This chef's lab is the kitchen
The son of scientists, Travis Olson found pastries were his path

By Alexandra Greeley
Special to The Examinar

In early June, just days before the big bussy RAMMYs - the annual event where awards are handed out by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington to top chets and restaurant staff - Travis Olson sits outside his restaurant kitchen, looking calm, unflappabl and unworried.

"I haven't thought much about the awards," he says. But he quickly addds that, actually, he is both surprised and honored by his nomination.

Up against some of the best in the industry, Olson, the pastry chef at Clyde's Restaurant Group's upscale 1789 Restaurant in Georgetown, has much of which to be proud. A relative newcomer to the pastry world, Olson can't even claim fine baking is part of his heritage.

"There are actually no bakers in the family," he says. "My parents work for the Smithsonian as scientists. They study birds." and although his family has always gathered for home-cooked dinners, Olson never thought much about cooking until his parents moved to England when he was just 12.

Missing his Virginia-based all-American food in Oxford, Olson fell back on preparing simple meals to satisfy his kid cravings. He also made desserts.

"I had a sweet tooth," he says, "and I looked through cookbooks and made eclairs and Sachar tortes. ... I baked a lot then." His parents were amazed at what he was baking.

But when the family returned to the U.S., Olson's baking became sporadic - until halfway through his first year at the University of Virginia, when he realized he needed to get out on his own to dow something creative.

"I had and aptitude for pastry making," he says. "I had been looking around for what was next, so I went to L'Academie de Cuisine [in Gaithersburg] and knew [pastry making] was for me."

And as the first family member of his extended family to select the kitchen rather than the science lab as his work space, Olson says his parents were at first somewhat dismayed, though now they applaud his chosen career path.

Since his graduation from L'Academie seven years ago, Olson has been baking around town, working first with pastry chef David Gaus, formerly at DC Coast, before joining the Clyde's Restaurant Group and working in its various restaurants until his appointment to 1789.

So what makes Olsons baking stand out?

"I come at baking with a more flexible approach," he says. "It's not just formula baking."

For inspiration, Olson steers clear of what his competitors are doing, but instead, he scopes out what's best in farmers markets and occasionally scans cookbooks for a jump-start.

"I very rarely take a whole idead from a cookbook," he says. "I may just use a component of some method , and apply that to different ingredients and different forms."

Has his offbeat approach netted hime his "best of" dessert? Not yet, he says, explaining that he is never really satisfied.

"I am always looking to improve, and that's what keeps me coming back to work," he says. "If I were to invent something like the Oreo cookie, I could retire on that."

In the meantime, Olson - who did not take home the top pastry prize from the RAMMYs - keeps refining his skills. So, fingers crossed that at the next RAMMYs, Olson's baking takes the cake.

More...
Do you cook at home?
Yes, I did some foraging this spring along the Potomac, and picked ramps and nettles and made some nettle pasta with stinging nettles. .. I make things by hand and also real simple things, like meatballs. It's comfort food.

What is your comfort food?
Chicken and dumplings, very simple. It's chicken, onions, celery, salt pepper and light biscuits. Absolutely, my favorite maybe ... a dozen chili dogs and a pitcher of beer.

Where do you eat out?
I usually go to little ethnic restaurants in Arlington, such as Thai Square. I love The Four Sisters in Merrifield and Pike Pizza, a Bolivian restaurant with no pizza on Columbia Pike.And El Charrit Caminante on Washington Boulevard in Arlington.

What's in your fridge?
As a general rule, it's interesting. I have no shleves, to make room for a home-brew keg. I also have olives, eggs, hot sauce and beer. I cook day to day, so it stays pretty bare.

What do you do in your spare time?
I like to walk, looking for ramps and nettles, and I make home brew, cook, watch films and read. This job doesn't leave a whole lot of time for hobbies.

At my apartment, he dices the pancetta, chops the garlic, and tosses it all in a pan. The bacony smell of pancetta fills the air as the fat renders in the sizzling pan. I ask Giusti how he first became interested in cooking. He tells me about his aunt, who lives in New Jersey and makes some of the best dishes he's ever eaten. Even though he's at the helm of a Washington institution, he's still amazed by her many jars of marinara, made from home-grown tomatoes, that she stores in the basement.

Giusti blanches the asparagus, which means he boils it briefly before rinsing it in a cold-water bath to stop the spears from overcooking. As he layers a bread-crumb/pancetta mixture and the asparagus in a casserole dish, I ask him if he cooks for his mom on Mother's Day. He's been working in restaurants since he was 15, he says, and his family often spends the holidays at the restaurants where he's working. Most family photos feature Giusti in his chef coat.

While the asparagus gratin bakes, Giusti cuts the rhubarb into baton-like sticks and cooks it in water and sugar for a yogurt-and-rhubarb dessert. Then he poaches eggs for the top of the asparagus gratin, explaining that the delicate task is something even professionals sometimes struggle with. He suggests breaking one egg into a bowl first, then lowering the bowl to meet the water and gently sliding the egg into the pan. Dropping it from high up can cause the egg to break apart.

As Giusti carefully places the poached eggs on top of the asparagus, he points out that everything can be made in advance, including the eggs, which can be reheated in a pot of lightly boiling water or in a steamer. That way, you can spend more time at the table with Mom.

All recipes serve four.

Asparagus Gratin Topped With a Poached Egg
4 ounces pancetta
5 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
2 sprigs marjoram, chopped
1 tablespoon herbes de Provence
2 cups bread crumbs
1 bunch asparagus, ends snapped off
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon vinegar
4 eggs
Olive oil as needed
Salt to taste

Set the oven to 325 degrees.

Dice the pancetta and sauté it over medium-high heat. Add the garlic to the pan. Cook the mixture until the pancetta is crispy and the garlic is soft. In a large bowl, combine the pancetta/garlic mixture with the marjoram, herbes de Provence, bread crumbs, and enough oil to moisten the mixture. The mixture should be the consistency of wet sand.

Set a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring to a boil. Set up a bowl of ice water.

Add the asparagus and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Plunge it into in the ice bath.

Spoon half of the bread-crumb mixture into the bottom of a casserole pan. Layer the asparagus on top. Top with feta and the rest of the bread-crumb mixture. Bake for about 45 minutes.

Heat a pan of water until it's just about to boil. Steam should be coming off the edges, and there will be small bubbles in the bottom. Add the vinegar. Break the egg into a small bowl, bring the bowl to the edge of the water, and slide the egg into the water. Poach until desired doneness. For a harder poached egg, cook about 5 to 6 minutes. For softer eggs, cook 3 to 4 minutes.

To make the eggs ahead of time, poach them and then put them into an ice bath to stop the cooking. To reheat the eggs, put them back into water or steam.

Rhubarb and Yogurt
3 stalks rhubarb
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 large container vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons honey
Granola for garnish

Cut the rhubarb into baton-like sticks. Set a pan over low heat and add the sugar and water. Cook the rhubarb in the water until it's soft, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove rhubarb the from pan but not the liquid. Add the honey to the leftover liquid, set the heat to medium-high, and let the liquid reduce into a syrup. Spoon the yogurt into four bowls. Top with rhubarb, rhubarb syrup, and granola.