Becoming A Pastry Chef...

The Journey of Katie Wittenberg—Pastry Chef at Bravo! Restaurant Kalamazoo

Preparing beautiful cream painted plates drizzled with chocolate, topped with delicate pastry dough layers and fruit compote! If that is your idea of the life as a pastry chef—think again. Katie Wittenberg, Bravo! pastry chef, has spent many hours of her career sitting in walk-in freezers, piping gelato and sorbet desserts into glasses. She has turned sugar syrup into pralines at temperatures over 320 degrees. She has spent over three days crafting a wedding cake only to see it completely gobbled down in minutes, and some days her apron has been as sticky and spotted as an artist's smock.

The day of a pastry chef requires the knowledge and creativity to prepare desserts and pastries for the three hundred or so guests that dine at Bravo! each day. Katie routinely hauls fifty pound bags of flour and delicately manipulates a pastry bag with the finesse of a surgeon. All of the pastries at Bravo! are made from scratch. Katie bakes cakes, whips cream, folds mousses and decorates tortes.

Katie grew up in Vicksburg and at the age of 15 she started cooking in a local restaurant. During high school she took a cake decorating class where she got her first taste of baking. She soon made a three-tier wedding cake for her aunt, highlighted with piped flowers and edible butterflies. She said she enjoyed the end results so much she couldn't bare watching it being sliced at the wedding. After graduating high school, Katie attended the well respected Johnson and Wales University in Charleston, South Carolina. The University is known for its baking and pastry arts degree, but Katie opted to get her degree in the more diverse Culinary Arts and Management where she was on the Dean's list and graduated highest in her class Summa Cum Laude. Katie is the Vice President of the American Culinary Federation of Kalamazoo/Battle Creek. Katie and her husband Matt live in Kalamazoo with their dog Rufus.

If you are prepared to spend years on education, can carry heavy loads, work on your feet for hours, and don't mind getting sticky or burned, then a pastry chef may be your calling.

Visit Bravo! to enjoy one of Katie's mouth watering specialties.

White Chocolate Mousse

A Bravo! Signature Dessert Recipe!

Ingredients:
7 oz. White Chocolate
10 oz. Heavy Cream
4 Egg Whites
1/3 cup Sugar

Method: Melt chocolate. Whip cream until stiff. Make meringue (egg whites and sugar). Add chocolate to meringue slowly. Fold chocolate meringue mixture into whipped cream. Allow to chill.

Also available for take-out! Call 269-344-7700.

Handcrafted Beer

On Tap and To-Go!

Enjoy pairing your favorite entrée with one of our handcrafted beers made on site by our award-winning chefs. We brew beer in small batches; it's unfiltered yet clear and crisp. We never use additives or extracts. Slow fermentation gives our all-grain beers the natural malt flavors found in high-quality brews. Our meticulous procedures and high standards create refreshing flavors that complement our food.

The next time you visit Bravo! try our Chef's Amber Ale. Its unique flavor with a hoppy finish plus caramel notes, make it a perfect match for our wood-fired pizzas, calamari and lighter foods, $4.00 a draft.

If you prefer, you can get a Growler To-Go!
Take home your favorite Bravo! handcrafted beer in a half gallon glass growler.
$14 - Includes Growler $10 - Refills
Ask your server for a list of rotating seasonal beers created by Chef Adam Stacey.