Pastry Chef Geralyn Sarro

by Christopher Yasiejko
(Wilmington De)

Cake Designed for Godiva Chocolates

Wilmington News Journal
01/01/2006


Geralyn Sarro knows when she has done her job well. She’s a pastry chef, and it’s her business to lead customers down a decadent path. When she entered a recent contest, which also happened to be her first, Sarro decided to marry one decadent pursuit with another.


So was born a small wedding cake she called “Texas to Have and to Hold ’em,” which drew upon the popularity of the poker variation Texas Hold ’em and included edible poker chips and playing cards. Sarro emerged as the winner from among 27 other competitors and took home $1,000.



She also received a bit of advice from Charmaine Jones, a celebrity judge also known as “The Cake Diva.”The PattyCakes Creative Cake Holiday Competition, held Dec. 4 at the First District Plaza’s Delaware Ballroom, in Philadelphia, judged entries on appearance, originality, decoration and technique.



Sarro, 28, called the experience “a big step for me.” The Newark resident was an owner and the pastry chef at Engine Co. 3, the Middletown restaurant that was a family affair until early last year, when the 10-month-old establishment closed.


Her passion is creating pastries, and she intends to expand her role beyond that of the freelance chef.“I’d never really had the nerve to compete before,” Sarro says. “I didn’t expect to win. And I got up there, and they told me I was the grand prize winner, and I started shaking.



I couldn’t believe it.”Afterward, Jones, whose cakes have appeared in magazines, in soap-opera weddings and on The Food Network, spoke with Sarro for more than a half-hour. The Cake Diva offered these tips: Start a Web site. Get professional photographs of your creations and send the shots to editors of industry magazines.



Sarro hopes to maintain a relationship with Jones, perhaps swinging an apprenticeship. “I mean, this is my dream,” she says. Visit her website at www.cakesbygeralyn.com or 302-743-1314