Saturday Sweets: Sweet Talk with Pastry Chef Mame Sow of Three in Wynwood
Have you ever taken a bite of something and immediately needed to know where it came from, who made it, and how you can be sure that you'll be able to eat it over and over again? Well, that's what it felt like the moment I bit into one of Mame Sow's desserts at Three in Wynwood.
Pastry chef Mame Sow is from Dakar, Senegal, but moved to New York when she was 11 years old. She's worked in kitchens with culinary masterminds like Marcus Samuelsson and her mentor Pichet Ong. She didn't always know she wanted to be a pastry chef, but she always had a creative spark in her.
Today she's the pastry chef at Norman Van Aken's newest restaurant, Three, where she says the New World Cuisine allows her to use her creative influence as a pastry chef to design beautiful desserts that marry her passion for food with the love of her country. Often times on Mame's menu you'll find ingredients that you wouldn't expect like baobab.
Her menu features a Caribbean Baked Alaska with rum cake and grilled pineapple, a light and fresh Lychee Raspberry Parfait with raspberry espuma, and a chocolate brownie that's out of this world.
I took a few minutes of Mame's time out of the kitchen to chat with her about how she got to where she is and what she eats when she's craving something sweet:
What made you want to be a pastry chef?
If I wasn’t a pastry chef I would’ve been an architect or an illustrator. I’ve always loved drawing and had an easier time expressing myself through that medium than any other way. Using that to become a pastry chef was a no brainer for me. I love chocolate and the more I learn about it and understand the possibilities of what can be done, I become more excited to experiment with it. There’s always new flavors and techniques to learn about and discover in pastry and I enjoy and welcome that challenge.
What influences your menu the most?
The concept of the restaurant is new world cuisine and that for me represents endless possibilities when it comes to the type of desserts I can do and the stories I can tell with the desserts. The goal is to always introduce the staff and guests to new ingredients or new ways of combining flavors that wouldn’t normally be associated with each other.
What’s your favorite thing on the menu currently?
The Congo (Nyangbo Cremeux, Congo Brownie, Cocoa Nib Ice Cream) is currently my favorite. It represents all aspects of a chocolate. From the cocoa nib ice cream to the cremeux being made to include two different chocolates from two different continents and sweetened with local honey.
What's your guilty pleasure sweet treat?
That would be a Haagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche ice cream.
If you haven't been to Three and ordered dessert, you need to make you're way there now. Stop in for brunch where the menu also features some amazing biscuits and homemade bagels. Let's face it, the pastry chef is always the star of brunch.
50 NW 24th Street
Miami, FL 33127