How NYC's "It" Pastry Chef Starts Her Day
Natasha Pickowicz is the type of person you want to hang out with in the morning. She’s energetic, fun, and full of conversation, even at 7 a.m. Natasha is the head pastry chef and baker at Café Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar in NYC, so it’s literally her job to be a morning person. Her day starts early, really early, like 5:45am, 5 days a week early. Pickowicz is responsible for some of the most innovative and delicious pastries in the city—Bon Appétit’s editor in chief Adam Rapoport is on the record as being obsessed with the sticky bun at Flora Bar, and he’s not wrong. After a long day in the kitchen, Pickowicz is likely to be found at Flora Bar, eating a steak and Caesar salad and knocking back vodka martinis. But her mornings aren’t quite so decadent. Here’s how she prepares for a day of making and eating the sweet stuff.
– Emily Eisen
Photo by Alex Lau1/6I wake up around 5:45 with the goal of getting out my apartment as quickly as possible. Before I eat anything, I drink a warm glass of water, which I think is more gentle on the digestion than cold water. I make ginger tea by the pint and keep it in the fridge throughout the week, so sometimes I’ll follow up with a glass of that. A chef I knew once taught me about the wonders of ginger tea: It cleanses my palate before a day of eating pastries.
Photo by Alex Lau2/6I’m around amazing food all day, so why would I ever eat breakfast at home? After tea comes coffee. Cold brew. Always cold brew, because it’s ready to go when you are so there’s no messing around with beans or waiting for coffee to brew. I like Parlor beans—it’s what we use at the restaurants. Make it once a week and you’re good to go.
Photo by Alex Lau3/6I work long hours and have little time to head to the gym or yoga, so my morning walk to the subway is when I practice being mindful. I usually walk through McCarren park. It’s so much nicer than walking down Wythe Ave, past all the wasted people leaving clubs at 6 a.m. In the winter, the sun rises on my walk, and my other morning pastry pals and I text photos of the same sunrise. It's a secret we all share.
Photo by Alex Lau4/6I always pack a snack for my walk, usually a piece of fruit like a pear or a banana. Oranges are my favorite, though. Peeling it becomes a project—I try to get the whole peel off in one piece.
Photo by Alex Lau5/6I take the L train to Altro, where I’ll spend the rest of the day baking and tasting pastries. In the summer, we have a crazy roster of mega-luscious free-form crostatas stacked with berries, rhubarb and fresh stone fruit. My favorite iteration of the crostata is smeared with almond frangipane and dotted with quartered apricots that get blackened on the edges and jammy on the inside. I serve it with a fat spoonful of creme fraiche. It's like next level baby food.
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Photo by Daniel Krieger6/6I love my job. I love the repetitive and precise aspects of pastry. I love creating beautiful and thoughtful work with my hands. You teach your body movements, and your body remembers. I love long days on my feet surrounded by people whom I respect and love. You give everything to the process; you surrender yourself to it. I go home, and I'm exhausted.
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