Can an architect stop thinking like an architect even if he/she does not practice the profession? I guess not. Once the virus of design begins to circulate in the blood, there is never a cure. Whatever you do, that virus comes into play at some point; it affects your work, the design process will not let you go. Being originally an architect, I feel this quite often, even in my writings, I have to have a structure in mind before starting to type or just start drafting thoughts on paper. I sometimes think some chefs were meant to be architects, but with a twist of fate, they ended up in the kitchen. Seldom, they are really architects. Ukranian pastry chef Dinara Kasko is. A rare example. Maybe that is why she had first hit the architecture circles as the breaking news, but not the gastronomy world.

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I discovered Kasko for the first time in 2016 on the architecture website ArchDaily. Topics from the food world are not likely to be included in architectural platforms, except from a few restaurant designs. However, that time, the entire article was devoted to the work of Kasko as an architect turned into a pastry chef. To be honest, the pictures of her cakes looked more like models of a structure designed, maybe a roof structure modeling, or contours of the piece of land where the building is going to be situated. They did not have any resemblance to traditional cakes, they were edgy in every sense, featuring straight lines, sharp angles and geometric forms opposing to the round classic ones. Probably, because it was not possible to understand that they were actually cakes, one picture showed her hand squeezing an almost neon bright red icing as if jointing infill in between cut stone paving. Even that picture did not persuade me that those ground breaking cakes were edible until a week ago when I actually ate one!

When the cake is cut, the cross-section displays a serious structural design. At this point, I prefer to use an architectural term saying a cross-section but not a slice of cake. The materials (or ingredients) are constructed in thin layers with fillings of flavors and textures, arranged with the dexterity of a skilled mason. It was clear that every detail was carefully thought through and no point was left to chance or improvisation. It was not possible not to admire the design refinement. Kasko’s cakes give the fear that they are more about the form, and the flavors can be a bit artificial, on the contrary, the flavors are natural. In contrast with their sharp forms giving a sense of solid structure, they are …….

Source: https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/opinion/aylin-oney-tan/cake-architect-170349