The Pittsburgh Dish

039 Crafting Dessert Magic with Selina Progar

• Doug Heilman • Season 1 • Episode 39

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(01:01) Pastry Chef Selina Progar takes us on a mesmerizing culinary journey, sharing her artistry and passion that illuminate Pittsburgh's dessert scene. From her innovative multi-component apple dessert at Eleven Contemporary Kitchen to crafting bonbons for Umi and seasonal delights for Kaya, Selina's creations redefine what it means to experience dessert. Join us as she reveals her secrets to balancing the complexity of restaurant masterpieces with the simplicity of homemade comforts.

(11:42) Selina's career trajectory is equally compelling, as she recounts her rise from the Culinary Institute of America to the demanding kitchens of top-tier restaurants. Her story is one of creativity, consistency, and resilience, shaped by experiences at esteemed establishments like Altius and fueled by childhood baking memories with her father. Discover how Selina navigated high-pressure environments, honed her craft, and returned to Pittsburgh, transforming the local culinary landscape through her work with the Big Burrito Group. We end with a heartwarming glimpse into Selina's personal life, exploring a love story that blossomed at Altius, and upcoming dessert plans for her own wedding!

(32:59) Keeping in the world of sweets, Chantal and Alex Huff take us on a visit to Amy's Bakery for coconut buns and other Asian delights. And then, enjoy a heartfelt cookie recipe story from John Chamberlain of the YaJagoff podcast, highlighting the deep connections we forge through food and tradition. 

Whether you're a culinary enthusiast or simply love a good story, this episode promises a delightful mix of inspiration, love, and scrumptious desserts.

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Doug:

Welcome to the Pittsburgh Dish. I'm your host, Doug Heilman, searching for desserts that are far beyond the average slice of cake. We have the perfect guest and a place for you. Want an under-the-radar Asian bakery? The Hungry Huffs Introduce us to a spot. And do you rejoice when you get a treasured holiday cookie recipe? We have one from John Chamberlain of the Yajagoff podcast. All that ahead, stay tuned. The Pittsburgh Dish is supported by Chip and Kale plant-based meals. Check out their latest menu for items like curried chickpea soup with pita croutons or one pot Greek pasta. Head to their website at wwwchipandkalecom and use code DISH to save on your next order. Now on to the show. Well, thank you so much for coming over and for being on the show. Would you introduce yourself and what you have going on in food right now?

Selina:

Hi, my name is Selina Progar. I am the pastry chef at Eleven Contemporary Kitchen. I also make all the bonbons at Umi and I have two rotating seasonal desserts at Kaya.

Doug:

Oh, my goodness, I have to say the desserts that I see you make for Eleven are like art to me. You're not just making a slice of cake. In fact, I just watched a couple of your latest creations. Can you just describe one of them Like? Walk us through one of them. I know it has like maybe five to seven parts.

Selina:

Yeah, there's a um. Bill Fuller is always, so I have to have him come on to the, to the restaurant, and eat the desserts before we put them on the menu is part of the. Making sure everything's approved correctly.

Doug:

What a tough job.

Selina:

I know to make sure all the food tastes good at all the restaurants. Uh and he always goes this has 19 components. You are aware that this has 19 components. And I'm like yes, chef, I know, I know, chef, but okay, so our apple dessert, it is flying off the shelves right now it is a caramelized puff pastry and it's made with palmier style, so it's layered with sugar in the raw.

Doug:

Oh, so I've had palmieres, which they're usually like this bent elephant ear kind of thing.

Selina:

Yes, so what we do is we just lay? It out flat and then cut strips out of it and bake it like that instead of in so same exact flavor just in a strip.

Doug:

But that's just the first component.

Selina:

Yes, let's keep going. Yeah, we have a apple cider diplomat, which is a pastry cream style mousse. We have a caramel custard, then on top we have a spiced apple compote, a apple cider gelée, an apple namlaka. A namlaka is a Japanese ganache, oh my. A fiatine crumbs, a sour apple chantilly, a dulce chocolate twist made by Valrhona, a gold leaf and a pumpkin spiced wheel, selena did you come up with this? Yourself.

Doug:

Yes, Okay, so we'll have to talk about this, because this is the reason I want to go to restaurants, because I will never make what you are creating at home. So thank you, thank you. I love when I go to a restaurant and I have a dish that's never going to be something I make in my own kitchen and I think that is where you grab me. And I didn't really know you until we sat down today, but I've seen you doing this pastry artistry on KDKA.

Selina:

Yeah, yeah. When did that start? I was on Talk Pittsburgh, probably in the first month that it was a thing.

Doug:

Yeah, since it aired.

Selina:

Yeah.

Doug:

You've been a regular.

Selina:

I have been a regular.

Doug:

So it's getting on at least a year.

Selina:

I would say six or seven times I've been on, so I'm not on there as much as maybe Alekka Sweeney.

Doug:

Okay.

Selina:

But I would say that every two months I'll get on there. Yeah, yeah, it's really nice, it's always just amazing to me. Yeah, and at first I tried to put one of the desserts that we do at 11 on there. Five minutes is not very much time, no, no, and I felt like I might've been a little bit overwhelming.

Doug:

Oh yeah.

Selina:

So uh, which is fine. So I kind of veered away from that and thought maybe I could do something a little bit more simple, so things that are a little bit more in season, or working on a single component as opposed to trying to do all of the components.

Doug:

Well, I like what you're saying because when I've been on, I think I'm trying to teach people something they can do at home. But I think it's okay. You have the permission to say okay, here's a little bit of something you can do at home, but here's what I do, cause that's a little different and it's super fun to watch you.

Selina:

Yeah, I uh showed them how to do pop tarts so you can make your own pie dough and go through the process of making your own jam and everything, and you know. Then you make your own icing. But you could also just go to the store and buy Pillsbury pie dough Off the shelf. Pie dough works, you know. You can fill it with jam that you buy off the store. But what you know is you know exactly what's going in that and then you can serve that to your kids and freeze it as opposed to buying. You know toaster strudels or pop tarts you know off the shelf that have 35 ingredients in it, yeah, so much better when it's homemade.

Doug:

How perfect. Yeah, love it All right. Well, let's get back to 11 a little bit more. How? How long have you been there?

Selina:

A little over two years, two years and maybe three months.

Doug:

You alluded to it earlier, 11 is part of the big burrito group, so there are several restaurants and you mentioned you do some things for Umi and Soba.

Selina:

So Umi Soba is actually done by Nicole Bosserman. Okay, yeah, we work together at Gluten-Free Goat, and then she's also from Husk in Charleston.

Jonathan:

Oh wow.

Selina:

Yeah so she has a great background as well. Another good pedigree of pastry yes, but I just do Umi, just the omakase tasting oh my gosh, and then Kaya, and then obviously Eleven.

Doug:

Okay, and if anyone's wondering, a couple of the other restaurants in that group are all of the Mad Mex's, the Alta Via concept and AVP. I'm probably missing one.

Selina:

Casbah, that's right yeah.

Doug:

Over in Shadyside.

Selina:

Yes.

Doug:

Also good.

Selina:

So good, yeah, I mean, I don't know how they do it.

Doug:

It is one of the first premier restaurant groups that I remember when I moved back to Pittsburgh from college. I think a lot of those restaurants were brand new in the nineties and I've just kind of always lived with them and it's sort of like the precedent for a lot of other restaurants to follow.

Selina:

But you have these fine dining restaurants that also have been around for 20 years. That's right, it's not just a small stint and it's not just a quick concept. Five years, six years, but these have been around for 20,. You know, I think 11 has been around for 22 or three years or something like that.

Doug:

It's incredible. It's amazing and consistent, consistent and good and you know the service, the food, the pastries, all of it.

Selina:

It's a science.

Doug:

Yeah.

Selina:

Yeah, wow.

Doug:

So I want to talk a little bit about you in this amazing machine of the big burrito group and 11. You said earlier that you created this dessert. Can you just describe what you start thinking about when you're creating something new for the menu, Like where where does your mind go or where does the inspiration come from?

Selina:

So I think the first thing that I always think about is seasonal.

Jonathan:

Okay.

Selina:

So seasonal is always the easiest for me because you can say fall, you know, you can put an apple and a pumpkin dessert on the menu.

Doug:

Oh yeah.

Selina:

Winter citrus Spring you can do. It's a little bit trickier because not really too many things are in season, but you can go for a lot of bright colors, that's right. And then summer, you have everything available to you.

Selina:

So I always start with if seasonal is available and I'll go from there. And then I think to myself, okay, what haven't I done? Okay, and I just go through the catalog of all the desserts that I've already done and I think to myself, okay, well, we can't do that, so let's come up with something different. Let's try to not repeat anything that we've done in the past. I just sit down with a notebook and I just start jotting down ideas. I get on Instagram and I see what the chefs in Europe are doing. I try to find out inspiration on different techniques. I read just blog after blog and just try to come up with something that is inspirational but achievable in a high end restaurant that is also high volume.

Doug:

Yeah, you were sparking several questions for me, so I want to just take one step back. Do you have like a log of all of the desserts you've done?

Selina:

A lot of times it ends up just in the prep book. So we'll have, we just have a notebook that has all of our prep lists in it and I'll just flip a page over and just start writing things down. And it's just random. And then I'll tear that piece of notebook paper out and I'll shove it in the folder in the binder. I would not say that it's organized, it's more chaos than organization. But I have probably 10 or 12 three-inch ring binders in my basement full of recipes that I have had in the past, and I have two flash drives that have probably 5,000 recipes on it that I've done.

Doug:

Oh my gosh. I was going to ask if you have like dozens or hundreds, but you are into the thousands.

Selina:

Absolutely. Wow, because I mean so if one menu has five desserts on it.

Doug:

Yeah.

Selina:

Okay, each dessert has 10 components. On it. That's 10 recipes for one dessert, that's 50 recipes and there's test runs in the process so that recipe changes 10 times over. You know, then we'll do special dinners. Then we have the other restaurants 10 times over, you know, then we'll do special dinners, then we have the other restaurants that we do. You know that sometimes I don't even write the recipes down and we're just kind of going at it as fast as we can.

Doug:

Because of the volume.

Selina:

Yeah.

Doug:

You're a machine. You were incredible.

Selina:

I was like go in, chef. Eli always says what are you doing in the office? I'm like I'm trying to type the recipes up, chef, just trying to get them organized.

Doug:

On a high volume night. I imagine that's like a Friday or Saturday night at 11. How many desserts go out the door?

Selina:

60 to 80. Okay, yeah.

Doug:

And these are again the multiple component desserts. You're never serving just a cookie or a piece of cake at 11.

Selina:

No, even our ice creams are a little bit more complex than regular ice creams, so they have inclusions in them and they're served with. They're served with cookies, but they're you know. We have a double chocolate, a sweet soy cookie, we have a triple chocolate, Dulce cookie. We have a brown butter vanilla bean cookie. So you know we try to elevate every single piece that goes out.

Doug:

And I would say 11, is one of the what I would call one of the highest end restaurants in Pittsburgh. Am I right? What do you think?

Selina:

Yeah, In fact it is actually one of the two four diamond restaurants in Pittsburgh.

Doug:

It's awarded by AAA.

Selina:

Oh yeah, that's great. Yeah, I mean, the other restaurant is Altius and I worked there for six years.

Doug:

I was going to say we need to talk about your work history next. Oh well, then you are. You're spreading diamonds across the whole region, these restaurants that you have worked at. I mean, there's obviously like a fire and a passion. Can you tell us a little bit about your culinary career? You just mentioned you worked at Altius before 11. But did I read you went to the Culinary Institute of America. Is that where it all kind of got started?

Selina:

Yeah, I attended the Hyde Park campus and I got an associate's degree in baking and pastry.

Doug:

So did you know right away that baking and pastry was like your jam? That's what you were going to go for? It absolutely was yeah absolutely.

Selina:

I baked with my dad growing up. So, yeah, it was a great, great thing that we did on all the holidays and for people's birthdays. It was great.

Doug:

Wonderful. Let's talk about your education, but then I want to go back and talk about family a little bit too. So, after Hyde Park and the CIA, where did you go next?

Selina:

Yeah, I actually came back to Pittsburgh. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew that I needed to go home for a little bit.

Doug:

And you grew up in Pittsburgh.

Selina:

I did. I grew up in Canonsburg oh yeah, yeah and my mom said why don't you go online and Google best bakeries in the city and just start calling them?

Doug:

Smart mom and seeing if there's jobs available.

Selina:

Yeah, and that's when I stumbled across Le Gourmandine.

Doug:

Oh, of course.

Selina:

At the time, Le Gourmandine was producing desserts that were unlike anything in the city and I just called and asked if they were hiring and if I could have a job interview. And they were they were. Yeah, and it's weird how, if you just ask, a lot of times, people just you know are nice.

Doug:

Selina, I have to say in this whole crazy food world I'm finding the same thing. Sometimes you just need to reach out and people are way more open than you think they will be. Absolutely, and a lot of places need more help than you realize too. Which?

Selina:

is always good. Yes.

Doug:

Okay, so you came back home LaGormandine. How long were you at LaGormandine?

Selina:

I was there for about a year and a half Okay, maybe about two years. I went from working part-time as a help during Easter to full-time to the head pastry cook there.

Doug:

That's a pretty big jump.

Selina:

Yeah, at 20.

Doug:

You knew what you were doing, yeah.

Selina:

And then they were going to open up the second location in Mount Lebanon. Yeah, and then they were going to open up the second location in Mount Lebanon. Fabian wanted me to go and lead that bakery but I wasn't sure if that's actually what I wanted out of my career. And one night I just got a phone call from a friend and he goes I have a job for you in Nantucket, Do you want it?

Doug:

Wow, that's a leap.

Selina:

It was like 1130 at night.

Doug:

Yeah, that's crazy.

Selina:

Yeah, and I was like, oh, what, I don't know, I was asleep. I had to be at work in four hours.

Doug:

I've got to get up early and start making pastries. Yeah, I don't.

Selina:

Yes, I don't. I mean, can we talk a little bit more about this? Yeah, and he goes. Yeah, it's going to pay $25 an hour, which, in 2013, was like gold.

Doug:

Really good yeah.

Selina:

Yeah, I mean even now, that's.

Doug:

That's not bad. Not a bad job, yeah, no.

Selina:

I thought about it on my drive to La Gourmandine. It was 40 minutes and I thought about it and I go yes, let's do it, I'm going to do it. Wow, and I put my notice in and flew to Nantucket.

Doug:

Wow, and so how long did you spend in Nantucket?

Selina:

I spent two summer seasons there.

Doug:

And was this a restaurant?

Selina:

It was. It was also a four-diamond restaurant, four-star hotel, oh my gosh, and it's called Toppers at the Walwinette. Okay, now it holds a five-diamond award, probably because you were there?

Doug:

No, you never know. You never know.

Selina:

No, Gino is the pastry chef there and he is amazing.

Doug:

He's one of my role models. Yeah, do you still stay connected to folks like that? Yeah, yeah.

Selina:

I have two really good friends there. Uh, we actually just went up to Nantucket last summer to visit everybody.

Doug:

It was great. Yeah, oh, that's so good and it probably keeps you kind of motivated and inspired to just have those people in your life, right, yeah?

Selina:

But, um, it was my first, uh, restaurant job, because I had just worked in that bakery, you know, and I was 22. So, um, I was thrown into the wolves and it was busy. They called it angry August. When I walked in there, it was 200 covers every single night. It was a prefix menu, so every single person that sat down got five courses.

Doug:

Oh my goodness. And Nantucket is this vacation mecca anyway. So everyone's there to just do that kind of thing, right? Yeah, oh, wow.

Selina:

And I went from working 4.30 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon to working 10 in the morning to 1 o'clock in the morning. Oh my goodness, yeah, it was a long day and the expectation was set Get your job done, and whatever it means for you to do that, that's what you have to do.

Doug:

The things that we will do in our 20s.

Selina:

Yeah, for $25 an hour. I know I was like this is gold, this is awesome, yeah I mean, but it really made me have an outstanding work ethic. You ever see those videos online of the people scrubbing the fine dining restaurants and it's like water and suds everywhere and everybody's working in unison and everybody's using squeegees and towels and there's deck brushing. That's what we did.

Doug:

It's really like that. Yeah, it's really like that yeah.

Doug:

Oh my gosh.

Selina:

It was extremely hard and they made you strong.

Doug:

Wow, yeah, wow. Just the level of expectation, the level of excellence that they want to provide to a guest. It's kind of incredible.

Selina:

Yeah, and we also had a lot of celebrities there as well. So I mean Drew Barrymore was there every weekend, hi, so I mean everything had to be perfect all the time for Drew.

Doug:

Wow, that's so crazy. Yeah Well, how long was it until you came back to Pittsburgh?

Selina:

So after that first summer season I moved to Utah oh wow yeah where I worked at another five diamond restaurant in Deer Valley as the assistant pastry chef. And then I moved back to Nantucket for the second summer season Whoa. I drove cross country both times.

Doug:

Whoa.

Selina:

Yes.

Doug:

And was this like whole, like multi diamond restaurant situation appealing to you or did you like? When you're going to Utah you're like I'm getting myself into the same kind of thing I'm doing in Nantucket. Oh, I loved it, you did.

Selina:

It was a high you thrived on it. I wanted it Wow. I couldn't get enough of it.

Chantal:

Oh, wow.

Selina:

And I am also. I've been skiing my entire life, okay, and I thought to myself what's better than this? Now I get an opportunity to ski out Springs. I wanted to go ski on real mountains, yeah. So my job came with a ski pass.

Doug:

Oh, wow.

Selina:

Yeah, okay, yeah, for sure, absolutely, whoa.

Doug:

So we went from Nantucket to Utah, back to Nantucket Anywhere else before coming back home. No, I came home then. I was really tired.

Selina:

Were you 23? At this point I'm tired at 23. I was about to turn 25. Oh, yes, yeah, I came back right before I turned 25 and I was just exhausted. I mean, it was a lot of working. Yeah, this is Selina Progar and you're listening to The Pittsburgh Dish.

Doug:

Thinking about the dessert you described earlier, was it similar at these other places where they heavily composed?

Selina:

Yes, I mean they are. Those chefs are my role models. Yeah, I mean everything that I do is based off of everything that I've learned from them. So, you know five to eight components per plate and it should take time and you should be detail oriented.

Doug:

Yes, I just want to take a sidestep here. So for this desserts that you're making even today on the regular, what time are you getting to 11 now and are you preparing then like one of the eight things and then another one of the eight things and like portioning it out? Is that how it goes?

Selina:

So three days a week, I start at 11 o'clock in the morning and I work until about 10 at night yeah, I work through dinner service and then two days a week, I try to have a prep shift.

Selina:

Yeah.

Selina:

Just to create some normalcy in my life. Wow, so I am not working every hour of every day?

Doug:

Oh my gosh yes.

Selina:

Whenever we go in, we have a giant gridded list of every single component for every dessert. In the morning, after our prep shifts, we fill out one half of the count sheet and then, after dinner service is done, we fill out the second half of the count sheet. So then all you have to do is look at the chart. It's a puzzle. It's a puzzle. The chart for Eleven, the chart for Kaya, the chart for any catering events, the chart for Umi, wow, and then make a list. Honestly, it just is whatever seems like the most time consuming. You're going to do that before service starts.

Doug:

Okay.

Selina:

Yeah, so whether that's chocolate work, so that could be any chocolate deco, that could be our birthday plaques, that could be any kind of like spraying, so we spray with a paint gun like some of our desserts. Edible cocoa butter.

Doug:

Yeah.

Selina:

Yeah, so that way it has like kind of a velvety texture to it. Oh my gosh, anything that's dipping, so like anything that is a lot of walking in and out of the freezer.

Doug:

Yeah.

Selina:

So that way you have that accessibility without having to be like carrying sheet trays through the dining room, because you actually have to walk through the dining room to get to the pastry kitchen in 11.

Doug:

Yeah, yeah, yes, I am the pastry chef at Eleven.

Selina:

And then I have Scott Morgan, who has been working with me for seven or eight years.

Doug:

Okay.

Selina:

Alex Portis, who actually is a former child star on the Food Network. What, yes, it's a great story.

Doug:

Oh my gosh, yes.

Selina:

And then I have an intern from the CIA. His name is Enrique. And then I have an intern from the CIA, his name is Enrique. And then I have another girl. Her name is Lily. I have taught her how to do all the bonbons, so she has no experience in chocolate, and she's actually going to medical school at Pitt right now. Whoa yeah, so she makes all my chocolates. And then another student at the CCAC Culinary School and her name is Caitlin.

Doug:

So what is that I'm trying to count? Was that like five people and you and you're leading them?

Selina:

So it's three full-time and two part-time.

Doug:

Gotcha.

Selina:

Yeah, and then me.

Doug:

Oh my gosh, and we didn't even talk about these like special events. Like you said, there's catering. Sometimes you're doing some other stuff.

Selina:

Absolutely. Yeah, it's a a well-oiled machine, but it is very busy all the time. Wow.

Doug:

You mentioned earlier, when you went to the CIA, you really did so because you liked baking with your dad. Yes, can we talk about family a little bit?

Selina:

Yes, I grew up baking with my dad on holidays specifically.

Chantal:

Aw.

Selina:

But also we are Slovenian and he liked to bring a lot of traditional baked goods into our family. So whether that was Petitsa which is commonly known as not roll, apple strudel and krofe, which are just donuts, yeah.

Doug:

I'll take it all yes.

Selina:

So we learned how to do that at a really young age. We also would go to Restaurant Depot and before I think I who knows how he got his card but we would go down into Pittsburgh and buy like giant blocks of chocolate and melt that down and temper that and make like chocolate molds out of that. And I didn't even know what tempering was at that age, but, blow my mind, he knew what he was doing. How did he learn? I don't know His mom my grandma.

Doug:

I have no idea.

Selina:

You don't know. No, I never really like asked him how he knew how to do the chocolate like he does. He just was a wizard and I just listened to him, oh yeah did you have a big family?

Doug:

like was food like a super important thing with all of that?

Selina:

so I just have one brother, okay, um, and then, uh, my parents split when I was little and I have a awesome stepdad, awesome step siblings. So I mean the family is big in different ways, but it's my dad and I and my brother, and then my mom and my stepdad and his two children and then all of my mom's siblings. So you know, it can be, it's a big family.

Doug:

It's a big family yeah. Are there any other, like big mentors, that you still look up to or reach out to today?

Selina:

So in my internship at Bethel Bakery her name is Barb, she was one of the cake decorators there. I still reach out to her every now and again and just try to see, like bounce some ideas off of her. And then, um, chef Gino, uh, from Nantucket, yeah, um.

Doug:

And then Chef Eli, honestly, he's the head chef at Eleven.

Selina:

Yes, he's a great sounding board. He definitely will tell me the truth. Yes, which is never a bad thing.

Doug:

No, you need that Absolutely. I mean, you guys are doing just crazy, amazing looking work.

Jonathan:

Yeah.

Doug:

All right. Well, we've talked so much about your work history. We've hit a little bit of family, selena, I just want to know, as you keep progressing at 11, do you have any goals or things you want to accomplish in the next coming months, years, anything big coming up on the horizon?

Selina:

So I think that the biggest goal of mine is just to keep doing what I'm currently doing. I think that Big Burrito is such a great company to work for. I really feel like I hit the jackpot, so I don't really want to change that. I guess maybe my biggest goal for this year is making my own desserts for my wedding.

Selina:

Well, I was going to say I thought I had heard you have a wedding coming up, so maybe that is a big goal, yeah it is a pretty big goal, yeah, and I'm going to create all the desserts for that wedding and there's not going to be a wedding cake and there isn't going to be a cookie table.

Doug:

Oh my gosh, You're doing this yourself.

Selina:

I am Whoa yeah.

Doug:

Can we maybe talk a little bit about your fiance and in fact, could we include him Absolutely?

Jonathan:

include him, absolutely All right. Hello there. Hey, doug, would you introduce yourself to our listeners? I am Jonathan.

Jonathan:

Homer I am the executive chef of Blue Sky and I am Selena's fiance.

John:

Yes, my proudest thing.

Doug:

I love that we have this culinary romantic connection going on. I've seen it on Pittsburgh Today, live or Talk Pittsburgh. They had you guys on it, like.

Selina:

Valentine's Day, right, valentine's Day on Pittsburgh Today Live.

Doug:

And as I'm sitting here, I just see now Selena has raised her hand and I see her engagement ring, which looks very, very sharp. Nice job, Homer. Thank you, sir. How did you two meet?

Selina:

He tells the story so much better than I tell the story and don't leave anything out. Oh okay, I tell the story and don't leave anything out.

Jonathan:

I lived in St Louis I'll keep it a little short here and I was coming back from St Louis and my dad told me to call the best restaurants. As her mom told her, uh, call the best restaurants. And he called Altius, where she was the pastry chef at. I walk in the door, I get the chef at Altius. Jess, she was amazing. She, um. She told me to come in for a meeting. I walk in the door and there's Selena and I said, hey, is a chef here? I'm dressed to the T, selena's, dressed in her chef clothes, just sweating her butt off, doing chocolate work, making the magic. First time I got to see it and she said yeah, she's just like you know, kind of angry. It's an angry Monday type of thing. She walks down these stairs and I was like, am I following you? And she just turns to me and goes wait here.

Selina:

I would just like to say that it was July and it was a hundred degrees in that kitchen.

Jonathan:

Oh my goodness, it wasn't good. And immediately I was like I'm going to marry that girl you did.

Doug:

That's the best story ever.

Jonathan:

So I, uh, I staged it out this and, uh, I hung out with all of her and her friends that night and I, just I absolutely fell in love with her and worked there and the rest, as you would say, is on her hand.

Doug:

Love at first sight. Was it the same for you, Selena?

Selina:

So right off the bat. Obviously I was in some kind of pastry rage, but that night I remember being so smitten by him and just asking our friend Abby what do you think his deal is? I got to want to hang out with him. I want to get his phone number, but at the time we weren't allowed to date each other because I was a manager.

Doug:

I see you were both at the same restaurant, altius on Mount Washington which is amazing.

Selina:

Yes, absolutely, the food is outstanding. Yeah yeah, the company was amazing. I mean, I stayed there for six years. I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't awesome and he chose to leave so we could date each other.

Doug:

Oh, yes, I love that story. Best decision ever. Thank you guys both for sharing that. Yeah, and so back to my question to you, selena making all of your own high-end desserts for your own wedding? Yes, that's a big goal.

Selina:

I know.

Doug:

I hope you enjoy your wedding day.

Selina:

So I'm going to hire uh, I actually we're going to hire a big burrito catering team.

Doug:

Amazing.

Selina:

So I'm going to make everything at the restaurant and then they're going to deliver it.

Doug:

So it'll all be, done yes.

Selina:

Yeah, no, I already have it. I already talked to Danielle, so she's going to be amazing and she's going to set everything up for me. You will not be in pastry rage no no, I think I would love to get a picture of me quenelling something in my wedding dress, because that would be awesome.

Doug:

That would be the best.

Selina:

Yes.

Doug:

Well, I want to say once again, thank you both for coming over and Selina for giving your time and telling us your story. If people want to find you and follow you on social media, where can they find you?

Selina:

So they can follow me on Instagram at Pastry Chef Selina. You can look up my Facebook. It's just my name, Selina Progar. It's the same thing that's on Instagram.

Doug:

It's a lot of beautiful pictures of your work.

Selina:

Yes.

Doug:

And, of course, where else they should see not necessarily you, but your creations is by going to Eleven.

Selina:

Eleven. And then Kaya for the hummingbird cake and the glass dessert that we have right now. It's a pumpkin cake with a pumpkin mousse.

Doug:

Yes.

Selina:

And then you can also go to Umi, which is currently on their winter break, and you can try their bonbons.

Doug:

Yes, when they're back from winter break.

Selina:

Yes.

Doug:

All right, selina, there's always a final sign-off question. I ask our guests you know this.

Selina:

Yes.

Doug:

I think I did hear that you binged a few episodes before this.

Selina:

Maybe Definitely all of them, all of them, everyone. That's a super fan. I am a podcast super fan. I'm honored. Yeah, what did you think they were awesome? Oh, thank you. I love. Your canter is amazing. Your laugh is contagious. Your voice is perfect. Yes, it is a perfect slice of Pittsburgh. I'm blushing.

Doug:

All right, so I'm going to get back to my question. Selina, what was one of the best dishes you've eaten this past week?

Selina:

Okay, so I couldn't choose so.

Doug:

I'm going to give you two. Okay, all right.

Selina:

All right, it's the Elote corn dog at loaded.

Doug:

Oh, at loaded. Oh, remind us where is loaded at the Lawrence Food Hall. That's right Up in Lawrenceville, the new Lawrence Hall.

Selina:

Yes, Um, it was one of the best corn dogs I think I've ever had in my whole life. It was a panko crusted corn dog and it had spicy mayonnaise on it and lime and cojita cheese and corn. Oh my goodness it was. I wanted 10 of them.

Doug:

So this is normally like what you get when you get the elote corn. That's covered in those types of things, but they're doing this as a corn dog.

Selina:

Yeah, and they have like seven corn dogs on their menu.

Doug:

My mind is blown. I need to go.

Selina:

Yes.

Doug:

I've been there already, but I did not go to Loaded, so yeah, I need to go back.

Selina:

Okay, and then my second one are the Forsythe mini golf ice cream sandwiches.

Doug:

Oh, right over here in Carnegie. And they just closed for the season.

Selina:

I know, I know we went on Sunday and we got six ice cream sandwiches to you know, maybe hold us over for two weeks.

Doug:

Hidden treasure, hidden gem. For those that don't know, forsythe mini golf, it's not so much about the golf, but it's also about the food that they serve.

Selina:

Yes, yeah, the mini golf is so much fun, though it is Just an old school mini golf, it's not fancy it certainly is challenging.

Alex:

Yeah.

Selina:

It's not fancy. It certainly is challenging. Yeah, it's a hard course, yeah, but, uh, they have these awesome ice cream sandwiches, uh, and they have about 15 different flavors, but then you can also create your own. Oh yeah and uh, I think the fluffer nutter is probably my favorite, which is a peanut butter cookie, peanut butter, fudge, ice cream and then little mini marshmallows on the outside.

Doug:

So delicious. I hope you bought extra and just froze them for the winter. I did you did.

Selina:

Yeah, there's six in my freezer right now. Yes, oh perfect, yes.

Doug:

Best bites of the week. Yes, chef Selena Progar, thank you so much for being on the Pittsburgh Dish.

Selina:

Thank you, Doug. It was the best time of my life.

Doug:

Oh, and, chef Homer, thank you as well.

John:

Thanks, Doug. Got to tell my favorite story, so I appreciate it oh.

Doug:

If you appreciate Asian pastries or just want to learn more about them. I recently sat down with Alex and Chantal Huff of the Hungry Huffs and they shared a favorite spot. Hey, everybody, we're joined with Alex and Chantal Huff of Hungry Huffs on Instagram. Guys, when you were here last, we talked about a couple of restaurants, but I was thinking for this week, could you give us a bakery or you know some kind of patisserie that you're really into? That maybe is a little lesser known, Lesser known.

Chantal:

There are tons of great bakeries in Pittsburgh, but for a lesser known choice in Mount Lebanon there is a bakery called Amy's Bakery. And if you were to see it on Instagram, you would think this is just like a cake shop a wedding cake shop but it's actually an Asian bakery and if you go in there they have the best coconut buns I may have ever had.

Doug:

Oh, my goodness, now that's saying something. And, chantal, I just want to ask you for anyone that hasn't had a coconut bun could you just describe it for us?

Chantal:

Sure, I mean, I've never described this before, but it is like a bun, like a loaf, like you would imagine, but the dough itself is sweet and the filling is like flaky coconut and, I imagine, sugar. It's like a kind of paste not like a cream. Like you, could you have the flakes of the coconut?

Doug:

Oh, wow.

Chantal:

So good.

Doug:

Oh, that sounds so delicious. I like that it's sort of under the radar in that you don't know until you go.

Alex:

You seriously don't like. The first time we went in there we had no idea what to really expect from Amy's bakery. I think we were just walking down the street in Mount Lebanon. We're like let's stop in here. And we saw they had bubble tea, they had the coconut buns, they had the taro buns, the mochi crepe cakes. They have everything there and it's everything's delicious, like it's definitely, I think, the most hidden gem of a bakery in the Pittsburgh area.

Doug:

Alex, you've just listed a ton of things that I want to go try and we've had a couple of like national chain Asian bakeries pop up, but this is a local, independent bakery right.

Alex:

That's correct. Yeah, and it's been there for a while, I believe.

Doug:

And it looks like I'm taking a look now. It's just right along Washington Road. It looks like a couple blocks down from Il Pizziolo in Mount Lebanon, and they're open every day, but Sunday from 10 to nine. So if you haven't get over to Amy's Bakery and check it out, to Amy's Bakery and check it out.

Chantal:

Yeah, you will not regret it.

Alex:

Yeah, you will not regret the coconut buns. They're out of this world.

Doug:

Oh, my goodness, I think there's going to be a run on the coconut buns. Thank you so much, guys. You can follow Chantal and Alex on Instagram at Hungry Huffs. We're getting into the holiday and baking season, and if you've ever rejoiced when you got your hands on a treasured cookie recipe, well, we have one for you this week. Let's give John Chamberlain of the YaJagoff podcast a call and learn about one of his favorites. Hello, hey, John, it's Doug. How are you? I'm doing great. Hey, thank you so much for sending over this recipe, for I guess this is a favorite cookie of yours, is that right?

John:

It is indeed a favorite cookie of mine, and it was baked by me, by a favorite person of mine.

Doug:

And am I saying this right? This is Mrs Marie Cersosimo's Italian cookie. All right.

John:

Yes, you have it exactly right, and it's funny that you know, know, I'm the Irish German guy and you know I love the Italian cooking and so I come in by through it, by you know, through Rachel's family and through other family members throughout my life, and none of the Italians that I know actually know the name of this cookie, but no, I, so I just basically call it the Italian. Mrs C's Italian spice cookie. Chocolate spice cookie.

Doug:

Oh well, you kind of answered my next question. If you could describe it a little bit for anybody that hasn't seen the recipe card yet, so it's a chocolate spice cookie.

John:

I call it a chocolate drop cookie. So my mom used to make chocolate cookies where you had a batter, you spoon it up, you put it in like teaspoon mounds on the tray and then you bake those and there's nuts in there and then when they come out they cool. You put like a powdered sugar and milk butter kind of icing on it, just like glaze. So that's kind of how you describe it to your listeners. But in it is there's all spice, listeners, but in it is there's all spice, there's cinnamon, there's all these other type spices that make it just a little bit different than a chocolate cookie.

Doug:

Oh, it really is like a spice cookie and a chocolate cookie mashup. I don't know if I've ever had something like this. That's kind of exciting.

John:

You know, to be honest with you, when she first gave them to me for Christmas, she would make them for me every Christmas and every birthday. And I thought I love these things and she said you better love them because the task of making them is so crazy, it's hard, and so when she started to get older, then her daughter, linda, started to make them for me, and then it got down to OK, just Christmas, because we're only doing this one time a year. And then I started saying, ok, I'm going to start making the cookies. And that's when the swear word started to come out in my kitchen, because it is. I knew at that point how much love went into these cookies, because of the task that these cookies take to bake and Rachel has actually been there a couple of times when I made them and it literally is an all day affair for me and it is messing up every bowl, every measuring cup in your kitchen, every spatula. But that's how I know they were made with love by Mrs Cersosimo.

Doug:

And they're worth it, no question. And John, just to take a step back, what's the story with you and Mrs Cersosimo? Did you say this was a friend or a neighbor? How did you know each other?

John:

Sure. So I came to know Mrs Cersosimo through her daughter Linda. We went to EMT class together. We knew a large circle of friends that were in EMS and paramedics and EMTs. We knew a large circle of friends that were in EMS and paramedics and EMTs and Linda became a nurse and Mrs C was sort of that mom. That was everybody's mom, but only Linda's mom. You know what I mean.

John:

Of course, every time we'd show up and say hey, it's Mama C, what are you doing today? You know, always have to go give her a hug, and I didn't grow up being a hugger or a kisser, you know that kind of thing. But man, once you get in that Italian family you know like if you don't hug and kiss respectfully, you're out and you're not getting any more cookies.

Doug:

Exactly.

John:

So that's, they just became longtime friends and really just very, very close and dear friends. And Mrs Cersosimo was this little Italian lady, was young at heart and, you know, lived on Pepsi and chocolate, you know, and lived a great life and had a great family. Her husband used to own a deli type thing down behind Mancini's Bread and they made Cesosimo's Italian sausage until they didn't have like a butcher shop, until they didn't have like a butcher shop. But anyways came to know them over the years and kind of was accepted into the family, thankfully, so that I could get chocolate, cookies and meatballs and red sauce and pasta.

Doug:

Well, I'm going to say this John, you definitely were accepted in, because there's a lot of Italian families that will never give up an actual recipe, and you got this one, so we can see that there's love there. What a special connection.

John:

It was very special and the best part was when she made fun of me the first time I made these cookies. The batter gets really thick, it gets really hard and I was trying to mix it and I did no lie. I broke three wooden spoons and I burned up a hand mixer. And when I called to tell her I said am I doing something wrong? Because my hand mixer motor just blew up. She said what's wrong with you? Don't you have any strength, any muscles in your arms? You're not supposed to use a mixer, you're supposed to use a spatula. So she would make fun of me. The fact that she was stronger than I am the way she mixed the cookies.

Doug:

Oh, I bet she was definitely in the kitchen.

John:

No doubt, no doubt.

Doug:

So you make these at Christmas. We could really make them any time of year, but what a special story around this cookie, a chocolate spice cookie from a beloved Italian family, Mrs Marie Cersosimo. Yes, john, thank you so much for sharing this recipe, and I do understand folks can check out a video you made of this on your pod, the YaJagoff podcast, over on YouTube, and we'll leave a copy of the recipe up on our blog as well.

John:

I appreciate it, and the video does not include the swear words.

Doug:

Oh, that's good, John Chamberlain, thank you so much for being on The Pittsburgh Dish.

John:

Thank you, Doug. I much appreciate it. Have a good day.

Doug:

You too Bye-bye, bye Much appreciated. Have a good day you too. Bye-bye, bye. You can find more from John Chamberlain and his partner in crime, Rachel Rennebeck, at their website, www. yajagoff. com, or on Instagram at yajagoff. That's our show for this week. We'd like to thank all of our guests and contributors, and to Kevin Solecki of Carnegie Accordion Company for providing the music to our show. We'll be back again next week with another fresh episode. Stay tuned.

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Douglas Heilman

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