"It is easier to work with high-quality ingredients"
MIROSŁAW KOŚ
HASTON CITY HOTEL, WROCŁAW
At the first edition of the World Chocolate Masters in Poland, Mirosław Koś won the title of Master of Chocolate Creativity. Not surprising, given that the pastry chef likes to build model cars in his spare time. “I pay attention to the smallest details: the screws, the uniqueness.” he says. This helps him make the most creative cakes - using Debic’s raw materials.
Pastry chef Mirosław Koś has no desire to spend all night baking doughnuts or making other pastries in a pastry shop. He wants to make great desserts and cakes in unusual shapes. “Something unique that you don’t see every day in a bakery. Products with a ‘wow’ factor. I work at the Haston City Hotel, which hosts many conferences with large numbers of visitors. I sometimes make cakes for three, four or even five hundred people.”
Gastronomy
Koś began his career as a pastry chef in the 1980s. His first employer guided him well and instilled in him a love of the craft. He went on to work in confectionery shops, but soon switched to the world of gastronomy. “As a young man with little experience, I was thrown in at the deep end as a sous chef. I became familiar with the associated responsibilities, later becoming a chef and learning the skills of a pastry chef. This is how my career began: at coffee shops and restaurants in the historic centre of Wrocław. No matter how big or small they were, I always made something more challenging than the average cake.”
Stable quality
At his current employer, the Haston City Hotel, Koś has the freedom to work with the best ingredients. “We’re lucky to be able to afford that because it’s not a given these days,” he says. “It is nice that we can work with Debic products; I have been using their butter and cream for almost 20 years. Quality is a top priority for me. And Debic always delivers.”
Koś particularly appreciates the consistent quality. “When I’m expecting 200 guests, I can’t leave anything to chance. Debic Stand & Overrun is always stable, even when it is delivered in a cold car in the middle of summer and the temperature outside is 40°C. I keep the cream in the fridge, but I have never had any problems with it when I have to use it very fresh. The cream is always good and makes my pastries exactly as I expect them to be.”
Once, Koś made a cake shaped like a shark for 500 people. He also made a lighthouse with pastry boats and a giant ship. “The biggest cake I ever made was for 1000 people in the shape of the Hala Stulecia in Wrocław. It was sweltering at the time; quite a project. Four of us worked on it for three days.” Koś usually uses fresh fruit in his cakes. “I make cakes with sponge dough, fruit punch and mousse. Debic Stand & Overrun is perfect for this. Also for chocolate and all kinds of mousse. Because the cream is very reliable and delivers consistent quality, I know exactly what shapes I can make with it. Debic has never let me down.”
“I make cakes with sponge dough, fruit punch and mousse. Debic Stand & Overrun is perfect for this.”HASTON CITY HOTEL, WROCŁAW
Koś has been in the business for almost 40 years. He remembers when it was impossible to make pralines in Poland. “We didn’t have moulds, and you couldn’t buy them anywhere. And if someone brought a mould from the West, we had no real chocolate. We could only buy chocolate icing or imitation chocolate
THREE SMART TIPS FROM PASTRY CHEF MIROSŁAW KOŚ
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Keep trying new things. If you make the same thing every day, the work becomes boring and dangerously repetitive.
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Use good quality ingredients, such as Debic Stand & Overrun: this will give you a consistent and stable end result.
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Choose ingredients you can rely on, especially if you regularly host many guests at the same time.
