Pastry chef Charmain Ware-Jason excels at intricate desserts, but American classics have her heart. Ware-Jason, 43, is the executive pastry chef at Tiny Lou’s, the acclaimed French restaurant at the Hotel Clermont. Recently included in the prestigious Michelin Guide’s list of recommended Atlanta restaurants, Tiny Lou’s is a great showcase for Ware-Jason’s elegant yet approachable pastry skills, honed over years in the Atlanta food scene, including Restaurant 356 at the Porsche Experience Center.
But when she’s at the Decatur home she shares with her wife Janeen Jason, a sommelier at Inman Park wine shop VinoTeca, Ware-Jason likes to veer simple. “I want food to feel like a warm hug,” says Ware-Jason. So when the couple has a rare night in together, it’s all about cozy, comforting and classic.
Q: What are some favorite ingredients to cook with at home?
A: I can be (cooking) on the line at work til 11 p.m. and I’ll still go home and cook a meal with my wife because that’s our time together. She works in the industry, so we have similar work schedules. She always wants me to make a simple tortellini soup. Who doesn’t love soup? I use chicken stock. I use a fresh tortellini from the cold section in the grocery store, not a dried one. I’ll add some ricotta, tomato sauce, tomato paste … I always have tomatoes of some sort around. And there’s this chicken and kale sausage from Publix that I love to use in the soup. Maybe some mozzarella. The cheesier the better, right?
Q: What’s your go-to for a quick solo dinner?
A: A breakfast burrito or breakfast sandwich of any kind. There’s something about taking two pieces of white bread, putting butter on them, and putting them in the oven on broil so it gets really nice and toasty, but with a little puddle of butter in the middle. Mmm! Then bacon, a medium egg, some cheese, with a big bag of Lay’s potato chips for myself. Sometimes I’ll put the chips in the sandwich. When you’re at home and you’re eating by yourself, you can be a savage — drippy yolk, licking fingers, all that.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Q: When time is not a factor, what’s something you’d prepare for a meal at home?
A: It would probably be a Cajun bean stew. There are packs of 15 different (dried) beans you can buy, and I love beans of any kind. I make this soup that kind of takes all day. I roast turkey legs, a Cajun sausage, some chicken bones. I really spend my whole entire day just getting other things ready — cornbread, deviled eggs, a lemon pound cake — while the soup’s cooking for eight or nine hours. That’s a Sunday. There’s nothing better than cleaning your house while your food is cooking, getting out of the shower, putting on pajamas and sitting around with your wife with a pot of soup on the stove. I’m not that girl who needs to plate things and make them look fancy at home. I grew up in the South. I’m a country girl. I want to cook like someone’s grandmother.
Q: What’s your favorite midnight snack?
A: It’s always gonna be ice cream. It can be two o’clock in the morning and I’m in the bed pounding down a pint. And it’s classic vanilla ALL DAY, especially with homemade cookies. Because you don’t really want to add anything that would take away from the chocolate chip cookie.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Q: What is your favorite cookbook in your collection?
A: There’s one pastry cookbook by Cedric Grolet, “Opera Patisserie,” and I just love his technique. He is the dessert god right now. If we all had to praise someone for pastries, it’s him. His skills — it’s absolute beauty and artwork and inspiring. It’s what he does with a croissant, what he does with dough, with fruit. It’s outstanding and I’m loving that right now.
But my go-to is “Momofuku Milk Bar” by Christina Tosi. I’ve read that one so much that the binding is pulling away from the pages. She takes these childhood favorites and adds a refined element to it. Every recipe in her book feels like a reminiscence of childhood.
Q: Do you have a kitchen tool or gadgets you can’t live without?
A: My stand mixer and a whisk. Those two things are absolutely positively needed in my household. I couldn’t live without a whisk. My favorite one that I have came from Williams Sonoma. It was like $30, which is a lot for a whisk, but you don’t have to spend that much. It’s an olivewood dough whisk and it’s perfect if you’re making doughs at home.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Q: What ingredients do you always keep in your fridge?
A: Lemons. Eggs, of course. There’s always cake flour, vanilla and Crisco, believe it or not. And I’d definitely have to say condensed milk. I love to make a banana pudding, and people always ask why it’s so good. Condensed milk makes everything great. And, like I mentioned before, there’s always tomatoes, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, you name it.
Q: What are your best words of advice for home cooks?
A: Don’t go overboard. Not everything I cook is from scratch. In the restaurant, yes, absolutely, but at home, not at all. Look, I work in fine dining. My name is in the Michelin Guide. And yeah, I love Hamburger Helper. And also, you’ve got to make mistakes to learn. It lets you know what not to do again.
Q: What is your worst home cooking disaster?
A: For me, any time I let cream boil over and it burns, it’s the worst and hardest to clean up, and I also get mad at myself. I expect a lot of perfection from myself, so that is always frustrating.
Q: What music do you listen to when you cook?
A: In our kitchen there’s always some music. I’m probably listening to Teddy Pendergrass, Steve Lacy, Thundercat. I’m a smooth music girl. Pastry is my therapy. It’s healed my soul so many times in my life. I’m so lucky to be working through my passion.
Tiny Lou’s. 789 Ponce De Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta. 470-485-0085, tinylous.com.
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Credit: CHRIS HUNT
Charmain Ware-Jason’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
This cookie recipe was the first one Ware-Jason developed herself, after receiving encouraging feedback working at Restaurant 356 at the Porche Experience Center. “I took it upon myself to see if I could build the perfect chocolate chip cookie for me,” she says. “I spent a month adding things, taking things away, and in that process I created my own recipe. It was stellar! It holds a special place in my heart because it’s mine and I put so much work into it.”
Cookies like these bring Ware-Jason a sense of nostalgia and comfort. “All of my desserts at the restaurant feel like home,” she says. “I was a military kid and was never in one place long enough, so I found my home in food. And a smell or scent or taste brings me back to a special moment in my childhood. It reminds me of being a kid and being happy with no worries. It warms your body and makes you feel good.”
Ware-Jason suggests leaving refrigerated butter out for 45 to 60 minutes to let it come to room temperature before using.
1 cup (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons warm water
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups milk chocolate chips
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or a hand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar at medium speed for 15 minutes. (Note: This is much longer than traditional creaming. It’s Ware-Jason’s preference to have a super-smooth blend.)
Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time, until just incorporated. Turn off mixer. If using a stand mixer, remove bowl from mixer.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together baking soda and water until the baking soda is fully dissolved. Add to the creamed mixture. Using a spoon, stir the batter while gradually adding the all-purpose and cake flours. Once all the flour has been incorporated, add the salt and semisweet and milk chocolate chips and stir batter until just incorporated. Do not overmix. Using a 2-ounce scoop (or a size 16, 2-ounce cookie scoop), portion the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 7-10 minutes, then remove from oven and place cookies on a cooling rack. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or a glass of cold milk.
Makes 24 cookies.
Per cookie: 373 calories (percent of calories from fat, 42), 4 grams protein, 51 grams carbohydrates, 32 grams total sugars, 2 grams fiber, 18 grams total fat (11 grams saturated), 39 milligrams cholesterol, 125 milligrams sodium.
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