DESSERTS with a EUROPEAN FLAIR
Ad am Bates didn’t set out to be a pastry chef, let alone one creating gorgeous European-style desserts. His mother, a good cook, always made dinner for his older brother, Colin, and him when they were growing up in Hampton, Pennsylvania. So he didn’t have a clue about baking or cooking until he was well into his 20s. As an artistic kid who found joy in design, he had wanted to be a tattoo artist, or perhaps a painter or illustrator.
Although that didn’t happen, he pursued his artistic creativity in a different direction by launching Harrison’s Fine Pastries in East Liberty in 2018.
He landed his first job at age 18, and it was a thankless one in a commercial kitchen washing dishes. However, he didn’t have dishpan hands for long.
Bates soon progressed to being a line cook and then to a catering chef after being trained on all the stations. When the pastry chef left on a sabbatical, he filled in making to-die-for plated desserts, and created menus for private parties and off-site events for as many as 250 guests.
In 2012, New York magazine’s Grub Street editors included his banana bread French toast on a list of America’s most “Crazy-Awesome New Desserts.” The 31-year-old’s culinary treats have gotten even more awe-inspiring in the years since.
Bates’ passion for the well-crafted balances of art and science — you have to be both imaginative and a whiz at measuring to be a pastry chef — was ignited on a family trip to London in 2012. He was blown away by the mouthwatering patisserie displays in Harrods famous food hall, and decided he wanted to learn it as a trade.
Ever since his trip to England, Bates harbored a desire to open his own pastry shop. In 2018, he got his chance with Harrison’s Fine Pastries. He and his sous chef Lisa Wilson work out of the restaurant kitchen in the mornings, creating European-style pastries.
Looking at Bates’ gorgeous handiwork, it might seem impossible for a rookie home baker to create a treat for a special occasion. That’s not true, he
says, but the recipes should be picked wisely. Bates suggests two easy favorites that are relatable and completely doable: a cream puff (choux) filled with a chocolate-Nutella ganache and a dark chocolate molten lava cake known as a moelleux.
Good food, Bates says, is all about contrast. Different flavors, colors and textures are married into one delicious bite.
“Create something visually interesting,” he says, “and you’ll get people to try it.”