“The wishes of the customer don't matter to me at all." - Pierre Hermé, globally recognized as “The Picasso of Pastries”
Precision. Science. Art. Calibration. Dedication. Craft. Mastery. A mere layman, having just passed through the shop door into what may as well have been another world, I made the inexcusable error of ignoring that those words lie at the heart of pastry making. It is a matter of scientific exactness. A matter of great consequence, where even the slightest error of hand or judgment can doom a dish to any undesirable circle of flakey, buttery hell.
So who was I? And how dare I ask?
We stood in an empanada shop in the center of Punta Arenas. It was no bigger than a broom closet and it was completely empty save for us, our growling stomachs and a tall man with a wizened, mustache-adorned face who didn’t acknowledge us as we entered.
The menu was limited to a dish we’d had our fill of between Chile and Argentina,
the delicious meat-filled chamber of masa called an empanada. However, after roughly 10 such pastries over the previous 3 days, I longed for a change from the ubiquitous carne or pollo options. Shining like a beacon, my eyes were drawn to the option of camarón y queso. My lactose intolerance knew better than to tempt fate and order the dish as is, and my quest for improvisation powered my lips as I leaned on the counter and made the off-menu special request, “Puede hacer una empanada de camarón sin queso?“ Sin queso, without cheese – I may as well have cursed his family name. The reply was short and swift: a scoff and turn back towards his bowl of masa and baking tray of empanadas.
I bristled at the thought of further patronage, but the howl of arctic wind blasts at the door reminded me that the advantage was his. I gave in and tension gave way to conversation.
His name is Mario, and he is one of the oldest
📌 The Watchmaker of Punta Arenas (Chile)
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