It all started with macarons … and has expanded to include so much more
By Hilary Dartt
Kelly Gallegos believes food should be pretty.
“Why would you not make it beautiful?” she said during a recent interview. “You want to enjoy the experience.”
Since she launched her business, Mac Daddy Macarons, two and a half years ago, its offerings have expanded to include other baked goods and charcuterie boards, grazing tables, and full catered meals (for 20 to 30 people).
“It always starts with the macarons,” she said, adding that her business growth started when people began ordering add-ons. “Once people find out you do something with food, they want all the food.”
For example, a customer might order a beautiful display of macarons and ask for a tray of brownie bites … and then something healthy like a veggie tray … and then something with a little more substance, like a charcuterie tray, which can evolve into a grazing table (a giant version of charcuterie).
Kelly’s answer: “Why not?”
When she first learned to make macarons, she did so because she found them so beautiful (macarons are sandwich cookies made with almond flour, egg whites, confectioners’ sugar, and fillings). It’s only natural, then, that her desire to create beautiful food has carried over into her newer ventures.
“I think [food] should be more visually interesting,” she said. “When you design a room, you think about different colors, textures, and levels. You think three-dimensionally.”
When it comes to creating edible ‘art’, such as grazing tables, she considers those things and more.
“I just want people to be able to experience something that is equally as beautiful as it is delicious,” Kelly said. “That is the pinnacle of food. It should be a satisfying experience.”
You can contact Kelly to order macarons for your next event by contacting her by text or on Instagram, Her confections, including macarons, are also available regularly as a complimentary amenity for members of her husband’s private club, The Senator, on Whiskey Row.
To learn more or discuss an order, contact Kelly at 602.696.0339 or [email protected]. Follow Mac Daddy Macarons on Instagram @macdaddy_macarons and Facebook at Mac Daddy Macarons.
The Macaron Lowdown
Macarons, sandwich cookies made with almond flour, egg whites, confectioners’ sugar, and filling, are beautiful … and they’re also the result of a precise process that is science as much as it’s art.
Kelly Gallegos, owner of Mac Daddy Macarons, explained that baking a batch of macarons takes two to three hours—and then the cookies have to mature for two days for the perfect texture.
(A quick note: Macarons are not to be confused with macaroons, a soft cookie made with egg white, sugar, and shredded dry coconut, which take about 40 minutes per batch to make.)
“Macarons are meant to be done in small batches by hand,” she said, so mass produced macarons won’t give a person the same experience as those that are handmade. “There’s just not going to be a comparison.”
The process begins with egg whites, which must age in the fridge for a day before they’re brought to room temperature for baking. Then, Kelly said, “You have to slow-whip the meringue.”
“Once you get the perfect stiffness of egg whites, you fold in the other ingredients by hand.” She weighs out each ingredient—to the gram—to ensure the perfect ratios.
The batter goes into a piping bag, and is piped onto a silicone mat with a template (for that perfect circle shape). They have to sit on the sheet until they form “a little bit of a skin,” and then must be baked one sheet at a time and cool completely before they come off the mat.
Kelly spends quite some time “lovingly matching up” the sandwich cookie halves, a process she finds “so satisfying” and “almost therapeutic.”
Then the filling goes in.
During the batter-making process, Kelly often plays mad scientist, mixing up the perfect colors to match a customer’s color scheme or the perfect flavors—she’s made buttered popcorn, caramel apple, gingerbread, white chocolate candy cane, chocolate orange, and so many more.