4 minute read
THE CRAVE SECRET: Chef Rich Gardunia
from FLAVOR Fall 2024
By April Neale
Pastry Chef Rich Gardunia has spent much of his life learning firsthand how to make the things he craves. His mother’s superb baking skills inspired the years of study and experimentation that have finally landed him at Crave Kitchen & Bar in Eagle, Idaho. Now bound for Master Baker certification, an honor no other chef in Idaho can claim, he said, “Getting the Master Baker certificate is a huge project. I’ll probably get finished in March. Lots of tests, and I went to Chicago for another test, and now I have one more ahead of me.”
Gardunia, having practiced his craft in many professional kitchens, with post-graduate work at the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Boulder, has learned from mentors how to perfect everything from an authentic baguette to varieties of pastry to the methods of a chocolatier, all at the highest of fine-dining standards.
“I don’t pick places,” he said. “I pick mentors. I email people and ask, ‘Hey, will you teach me this?’ I’ve spent much of my career seeking out knowledge.”
Before Crave, Gardunia chose to work at places with chefs who were masters at their craft. In Denver, he was sous chef to a baker renowned in France for his baguettes. He spent a year and a half in his kitchen learning how to bake bread. Beyond bread, Gardunia’s drive to craft world-class desserts has also made him form alliances internationally. Once or twice a year, he travels to the Mission Chocolate’s bean-to-bar craft chocolate factory in Brazil, where he’s mentored by superstar chocolatier Arcelia Gallardo.
Top and top left: "This is my celebration cake," said Gardunia. A blend of carrot cake, red velvet, cookie dough cake, chocolate, and funfetti with a caramelized white chocolate buttercream on the outside sprinkles and house-made gummy bears. Above: "This is my gluten-free chocolate cake, similar to an opera cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream," he added. The berry compote surrounds the mousse chocolate cake, with some ganache dipped into chocolate and more mousse on top.
Always searching out mentors and pushing himself to new heights, Gardunia allows the seasons to dictate his ingredients and gleefully takes on the challenge of the holidays. “I always do elaborate Halloween desserts,” he said. “Last year, I did a chocolate cauldron that smoked, with panna cotta eyeballs, and a chocolate skull on fire. Apples are big in the fall. I’m always working with a lot of chocolate, and towards late fall we’re pulling candy canes and continuing the to-go desserts, like bourbon pecan pie. I always do a big pie drive for Christmas and Thanksgiving. Last year, we sold a thousand pies.”
At Crave, Gardunia’s key lime pie and ever-evolving cheesecakes are bestsellers. “I’m changing the [cheesecake] flavor every week,” he said. “However, there’s usually always a carrot cake, and a gluten-free dessert. And in October, I will be entering the World Bread Awards USA.” For the WBA, he’ll submit four entries: Crave’s honey-lavender sourdough, their hamburger bun, their baguette, and one entry yet to be determined.
The efforts of the pastry chef should never be underappreciated. As Gardunia noted, people begin their dining experience at Crave with his freshly baked bread and leave after ordering one of his outstanding desserts. Pastry chefs are the alpha and the omega of the dining experience. That we have a soon-to-be ‘Master Baker’ in our midst should encourage everyone to visit Crave and offer Pastry Chef Rich Gardunia a well-deserved round of applause.
