New York pastry chef crafts contemporary chocolate desserts

After a 10-year career as a landscape designer in upstate New York, Ron Paprocki is now using his eye for presentation to craft unique, contemporary desserts at New York City mainstay Gotham Bar and Grill, where he has served as executive pastry chef since May 2012.

Prior to his current position, Paprocki honed his skills as pastry chef at celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s two-Michelin-starred Gordon Ramsay at The London in New York. He also has worked as head baker and assistant pastry chef at New York’s Financier Patisserie, after receiving his diploma in pastry arts in 2004 from Elisabeth-Knipping Schule in Kassel, Germany.

He recently spoke with Nation’s Restaurant News about the influence of his former career, working with chocolate, and current dessert trends.

How did you make the transition from landscape designer to pastry chef?

I was a landscape designer in Rochester, N.Y., and made my way over to Germany and did an apprenticeship over there. I always enjoyed working with my hands and being creative. When I was in the landscape industry, I first started off doing residential design. I always loved the challenge of coming up with something creative and nice looking, and I loved the satisfaction of that. I always had a knack for baking. I baked as child with my mom and it never went away through my landscape career. I always baked a lot and I figured that my next move was to see if I could get money for it.

What desserts are you working on at Gotham right now?

We just put something on starting Feb. 1, and it will be going for the next eight weeks up until April 1. We are doing a three-course late-night chocolate dessert tasting. That’s something Gotham has never done before. People come in and have three courses of small chocolate desserts, and if they like they can pair that with some wine. We’re teaming up with Valrhona and we have different courses of different types of chocolate. We have a white chocolate, as well as a milk and a dark.

How much does that cost?

It’s $30, and the guest has the option of pairing it with wine, which is $20 extra for three wine flights.

As far as your main dessert menu, what is most popular with your customers?

Gotham has been open for almost 29 years, and since day one they’ve had on the menu this Gotham Chocolate Cake, which has always been the most popular item. It’s very classic. It’s really just a slice of warm, flourless chocolate cake accompanied with an ice cream.

What is your style in terms of creating a dish and presentation?

I’m more or less influenced by the Spanish guys. Whether it be Albert Adrià or Ramon Morató. Guys that are very contemporary in their plating styles. That’s what I’ve inflicted on the menu.

My plating style is very organic, unlike a very classical French dessert where it is either a square or a nice round mold where it towers. My style is more organic. It resembles more the environment or the forest. I do things like take sable cookie dough and make it appear to look like rocks. It is certainly more landscape-ish, which is an homage to what I did for 10 years prior to getting into the pastry industry.