With a passion to make people happy, Nils Rowland knows the best thing you can do for a person is to cook for them. As Pastry Chef at The Chocolate Turtle he is able to please many people with a wide spread favorite — dessert! A driven individual, Nils has made a name for himself with only six years in the pastry business.
When he was in his early teens Nils decided he wanted to be a chef. The decision of what type of chef came not long after earning his bachelor degree in Hospitality Management from UCF. He received his diploma in European Pastry and Baking from Notter School of Pastry Arts and soon after began work as a pastry chef at an artisan bakery in Jacksonville where he says he learned a lot.
“Truffles are a nice combination of science and art” says Nils, making them his favorite dessert to create. With a science professor as a mother and siblings also in the scientific field, it is no surprise that Nils is drawn to the chemistry of baking. The truffles that he creates are truly a process, first the shells need be perfectly made, and then they have to sit for many hours before the next step of filling them. Macarons are another dessert with a lot of science to them. A slight temperature difference in your sugar and you will be lacking the desired height of the fluffy cloud-like “feet.”
Nils claims to be a fat kid at heart which is why you can find him working out most days. Whether he’s taking classes at the gym or lifting weights in the garage he stays active so he can indulge in the things that he loves like barbecue, tacos and pizza. The cooking doesn’t stop at work. Nils likes to barbecue so much that if he wasn’t a pastry chef he said he would be doing competition barbecue. With his belief that strong flavors and mouth coating sauces make for the best foods, it sounds like being a barbecue competitor would be an ideal alternative. Luckily for St. Augustine, Nils’ competitive spirit is being fulfilled by winning local culinary charity events leaving him time to come up with new masterpieces for The Chocolate Turtle like the Tiramisu Crunch.
One of Nils’ favorite desserts to eat is rocky road ice cream, but he is always drawn to his grandmother’s favorite of vanilla ice cream, with hot fudge, and walnuts in syrup. It’s amazing what memories are evoked by food, and as a chef apparently a bit daunting. Being a chef Nils says he is always “competing with memories” so his passion to make people happy and lack of the paralyzing fear to mess up allows him to produce his best confection and please his customers. His best ideas for new items come when he is fishing; being alone with his thoughts he is able to conjure up new flavor recipes like his award winning combination of banana curry white chocolate.
All food tastes good to Nils when it’s prepared correctly so it’s no surprise that when asked his favorite restaurants in town the list was quite varying. Nils and his wife Bailey can be found dining at Barley Republic so he can get his fix of Beer Battered Bangers, Schooner’s for her favorite fried shrimp, or Collage when they crave fine dining.
Nils’ best advice for cooking is to “taste everything and don’t be afraid to mess up.” He mentioned that some of the best dishes come from accidents so you can’t be afraid to try something new. It may have been done already, but for Nils it’s all about doing something for someone else to makes them feel good.
Chocolate Turtle is a dessert and coffee bar serving cakes, tortes, chocolates beers and wine. Open 8am to 9pm Sun-Thurs; 8am – 11pm, Fri & Saturday. 47 Cordova Street
