Q&A: Pastry Guru Ann Amernick

BLAME SOME of D.C.'s waistlines on Ann Amernick. Owner and executive pastry chef at Palena in Cleveland Park, Amernick has worked at the White House and the Watergate's late, great Jean-Louis. She's also one of the most sought-after wedding-cake creators in the area. Her third and most recent cookbook, "The Art of the Dessert," (Wiley, $40) is in stores now.

» EXPRESS: You've pulled back from your duties at Palena. What are you up to now?
» AMERNICK: I'm certainly on call if Palena needs anything, and I'm teaching classes. I'm also doing specialty cakes, wedding and otherwise.

» EXPRESS: Where do you teach?
» AMERNICK: I have a second kitchen in my home where I teach small, one-on-one classes on Danishes and croissants, and I'm going to be doing some cake classes. People call me and say, "this is what I want to do," and that's what I do.

» EXPRESS: Is the book targeted at typical home bakers, or those who are a bit more advanced?
» AMERNICK: I think some of the recipes might be a little more advanced, but there are some recipes in there that couldn't be easier — the Wellingtons, some of the cookies, the prune turnovers. The chocolate marble cake has [many] ingredients, but people shouldn't be put off by that. It's got all these different components.

» EXPRESS: What's the one thing home bakers can do to improve what they bake?
» AMERNICK: When I sent the recipes up [to the publishers], I sent them in ounces and grams, and they said, "we need them in cups." But go to a store and pick up five different cups and put stuff in them and see if it all weighs the same. The 1-cup measure is different for each manufacturer. When I do a cake, I do a dip and scrape, but I have cups that I know are the standard.

» EXPRESS: What kind of food — in D.C. or other places — inspires you?
» AMERNICK: I tell you what inspires me — old, old cookbooks and old memories. I go crazy thinking about the stuff I ate as a little girl and trying to replicate it in a different way.

» EXPRESS: Like what?
» AMERNICK: A [D.C.] restaurant called the Quicksie had a chocolate icebox pudding which is unlike any I've ever had. Today, I'd probably look at it and say it's black, gummy and heavy. I adored it. It was gelatinized, had cake crumbs in it, and it was square. It just sat there on the plate and I dreamed of it. It was like a rock. It was so good. And there was a bakery in Baltimore that made a rainbow cake. The layers were pale green, pale yellow and pale pink, and were all a wonderfully buttery pound cake with raspberry jam separating the layers, with a thin chocolate icing. I know it's not my memory as a child — I know it was a good cake. Everything has been so volumized, where we've lost the small, independent stores and shops where quality was the essence. That's what inspires me, to go back to that. I recognize that it's probably futile, because the cost has become prohibitive.

» EXPRESS: What's your desert-island dessert?
» AMERNICK: Probably the chocolate icebox pudding. No, I would say a sundae with a great hot fudge sauce and great ice cream and wet walnuts. There is nothing better than that.

Photo courtesy Wiley