Garret's Bio:
I guess I should start out as to why I chose to be a pastry chef. I have always loved food in both forms; cooking and baking were equal in my eyes. That is until I really started to watch people when they ate. If something at dinner tasted good, they would smile and nod, it seemed to be a standard reaction. But if you looked at people when they had a great dessert, their whole face would light up. They would smile, roll their eyes around to the back of their head and tell their friend that was with them that they had to try it because it was so good. That expression and that moment is what I live for now; when I make something I want you to have that same reaction, because that lets me know that I have done my job well. It’s a good feeling, when you see someone love something that you created. It’s a magical moment.
For those of you that don’t know me, I have loved baking all my life. It is a passion that started out when I was just 3 years old. My grandmother (who was overly protective of me) would say “come bake with grandma” whenever I wanted to run outside and play. She knew the exact way to grab my attention and keep it. I would stop, smile at her and then go and get ready to help her make something yummy. It started out that I would just make jello with her; I was excited to watch the jello dissolve and disappear, then after it was cold enough turn hard; it was magic that I thought only my grandma could help me create. It was so much fun. As my love for baking increased, my grandma and grandpa would slowly help me to advance my knowledge of making pies, cookies, and many other things. They would teach me valuable lessons that I would never forget, such as the time that my grandpa and I were making apple pies. He showed me how to make the crust and how to make the filling, I thought it was so interesting, but of course at the tender age of 6, in my genius I wanted to add about a half cup of nutmeg to my recipe, thinking it would come out brilliantly! Slow and steady as my grandpa always was, he told me sure go ahead. We both made our pies and they both came out looking wonderful, and I thought they were going to taste like a slice of heaven…until I took a big bite out of mine. My grandpa just smiled and asked if I wanted a bite of his. I nodded and gracefully accepted a piece of his apple pie that turned out to be oh so amazing! It was lessons like these that I carry with me, and that I often think about. Even as I write this I have a great big smile on my face about that great memory, I miss them and all their wisdom they would pass on to me so very much.
My love for baking did nothing but increase as the years went on. I would make what I thought were wonders in the kitchen and then leave the super big mess of pots and pans for my poor mother to clean up. My mom would always say “I love it when my son cooks, but I hate the messes that he leaves for me!” I do owe her a big thank you for all those times she cleaned up after me, Thanks mom!
It wasn’t until I enlisted into the Coast Guard that I would really find out how much went into cooking and baking as a profession. I remember while in boot camp I would talk to my shipmates about these ideas I would have about a chocolate cake or a chicken dish, I was always talking about good food (mostly because the food at boot camp was still to this day some of the worst food I have ever had in my life, I still thank god for those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I would greedily consume at lunch and dinner while in training). My fellow shipmates were so fed up with me talking about food that I was threatened that if I didn’t go to FS school (Coast Guards school for cooking) then I was going to be in trouble.
This is also around the time that I met Ms. Ashley Butterworth, we met while I was in the hospital getting my wisdom teeth pulled. She was going to physical therapy and it was located in a room right across the hall from me. So as I was recovering I saw her one-day and asked what she was up to. Of course her bad luck would have to intervene, because a drill instructor caught her chatting with me. Its funny now because, nothing happened to me except an embarrassing talk with my drill instructor, he asked if me and Ms. Butterworth were having an inappropriate relationship in front of my whole unit. As I explained to him that we were just friends and that he had my word about it. He basically laughed as though I told him the funniest joke ever and then told me to go sit down. Ashley however didn’t fare as well, the next day that same drill instructor sent her back a week in boot camp and she didn’t graduate until a week after me, I didn’t see her for the rest of my boot camp experience. We ended up meeting again when I got to FS school. We immediately bonded and became the best of friends. We worked together while in class a lot and we always had fun with what we were doing. Even though the days were extremely long and we hardly ever got a day off, we still loved every minute of it and to this day will tell you that it was one of the happiest days of our lives.
We ended up going our separate ways when school ended, she was stationed in Oregon and I was stationed on the Coast Guard Cutter Harry Claiborne in Galveston, Texas. It was here that my love of cooking and baking died. Don’t get me wrong I was happy and proud to serve my country; I would never take back the experience for anything. My problem was when you are put in a situation where its constantly stressful, you never leave your job because you live there, the people you are cooking for seem to give you every opinion about your food that is negative and very rarely give good feedback, it just got to be overwhelming and it took its toll on me hard. (I do have to admit that their was a small few that would give me good feed back a lot, without them I don’t think I would have survived my experience.)
Luckily after I got out of the Coast Guard I started making more desserts again and slowly my love for it returned.
Even though we only had a short time together, we would always be in contact with each other. We only saw each other twice after leaving school, but there was that rare connection we both felt. It definitely wasn’t romantic, but it was a friendship chemistry that is rarely found. We both love the same music, a lot of the same movies, have a passion to eat great food and try different things, we just always were happier when the other person was around. So when she moved here, it was like it was supposed to happen, because I felt like I had my best buddy back. And now I feel like if anyone wants her I will totally sell her to you for a very low price! Just kidding! But seriously, I knew that things were going to be better for me I just didn’t know in what way. We both started going to Houston Community College and were unhappy in the direction we were headed in, which was business management for me, YUCK! It never spoke to me and I was always dreading going to school. Then one day on a whim Ashley and I decided to go look at the Art Institute of Houston to see what they had to offer. We immediately were excited about what the classes were and knew right then and there that we wanted to do pastry. When we started attending we knew that we had made the right choice, we felt so at home in the kitchen. Most classes we had were exciting and filled with a great amount of info, especially the classes that we had with our favorite teacher Chef Mac, we learned so much from him and continue to do so even now. When we finally graduated and got our diploma I felt pretty good about accomplishing a goal that I had set for myself.
The only thing that became very apparent was that the amounts of pastry chefs in Houston were extremely small. The places that we tried getting jobs weren’t hiring and the places that were hiring had no one to learn from, and that is what I still crave, learning from someone. So Ashley and I talked it over and decided if we cant find someone to get experience from, then we will just make our own experience, at least for now. And with that Spoil your Sweet Tooth was born.
Ashley's Bio:
For those of you who don’t know my name is Ashley Butterworth (yeah I said it, Butterworth). With a name so marketable one would be almost dumb not to pursue a career in the food industry. Just so you know, I am not related to THE Mrs. Butterworth. She hasn’t even cut me a check even though I have given her 28 years of uninterrupted advertising. I was born in Honolulu, HI in a pink hospital 18 months after my older brother, Aaron, and not long after that the Army whisked us away to Fort Knox, Kentucky, Heidelberg, Germany, California, Pennsylvania, then back to Kentucky where I finished out my school years. In Kentucky was my dad’s side of the family who lived in western rural areas. My grandma was the type of cook that had a coffee can of bacon fat, and nothing in the fridge or pantry, but somehow could turn this into a meal for 20. It was always a mystery to me how she could do this and her fried apple pies brought upon my first spark of interest in working in the Kitchen. The spark didn’t make it far as I lived with my mom whose specialties included grilled cheese, packaged tuna, and anything fast food. My next food venture started when my high school had a program that allowed us to attend 1 year of technical college for our senior year. I learned to make sauces and stocks, braise, grill and sauté by a southern professor who much-resembled Paula Dean and I am sure didn’t actually have a degree in the field. I could tell the “normal” side of cooking just wasn’t doing it for me like when we were piping out buttercream roses, or pouring ganache so again I felt the pull that Pastry was beginning to have over me, if only a light tug (did I mention I was still in high school surrounded by people treating me like an adult? Chasing college boys may have sucked up a lot of my time.) Two weeks after Graduation I ended up joining the Coast Guard and that’s where I ran into Garret. Briefly in boot camp, where I seemed to be having much more trouble than he was, and again later in Petaluma, California for Food Service A school. I chose cooking because even that brief pull had been more than anything else I had encountered on what I wanted to do with my life, plus I already had a year’s experience. Garret and I pretty much hit it off right away. We sang 80’s songs, quoted movies, and even though we were working 13-14 hour days 12 days on, 2 days off we can both still recall this as one of the best times we've spent together (or even with anyone else for that matter). After school we went our separate ways. He was stationed on a boat in Galveston, about an hour outside of Houston, and I was stationed on land in Oregon. If you’ve ever been to Oregon and thought it was the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen, that’s because you went for the 2 months that it’s NOT RAINING. That beauty is paid for with 10 months of straight rain, of course it’s lush and green, it’s been watered for almost an entire year! So the rain got a little depressing, but at least I was working in the kitchen and trying to make the best of things, Garret and I talked on the phone daily for hours and I have to say this is probably one of the only things that got me through my Life on the Pacific Coast. In order to get out of Oregon, I worked really hard to make rank and move on to another station. In 2004 I got stationed on a small boat in Jacksonville, Florida. It was a tiny Kitchen and my job consisted not only of cooking, but also standing watches, and working on the fire team. I tried to focus on desserts when there was time, but It was mostly Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner on 3-5 foot waves. (We did have a Coast Guard specialty called the "underway cake", which is a cake that is crooked because it was cooked on open water while the ship was tilted) I got out of the Coast Guard in 2006 (5 years, 1 month) and spent some time in Southern Florida where my mom’s side of the family lives. Finally bored with that, Garret and I still talking daily, I decided to come to Houston where he had set up a pretty good life for himself. For 6 months I stayed with Garret until I could save up to get my own place and it was during this time We decided, after attending several dead end classes in the Local community college, to go to the Art Institute for their 2 year program in Baking and Pastry. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. We both made connections there that will last a lifetime, and found the areas that we were more passionate about (mine being chocolate work). After school I had a few small stints in restaurants, but nothing that could help me learn and grow as a Pastry Chef. So that’s where we had the idea to start doing our own thing. Garret and I as a team have always seemed to balance each other out. If I’m on the verge of tears he manages to be calm. He thinks outside the box, while I try to ground him so his wild ideas are realistic and do-able, we are the perfect team and I must admit rather humorous when put in a room together. Look for the reality Show coming to Local Channels near you. (Eat your heart out Jersey Shore!) ~ A
