{"id":8040,"date":"2025-11-13T15:25:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/?p=8040"},"modified":"2026-04-13T08:57:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T08:57:11","slug":"meet-carla-queen-of-puddings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/meet-carla-queen-of-puddings\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Carla \u2013 Queen of Puddings\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carla Hernriquess<\/a>, Group Executive Pastry Chef <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cThe biggest influence on my approach to cooking has always been my mum.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After a childhood spent mixing, folding, baking and bowl-licking alongside my mum, who managed a bakery specialising in traditional Portuguese pastries, I decided to head to London.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, I had to learn English, however. During my first shift in a busy London kitchen, the head chef turned to me and said calmly: \u2018Carla, I need a cucumber.\u2019 <\/em>I ran into the walk-in and stood staring at the shelves, desperately trying to remember what a cucumber was. A less-than-calm voice came from the kitchen: \u2018Where\u2019s that f**king cucumber?!\u2019<\/em> When I came clean, he was nice about it, and he\u2019d show me one more thing every day after that. That\u2019s how I learned English: one ingredient at a time.  <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I moved around a bit and picked up new skills everywhere I went, but the biggest influence on my approach to cooking has always been my mum. At her bakery, she\u2019d make hundreds of Past\u00e9is de nata <\/strong>every day, along with Bolos de arroz <\/strong>(rice muffins), Fi os de ovos <\/strong>(a sweet egg dessert), P\u00e3o de Deus <\/strong>(bread) and many more. I\u2019m getting hungry now just thinking about them all\u2026 <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was six or seven, I\u2019d sit in the corner, and she\u2019d give me some bread dough, and I\u2019d make baskets and eggs out of it. My hands would always be shaping, moulding, kneading, and stretching, making simple and <\/strong>more intricate shapes. I loved it then, and I still love it now. From time to time, it\u2019s stressful, but I wouldn\u2019t change it for the world.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I\u2019d been in London for a few years, I heard that a steak restaurant was looking for a Head Pastry Chef.<\/strong>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cMy friends and former colleagues thought I was crazy. A steakhouse? What a waste\u2026.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I went to the interview out of curiosity more than anything, but it felt good and natural, and so I accepted the job before I\u2019d even done a trial, which is unheard of.<\/strong> I didn\u2019t realize the reputation steakhouses had in London back then \u2013 tourist traps filled with mediocre deserts. So when I told my friends, they couldn\u2019t believe it; they thought I\u2019d just be slicing bought-in cheesecakes and building hot fudge sundaes.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was 13 years ago<\/strong>, and I love that I\u2019ve been able to push myself<\/strong> and the desserts we serve ever upwards. I\u2019ve spent days in Switzerland with some of the best pastry chefs in the world, learning about the science of chocolate.
In January 2017, I was in New York working at Gramercy Tavern<\/a>, Nomad<\/a> and Eleven Madison Park<\/a> with incredible Pastry Chefs <\/strong>Miro Uskokovic<\/a>, Daniel Alvarez <\/a>and Mark Welker<\/a>. <\/strong>At the charity dinners we do at Guildhall<\/a>, I\u2019ve worked alongside great chefs like Claire Clarke<\/a>, Skye Gyngell<\/a> and Pierre Koff man<\/a>. I\u2019ve also been lucky to work with master chocolatier Paul A. Young<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steak restaurant or not, we do something special here. And not a frozen cheesecake in sight.<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carla Hernriquess, Group Executive Pastry Chef  \u201cThe biggest influence on my approach to cooking has always been my mum.\u201d After a childhood spent mixing, folding, baking and bowl-licking alongside my mum, who managed a bakery specialising in traditional Portuguese pastries, I decided to head to London.    First off, I had to learn English, however. During<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3440,"featured_media":8041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-news"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":19,"label":"Food"},{"value":1,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/carla-blog.jpg",1000,550,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Fanatic","author_link":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/author\/fanatic\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":19,"name":"Food","slug":"food","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":19,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":19,"category_count":3,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Food","category_nicename":"food","category_parent":0},{"term_id":1,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":19,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":19,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3440"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8040"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8046,"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions\/8046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thehawksmoor.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}