Jaime Davis Schick / Pastry Chef and Instructor, Johnson & Wales University, Providence, Rhode Island

To say a dessert looks too good to eat describes every dessert made by Chef Jaime Davis Schick. An associate professor for the International Baking & Pastry Institute at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, Jaime comes from a family of cooks and artists including her father, a culinary professor, and relatives with visual arts careers. Jaime expresses her inherent artistry on the plate, creating desserts with contrasting colors and a play of textures, delicate piped rosettes, poached fruit, fresh leaves and bright purées artfully spattered or swirled on the plate. Top-quality ingredients and attention to detail make her desserts taste as good as they look.

Along with teaching, Jaime develops recipes for her personal brand, Vanilla Bean Chef, where she consults with restaurants, writes menus and works with brands to develop pastry recipes that showcase their products. One of those brands is The Perfect Purée, which published Jamie’s recipes on its website and in its 2022 Pastry Calendar.

Her Cranberry Craquelin Choux with Cranberry Mousse and Thai Basil & Black Pepper Gelée exemplifies her method of modernizing classic desserts with surprising flavors.

Craquelin choux or choux au craquelin is made from choux pastry with a crunchy sweet topping and a pastry cream filling. Jaime fills her choux with cranberry mousse then complements its sweet-tart flavor by plating it on a spatter of Cranberry Thai Basil & Black Pepper purée and finishing it with Thai Basil & Black Pepper gelée.

“The inspiration was simply from herbal flavors that pair so well with cranberry,” Jaime says. “Typically we see cranberry paired with rosemary and thyme, so I didn’t think Thai Basil was too far off. I’ve always loved savory-sweet flavor combinations in desserts and unexpected pairings.”

Before she became a professor and a consultant, Jaime had used The Perfect Purée for years in restaurant kitchens to make sorbet, paté de fruit, mousse and ice cream. “One thing that stands out for me is the wide and unique variety of flavors The Perfect Purée makes. I’ve never seen Red Jalapeño, Thai Basil & Black Pepper (a favorite!) or Red Sangria flavors before,” she says. “This opens up so many more doors for different and savory flavor combinations.”

Practicality figures in, too. “ThePerfect Purée Ginger Puree is a great option for saving time and money,” Jaime says. “Fresh ginger becomes time consuming to grate and shrivels up so quickly in the walk-in. The purée is easy to have on hand when fresh ginger is needed.”

Working in New England, she says it can be hard to source certain ingredients. When something is in season, she likes to use it. Pears, for instance, become available locally in late summer for pear sorbet but puréeing them is messy and time-consuming, not to mention they’re likely to oxidize. Flavoring with purée and applying different techniques to fresh produce like poaching helps Jaime achieve the flavor she wants while retaining fresh elements. “With The Perfect Purée Pear Puree I know I’ll have great flavor and a desirable color in my final product,” she says.

Jaime earned a bachelor’s degree in baking and pastry arts from Johnson & Wales University. Prior to joining the faculty there, she honed her pastry skills at top establishments including the former Mobil four-star Chicago restaurant TRU by Gale Gand and Rick Tramonto, Barbara Lynch’s No. 9 Park in Boston and most recently as executive pastry chef at Chris Coombs’ Deuxave in Boston.

In 2012, Jaime was nominated for the Food & Wine People’s Best New Pastry Chef award. Another notable achievement was developing and executing Sugar Rush with the Boston non-profit Bakes for Breast Cancer, an annual showcase of local pastry chefs supporting breast cancer research. Jaime’s work has been featured on numerous websites including Food &Wine, Hood, Boston Business Insider, StarChefs and Pastry Arts Magazine.