Mike and Wendy Pramik — Food and Travel Writers

From Fashion Model to Martha Stewart Cake Designer

aday — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 17:44:05 +0000

From Fashion Model to Martha Stewart Cake Designer aday Thu, 04/25/2019 - 13:44 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/piping%20header.jpg.webp?itok=Jmyk75zy Dashing from Paris runways to TV shows with Martha Stewart, 91��߹ alumna Wendy Kromer (Pastry, ‘94) settles along the quiet shores of Lake Erie to decorate masterful cakes. May 13, 2019

By Mike and Wendy Pramik — Food and Travel Writers

The sleepy, Lake Erie town of Sandusky, Ohio, seems light-years removed from the high-couture runways of Paris and Tokyo. Wendy Kromer has traveled that route, however, carving out successful careers both as a fashion model and as a cake decorator while working with an array of industry superstars along the way.

Since 1995, Wendy has been a contributing editor for Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Dozens of Wendy’s cake designs have adorned the cover of Martha Stewart Weddings magazine, and she co-authored “Martha Stewart’s Wedding Cakes,” a book that includes more than 100 wedding cake designs and recipes.

“Wendy Kromer has been making cakes with us since day one,” says Martha Stewart on her website marthastewartweddings.com. “She is so good and so unbelievably creative.”

91��߹ alum Wendy Kromer makes makes custom cakes for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and everyday occasions in Ohio.

Wendy describes her style as “classic elegance, timeless.” She attended the Pastry & Baking Arts program at the Institute of Culinary Education when it was known as Peter Kump's New York Cooking School.

Before her storied career as a pastry chef, Wendy strolled catwalks in the epicenter of European fashion culture. It might seem like an odd transition, she acknowledges, as she pipes white icing through a star tip onto a white, layered cake at home in Ohio, but it’s an artistic endeavor that captures her personality and interests.

“It’s all about texture,” she says of the piping method, popularized in the 1920s by Pastry Chef Joseph Lambeth. “It reminds me of beautiful ceiling details.”

Similar details adorn her Queen Anne Victorian home in Sandusky, where she lives with her husband, Scott Schell. It’s the same house she grew up in. Her parents, Joan and Bob, bought the modest home, built with locally quarried limestone, in the early 1960s. Bob was a doctor and Joan a stay-at-home mom.

Joan was a self-taught cook, drawing from her Polish heritage. Wendy says her mother referenced back issues of gourmet magazines, basing ingredients on those she could purchase locally. "She kept the magazines and pored over them.”

Wendy says other culinary influences included her German grandmother, Celia. “She was one hell of a baker. She drove around in a light-blue Chevy Nova and delivered baked breads and kuchens to family and church friends.”

Wendy’s aunt, Evelyn, decorated cakes for birthdays and weddings, oftentimes multi-tiered showstoppers with staircases and buttercream roses.

“She knew how to do all of the baking,” Kromer says. “She was making decorated cakes for birthdays and weddings, and she became well-known in the 1950s. Her cakes were so pretty.”

Yet culinary arts was not the path Wendy followed as she began making her own way.

Stepping into Fashion

Wendy was the fifth of six children. It was a tight-knit family, so in 1983 she ventured to Paris, where an aunt and uncle lived, to begin a career as a runway model. It was a rough start. It took a year for Wendy to sign with an agent, and her initial experience with fashion houses was disappointing.

“Instead of giving you constructive criticism, they slammed your book shut, and out you went,” she says. “It took more of my savings to survive. I had to pay photographers to get nicer photos, but my cousins would encourage me to keep at it.”

Through her aunt and uncle, she got to know a director at Christian Dior, and that meeting opened the door.

“One of the agents who laughed me out a year before in the print division wanted me for the runway division.”

Wendy worked mostly as a backup to the “diva” models, doing trunk shows in department stores and otherwise traveling with the collections. The clothes were pret-a-porter, and the two seasons, fall and spring, led to a lot of yo-yo-dieting – not the lifestyle you’d think a pastry artist might have led.

Still, the experience was excellent, Wendy says, as she hopped from France to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Argentina, Japan and other foreign locales. Architectural details she saw in European cities, such as graceful crown molding and decorative plaster, later led to patterns on her cakes. Her international tastes came to influence her cake flavors, leading to her success as a world-renowned decorator. “Fashion gave you wings to see the world,” she says. “I absorbed everything.”

A Full-Flavored Transition

As she entered her early 30s, Wendy knew her success as a model would not last. She moved to New York at age 32 and worked in the fashion industry for a short time but knew it wasn’t going to be her career going forward. “I needed to do something after modeling, and I loved eating. Since I was in New York, I knew there were some cooking schools there.”

She enrolled at Peter Kump's, now 91��߹, to take pastry classes, and it was love at first bite.

“I couldn’t get enough of it; I was so immersed in it,” she says. “It was mostly people my age and older, career changers. It was a risk because we didn’t have our day jobs. I got a diploma in the pastry arts, and I was able to turn a lifetime hobby of making desserts into a career.”

91��߹ gave Wendy the knowledge to create the complicated desserts she had been exposed to during her career as a model. Laminated dough, European pastries, chocolate, blown sugar and many others suddenly became doable.

“Here was an opportunity to make them the way they were supposed to be made,” she says.

Working with Martha Stewart

Wendy Kromer's cakes have been featured in many Martha Stewart Weddings magazines.

As her cake decorating skills progressed, Wendy looked for opportunity. She had an externship with Colette Peters, the renowned baker and owner of Colette’s Cakes in New York. She ended up working with Peters for a year, learning how to pipe icing like Joseph Lambeth, now her signature style. Soon after, Wendy won a first-place prize for her sugar showpiece at the 1995 Culinary Art Show.

“Colette was a riot,” Wendy says. “I saw her push the boundaries on style and design. She would turn a wedding cake upside down in the shape of a dragon. I made a Mae West-sized corset cake. I was worried I overstepped the boundaries, but there was a line to see my cake.”

Wendy’s voluptuous cake drew the attention of Martha’s magazine editors, including Food Editor Susan Spungen. Wendy began helping with Martha Stewart Weddings magazine at its beginning in 1995. Susan asked Wendy if she were to run with the fourth issue of the magazine, what she would do. Fashion was at the forefront of society in the 1980s. She researched several styles. She produced six cakes for a couture cakes story.

She accompanied Martha on television and traveled with her on photo shoots. Wendy became a contributing editor to the wedding magazine.

“I worked with inspiring and inspired people,” she says. “You had to have passion. People stayed however long it took to make the shot beautiful. You were there to create beauty, and there was no textbook on what was beautiful. I didn’t want to let people down.”

Martha Stewart Weddings magazines are stacked in a shelf in Wendy’s parlor, her cakes gracing the covers. Back then the magazine was published quarterly; it's now published twice a year. The cake designs are the results of cakes she uses to teach specific techniques to students. Others are visions that she had in her head that she wanted to see come to life.

Returning Home to Ohio

Despite success in New York, home in Ohio called. Wendy and Scott moved into her family home with the dream of turning it into a bed and breakfast. They also hoped to revitalize downtown Sandusky, which had fallen on hard economic times. “Everything near water is prime real estate in New York. It was drying up. I didn't hesitate to move back.”

She opened Wendy Kromer Confections & Academy in downtown Sandusky in 2003, where she cooked, baked and offered retail items. In July 2018, a wind storm blew the roof off the bakery, but it was only a temporary setback.

Wendy Kromer pipes icing on a cake in her home.

Now she runs her cake business from her home independently. She makes custom cakes for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and even everyday buttercream pastry cakes. She’s also an online instructor for Blueprint, teaching home chefs how to whip up perfect royal icing or how to nail a showstopper wedding cake that’s fit for the cover of a bridal magazine.

May through November is wedding season. Brides and grooms come to her house for tastings, starting in January. They discuss what they envision for their wedding cakes. Many clients live elsewhere and return home, like she did, to Sandusky to get married and celebrate on the Lake Erie islands. Scott helps deliver cakes there by boat.

“There are so many different styles,” says Wendy, standing beside an example cake in her home parlor. A steady stream of brides and grooms will visit for tastings from May through November. “The plain, white wedding cake was thrown out the window 25 years ago.”

Learn to make more than plain cakes in Pastry & Baking Arts or The Art of Cake Decorating.

Alumni Pastry Arts Cake Cake Decorating Food Media Midwest

Wendy Kromer

Submitted by HollyBeth Anderson on May 14, 2019 12:15pm

SO beautiful and talented!

Your Advice on a wedding Cake

Submitted by Marie on August 14, 2020 3:10pm

Hi Wendy,

I actually get joy out of seeing you decorate that cake. It look like you are in peace and that is just how I want to be. Cake baking and icing brings such peace to me, but the only thing I get. a little messy at times. My daughter is getting married and I wanted to try to bake her cake. Looking to do a 3 tier wedding cake. First Layer amazing carrot cake I make, second tier I was think Red Velvet and the upper final tier just yellow cake. What is your though 1) the icing would be buttercream / cream cheese/ almond paste. But its going to be outdoors so what icing you think is best. Use Veg Shortening because full buttercream will get soft in the heat.

Please advise. Do you do virtual classes?

Marie

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91��߹ Alum Matt Alter Makes a Name for Himself in the Midwest

aday — Mon, 11 Mar 2019 14:00:53 +0000

91��߹ Alum Matt Alter Makes a Name for Himself in the Midwest aday Mon, 03/11/2019 - 10:00 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Matt%20alter%20header.jpg.webp?itok=OPvd_Z16 The central Ohio native is taking on Columbus, Ohio’s burgeoning culinary scene, one pizza at a time. March 11, 2019

By Mike and Wendy Pramik — Food and Travel Writers

Following a recipe isn’t necessarily a direct route for success, in Matt Alter’s (Culinary/Management, ‘12) view. The executive chef of Natalie’s Coal-Fired Pizza and Live Music near Columbus, Ohio, likes to experiment, often for many hours and with a basket full of ingredients, before he gets something right.

“There’s no perfect dish,” says the 30-year-old chef. “There’s no recipe out there I’ve seen that you cook and it’s perfect. You take it, tear it down and reinvent it. I once made chicken piccata, and when I plated it, I thought it was perfect. I thought, damn, this is really good. But what did I do? I tweaked it until it tasted that good.”

Matt’s rise to become a respected, young chef in Columbus’ blossoming culinary scene hasn’t been a step-by-step process, either. It’s been a pinch of this, a dash of that, peppered by the time he spent earning a dual diploma at 91��߹’s New York campus.

At Natalie’s, one of the hottest spots for live music in central Ohio, Matt has created a focused, inventive menu that feeds an early-dinner crowd as well as concertgoers looking for more sustenance than cold beer.

Natalie’s is in the suburb of Worthington and includes a downstairs speakeasy called The Light of Seven Matchsticks. Matt has designed a small-plates menu for the speakeasy with upgraded interpretations of bar cuisine. This includes Korean-style barbecue ribs that co-owner Natalie Jackson calls “the most flavorful thing I’ve ever had.”

“What sets Matt apart is he’s not trying to cut corners,” says Natalie, who grew up in nearby Circleville, Ohio, and operates the restaurant with her dad, Charlie. “If it takes him all day to make something, he’s going to do that. “That’s something we bonded over early on. He’s constantly exploring how other people are doing things. When he travels, he’s sending pictures of food. In this business, it’s always on your mind.”

Matt’s inclination to prepare flavorful dishes with all that effort stretches back to younger days in Granville, Ohio, a quiet college town 30 miles east of Columbus. It’s where Matt would take note as his Austrian grandmother, Herta White, prepared comfort food such as chicken paprikash and full-flavored desserts.

“My grandmother was very strong and independent,” Matt says. “She worked in clothing stores, and she'd run after people with a shoe who were stealing from her. She had to support her family, and she was definitely strong and stubborn.”

Grandma White’s influence rubbed off on young Matt. He would cook food with his friends, once trying to replicate the spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy’s. Another time, he and grade school friend Ian Carroll found a duck breast in the refrigerator and tried to prepare it.

“We almost burned down the house,” he admits.

After enrolling at West Virginia University for a short time, Matt gave up that gig and backpacked around Europe with a friend. He quickly became enamored with the restaurants in England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. “It stoked my passion for food, going to places like Italy and eating bread, drinking wine. I always wanted to cook.”

His parents were supportive, so in 2011, Matt enrolled in the Culinary Arts and Restaurant & Culinary Management programs at 91��߹. Immediately, he knew he was in the right place.

“I fell in love with cooking at 91��߹,” Matt says. “It was a joy coming to class. I felt I was ahead of the curve in my classes. I could visualize what the chefs did in demonstrations and just did it. I learned how to delegate and become a leader, and getting respect in this industry is difficult. The management classes helped with interacting with people.”

Before settling into his role at Natalie’s, Matt took an externship with Chef Michael Berardino at The Cannibal, a cultivated destination for meat and beer, with a sister restaurant, Resto, next door. The Cannibal is a nose-to-tail butcher shop, too, so there was a lot to learn for a young chef.

“I learned to respect the meat, first of all,” he says. “I would peel parsley stems all day and pulverize fresh garlic with the back of my knife.”

Matt later spent time at an Asian restaurant and as executive chef at an Irish pub before taking a deep breath. He had honed his skills and learned professionalism in the kitchen, but he realized he wasn’t as intense as some of the New York chefs he worked around. “I’m definitely more mellow.”

He looked homeward and headed back to central Ohio. While helping a friend with a Korean taco truck concept, Matt saw an ad on Craigslist for a chef at Natalie’s. He admits he didn’t know much about the Columbus food scene, but he always loved seeing live bands. Matt went to Natalie’s for an interview and quickly bonded with her.

“Can you work tonight?” she asked. It took a few days longer, but the ultimate answer was yes.

“I liked the change of pace — and the pizza,” Matt says. “The rest is history.”

His first day on the job was “deep-cleaning day,” and Matt quickly found out that the fast-paced scene he left in New York would be replicated with Natalie’s boundless work ethic. It figures. Natalie also spent time in the Big Apple, promoting musical acts at bars, before returning to Ohio to open Natalie’s with her dad, Charlie.

“Natalie and Charlie Jackson are extremely kind people, and they have high standards. Natalie supports all areas — there’s no job that’s too beneath her,” Matt says. “I’m the same way. I still mop the floors.”

Matt’s menu makes use of his penchant for full-flavored dishes. It’s a tight selection, consisting of a few standbys, such as his well-liked gumbo, smoked trout dip and a huge meatball appetizer. The speakeasy has the Korean ribs, charcuterie boards and duck fat-flavored popcorn enhanced with Grana Padano and truffle butter, a nod to his failed, youthful experiment cooking duck.

Then there’s the pizza. Natalie’s uses an Earthstone oven fired by anthracite coal that can reach up to 1,000 degrees.

The restaurant turns out a selection of New York-style pizzas using fresh ingredients. The key to the pies is a sourdough starter that stretches back more than 100 years. Natalie says the starter came from a pancake house “out West” via a brother of her dad’s friend. Charlie Jackson’s buddy worked at Battelle Memorial Institute, the giant research lab in Columbus.

“One time when the starter died, I met him in a Battelle parking lot, and he gave me more — wrapped in a brown paper bag,” she divulges.

Matt’s presence likely could be seen more soon. The Jacksons are making plans to take over a former sports bar in a neighboring suburb, and the expansion is fluid. In the meantime, Natalie says she’s confident in Matt’s skills.

“Matt has total creative freedom. When you’ve worked as long as we have together, there’s that trust element. I know what his standards are, and he’s not going to present something not worthy of being on the menu.”

That kind of respect is important in a live-music venue, where employees often come from different walks of life. Some don’t view the restaurant industry as a career, or they might want a short-term gig. Others could be less passionate than those whose long-term livelihood is in the restaurant business.

Matt says his culinary education prepared him for the challenge.

“If you take what you’re doing seriously, your expectation of yourself should trickle down to your employees,” he says. “I tried to learn discipline over the years, and you must judge each individual's personality. People respond to criticism differently. You have to listen to people and appreciate their values.”

Turn your values into a career with 91��߹’s Culinary Arts program.

Culinary Arts Chefs Alumni Pizza Restaurant Management Midwest

Mike and Wendy Pramik — Food and Travel Writers

From Fashion Model to Martha Stewart Cake Designer

Wendy Kromer

Your Advice on a wedding Cake

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91����߹ Alum Matt Alter Makes a Name for Himself in the Midwest

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91��߹ Alum Matt Alter Makes a Name for Himself in the Midwest