Your mother may have told you not to play with your food, but Ashley Cardona never got that instruction. Her desserts are, in fact, playful winks to the ingredients she uses.
Imagine a dinner themed to fast food. The dessert that Cardona created was a cute take on a miniature milkshake and fries. The fries were really apple fries. The milkshake was a vanilla bean semifreddo and even the straw and cup, which looked just like fast food Styrofoam, were edible white chocolate. The cherry on top? The tiniest ball of homemade cherry gelatin.
Cardona is the executive pastry chef at Circa 1886. This year, the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association named her pastry chef of the year.
“I have been baking since I could stand in the kitchen, especially with my grandmother. She was a professional cook — she managed a high school cafeteria back in the 1980s when everything was still homemade — and she fostered a huge love of food,” Cardona said. “At first, I thought I’d be a cake decorator because I loved art. I’d make cakes for my friends and my mom’s friends. I even carried around a portfolio filled with pictures and business cards to try and sell my cakes in high school.”
As a young teen, she began to research decorating cakes as a career.
“I fell in love with being a pastry chef. You get to do a little bit of everything, croissants and breads and plated desserts and cakes. I really love how pastry combines art and has a very technical aspect. Everything has to be dialed in, down to the gram. The combination of those two things is beautiful and it’s what I love about pastry.”
From Charleston to Hogwarts
Technical skill and the artistrywere on display at the opening for this year’s Charleston Wine + Food Festival, where Cardona handed out a play on a Black Forest cake that looked like a big chocolate cherry atop a chiffon cake. The “cherry’s” chocolate shell shattered to reveal chocolate mousse filled with cherry compote.
“It’s probably one of my favorite things to do – to take things and reconstruct just to make it look like that fruit again,” she said of the dessert. “I love for my desserts to be visually appealing since you eat with your eyes first. When you’re at the festival, you need to catch their eye, but then the food needs to be as delicious as it looks.”
Once Cardona decided pastry was her future, she attended Johnson & Wales and then did an internship studying pastry in France.
“It was an eight-week certificate in pastry arts and I got to learn from very established chefs in France,” Cardona said. “I learned modern French technique that I incorporate into my desserts at Circa, but it also gave me an opportunity to travel and see a lot of things. At 19 or 20, I got to experience a whole different way of living.”
She started working at Circa 1886 in 2022 when she and her husband were looking for a city that would enable them to raise a family and they fell in love with Charleston.
Last year, a casting director for the Food Network’s “Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking” reached out to her after seeing her colorful Instagram posts. Although she and her partner on the show never made it past the second round, she loved the experience and recalls fondly the Harry Potter-themed dessert they made, a magic lab complete with potion book.
“It needed to be a really big deal for me to leave my tiny humans — they were 3 and 2 — but it was really exciting to be a part of that season,” Cardona said. “It was the first show I had ever done, but it may not be my last.”
Diners at Circa 1886 may not be treated to a Hogwarts extravaganza, but Cardona still tries to bring magic. She said she takes desserts that people are familiar with and gives them a playful twist.
Pecan pie, for instance, is encased in a Bavarian milk chocolate and decorated with a homemade chocolate fan.
“I consider myself an artist at heart, creating on the plate as my canvas and butter, sugar and flour are my medium. Creating a visual experience that is memorable for the guest before they even bite into the dessert is one of my favorite things about being a pastry chef,” Cardona said.
She said that, as much as she loves playing with desserts, the most important part is the taste.
“I want things to be beautiful, but you shouldn’t struggle to eat what’s on your plate. Some trends, it may look good, but it may not be good to eat. If your chocolate’s way too thick because you had to mold it or you’ve added too much food dye and now it’s bitter, just don’t do that. If it doesn’t taste good, at the end of the day, you’ve failed.”
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