Steven Hodge didn't know he wanted to be a chef but wasn't surprised when he figured it out.
Growing up in Dundarave, he loved cooking at home but it wasn't a career he considered. Instead, he graduated from university with a bachelor of arts in business administration, but didn't find any jobs in that field that appealed to him.
He was sitting on his couch watching TV trying to figure out what to do when he thought maybe he should be a cook, so enrolled in culinary school.
About a year and a half into the culinary program, he was reviewing a portfolio of pastry photos with another chef and asked about some of the examples in the book. The other chef informed him that "they don't touch that (pastry)" because it's for the elite of the chefs.
"And as soon as he said that, it was a challenge, and I love being challenged," recalls Hodge.
So he went into the pastry part of the program and loved it. After graduating from the program, he completed his apprenticeship in California, and moved back to Vancouver where he worked as an executive pastry chef then later moved with his wife to London, and worked in some world-renowned restaurants before returning to the North Shore. Back at home, Hodge worked alongside well-known local pastry chef Thomas Haas. After four years with Haas, Hodge decided to step out on his own and opened Temper Pastry in January.
"I had worked for a lot of chefs, and you can always continue learning, but I woke up and it was time," says Hodge about his decision to open his own store.
Hodge says he looked around for a good location, but settled on Dundarave because he wanted to set up shop in a community atmosphere.
"Now I always say, 'Work is play time and going home is actually work for me now,'" says Hodge. "It's like a kid building Lego all day long."
Although he and his team do try to create new products, classic pastry recipes are always what they start with.
"There are so many chefs out there trying to push the boundaries with new techniques and ideas and flavours, but they all come from basic recipes that were created for pastries," he explains. "You build off of a beginning step, and the guys that laid the path for pastry chefs now, they're the guys that deserve all the credit because we've just built off of it."
A lot of chefs get carried away with crazy flavours and crazy techniques, notes Hodge.
"It's fun and it's awesome to say I tried it or it's awesome to say I ate it, (but) I think at the end of the day people still like the simplicity of things."
For him, that means good flavours and good textures. At the shop, Hodge enjoys working with chocolate, such as creating ganaches, but his favourite thing to do is to make croissants.
"I love making dough. For me, I'm in my own little area, in my own little world, and you start thinking about things and you relax."
It's not a surprise that Hodge has a sweet tooth. "I do have a sweet tooth. I love sweets," he admits.
But he doesn't make pastry at home, and his snack of choice is a bit less high-end.
"My favourite thing to eat when I go home is I eat ice cream with Reece's pieces or Smarties," he reports with a laugh.
