With a last name like Devine, this pastry chef was born to make dessert. Today, you can find Patrick Devine turning out French confections as assistant pastry chef of Simone Faure’s La Patisserie Chouquette in Botanical Heights. Here, he shares his love of challenging technique and crowd-pleasing sweets.
Why work with pastry? I love to cook, but I also appreciate the rigid technical (aspect of) pastries, and the challenge of finding where you can be creative with it. … I liked that whole challenge of sticking with a recipe, and if you don’t do it right, then it doesn’t turn out –understanding why it worked or why it didn’t work. If we are all in this industry to please people and satisfy some creative need we have, too, dessert is really going to cap that off.
You worked at The Ritz-Carlton in Clayton for a long time. Why did you go with Faure to Chouquette? Simone likes to say it’s this big Jerry Maguire thing, where she was like, “Who’s coming with me?” But it was more me saying, “That sounds like exactly what I wanted to do from the moment I moved back to St. Louis.” … We work together really well. She had a one-guy-in-the-kitchen rule for a long time, even at the hotel. She’s like, “There is enough testosterone in one person, and you are that person.”
How is working at a small, independent pastry shop different than working at The Ritz? More control. In a hotel, you have your day-to-day dictated to you by what kind of events are going on. … It’s more producing a lot of food. … It is extremely frustrating at times, very challenging, keeps you on your toes. It’s a great place to learn. Moving from that to something small … gives you a chance to be more focused on individual creative items.
Chouquette specializes in French pastry and elaborate cake designs. What are you in charge of? My main focus is the baked goods, the individual pastries. … I don’t care to do cakes. When it comes to decorating, … I’ll just really overthink the details, where Simone is like, “I’m going to do this, and here it goes.” And it looks awesome. She can knock out someone’s wedding cake in half a day, and it’s the most glorious thing you’ve ever seen. For me, it would take like four days. And I’d still be staring at it.
What’s your favorite thing to make? My favorite thing to make is The Darkness. It’s Simone’s creation – a triple chocolate croissant. … Laminated doughs are really fun to make, but I like this one because most people haven’t seen chocolate dough before. Usually when they see it coming they’re like, “Ahh.”
What’s the most difficult menu item to make? The macaroons. We had a great recipe going into opening, and that first summer was so hot and humid it just didn’t work. A lot of work goes into those – I think more than anything in the shop. They definitely give laminated dough and croissants a run for their money.
You post a lot of food and architecture photography on Instagram. Where did your passion for photography come from? I got this nice camera for Christmas from my in-laws. It started more as outdoor nature stuff, and then that turned into urban exploration photography, abandoned buildings. And now that I have been at Chouquette, it’s turned more into food photography.
Do both disciplines fulfill your creative needs in the same way? I think most chefs or even pastry people have quite a creative aspect to their personality. I feel much more comfortable in a kitchen or behind a camera more than I am in front it. (They both require) being a little introverted.
This article appears in February 2016.