Michele StuevenClassically French-trained, L.A.-based pastry chef Jose Mariscal from San Bernardino County is bringing his colorful hispanic background to the pastry case at The Rose Venice.
New desserts on the menu include a miso caramel almond croissant, strawberry Danish filled with strawberry jam and topped with fresh strawberries, a pistachio cream puff with pistachio pralines and caramelized pistachios inside the cream for texture and a toffee sea salt cookie. The toffee is made in-house and incorporated into the batter which melts into the cookie for a sweet crunch. Also part of the new program since Mariscal joined the team in December is a stunning meringue with chamomile whip, mango urfa compote, mango pepper sherbet and honey tuile.
The Rose Spring Flower: meringue with chamomile whip, mango urfa compote, mango pepper sherbet and honey tuile. (Courtesy The Rose Venice)
“My pastry style is very colorful and I love to use fresh ingredients,” Mariscal tells L.A. Weekly in the kitchen of Jason Neroni’s Venice landmark. “I come from a hispanic background, so we like to use a lot of vibrant fresh seasonal fruit in our desserts like mango. My goal coming in is to start bringing in some color into the pastry case and some different flavors that you haven’t seen in awhile at The Rose. I haven’t seen cream puffs in a good minute and want to bring them back. On our dinner menu we have a mango urfa dessert. Urfa chilies are dehydrated in the sun and come from Turkey and I like to incorporate them into a mango compote so you get a cool and warm experience.”
Mariscal’s first job out of school was as a pastry cook at Disneyland, much like Neroni, who started his career in the secret Club 33 restaurant of the amusement park at age 16.
“I worked during the holiday season which is the busiest,” he says. “We provided pastries for the whole park, like mini tarts, and distributed them to California Adventure, Disneyland Park and the hotels, 1,000 at a time. We had a chocolate station where we’d make cakes and deliver them throughout the parks. It was a massive standalone building near the Mickey and Friends parking lot, where the central bakery was located where everything was made for the parks and the hotels. It all came out of one space.”
From left: Toffee sea salt cookie, pistachio cream puff, strawberry Danish, miso caramel almond croissant (Michele Stueven)
Growing up in Bloomington in the Inland Empire, L.A. street food has always been a big part of the soft spoken chef’s life growing up. He’d like to bring that into a restaurant setting.
“Maybe a little bit more refined version of the fruit carts, like a concrete idea of what it actually is and play ingredients off each other,” says Mariscal who has worked with Wolfgang Puck and David LeFevre at Manhattan Beach Post. “My pastry case is a representation of where I have been in my life. Pastry was really the one form of art where I saw myself – it was my creative outlet. I remember one visit with my aunt when we made a fruit tart from start to finish – we made the dough, the filling, the pastry cream and the glaze. She taught me the entire process. That was the moment I knew what I wanted to do. “
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