The "Danish King" will be holding court in Atlanta? Well, not exactly.
Internationally acclaimed Chef Morgan Larsson, CSM Bakery Solutions' new Director of Global Culinary, will be on hand for daily live demonstrations and tastings at the International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association (IDDBA) Seminar and Expo at the CSM booth. The event will be held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA, from June 7-9, 2015.
Whether he's preparing a dessert ordered by a diner or delivering up to 1,000 pieces of pastry in a day, Chef Larsson brings an amazing amount of experience to his work. Preparing for a banquet is different from restaurant work, of course, but the objective—delicious pastry—is the same. "You take the flavors and the textures from a dessert and you put them in a new application," he explains.
A third-generation pastry chef, Larsson has been providing European-style pastries for sweet-toothed New Yorkers since the early nineties, but he got his start in his native Sweden. "My father was a certified Master Pastry Chef and Baker," he says. "He owned a classic 1902 pastry shop in Solvesborg in southern Sweden, and from him I learned everything, starting when I was 16." Before coming to the US, Larsson ran his own shops in two other small towns in Sweden, Kristianstad and Hassleholm.
Larsson, whose signature Danish pastries earned him the nickname "The Danish King" has served as Executive Pastry chef at some of the most famous kitchens in New York City, including the Four Seasons, Windows on the World, the Russian Tea Room, Aquavit, the St Regis and the Pierre Hotel. He recently added a new line to his prestigious resume, joining CSM Bakery Solutions as its Director of Global Culinary. "I'm excited about the role," he says. "It gives me a chance to travel and use my experience to help other pastry chefs."
Marianne Kirkegaard, CSM's Senior Vice President of Products & Marketing, said that Larsson is ideally suited for his new role in the company. "We are incredibly pleased to have added Morgan to the CSM Bakery Solutions team," she said. "His broad industry knowledge and global experience will be tremendously beneficial to our customers and to CSM. He's one of a kind."
At the IDDBA show, Chef Larsson and his assistant will show attendees how to create garnishes, decorations, and different applications for pastries, cupcakes, cakes, and other desserts using chocolate couverture and wafers from CSM's C'est Vivant product line. The chef will also demonstrate the preparations of three wonderful desserts: Lemon tarts; milk chocolate domes; and mille feuilles (traditional French pastry, or Napoleans). The icing on the cake, if you will, is a demonstration by Nancy Andrew, one of CSM's talented cake decorators. Chef Larsson will support Nancy as she explains simple, on-trend techniques to demonstrate proper usage and workability of CSM's buttercream icings on ¼ sheet cakes.
Though he has participated in industry events this year, including Expo 2015 in Milan and Harlem EatUp in New York, this will be Larsson's first trip to IDDBA. "I'm looking forward to it," he says. "I like to meet everyone and see the way they showcase new things."