Artis Kalsons, Excutive Pastry Chef

Publish Date: 08/11/2007
 

(SEATTLE, WA) November 8, 2007 -- Artis Kalsons, executive pastry chef of The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle, has been with the hotel since July 1999. With more than 20 years experience in the culinary industry, Kalsons brings expertise, enthusiasm, and creativity to his position. In August 2002, Kalsons received third place in the National Dessert Competition in San Francisco where he was judged in three different categories, Bon Bons, Desserts and Show Piece.

A native of Riga, Latvia, Kalsons knew, even as a young boy, that pastry was his passion.

''When our second grade teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, I remember saying, ''I want to be a pastry chef,'' recalls Kalsons, whose uncle has been a pastry chef in Latvia for more than 40 years. ''My Uncle Janis, who has a master certificate (the highest distinction granted a pastry chef in Latvia), was a big influence on me.''

Kalsons attended culinary school in Riga at age 16. After his second year, he began interning in the kitchens of different hotels in Latvia. In a cooking competition at school, his cake took first prize. He graduated from culinary school in 1988 before taking a job at Hotel Riga.

He moved to the United States in 1991 and, until 1994, served as assistant pastry chef at Saint Armand's Bakery in St. Petersburg, Florida. He joined the Four Seasons in 1994 as pastry cook at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. A year later, Kalsons transferred to the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, where he worked as assistant pastry chef.

The most unusual request he has received as a pastry chef came in February 2002, when he was asked to build a wedding cake using 250 maple Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  ''It was a clever idea, given the popularity of Krispy Kremes,'' says Kalsons. ''And, most importantly, the wedding couple loved it!'' Artis used handmade pulled and spun sugar to hold the cake together and blown sugar to create colorful decorative touches.

Borrowing ideas from Seattle's remarkable blown glass artists, Kalsons enjoys creating impressive blown sugar designs from life size decorative fruits to large pulled sugar sculptures.  He also changes his menu seasonally and prefers to incorporate fresh local fruits into his desserts.

Kalsons and his wife Kristine live with sons Edgars and Markus in Bellevue. 

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For more information, please contact:

Meg Paynor
Public Relations Manager
Tel: (206) 287-4056
Fax: (206) 623-2271
Email: meg.paynor@fairmont.com