Bernardus’ pastry chef leaves a lasting impression on diners with sublime sweets.

A Monterey Peninsula native, Kelsey Larson’s love for baking rose from her childhood spent in the family’s kitchen. As a youngster, she cooked side-by-side with her great-grandmother, who inspired a shared passion for pastry.

Now, Larson wows diners as the pastry chef for Bernardus Lodge, including Lucia Restaurant & Bar. She says dessert is the last impression the restaurant makes on a guest. “So even though we are the last course, we’re the most important,” she adds.

Weekly: The most important question first: Chocolate or vanilla?

Larson: Chocolate through and through – for the dark, rich, velvety, intense, bitter – and complexity in flavors and how much of a spectrum there is to all types of chocolate.

What’s your favorite ingredient to work with?

I love to work with unusual ingredients – things that you would not normally associate with dessert – such as mushrooms or beets.

Which dessert is hardest to get right?

Some of the hardest desserts to master are the simplest. There is no room for error. Pate a choux or an eclair – I had struggles with either the piping wasn’t perfect, or the oven had uneven heat, or I pulled them out before they were completely dried out and they collapsed. Some of the simplest things can turn out to be the most difficult.

Unicorn foods: Yes or no?

No, absolutely not. I think the fads come and go, and dessert should be something that has a natural beauty to it. Our job as pastry chefs is to create a flavor experience that triggers a memory or emotion. The ultimate goal is to have a guest say that it brought them back to a moment in time, not some multi-color gimmick that doesn’t even look like real food.