to be lone wolves who like to be off by themselves. Chefs are dogs. They like to work in packs, in teams."
And there seems to be an emotional ingredient in baking that appeals to the heightened empathy quotient in women.
Cindy Selby, a decorated pastry chef and chocolatier who owns Blondies Baking Co. in Annapolis, was drawn to baking from the start, even though she was fully trained in the savory side.
"I like the preciseness of it. And I think it is more artistic, but I like the feelings it gives people," she said.
Couples have proposed over her creations, she has made people gasp or cry and her Kiki's Cookies, intense chocolate brownie cookies, "make people's eyes roll back in their heads."
It is hard to imagine even the best pork tenderloin in that kind of role.
susan.reimer@baltsun.com
Kiki's Cookies
Makes 32
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 pound semisweet or bittersweet dark chocolate (at least 64 percent cacao)
3 ounces unsalted butter
5 eggs
14 ounces granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon coffee extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ounces cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
8 ounces dark chocolate chips
8 ounces white chocolate chips
8 ounces roasted whole almonds, roughly chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place unsweetened and dark chocolate in a bowl with the butter and melt together over simmering water. Reserve.
Whip eggs and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the coffee extract and vanilla extract. Mix the egg mixture into the melted chocolate.
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Sift together. Add to the chocolate until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and the almonds; stir until combined.
Using a scoop or a spoon, immediately scoop dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. (The cookies will be really gooey, but don't worry!)
Place a second cookie sheet under this pan.
Bake for about 5 to 7 minutes. The cookies will appear slightly cracked on top.
Tip: The key to success with these cookies is to work very fast with the chocolate, Annapolis pastry chef Cindy Selby says. Mix, scoop and bake quickly.
Courtesy of Annapolis pastry chef Cindy Selby
Per cookie: 299 calories, 5 grams protein, 18 grams fat, 9 grams saturated fat, 35 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams fiber, 40 milligrams cholesterol, 117 milligrams sodium
Simon and Garfunkel Special
(Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Chicken)
Serves 4 to 6
Barbara Fairchild, editor of Bon Appetit magazine, says she likes to cook Mediterranean-style food because that's what she likes to eat. And she is always searching for the perfect tiramisu recipe to complement it. This is one of her favorite entertaining combinations - and it involves both cooking and baking.
one 4 1/2 -pound chicken
salt
2 teaspoons dried rosemary, crumbled
1 1/2 teaspoons ground or rubbed sage
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme, crumbled
fresh ground pepper
2 bay leaves
5 tablespoons olive oil
4 small russet potatoes (unpeeled), quartered lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/2 -inch pieces
8 large shallots, peeled
1 3/4 cups (about) chicken stock or canned low-salt broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar or 3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon sugar
6 tablespoons ( 3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
minced fresh parsley to taste
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Rub chicken inside and out with salt. Combine rosemary, sage, thyme and generous amount of pepper in small bowl. Rub some of the mixture inside chicken. Place 1 bay leaf in cavity. Tie legs together to hold shape.
Brush chicken with some of olive oil. Sprinkle with half of remaining herb mixture. Place in large baking pan. Surround with potatoes and shallots. Sprinkle vegetables with remaining herb mixture and remaining olive oil. Add bay leaf and mix well.
Bake chicken until juices run clear when pierced in thickest part of thigh and legs can be moved easily, basting chicken with pan juices and turning vegetables occasionally, about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter and surround with vegetables, using slotted spoon. Tent with foil to keep warm while preparing sauce.
Pour pan juices into large glass measuring cup and degrease. Add enough stock to measure 2 cups. Add vinegar to baking pan and bring to boil over medium heat, scraping up any browned bits. Boil until reduced to glaze, about 4 minutes. Add stock mixture and boil until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low and whisk in butter, 1 piece at a time. Adjust seasonings to taste. Stir in parsley.
Surround chicken with vegetables. Pour sauce over and serve.
Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit magazine, developed by Bon Appetit staff
Per serving (based on 6 servings): 725 calories, 47 grams protein, 47 grams fat, 16 grams saturated fat, 27 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams fiber, 164 milligrams cholesterol, 376 milligrams sodium
Marsala Tiramisu
Serves 16
3/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup dry marsala wine
8 large egg yolks
three 8-ounce containers mascarpone cheese, room temperature
1 cup chilled whipping cream
3/4 cup freshly brewed very strong espresso coffee
1/3 cup Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
2 1/2 packages (3.5 ounces each) Champagne biscuits (crisp ladyfinger cookies)
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
Whisk sugar, marsala and egg yolks in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water).
Whisk constantly until candy thermometer registers 165 degrees and mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Remove bowl from over water, cooling completely, whisking occasionally.
Using electric mixer, beat mascarpone in another medium bowl just until smooth. Fold mascarpone into marsala mixture. Using electric mixer with clean beaters, beat whipping cream in large bowl to soft peaks. Add mascarpone mixture to whipped cream and fold together.
Mix coffee and Kahlua in medium bowl. Completely submerge 1 biscuit in coffee mixture for 1 second; shake off excess liquid. Place biscuit in bottom of an 8-cup (12-inch-by-9-inch) oval gratin dish. Repeat with just enough biscuits to cover bottom of pan, trimming biscuits to fit if necessary.
Spoon half of mascarpone mixture over biscuits, spreading to cover. Submerge remaining biscuits 1 at a time in coffee mixture and arrange atop mascarpone mixture (discard any remaining coffee mixture). Spoon remaining mascarpone mixture over biscuits, spreading to cover completely. Sift cocoa powder over, covering mascarpone mixture completely.
Cover and refrigerate overnight. (Tiramisu can be prepared 3 days ahead.)
Courtesy of Bon Appetit magazine; developed by Bon Appetit magazine staff
Per serving: 356 calories, 6 grams protein, 29 grams fat, 15 grams saturated fat, 20 grams carbohydrate, 0 grams fiber, 210 milligrams cholesterol, 56 milligrams sodium