The Hamilton Spectator

A sweet life

Pastry chef Victoria Ammendolia turned her passion into her career

MARYAM SIDDIQI

In 2019, Victoria Ammendolia took a giant leap of faith and went back to school for an entirely different career. After years of working at large corporations doing finance consulting, Ammendolia enrolled at George Brown’s culinary school to fulfil her long-held desire to become a pastry chef.

“I knew immediately when I entered the corporate world that I wanted something more,” she says. “My greatest passion is baking and pastry, so that was always in the back of my mind. It was absolutely a scary jump, but I knew that if I didn’t take the plunge then, I would never do it.” The gamble paid off, as Ammendolia is now pastry chef at Alder restaurant in Ace Hotel Toronto, just four years afterthat leap.

But her path wasn’t without its hiccups. After her first year at George Brown, Ammendolia joined the kitchen of Canoe, as an intern with the pastry team at the luxe restaurant on the top of the TD Tower at King and Bay. Her first day: March 17, 2020 — the day the provincial government mandated restaurants, shops and more closed because of COVID-19.

“Nobody knew what was going on. We all thought it was going to be a two-week shutdown,” says Ammendolia. Despite the roller coaster ride the restaurant industry has been on since that period, Ammendolia’s career move has turned into something very sweet.

In spring 2020, she joined the baking team at Forno Cultura and soon after that, the kitchen at Langdon Hall in Cambridge, where the spe- cialty is farm to table. “I learned a lot about what can be grown in Canada seasonally because they have a full farm,” she says. Its gar- den also inspired her. “We would pick fresh flowers to use for service. That definitely contributed to the design elements I like now.” Re- turning to the city, she worked with Patrick Kriss at Alo.

She also launched her own business, Vic Baking Things, via Instagram, allowing her to experiment and define her decorating style, which she describes as rustic floral. “I like to decorate with fresh flowers. I think it’s beautiful, and gives a natural element to the cake. I also don’t really use any dyes or food colouring, so any colouring is from natural ingredients,” she says.

A year ago, Kriss asked Ammendolia if she wanted to take on the role of pastry chef at the soon-toopen Ace Hotel, and she jumped at the chance. “I was so excited to be able to finally design and create a menu by myself,” she says, though she’s quick to credit Kriss for his guidance and mentorship.

Her most famous bake at the hotel is the coconut cream pie, a dessert that took 30 versions over four weeks to perfect, with just two grams of salt being the difference between the runner up and the version of the pie that’s now on menus. This month, she’s turning the pie into a doughnut as part of the hotel’s brunch menu.

Through her red-hot baking career, Ammendolia has looked to her family for support. “I grew up baking with both my grandmothers — they’re a huge inspiration to me,” she says. “I think I love food and love feeding people so much because of what I’ve seen from them.”

For those who share her love of food but are intimidated by baking, she offers this advice: “A chef once told me, ‘The first one is always going to be bad.’ When I’m trying new recipes, I’m like, ‘The first one’s going to be bad, but it’s a point to learn from, and it can only get better from here.’ ”

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2023-04-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-04-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

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