If former White House executive pastry chef Roland Mesnier can impart one scrap of baking advice to the masses, one crumb from the master who has baked for presidents and kings, one tidbit of his culinary wisdom, it is simply this: Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature.
This is Mesnier’s mantra.
Forget your worries about eggs and milk and butter needing refrigeration. When you bake, leave these items out at room temperature for hours, even overnight, he teaches – make that preaches.
The same goes for the flour, salt, sugar and vanilla. Room-temperature ingredients (about 70 to 75 degrees) are the secret to fluffy frostings and cakes with a perfect crumb, Mesnier says.
Concerns about bacteria and spoilage should not be a worry for these basic baking ingredients, which will be submitted to oven temperatures high enough to kill any bacteria. Eggs are not a problem at room temperature, but only when brought to temperatures between 90 to 140 degrees. That’s high enough to encourage the bacteria in egg yolks to begin multiplying, but not high enough to kill the bacteria, he cautioned.
In his home country of France, eggs and butter are sold off the shelf, not in the refrigerated section, he says, noting that Americans can be overly cautious about such issues. Milk is pasteurized, he reminds us.
On a recent swing through Northeast Ohio, Mesnier shared this advice with students who packed into the teaching kitchen at the Western Reserve School of Cooking in Hudson to soak in his knowledge, listen to his stories and bask in his larger-than-life presence.
The 65-year-old Mesnier survived 25 years and five presidencies as White House executive pastry chef before retiring in 2004. His annual White House gingerbread houses are legendary, and he’s considered an international expert on spun sugar.
His career is a proud accomplishment for Mesnier, who came from humble beginnings as one of nine children raised in the small village of Bonnay, France. His family home had no electricity or running water, and Mesnier was sent off on his 14th birthday to begin a three-year apprenticeship in a pastry shop.
Rosalynn Carter hired Mesnier in 1979, snagging him from the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Va.
For the next 25 years, he delighted the first families and visiting dignitaries with his elaborate desserts and sugar creations. Mesnier says he enjoyed his time with all of the families and appreciated their differences.
First lady Nancy Reagan, he said, was very involved with his work and took a keen interest in White House entertaining. Mesnier likes to tell a story about Mrs. Reagan, who insisted on approving every event menu beforehand. For one dinner, she waited until two days before the event before asking Mesnier to create 16 spun-sugar baskets filled with spun-sugar tulips for each table. Mesnier said he tried to dissuade her, noting that there were only two days left before the event.
“Yes,” she replied, “but you also have two nights.”
It’s clear that Mesnier has a soft spot for former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, whom he praised for the way she conducted herself even under the most difficult circumstances.
He made fresh doughnuts the morning after she hosted her first slumber party and served them to the girls warm on silver platters.
“They loved it,” he said, and the doughnuts became a tradition the morning after every sleepover.
For Bill Clinton, Mesnier said he had to change many recipes because of the president’s food allergies. Clinton was allergic to chocolate, wheat and dairy, but that wouldn’t stop him from requesting chocolate cake from time to time. Mesnier said he could always tell when Clinton had been eating those foods because his face would appear red and blotchy in photos.
His White House stories seem endless, including the time Martha Stewart came to tape a segment for her show with Mesnier creating one of his Christmas gingerbread houses. She suggested that Mesnier use metal pins to help construct the roof – a suggestion he bristles at even today.
“My gingerbread has no metal pins in the roof. My gingerbread has nothing but gingerbread and chocolate in the roof,” he said.
His one disappointment is that there was never a big White House wedding during his tenure. Formal weddings like those of Lynda Bird Johnson and Tricia Nixon, he believes, are a thing of the past, that young couples today don’t want all of the fanfare.
He did make a wedding cake in 1994 for first lady Hillary Clinton’s brother, Tony Rodham, when he married Nicole Boxer, daughter of Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, in a White House ceremony.
Mesnier also made an elaborate replica of Grover Cleveland’s wedding cake for a documentary that was to be made on his life, but after two months of planning, and then actually baking and decorating the cake, the documentary was canceled.
“So I’m stuck with a wedding cake and no place to go,” Mesnier said.
White House staff ate the cake.
Mesnier said he plans to include a photo of the Cleveland cake in the book he is currently working on – a picture book of the many desserts he made during his White House years.
One of his previous books, Roland Mesnier’s “Basic to Beautiful Cakes,” contains recipes for many of the cakes he made during his White House years. Cakes were primarily what Mesnier was teaching at Western Reserve, with two classes on baking cupcakes, a popular cake trend.
The recipes he taught included a carrot cake made with spelt flour to accommodate President Clinton’s allergies, a dark chocolate cake topped with rich chocolate ganache, and a white coconut cupcake, frosted with a thick cream cheese icing and decorated with more coconut.
Here are those recipes:
CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
11/4 cups flour, sifted
1/2 tsp.baking soda, sifted
1/4 tsp. salt 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
11/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
11/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cupcake pan with baking cups and a second pan with six cups. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or, using a hand mixer, beat on medium speed until fluffy. Stop to add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition. Combine the vanilla and milk in a large liquid measuring cup. Reduce speed to low. Add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one-third of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated. Add another one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the remaining flour mixture followed by the remaining milk mixture and beat until just combined. Add the cocoa powder, beating on low speed until just incorporated. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes, or until cupcakes spring back when touched lightly in the center. Cool and frost with Chocolate Ganache (recipe follows). Makes 18 cupcakes.
CHOCOLATE GANACHE
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl. In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a near boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Cool to room temperature. Use ganache immediately, or refrigerate for up to two weeks, then warm in microwave until softened before using. Ganache also can be whipped to resemble a light-chocolate buttercream: Transfer cooled mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer and, with the whisk attachment, whip until light and fluffy.
FRESH CARROT CUPCAKES WITH PINEAPPLE, APRICOT, CARROT AND GINGER TOPPING
For the cupcakes:
1 1/2 cup spelt flour (or 2 cups all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup cornstarch (eliminate if using all-purpose flour)
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 large eggs, at room temperature
11/2 cups canola oil 11/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
For the topping:
1 12-oz. jar apricot jam, strained
11/2 cups canned pineapple chunks, drained and patted dry
1 carrot, peeled and finely shredded with a lemon zester or Microplane grater
2 tbsp. finely chopped crystallized ginger that has been dusted with sugar to keep it from sticking together
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners. Combine the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Place the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on high speed until the mixture resembles a runny mayonnaise, about five minutes. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the carrots and pecans. Allow batter to rest for half an hour to an hour. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean, about 19 to 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in their pans for about five minutes. Invert the cakes onto a wire rack and then re-invert them onto another rack so they are right-side up. Allow to cool completely. Combine the jam and the pineapple in a medium bowl and toss until the pineapple is completely coated. Spoon some pineapple mixture on top of each cupcake. Combine shredded carrots and crystallized ginger in a small bowl. Place a pinch of the mixture on top of each cupcake. Makes two dozen cupcakes.
COCONUT CUPCAKES
For the cupcakes:
21/2 cups plus 2 tbsp. unsifted flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
11/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
11/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
21/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup sour cream (do not use low-fat or non-fat)
1 cup, lightly packed, sweetened, flaked coconut
For the frosting:
12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
21/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. heavy cream (may substitute coconut milk)
1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
51/2 cups unsifted confectioners’ sugar
11/2 cups lightly packed, sweetened coconut flakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper cupcake liners. For the cupcakes, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or using an electric hand-held mixer, beat on medium speed for three minutes. Add half of the sugar and beat for one minute; add the remaining sugar and beat for two minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed for 45 seconds each time, then add the vanilla extract. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Alternately add the sifted flour mixture in three additions and the sour cream in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. The batter will be smooth and moderately thick. Add the coconut, beating on low speed until incorporated. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners, filling them slightly more than half-full. Bake for 18 minutes (start checking them at 15 minutes) or until the cupcakes have risen and completely set. A wooden toothpick inserted in the center of a baked cupcake will withdraw with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool completely. Prepare the frosting by combining the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer, or using a hand-held electric mixer, beat on medium speed for one minute until creamy and well incorporated. Add the vanilla, heavy cream and nutmeg; beat to combine, stopping to scrape down the bowl as needed. Reduce the speed to low, add the confectioners’ sugar in three additions, beating between additions until thoroughly combined. Use a flexible knife to spread the frosting as thickly as possible on top of the cooled cupcakes, creating a generous 1- to 2-inch cap on top. Sprinkle frosted cupcakes with the coconut. Makes 2 dozen cupcakes.
CHEF TALKS
White House Roland Mesnier is considered a culinary genius in the field of pastry, but he’s also known for his outspokenness, his lively tales of the White House and his wit. Here are some pearls from his recent visit.
On the first families he served: “I enjoyed all of them. The first ladies all do different things. Mrs. Carter was not very involved with the food. Mrs. Reagan was very, very involved with the food. She had to give her blessing to everything we did before it would be served to the guests.”
On his humble beginnings: “All of our clothes were passed down. By the time I got a pair of underwear I was lucky to have an elastic band on it.”
On Chelsea Clinton: “She was a wonderful young lady. … She conducted herself beautifully … how she acted and reacted during that time (of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment proceedings.)”
On the Food Network: “It has ruined the profession.”
On television chef Gordon Ramsey: “I wouldn’t have lasted 10 minutes with him, and one of us would be dead.”
On the food technique of molecular gastronomy: “I think this is ridiculous. This is kindergarten cooking.”
On cooking shows that he watches: “On PBS, ‘America’s Test Kitchen’ … and ‘Lidia’ (Bastianich) – you want to eat her food.”
On his favorite dessert: “Good, American pie, double-crust fruit pie, if it’s well-made. It’s very difficult to find a good pie.”