• Pastry Chef Frank Haasnoot has reference works in the field of chocolate, confectionery, but also in chocolate and sugar sculpture. He has created desserts and specialties for renowned restaurants around the world. Pastry Chef Frank Haasnoot gave an interview to our colleague Mihai Todor, during an event organized by hammered in Italy.
Frank Haasnoot is a pastry chef from the Netherlands, winner of the World Chocolate Masters 2011 award, with over 23 years of experience in the field. After completing his studies, he worked for several well-known and appreciated brands in the pastry field. He started in the Netherlands, then worked in New York (La Tulipe Desserts), in Kuwait (The Victorian), in Taiwan (Mandarin Oriental Hotel) and in Hong Kong (Peninsula Hotel).
Since 2017, Frank Haasnoot has returned to the Netherlands and started to develop his career as an independent consultant. He teaches, but also gets involved in independent pastry and chocolate projects.
Pastry Chef Frank Haasnoot – photos and sweet stories
After eight years of travels and experiences around the globe, Frank Haasnoot released his first book: "Prisma" - a foray into the concept of six colors. "Each full-color chapter contains eight products accompanied by recipes, color photos, and stories of my past, present, and future endeavors" - Frank Haasnoot.
The "Debic" pastry book contains recipes for bakers, pastry chefs and chocolatiers. The recipes are created by the Debic culinary team and many of their global ambassadors. In this publication you can discover Frank Haasnoot's recipes, the pastry chef being one of the brand's ambassadors.
The emotional connection between the pastry/confectionery/chocolate product and the consumer is achieved through aromas, but also through the way of presentation. A new recipe with basic ingredients, reinterpreted, will trigger uncontrollable feelings of joy and happiness. About all these experiences, but also about the need to integrate basic ingredients, the "twisting" of classic recipes and the creed of a pastry chef known worldwide, learn from a new interview with Artă Albă brand.
1. When did your passion for pastry/confectionery begin? Who was the person or what was the event that motivated you?
I come from a family of bakers. My uncle was a chef, he had a restaurant and a pastry shop within the restaurant. My grandfather also had a bakery and I grew up in this environment. I spent my childhood in the kitchen. It was not my dream and passion to work in the bakery at that time. Around 12-13 years old I had to decide and I chose, of course, to follow the family tradition. I don't regret anything so far.
2. The sustained work, the new recipes and the ambition to excel in this field, were rewarded with prizes in the competitions you participated in. What is the most important award you have won so far?
Over time I participated in several national competitions in the Netherlands, but also in some international ones. I have been to the World Chocolate Masters twice. The first time, in 2006-2007, I came 4th in the world out of 20. I was good, but not well enough prepared because number one is unique. I waited four years and came back. I trained more, I prepared better, I was more persistent.
In 2010 – 2011 we won the biggest title, the World Chocolate Masters. This award is probably the most important in my career so far. Then I decided to retire from these competitions because I wanted to direct my energy to something else.
3. If you had to describe your profession in a few words, what would they be?
Looking at my work so far I would say it is unique, creative and has a certain elegance. I always try to create a product that is different from anything that has been built before. Whenever I have to make something beautiful for a magazine or a competition, I try something different. The new product has a technique, immediately noticed by professionals in the field, but it is elegant and simple. I try to find the balance between these three things: technique, elegance, simplicity.
4. What are your favorite ingredients to work with?
Difficult to answer. I love chocolate and the variety of products you can make with chocolate. You can make sculptures, candies, decorations, you can use it in various recipes. That's why I love her so much and love working with her, she's one of a kind. Then I like the base flavors – vanilla, vanilla cake. Everyone likes vanilla. The more vanilla the better. Other favorite ingredients? Hazelnuts, walnuts. I like warm flavors, but also fruity ones.
5. What was the most interesting product designed so far?
I have been in this industry for 25 years. Every year or at least every few years, I try to surpass myself or I am challenged to create something new for a magazine, for a certain brand. If I had been asked this five years ago I would have said that what I was doing then was the best thing I had ever produced. Now I can't say the same.
Each range comes with a new product that I'm proud of. If I had to choose just one product, I would opt for the world's first chocolate that comes from cocoafruits. This chocolate is specific and we have made unique products. When I look at them I'm proud and I think they represent me.
6. There is more and more talk about quality products. However, how can a quality product be defined?
The quality product helps you save time. In everything you want to do, you must use the best quality products and equipment. If you manage to do what you set out to do quickly, you can have something beautiful, unique. A quality product that you have in the kitchen, once used, makes you always come back to it and you can't go back to the times when you didn't have it at hand.
7. Are people willing to invest in quality products or premium products?
Yes, of course. 20 years ago, people worked only with their hands in the kitchen. Now you have AID (no appliances/equipment/utensils) that make you do things faster. It may seem simple now to turn to technology, to make your work easier, but before things were different. Of course you can still do certain things manually, but you have alternatives. It is normal for this to happen because we are evolving, things are constantly changing and improving.
For example, today, I cannot work without a blender. When I started working in the kitchen, they didn't exist. Now they are present in all kitchens, either domestic or professional. You can't do much without their help. They are extremely useful in the activity and help you save time.
8. As things look today, is the future of traditional products or are we talking about innovative ones? What seems to be the trend?
I think we can talk about a combination between the two. They go hand in hand. Traditional does not mean old. You can have a traditional product reinterpreted in a modern way. From my point of view it's about keeping respect for what was.
In bakery, patisserie, confectionery, we tend to go back to the basic products, to go to the beginning, to the classic, with a new design. You can do whatever you want. Three years ago people wanted something completely different compared to today's requirements. This market is always changing and that's the beauty of it.
9. Do you have a motto that guides you?
When I was working in the Netherlands, at the beginning of my career, I was producing large quantities of goods in a bakery. The creed back then, if I may call it that, was that we had to make pastries that looked amazing, were hard to replicate and easy to make. Once you saw them, you had to say that they were extraordinary, unprecedented, to think that you couldn't do something like that, because it was a much too complicated recipe. When you saw the manufacturing process and how easily it was created, you had to feel how brilliant it all was, how cleverly the product had been thought out.
That's what I've always tried to do in my work. When I make something new I want it to be extraordinary, but easy to do. I want you to look carefully at my product, think a little, put your mind to the contribution and then realize how brilliant, "wow" and at the same time simple to produce everything is.
I tried to use basic raw materials or simple molds, which can be found in all kitchens. I use molds that everyone has and uses, but I make them in a strange way. I want others to see that they also have those things, but didn't know how to use them. Every time I build with something common, something new, in a reinterpreted, "twisted" way.
10. Many pastry/confectionery businesses have appeared in Romania in recent years. What advice can you give to those who want to develop their business in this field of activity?
Not only for the Romanian market, but for the whole world, I say that too much time is spent on social media, looking at all kinds of images. For those who are just starting out in the business, it's good to look everywhere, to get inspired. I always tell people that it's good to document, but you have to create products that are close to your soul, put a little soul into them, put your personal touch. The products must have your style.
It's hard these days because you have social media where you see millions of ideas or photos in just a few minutes. All kinds of things are presented there, and you can take what you like from there. But in the end, you collect many things from different parts and you think you have something beautiful, a new product. If you do it this way, we are not talking about a product of yours, which represents you, but a mix from several people.
Social media is good for business promotion. When you want to make something your own prepare a sheet, draw, make a sketch of what you imagine and try to create a product that is different from others. When you try to be different, you will stand out with your creation. Eventually the uniqueness of creation will come naturally, by itself.
My advice: if you are different from others, stand out. You have to relate to your personality, use new ingredients that represent you. Everything has to be of fantastic quality. Then "twist" everything and you will get something new, something only yours.
Interview conducted by Mihai Todor, sales director at Confectioner Isteț, in the framework of a Demonstration Event organized at the headquarters of Martellato - Italy (producer of utensils and accessories for bakery, pastry, confectionery), Nova Pan being the only distributor in Romania for the Martellato range of products.
Read on the Arta Albă website and: From traditional to avant-garde – interview with Pastry Chef Riccardo Magni
