At the age of 16, she took her first pastry course and, although she later flirted with different university degrees, she ended up following the path she had already marked out. Her gastronomy took her completely. “She couldn’t do anything else,” she says. Candela Dalle Pallewho spends most of his time cooking.
Throughout his career he worked in catering services, made breakfast for companies with his mother and made gastronomic productions for brands. For six years she has been Pastry Chef at Puddle Hotel, in Colonia, Uruguay. She has an intense rhythm and lives several days of the week in that country and the rest in Buenos Aires. Practical, organized and very demanding, she recognizes herself as a relaxed mother and assures that she can miss anything because of her work, except the birthday of her children Sofía (21), Nicolás (18) and Juana (15).
News: Why is she a cook?
Candela Dalle Palle: Because I love it. At the age of 16 I did my first pastry course, I finished school and I took 44 to go to take classes in Belgrano. When I finished high school, I spent two years doing the CBC of various careers — Law, Medicine, Political Science — and I also enrolled in a hotel school that had a bit of cooking, but it wasn’t what I liked. Until I discovered the IAG (Argentine Institute of Gastronomy) and did my degree there, I got the best average and I won an internship for three months in Barcelona. And from there I went to study at the Lenotre school in Paris. From that moment I dedicated myself exclusively to pastry.
News: Because?
Dalle Palle: I like the organization of the pastry shop, we can be more creativeI like that there are several branches, chocolate, laminates, desserts, many options within the same. I always loved it, it’s my place in the world. I work and I don’t realize it, I really do it with pleasure.
News: What kind of pastry do you like?
Dalle Palle: I really like French pastry because they use a lot of puff pastry, laminates, cream, butter, due to the cooking methods they use.
News: How is Charco’s?
Dalle Palle: We combine local flavors with French and international pastries. For example, the tres leches cake, which the Brazilian public loves, and we always have some typical Uruguayan dessert, like chajá, or the dulce de leche volcano, which is the most requested dessert. What would you recommend? The moist chocolate cake, suitable for celiacs, with pistachio ice cream, made by us. The perfect combination.
News: What are the products that can never be missing?
Dalle Palle: With dark chocolate, cream and butter I am happy.
News: If you had to entertain someone, what would you prepare?
Dalle Palle: I would make him a cheesecake, which is my specialty. I would always go with a classic, that was not something cloying, that the sweetness was not exceeded. I like to find the balance between the products.
News: Does it sometimes come out of the sweet?
Dalle Palle: Yes, in Charco I am also in the entrance area and in the fireworks. I am interacting with the entire kitchen to continue soaking in everything.
News: How is your kitchen? What space does it occupy in your house?
Dalle Palle: A fairly important space, it is one of the largest environments because I like to be able to move calmly. I like to cook at home, but I don’t love it because I cook a lot and many hours a week. What I don’t like is going shopping.
News: How is this dynamic of coming and going during the week between Colonia and Buenos Aires?
Dalle Palle: After six years I’m used to it. I have two days off, in quotes, in Buenos Aires and I work the rest in Uruguay. Sometimes I go more days, now, for example, I go the whole week because carnival is coming. I’m used to living in hotels and taking my little backpack from one place to the other. It doesn’t feel like an effort.
News: What characteristics define it? What would you say about yourself beyond gastronomy?
Dalle Palle: I am very practical, sensitive, organized and very demanding. It is a constant fight that I have with myself to be able to better manage my time and produce a little more. And I am supportive with work, with colleagues, I am always attentive.
News: Are you in a relationship?
Dalle Palle: I am divorced twice and now I am not in a relationship. Luckily I’m alone. It’s not easy to follow me. I work a lot, end up exhausted and put more energy into something else…. If they don’t make it easy for me, I get bored. I don’t stop for a second, I’m in Charco from eight in the morning until midnight at least.
News: What kind of mom is she?
Dalle Palle: I am a very laid back mom. My family says I’m like Cris Morena’s series. I trust my children a lot and I try to organize their lives while I’m not around, but always giving them tools so they can solve things. If not, I couldn’t do anything.
News: What are the pluses and minuses of gastronomy?
Dalle Palle: You meet a lot of people, you have a broader social life, you go to eat in rich places because you have chef friends who invite you, you always have the chance to learn and pass on your knowledge. I am super generous, I share my recipes when they write to me and I explain them to them. We also give love cooking and that is super rewarding. The cons is that you miss a lot of things, birthdays, parties, events, things from the boys’ school. For example, I always work at Christmas. The only thing I don’t miss is my children’s birthday.
News: You participated in the first Bake Off. How was the experience of being in a reality show?
Dalle Palle: It was a super nice experience, I had fun, I made a new friend, but it was also very stressful, the program ate me up, I couldn’t relax, I didn’t understand the times.
News: In your work, learning must be constant.
Dalle Palle: Yes, I keep trying to learn all the time and I look for different places to learn other flavors, ingredients, techniques. Every year I try to do an internship in a different place. This year I worked in a pastry shop in Amsterdam for a month and last year I went to Gaggiano, a small town 40 km from Milan, and I spent a month in a restaurant.
News: What kind of traveler is she?
Dalle Palle: I like to travel alone or with my children. Paris is the most wonderful city, my place in the world and I really like Europe in summer.
News: As an adult, have you ever thought about devoting yourself to something else?
Dalle Palle: No, I couldn’t dedicate myself to anything else. I can’t sit in an office, I don’t like computers, every time I have to fill out a form or do something like that, I get lazy. I prefer to make 18 sponge cakes and I do them non-stop, I work, work, work while listening to music. In Charco I have gone at two in the morning to make croissant productions because I did not arrive with the stock. And I happy.
