62 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MAY 2018
CHEF CATHERINE SCHIMENTI:
BAKED BY THE OCEAN
By ALAN KRAWITZ
Upscale pastry chef Catherine
Schimenti left home on Long Island
at 17, only to return 20 years later to
open her new bakery, Baked by the
Ocean, in Long Beach.
Admitting that “cooking has always
been in my blood,” the down-toearth
Schimenti, with her signature
red-frame glasses and long braids,
says she was encouraged by her
parents as well as a teacher at
Lynbrook High School to make her
living in the kitchen.
“I always helped my mom do the
baking, cooking at home,” she
recalls. “It’s always been natural for
me to make food for people.”
Schimenti, now 38, got an early
start in the restaurant business
working in a local pizzeria before
scoring her first cooking gig as a
teen at the now-defunct Porthole
restaurant in East Rockaway. She
did her culinary training at Johnson
& Wales University in Providence
before switching in her final year to
focus on pastry arts exclusively.
“As opposed to traditional cooking,
which is more like just turning
a raw product into something,”
says Schimenti, “there’s a real
science to pastry, the blending
of ingredients.”
Schimenti’s career took her to
some of the finest restaurants,
from Balthazar and
Gramercy Tavern to Per Se
in New York City, before
being tapped to oversee
pastry at Craft Steak
in the Meatpacking
District. Her pastry
menu was so well
received that
Schimenti was
summoned to Los
Angeles to assist
with Craft Steak’s LA
debut.
“Moving to California was a big deal
for me,” recalls Schimenti, who prides
herself on being an LI girl.
Following Craft, she moved to San
Francisco and joined the fourstar
Michael Mina Restaurant as
executive pastry chef and later helped
to launch Mina’s Bourbon
Steak. After arriving
back in NY in
2016, Schimenti
pursued her
long-standing
goal of opening
her own
bakery. She
snagged an
apartment
in trendy
SOHO and
was “fully
committed to
looking for bakery
space in NYC.”
While looking for
real estate in the
city, Schimenti
consulted
f o r
Gelso & Grand in Little Italy, where
she worked for a year, helping to
revamp the restaurant’s pastry
menu. She oversaw the creation of a
nearly foot-long cannoli, which gave
the venue some buzz.
“I continued to scout potential
bakery spots on the Lower
East Side, Tribeca, and
even NOLITA,” she
recalls, but prices
were steep, often
upwards of
$20,000 rent
per month. “I
couldn’t find
anything and
that’s when I
started coming
out to LI every
weekend, to
visit friends
and family
in Lynbrook
and Long
Beach.”
Schimenti eventually found her
bakery location with a little help
from her friend.
“I went to dinner and a friend ended
up parking in front of a bakery with
a for-lease sign,” she recalls. “That
didn’t work out, but it led me to my
current spot.”
Now that she’s set, Schimenti says
her philosophy on pastry is simple.
“I’m going to focus on accessible
desserts such as fruit tarts, salted
peanut butter tarts, lemon and lime
meringue tarts, specialty cakes and
even some soft-serve ice cream, sure
to be a summer favorite,” she says.
“Traditional things with a twist.”
Also, she’ll serve up favorites like
black and white and rainbow
cookies, macaroons, homemade
chocolate boxes, freshly baked
cinnamon rolls, and donuts. But
the cozy space with seating for 12
won’t be all desserts.
“Savory foods will also be served,
such as salads of the day, toasts of
the day, Quinoa bowls with veggies
and brunch items on weekends,”
she says.
And while many chefs are
drawn to the glamour of TV,
Schimenti eschews show biz.
“I was approached by
producers who wanted me
for a few cooking shows
due to my ‘polished yet
approachable,’ attitude,
but my focus is on the
bakery, not TV,” she
adds. “I want my food
to speak for itself.”
Baked by the Ocean, scheduled
to open in late May, is located at 919
West Beech St. in Long Beach. They
can be reached at 516-901-7988 or
bakedbytheocean.com.
PRESS MAIN DISH
Catherine Schimenti eschews show
biz to focus on baking.