Pastry chef will showcase sweets at extravaganza
Pastry chef Drew Rogers is preparing his signature cannolis and a few surprise treats for the Wine & Food Week “Just Desserts” competition — vying for the big trophy and $1,000 grand prize.
The owner of Drew’s Pastry Place, located at 10300 Louetta Road, will be packing up his best baked goods and heading to the epicurean extravaganza held annually in The Woodlands.
Rogers said he looks forward to the event all year-round. “It’s like a reunion for chefs,” he said. “I really enjoy it.”
Constance McDerby co-founded the event with her husband Clifton. This year marks their 11th anniversary of assembling culinary experts and the best varieties of the fruit of the vine for the fete in The Woodlands.
The weeklong festival is scheduled for June 1-7 and features 500 wines, 75 restaurants, legendary wine producers and popular culi-
nary personalities, as well as a selection of craft beers.
This year’s theme is “The Design of Wine” with a focus on décor and fashion, as it relates to food, wine and stepping out in style.
“We have something for everyone — from the very novice to people who are serious collectors with serious wine cellars,” McDerby said. “If you’re a passionate foodie, or if you want to learn more about wine or if you love craft beer — if you fit into any of those categories — you’re crazy not to come to this premiere event.”
She said this year, pastry chef Charlotte Neuville has been named the Wine & Food Week “Wizard Gourmet” and the festival will be giving dessert its due, bringing more focus to the competition for best sweets.
The confectionary competition is part of the week’s culminating event the “Wine Rendezvous Grand Tasting and Chef Showcase,” scheduled from 7 to 10 p.m. on June 6 at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, 1601 Lake Robbins Drive.
Rogers said his whole culinary career was sparked when his wife, Carla, asked him one question.
When Rogers was 40 years old, Carla inquired, “If time and money were no object, what would you do?”
His answer came quickly. He would want to be a pastry chef.
“I’m an Italian from New Jersey,” Rogers said. “It’s in my blood to cook and bake. But I like to cook, and I love to bake.”
Carla did some research about local culinary academies and brought her husband to an open house at the Culinary Institute LeNôtre.
“I fell in love with the place,” Rogers said. “She saw the look on my face and said, ‘You’re going back to school.’”
For the next 51 weeks, he worked during the day at the direct mail business that he owned. At night, he took classes.
After graduation, Rogers took a job at the Houston Country Club. “I was working for a true master chef, and it was a huge honor to be there,” he said.
After four years at the post, Carla suggested that he start his own pastry shop. His parents Jack and Joan Rogers also encouraged him to venture on his own — and invested their savings so he could start “Drew’s Pastry Place.”
Rogers will celebrate his seventh year at the helm of his pastry shop on July 8. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, he said.
A couple of years ago, the business started hitting rough times and Rogers reached out to the star of TLC’s “Bakery Boss” Buddy Valastro for help.
Rogers had to fill out an email questionnaire, which asked what he thought Valastro could do to turn his shop around.
“I said, ‘If I knew that, I wouldn’t need him here,’” Rogers said. “They called me the next day.”
Valastro spent nine days at the shop, while film crews rolled for the reality television show. The episode aired in January 2014.
Rogers said that the Bakery Boss helped turnaround his business. “I did not want to do cupcakes,” he said.
Valastro convinced him that he had to make the popular treat – but suggested that the chef make his own twist on it. “I invented the cannoli cupcake,” Rogers said. “And we started selling them like crazy.”
The show’s crew also renovated the pastry shop. Now the business is booming — and customers come in for Italian sweets, authentic New York bagels, homemade pizzas and sandwiches.
“There were no Italian pastry shops in Houston,” he said. “Where I grew up in New Jersey, there’s one on every corner. I want the people of Houston to have the pastries and cookies I grew up with.”
Rogers said the area restaurants are also now selling his pastries – and that he is in the midst of developing a cannoli kit for customers who want the freshest possible at home.
“If you try my food, I guarantee they will leave with a smile on their faces,” he said.