“Don’t eva change…”

One morning about twenty years ago when I was working the counter at our original Central location a guy leaned over the bar and motioned to me “come-mere, come-mere!” He was eating a slice of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. “I tell ya,” he said, waving his fork. “Don’t eva change this pie, no matta what you need to charge. It’s so damn good…”

The pie was made by Ralph Gurule, who at 73 was our first baker. Ralph was one of the American old school bakers who knew how to do the classics from scratch.  Ralph hated retirement, so his son answered our ad for a part time baker. Ralph used to say over and over “old bakers never retire, they just drop dead”, referring to his desire to keep baking and I think, to stave off the inevitable onset of advanced old age. His strong, muscular arms made small work of pie dough, scones and muffins. Our first kitchen was too small for much variety but we wanted to do everything the old fashioned way – no mixes, canned fillings, or fake stuff.

Twenty years later it’s the exact same pie that Ralph made. We still use real butter and we still cook the fruit filling in our kitchen. The quantity of dough has changed a lot, so a big spiral mixer with a special dough hook gently incorporates the cold fat and a little milk into the flour. I had been thinking of writing this story about Ralph for a while because he was one of the Flying Star (Double Rainbow) quality pioneers, whose contributions are celebrated every time we serve our food and bakery items. We have grown quite a lot over the last twenty one years. But despite the growth, we have stayed true to the reason we got into the restaurant business in the first place – the love of food! We are proud to say that the newest generation of talent in our kitchens and bakery share this passion with us. I am reminded of the old saying – the more things change, the more they stay the same. And so it is for Flying Star.

Jean Bernstein,
Albuquerque, New Mexico 2010

The Éclair by: Willem Blom

Over the years the Éclair always has been a popular pastry with Flying Star Cafe and prior with Double Rainbow. This beautiful and tasty pastry was created by Antonin Careme (1784 – 1833). Careme was one of the great French chefs known as The King of Chefs and the Chef of Kings and considered the creator of Haute Cuisine. Auguste Escoffier took Careme’s idea of Haute Cuisine and this became the French Cuisine as it is still known today. In the ever changing world of food many modern chefs are putting in their newer and lighter versions. The Éclair stuck around and slowly spread around the world and is appreciated everywhere, the American Long John is a very distant cousin. Basically the Éclair is Pate a Choux (literally – “cabbage”) or puff paste with icing on top and the filling changing by country. Examples are vanilla cream, coffee cream, chocolate cream, whipped cream or seasonally chestnut cream. Pate a Choux consists of egg yolks, water and flour and is cooked on the stove first then piped on sheet pans with a pastry bag and baked. This is the way I was trained back in Holland by some of old fashioned chefs.

Its popularity really took off with Flying Star Cafe after Mark Bernstein our owner got his hands on it and decided that it was lacking some WOW. He took Careme’s creation and made it as big as he wanted to eat.  Then he saw a 50”s “B” movie – Attack of the 50 Ft Woman which gave him the idea of making the éclair as big as you know it today. Originally he named it the Attack of the Giant Éclair, but the name has got shortened. This new and improved Mark Bernstein Éclair has a huge following and it became a topic of conversation and an eating and sharing event. We have some customers who don’t share and want it for breakfast and polish it off by lunch time. It’s always a good time for dessert we understand. At the Flying Star pastry kitchen we make it fresh every day with all our other pastries and we are sure that Careme would be proud of what became of his creation. Antonin would feel like it is a compliment, I am sure of that.

Finally, Flying Star Farm?

By Jean Bernstein

For many years, we had a fantasy of growing all of Flying Star Cafe’s produce on our own land – except we had no land. In 2002 we bought a charming, but completely derelict house in the North Valley on two acres. The land had lain untouched for the better half of a century. It didn’t take long to realize why – after a good rain, a four wheel drive was needed to get from the street to the house because the soil was pure New Mexico clay. The quickly developing farmer side of our brains figured out that nothing but weeds would grow on this property without some serious soil improvements.

Over the last 7 years, we’ve added hundreds of thousands of pounds of compost, manure, grass clippings, sand and dried leaves to the clay. The soil’s transformation has been amazing – from hard pack clay to crumbly, dark loam – almost. Every year we have modestly increased our growing area. The banner year, 2008, yielded over 1,000 pounds of tomatoes for the restaurants. In that same year, we grew an enormous amount of green chile, which the Flying Star Kitchen was happy to receive – until they figured out how much work roasting, peeling and de-seeding a couple of thousand pounds of fresh chile was. They solved the roasting problem by bringing the chile to a little place on Broadway and Mountain, but had to hire extra folks to rinse and shuck by hand – for weeks. Everyone’s hands were scorched. It was back to Bueno Foods for chile. They, at least, have the proper equipment to turn raw peppers into real New Mexico green.

Slowly, but surely, we have learned which produce is best for us to grow and which produce is better purchased from others. This year we are farming about three quarters of an acre, which isn’t large, but sure doesn’t feel small, either. There are lots of red peppers and tomatoes planted – almost 200 bushes of different varieties. Squash, basil, beans and a smattering of other veggies seem to be taking hold as I write. I promise not to get all Martha Stewart, but I will be posting progress reports on how the farm is going (or if it is going) and when produce should be showing up in the cafes.

Talking about the farm is also a great jumping off point for further discussion about our local, New Mexico food buying. Stay tuned…

Jean & Mark Bernstein
(Flying Star Cafe & Satellite Coffee owners)

Life is What You Bake of It by Willem Blom

Willem Blom has been Flying Star Café’s Executive Pastry Chef for ten years. Willem was born in Holland and was classically trained. He has traveled the world while plying his trade. He is a man of few words.

 When we introduced our Jelly Doughnut, believe me, we had no plans to put some of the large doughnut chains out of business. Our intention was to come up with a better and tastier product. I went back and did a little looking into how we did this back home in Europe which is not really the world of the doughnut but more of the Beignet, or as we call it, the Berliner.

We start with classic Brioche dough what is a fine, yeast dough rich with eggs and butter. After carefully proofing this until just right, we fry the rounds in canola oil until they puff and are golden brown. When the puffs are cooled enough, we roll them in cinnamon sugar, fill them with raspberry jam and give them a final dusting of powdered sugar.

I promise not to be offended if you call my Beignet a Jelly Doughnut, or even if you think my doughnuts are not really American at all. What is most important to me is that you enjoy them with your morning cup or as an afternoon snack.