By Lourdes Lopez

His name is Ronald García and, despite his youth, he is called to be one of the great pastry chefs in Latin America. From his small atelier opened in 2016, Pizca Pâtisserie, he enchants locals and foreigners with a very particular way of preserving the recipe book and the legacy of Guatemalan ingredients: from the morro, to the chile raisin, from the Mayan vanilla, to the honey melipona –that of the Maya Bee-. Each preparation is a small work of art, due to its lightness, its design and the pride so typical of someone who loves their country through cooking.

Pastry trends from high-end restaurants

Although it is difficult to think when approaching the pristine Pizca counter, in Guatemala they are not very fond of sweets and, until the arrival of this Atelier, “there was no tradition of non-industrial pastries. The pastry we found in Guatemala was eminently French, so I began to explore a more European format. I saw that there were many native ingredients that could have sweet potential. “That's how this adventure began,” recalls the dessert chef who is paralyzed by the fact that someone would think he was going to defend himself with a frying pan and a chicken. “For me, salty cuisine is not interesting. “I could never handle it,” he summarizes. It's not necessary either. Next to his Atelier (door to door) pizzas are cooked in the Terra Nostra workshop, the business of chef and pizzaiolo Mariano Codoñer, who is also his partner. “Each to his own.”

Referenced in reports from international magazines such as So Good Magazine or the American Pastry Arts Magazine, García has a high academic profile and has set out to be an ambassador of the exceptional quality and uniqueness of some products from his country. We are talking about ingredients grown near the Petén jungle - the jungle that houses the well-known Tikal National Park where the first episode of Star Wars was filmed in the 70s - and other ingredients from the Mesoamerican country, among which we find corn, tejocote, chili or melipona bee honey. Their pastries are a cultural reinterpretation of the ingredients – this year, one of the figurines symbolized the burning of the little devil that every December 7th kicks off Christmas in Guatemala – and the portfolio changes every 4 or 6 weeks. “Except the gold bar, which is a brownie and everyone likes a brownie,” he jokes.

The use of native ingredients is a challenge and, at the same time, an opportunity. “The homogenization of pastry in the world is ultimately a problem because everything looks alike and the personality of the place is lost. There is no Sosa here, therefore, I could not have access to certain ingredients that we all know are commonly used in European pastries,” García recalls. This is how he formed his now distinctive label and has allowed him to serve desserts at high-end restaurants.

The cream challenge in Guatemala

Although Guatemala is a country where cheese is produced, there is no cream because there is no whipping cream. “It is one of the most difficult things. I use domestic butter and try to get the bases out of the cheeses and use the cream as an aerator with very little of that lactic flavour. The percentage of sugar in all my desserts does not exceed 20%. But it's not a matter of me being obsessed with making healthier desserts; the finish, the fat and the sweet have to be there to give pleasure. And pastry is something that must give pleasure,” he details. He works on individual cakes, and on request large format cakes, but he does not display them in a display case because they would dehydrate. “I try to make everything fresh and perfect, of the day.”

In his Cake Atelier there is a catalogue for celebrations and some paintings at the entrance that reproduce his creations. In particular, the quetzal dessert: “That dessert was my starting point. That's where it all started, with one of the most beautiful birds in the world, a sacred bird of the Mayans and Aztecs." It is a dark chocolate mousse with cobanero chili on a sponge cake made with Ramón flour, filled with strawberry, blackberry and tamarind compote with a base of cold Amaranth cookie and cocoa beans beautifully decorated with chocolate feathers. A bite that changes with each bite.

Chef Joan Roca said years ago that cooking is pure sensitivity because things are transmitted through flavours and creations; for those who perceive them as their own and for those who, with a foreign palate, are willing to discover them, also in their dessert version.