Lindsay Cromartie | Creator of Gateaux Cakes & Pastries
LINDSAY CROMARTIE • Owner & Creative Baker
Gâteaux Owner and Pastry Chef, Lindsay Cromartie, laughs when asked how many years she's been "doing this," as in cakes and pastries. Look at the circa 1986 picture to the left for her answer! Professionally, Lindsay has been "doing this" since 2005, when she realized, while still at UNC Chapel Hill, and in spite of enjoying her majors, she wasn't cut out for a desk job or teaching.
From Chapel Hill, to The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, where Lindsay prepared herself with a Baking and Pastry Degree before finding her way back to our lovely old mountains. She started work at The Inn on Biltmore Estate in Asheville, and became their Pastry Demi-Chef. She left Biltmore to become the Pastry Chef at Lansdowne Hotel and Resort in Leesburg, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Fortunately, after a year in the "Big City," Lindsay and her family realized " ... there's no place like home ..." and returned very happily to Hendersonville, where, after a brief hiatus, she has established Gâteaux.
Lindsay is one of those people who genuinely loves what she does, and it shows in everything she creates. Excited to work one-on-one with her clients, Lindsay wants to ensure that whatever she is creating for your occasion is a perfect reflection of your personality, tastes, and passions. "It should taste as good as it looks" are the words she lives by. Lindsay promises that you won't be disappointed.
Please visit our shop; Lindsay would love to meet you. If she isn't there, she's busy chasing after her husband, two sons, daughter, and two cats, and will be back shortly.
Q&A with Lindsay
How did you get started baking?
I have a terrible sweet tooth. I blame my mother - she did her utmost not to allow me sugar my first year of life, and therefore, like any good grandmother, mine sent me a chocolate cake I went head first into to celebrate my first year around the sun. What evolved from that fated first cake has been, and continues to be, a life long passion for all things sweet, and the pursuit to create the best sweets!
What’s a project that you really want to work on?
Any new trend that crops up I instantly want the opportunity to tackle it, study it, perfect it, and make it my own. In regards to long term goals, we teach macarons classes on Saturday's we aren't completely over run with cake orders, or weddings, but I would very much like to expand the classes we offer!
What is your favorite sweet shop in town?
Hmmmm - We get asked this a lot. The truth is, too much of any one thing and it loses its' appeal, which is a large part of why we always have the same variety or pastries available (tarts, eclairs, profiteroles, macarons, cupcakes, cookies), but change the flavors monthly. During the spring I love strawberry & rhubarb tarts, summer screams for lemon meringue, fall I crave almond and apricot baked tarts, winter calls for gingerbread cupcakes with lemon curd and cream cheese icing, but year round...there's nothing like a raw chocolate chip cookie.
Most & least favorite wedding trend?
I can't say I have a least favorite trend, and classic white wedding cakes with fresh flowers will always be just that, classic and elegant you can't go wrong. However, I love that couples are embracing details that make their wedding cakes, genuinely unique - incorporating color, a monogram, details from the brides dress, textures, you name it.
Swiss or American buttercream?
Both buttercreams are fabulous, but they are very different. Swiss buttercream is light, silky, very white, glossy, and much less sweet than the icing we are accustomed to in our grocery stores. American buttercream is heavier, much sweeter, ivory in hue, and more matte in finish. If you've never tried the difference please stop in and ask us to taste them, we want to make sure you're going to love the cake or cupcakes we create for you!
