Maria Selyanina: "If you believe, the fairy tale will come to life..."

"You must have been working for a very long time, with that kind of experience? "

No, I've been working for a relatively short time, in fact, I'm constantly learning, training and improving, and if you go back a few years in the history of this blog, you can trace a trajectory that I've never hidden.

I've never hidden it.

No one in my family has ever, ever been involved with food. I was born and raised in an acting family. Theater, movies, music, plays, plays, scripts, plays.... I was constantly backstage at the theater, on television. I cooked - since my youth, I cooked quite well for all of us known Soviet food according to my grandmother's recipes, but more out of necessity than for pleasure. I baked my first cake (even two) at the age of 13. At 15 I could easily prepare a festive table for 20 people. But... when I was jokingly told already at a conscious age: "You need to open a cafe/restaurant" I only twisted my finger at the temple and guffawed. I never saw myself in a catering business.

I am an educator by profession. I worked very little as a teacher, I went to earn money, and then my life suddenly changed its direction and I went to Spain to study, live and look for myself. Searching for a job, frustration as any immigrant, trying to somehow get a grip in a completely foreign country in proud loneliness and complete ignorance of what would happen.... That's how I was when I met my future husband.

We started working together, we got married, our daughter Katya was born ... We became a real family. The newborn firm went upwards, we worked like the damned, not sparing ourselves at all. Barcelona - Andorra - Valencia. We traveled a lot, were very light on the rise, went around the world as soon as we had free days, trying everywhere to absorb the most real, sincere, correct. And what better way to understand the culture of another people than through their habits and food?

These were years of some bright, orange, all-consuming happiness. We very quickly began to think about expanding the family..... Katya was three years old when her long-awaited sister was born. When I talk about the proper wording of wishes, I always remember how I foolishly asked for "just a healthy baby". Our perfectly healthy, premature baby girl died in labor. There was a true knot in the umbilical cord. We were not able to save her...

.

Maybe I shouldn't have written this, especially since few people in my current environment know about it, and we don't like to talk about it. It's too personal. But without this fact, the whole story will not be sincere and honest. Life is forever divided into before and after. If our little girl had survived, I doubt I would have sought "distractions" in any way. I started cooking just so I wouldn't have to think about the same thing all the time, just so I wouldn't go crazy.

Then the era of culinary LiveJournal was just beginning, I got into the stream, describing Spanish dishes, got hooked on the community "Cooking together" which, again, trained my brain, made me look for new ideas, new solutions. Gradually I realized that I was more interested in cooking sweet things, and if in the kitchen I was more interested in traditional regional dishes, in pastry there was a full range of actions.

Maria Selyanina

Then, thanks to the "kick" of a friend, timidly declared in the Spanish community that "bake to order". Naturally, I didn't earn anything from it, but I kept busy and practiced my hand. I made ridiculously huge cakes in grandmother's style, went to master classes in cooking schools in Barcelona, even got to a master on chocolate, bought up cooking magazines.... And one day, in one such magazine for housewives (I'm afraid my husband still can't forgive himself the day he brought me that magazine) I saw that the famous French school Le Cordon Bleu had opened in Madrid.

A painful decision - is it worth it? To tear a considerable sum from the family budget, to leave my husband to fend for himself with a huge amount of work, to turn him, who can't even fry an egg, into a "single father"? Without his support, nothing would have worked out.

Decisions I made cautiously, cautiously. First there was the basic course (all the notes on my studies are preserved in my LiveJournal, you can read them), then a break, deliberately arranged. I fell in love with the school environment, the kitchen, artificially created stress, perfect cleanliness, strictness, snow-white uniforms. But. I needed to see if that excitement would be lost when I got into a real, actual kitchen.

I was helped by the head of the school with his personal contacts (after the basic course LKB does not help with internships), I sent my work.... And got into a real pastry hell. One of the best pastry shops in Spain.

I, a successful adult family woman making a good living, worked 16 hours a day, 6 days a week, I cried at night from the pain of frozen or burnt fingers, I scrubbed refrigerators and freezers, did tons of backbreaking work just to touch what I thought was true art. And yes, I was lucky. It was very difficult, but my future colleagues, who at first didn't even dignify me with a nod of the head, constantly started sharing their innermost secrets, assigning me not only the dirty work, but also the real work. By the end of my internship, I was working alongside the rest of the staff and was allowed to do the most difficult things. I was twice offered to stay there in the staff as a chief of one of the departments - first confectionery, then chocolate, but ... I was waiting for one more, GENERAL internship.

After Bubo, I went back for my next course at LCB with a clear conscience, and when the boss saw my work on the first day, he came over and quietly asked: "Why did you come back? You have already outgrown all this..." And if at first I was really disappointed with the level (after Bubo it all seemed childish and ridiculous), then I got involved, started to go to practice at the school every day on free days, to communicate with the chiefs, to help them in their development and preparation for the course, to train, to train, to train.... I already knew that on my return I would be waiting for another, very important internship with the person whom I would always remember as the most important teacher of mine.

I still don't know how Jan selects the teams, how he chooses the people, but the fact remains that we worked our asses off, during the worst time for a European pastry chef - Christmas, and it was a daily delight. I waited a year for this internship and it was a difficult but gift of fate. It is thanks to him that my movements are clear and practiced, I don't do anything unnecessary, I think through every step and can do a thousand things at once. After Jan, I continued to meet and work with former colleagues, I almost settled in the Guild of Pastry Chefs of Barcelona, I became friends with their director, a wonderful pastry chef, and I was lucky enough to work side by side with him on many occasions.

Barcelona is a city that encourages creativity, there is a high level of excellence here like nowhere else in Spain, and even at the Paris school where I did my advanced training, the head chef admitted that Barcelona is on its heels.

I realized that the papers and diplomas in my pocket don't matter. One thing that matters in this world is what you know and can do. Where you learned it doesn't matter. I realized that the skill of a pastry chef is manifested in simple everyday things - good croissants or eclairs, properly made dough or cream, perfectly smooth glaze, harmonious modest decoration. You can learn to make caramel or chocolate statues, you can participate and win contests, but that's not the point at all. And a champion's collar, or lack thereof, is no indicator of skill.

I've had the opportunity to work with some of the most amazing chefs of our time, and I'm truly proud and amazed.

Maria Selyanina

I realized that modesty and humility should be in everything - even in the combination of ingredients. You don't have to chase to combine incompatible things, there are reasonable limits to everything. I try a lot, I work with taste, I make mistakes and I don't hide it, I'm always trying to move forward and not stop.

The idea of online courses was born by chance, and.... I didn't expect it to be such a success at all. I've worked with both amateurs and professionals. I was suddenly invited to give master classes in cities in Russia, Ukraine, etc. And already at those master classes that I didn't like at all (yes, I can show what I can do, but it's akin to acting - I bragged and left), people started asking where they could come to train with me in real life.

That's how the idea of a school in Barcelona was born (and we can already say that it was realized).

And I want to introduce a tradition - when talking about a person, share their recipe. Maria has some complicated recipes on her blog, you should definitely check it out, but I chose this one, which is a simple pistachio-apricot tart, the recipe for which was published in one of the issues of Gastronome magazine.

And I want to introduce a tradition - to share a recipe about a person.

cakes and pies by Maria Selyanina

Knead the dough in the usual way (Mix dry ingredients, add cold butter, diced, turn into crumbs in a food processor, knife or with your hands. Add the egg, knead the dough. ).

Roll out between 2 sheets of baking paper, chill for at least 1 hour.

Roll out to desired thickness (2-3 mm), place in a mold.

Place in a mold.

Bake until cooked through at 150C.

Bake at 150C.