September 2018 Digital Issue

CHEF’S CORNER
BALANCING ACT
Seasonal ingredients and simplicity are the
secrets to Wayne Kozinko’s artful creations
BY JESSICA HURAS
As pastry chef at Vancouver’s critically
acclaimed fine-dining restaurants,
Hawksworth and Bel Café, Wayne Kozinko
aims to strike a balance between classic and
modern with his culinary style. “Like the
rest of the menu, the flavours are a bit all over the map,”
Kozinko says of the influences shaping the desserts,
sweets, breads and pastries he creates. “I wouldn’t say I
follow the trends.”
The Edmonton-born chef knew from an early age that
he was destined for a career in the kitchen. “I remember
baking with my mom on the weekends — probably as
young as five or six,” he says. “In high school, I was one
of two guys in the [home-economics] class. I didn’t do
so well in the sewing, but I did great in the cooking [portion]
and I thought ‘maybe this is my future.’”
Kozinko graduated from North Island College’s
Culinary Arts program and completed a culinary apprenticeship
at Vancouver Community College before joining
the team at Diva at the Met within the Metropolitan
Hotel. After cooking savoury at Diva for a few years, a
First food
memory:
“Mom’s apple pie.”
Favourite
ingredient to
cook with:
“Peaches.
Beautiful peaches.”
What do
you cook
at home?
“My family says
I don’t bake
enough at home.
Anything on
the barbecue
is great.”
position opened up in the pastry
kitchen and Kozinko threw his hat in
the ring. “I’d always been interested
in [pastry] and toyed around a little
[with it] while I was doing savoury,”
says Kozinko. “I always felt that’s
where I would end up.”
Chocolatier Thomas Haas came
on board soon after as Diva’s executive
pastry chef, inspiring Kozinko
to stay in the role longer than
planned in order to learn from
the renowned chef. Kozinko cites
pastry-competition victories with
Haas and his team, such as wins
at the 2001 National Pastry Team
Championships — where he took
top honours in four categories — as
some of the highlights of his career.
Kozinko then spent several years
as pastry chef at Vancouver’s Yew in
the Four Seasons Hotel, before taking
the helm of the pastry kitchen
at Hawksworth in 2011. “I’m really conscious of not
under-doing the plates, but not over-doing them either,”
Kozinko says, adding each dish typically incorporates four
or five flavours at most.
He strives to keep the menu seasonal. “In the summer,
it will always be different berries; later in the summer, it’s
yellow stone fruits; into the fall, it’s apples, pears; and in
the winter, it’s usually citrus, nuts and different types of
chocolates,” he says of the menu’s ever-changing emphasis.
Kozinko likes to experiment with different textures and
temperatures, as well as with adding savoury ingredients
to his sweet dishes. The dessert menu at Hawksworth features
spring-pea ice cream with matcha and lime ($14);
crème fraîche with pistachio, rhubarb and strawberry
($14); and candy-cap ice cream with toasted white chocolate,
toffee and walnut ($14).
Kozinko is now also overseeing the pastry team at Bel
Café’s second location, which launched in June of this
year. He says opening his own restaurant may be in the
cards one day but, for now, he’s happy with the creativity
his role at Hawksworth allows him. FH
DEREK FORD [WAYNE KOZINK]
56 FOODSERVICE AND HOSPITALITY SEPTEMBER 2018 FOODSERVICEANDHOSPITALITY.COM