By Stephanie Ogozalek

	Jason Licker

Jason Licker has come a long way from selling fat-free cheesecake out of his upstate New York college dorm. Over 7,000 miles in fact. In the market for a little adventure and looking for an opportunity to pump up his career, he left the United States almost a year ago to become the executive pastry chef for The Westin Shanghai. He now runs the pastry kitchen for the hotel's six restaurants, as well as their pastry shop and outside catering operation. The luxurious Westin is known for its food and was the recipient of the 2005 Outstanding Chef Award and 2004 Overall Best Hotel Award by the FHC International Culinary Arts Competitions.

Jason's love of baking began when his mother, battling cancer, was placed on a restrictive diet. He experimented with low-fat, low-sugar recipes for her, enjoyed it, and ultimately found his true calling. While studying English at Cortland University (he's certified to teach English to high schoolers in New York state), he wrote letters to the top ten restaurants in New York City offering to work for free before landing a position at Union Square Café. After college, he was formally trained in the pastry arts at The French Culinary Institute and went on to work in some of the best restaurants in the country including Metrazur and Jean Georges in Manhattan and the Nobu outpost at The Shore Club in Miami, Florida. Before heading to China, he held the position of executive pastry chef at Manhattan's esteemed Peninsula Hotel for three years, which primed him for his new position at the Westin.

"When I started the job they told me to change everything," Jason remembers. The menus were tired and stale and even the cooks were looking for something new. Jason needed to come up with hundreds of new dishes, so he moved into the hotel for three weeks and worked for twenty hours each day. Of course, he imported some of his signature dishes and now they're regulars on the Westin's menu, including his peach saffron bombe with pistachio cream and his ramekin-free passionfruit crème brûlée with champagne sorbet. He also created what he calls "Chinese flavored Western desserts" which use traditional Eastern ingredients like green tea, longans, lychees, and dragonfruit. The resulting dishes are new takes on classic desserts—green tea opera cake, lychee and milk chocolate parfaits, and dragonfruit carpaccio with sake and passionfruit. In the colder months, he even uses green tea in the marshmallows for the hot malted milk chocolate.

He spent $10,000 to accessorize the kitchen, including the purchase of a Shanghai rarity—the Paco Jet—a machine which can churn ice cream flavors to order. He also acquired new molds, a liquid nitrogen tank, and even a food dehydrator to experiment with.

Jason picks and chooses the culinary trends he follows. "I don't do chemical cooking," he says, alluding to the currently in vogue molecular gastronomy in which kitchens become laboratories where chefs use chemicals and science to achieve a desired taste, texture, and presentation. Jason's work is practically the opposite—clean and simple, with a surprising twist. "What would I like to eat?" is the question he poses to himself when he develops new recipes. The answers are dishes like his signature milk chocolate and caramel cream with toffee crunch and coriander syrup. "It's like a giant Rollo," he says. "The toffee is a crunchy surprise mixed with the smooth cream and the coriander syrup gives the whole dish a little kick."

To offer a wider selection on his menus, he occasionally plays with the deconstructed dessert, which in Jason's opinion is "one that is broken up by the sum of its parts. By changing textures or temperatures you can create a whole new dessert experience," as he does with his frozen tiramisu of mascarpone ice cream, espresso granite, and warm soaked lady fingers.

A successful idea that Jason has brought over from the States is an all-chocolate buffet, the centerpiece of the hotel's Sunday brunch. Considering about 600 people come to brunch on Sundays, the wait line can be "seriously scary" according to Jason. White chocolate and sake tart, chocolate layer cake, handmade chocolates, ice creams and sorbets are just a few of the twenty-six different desserts to die for on the chocoholics dream come true buffet.

In the hotel's rustic Italian restaurant, Prego, it was important to Jason to serve desserts that incorporate traditional Italian flavors. Today, instead of mango cannolis they serve mascarpone panna cotta with pistachio dust and red wine sauce as well as spice cake with sambuca and espresso foam.

The Chinese aren't known for their sweet tooth, but like most hotels in Shanghai, the Westin caters to European and American business travelers as well as wealthy tourists, and the variety of food in the hotel reflect this. Jason has been able to create the perfect balance of sweetness to please the palates of the diverse community of natives and expats living in Shanghai, and, as expected, he and his desserts have been very well received. "I use my sugar very carefully—as if it were salt! Too much is overkill and too little doesn't bring out any flavor."

For Jason it is all about people enjoying what he has created. He doesn't know what his next move will be. Although he misses pizza and ESPN, he isn't sure he will return to the United States right away. He is hoping to make his mark on the Chinese dessert scene and from there, who knows?

Prego at The Westin Shanghai

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