Daphne Higa: Finding sweet satisfaction in a 'Grand' paradise

By Mary Caldwell and Courtesy Nation's Restaurant News

The postcard-perfect tropical sunsets and balmy Pacific Ocean air that attract conventioneers and prospective brides and grooms to Maui's Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa -- considered by many to be one of the most luxurious getaways in the world -- are ever-present challenges for pastry chef Daphne Higa. Even in waning daylight the Hawaiian sun can make pastries droop or melt.

Higa oversees a staff of 16 that's responsible for satisfying the sweet tooth of diners at the six restaurants of the 732-room Grand Wailea as well as providing desserts for Camp Grande, children's day care; banquets for groups ranging from 50 to 1,000 guests; and room service.

Sensing after college graduation that the job market was bleak in her chosen field of elementary education, Higa enrolled at The CIA, where she earned a scholarship for her superior grade point average.

Title: pastry chef; Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa, Maui, Hawaii

Returning to her native Hawaii after culinary school, she worked in pastry shops at the Hyatt Regency Maui and Four Seasons Maui before joining the Grand Wailea as an assistant pastry chef She's been the pastry chef there since 1995.

Birth date: Nov. 9, 1954

Hometown: born in Hilo, Hawaii, grew up in Honolulu

Education: B.A., University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colo., 1976; graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, New Hyde Park, N.Y, 1981

Career highlights: helping to open the Grand Hyatt Wailea, as it was called at that time, and later being named pastry chef there; winning third place in a Chocolates a la Carte pastry contest; working the annual Hawaiian food festival Cuisines of the Sun with Francois Payard and local celebrity chefs; working as guest chef at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival in Orlando, Fla.

What's it like to be a pastry chef in Hawaii?

There are a lot of [challenges we have to face] in the islands because people want to have a party next to the beach and see the beautiful ocean. In the wintertime they get to see the whales jumping just outside the hotel at dusk. It's really a neat sight, so you want to accommodate them. But on the other hand, all my pastries have to be able to withstand a little bit of heat. It's amazing what the setting sun will do to my chocolate ornaments. I always want to stand in front of my pastry board when they put it out.

Some of the things that [guests] want can easily be done on the mainland, but it's hard to produce in humidity like ours. For example, lace cookies or tuiles. In Arizona or New Mexico, tuiles will hold up outside indefinitely. Here they have just half an hour of shelf life outside of an airtight container with desiccant inside.

Was there anything that surprised you when you started working professionally in pastry shops?

I think it was more of a surprise going to a smaller hotel [after working at a large hotel]. I thought it would have been a great opportunity to see how a smaller hotel operated, but I realized they downsized the pastry shop as well; the design was very poor. For instance, the proof box and the oven were right next to the freezer, so every time you opened the freezer, the hot air from the oven would go into the freezer, and as soon as you would clean it, it would ice up. The mise en place for a small hotel is the same as for a large hotel. You still need cooler and freezer space to get a lot of things done. There wasn't that, so I felt very frustrated there, and I decided to help open the Grand Wailea. I felt it was a good opportunity for me to learn about opening a new hotel and how that works.

Do you have any signature desserts?

Our desserts change all the time, except the basic staples, like brulee is always on the menu. In our Mediterranean [restaurant], we always have tiramisu on the menu. I have found that at resorts you have people who are mainstream and who do not want to experiment with flavors. They want something that is familiar, whereas if you go to an Aqua [in San Francisco] or Charlie Trotter's [in Chicago] or some place like that, [they] are willing to experiment and eat different flavors like lavender sorbet with basil creme Anglaise. If I do anything extraordinary like that, it will not sell here.

Describe what kinds of food you might put out as a dessert buffet for a convention.

For large groups, it's very difficult to do small tortes that only have a capacity of 18 before they have to be traded out, so we do boards that have 200 or 300 pieces on them. Many of them are cake slices, eclairs, fruit tartlets and things like that. We try to use all the Hawaiian flavors in different capacities and always try to incorporate the different flavors that people might expect on a buffet -- something chocolate, something crunchy, something cakey.

Is there any kind of dessert that you don't enjoy making or serving?

I don't enjoy any kind of frozen item because of the logistics of [preparing] it for banquets. It's very dicey on the timing.

Is being a pastry chef more physically challenging than some people realize?

Oh, yeah. For women it's definitely physically challenging. For me, when I first started, I made sure I was lifting some weights, because there's a lot of lifting going on, and if you don't know how to lift correctly, you can really injure yourself. Strength is very important, because you either have to work together, or you have to be strong enough, or you have to figure out a way not to hurt yourself or burn yourself if you're by yourself.

Do you notice any trends in desserts?

I notice that people are still interested in desserts.

They're willing to forgo their diet for dessert.

Do you enjoy dessert yourself, or do you not want to look at another dessert when you leave at the end of the workday?

I still enjoy it. I'll have a taste, but I don't eat the whole thing anymore. When I was younger, I would; now I just have a couple of pieces, just so I can taste something sweet. When I go out, frequently if it's a new restaurant, I like to order all the desserts and try them out and have a taste of everything, just so I can keep up with what everybody else is doing and enjoy the flavors that they're putting together.

CHEF'S TIPS

* In a humid climate caramel ornaments made with isomalt, a derivative of sucrose, will hold up much better than those made with regular sugar.

* Store sheet pans separately and with care. They allow cakes to bake evenly so they don't emerge lopsided.