Anthony Chavez, pastry chef at 2941in Falls Church, learned his love of fancy baking from his mother and grandmother.

The underlying passion for cooking must start early on with most chefs, and that is certainly true of Anthony Chavez, who oversees the pastry kitchen at the stylish Falls Church restaurant 2941. Thanks to the initial training from his mother and his grandmother, this native Californian got turned on to cooking, then to fancy baking, as a child.

“My interest started at home. My grandmother was a great cook,” he says. “She made the food and I made the desserts. She also made a great lemon meringue pie and coconut cream pie.”

But he also pays tribute to his mother’s firm hand: She taught him knife skills when he was only 8 years old, and because she is Italian, she was always making ravioli, gnocchi and pasta sauces, he says. So it’s not hard to see how Chavez took so much interest in kitchen work.

“Even as a kid, I wanted to do pastries,” he says. “My mom thought I was a better at cooking than baking.”

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chavez began dreaming about pastries during his externship at Dean and DeLuca in Charlotte, N.C., and he went on to study pastry making at the French Pastry School in Chicago, learning from such well-known chefs as Sebastien Cannone, John Kraus, Stephane Glacier and Emmanuel Ryon.

This intensive work gave him a leg up in the pastry world. It gave him the credentials to work first at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, where he wound up being the executive pastry chef, and then to move on as executive pastry chef at the Sofitel Chicago Water Tower — proving hard work and a sugary imagination do pay off. Now facing the challenge of creating and fine-tuning a sweets menu that changes often, Chavez says he works closely with the executive chef to find his sweet inspirations.

“I bounce ideas off him,” he says. “He and I have sort of the same vision of food. But I also read and pick up ideas from the staff.”

Preferring his desserts to highlight a fruit’s flavor and to not be overly sweet, Chavez regales the restaurant’s guests with plated desserts — his favorite way of presenting them — that meld savory technical ideas with artistic flair.
 
“These desserts require lots of creativity, and when done right, they are beautiful,” he says. “And I hope they taste great.”

Patrons may find such gustatory splendors as his chocolate quartet, a composition of a Jivara 40 percent chocolate tart, Guayaquil 64 percent chocolate cake, Caraibe 66 percent chocolate cremeux and a Tanzanie 75 percent frozen truffle. Chavez says he believes this chocolate lover’s fantasy has probably garnered the most raves — “I’m proud of all my desserts,” he says, but this one stands out. But who would not fall in love with his Meyer lemon petit gateaux with a milk chocolate dacquoise and coffee crème anglaise?

To an outsider, this all sounds like the stuff of sweet dreams. But for Chavez, the long kitchen hours and the exacting science required for successful patisserie art are all in the day’s work. As he concludes, “I love what I do.”

If you go
2941 Restaurant
2941 Fairview Park Drive, Falls Church
703-270-1500
Hours: Lunch — 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Dinner —5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday; Dinner — 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday-Sunday