Life & Work with Ale Gomez Tanner

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ale Gomez Tanner.

Hi Ale, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I dove into the culinary world straight out of high school by attending Le Cordon Bleu. I had the honor of working for great Pastry Chefs like John Park, David Rodriguez, James Rosselle, and Lincoln Carson who all played a major part in my development. Working in restaurants for me was a huge motivator because if you’re lucky, you find yourself working with other Chefs who are equally passionate and always striving to make the best food they can. I feel like that level of care is hard to find, and I loved working in kitchens like Providence where everyone is pushing each other to execute at higher and higher levels.

With that being said, the restaurant industry can be very brutal physically, mentally, and emotionally. In order to be in that life, you have to make major sacrifices by giving up time with your family and friends on weekends, holidays, and evenings. I realized I had to make a change because I no longer found happiness in the kitchen and felt like I wasn’t able to fully express my own voice (everything I made was too ethnic or too colorful to fit fine dining). I started to lose interest in making technically impressive food and longed for the feeling of joy that I would get from my Mom and Grandma’s cooking.

I left the industry in February 2020 so that I could finally see my husband for more than 1 hour a day and do things on weekends like normal people. After 12 years of working in the industry I realized I was not able to turn off the drive to constantly be working. I started baking at home and when the pandemic hit, I used it as an excuse to be able to see my family and friends, if only for a minute from the front door by dropping off pastry boxes.

I embraced the lack of a schedule, direction, and expectation and just started to create things for fun that my husband and I wanted to eat. This gave birth to the Alebrije concept. An Alebrije is a magical creature of the imagination that is a colorful combination of multiple animals to make a new and unique being. I relate to this because what I do is combine multiple cultures, techniques, and flavors from my experiences in order to create something unique. Conchas with a French patisserie styling? Gansito eclair? Mexican flan with an Indian flavor profile and Japanese persimmon? Sure why not?

Before I realized it was having more fun in the kitchen than I had in years. I stopped worrying about what other people thought or what was “correct” and started to trust and pursue my own style. I decided why stop there, I began to put my entire personality into my page and started to let people see the real me. I put myself out there on Instagram and started to sell pastry boxes and was blown away by the response.

I am so grateful to everyone who makes the trip out to Bellflower to pick up their desserts. It makes me so happy to see people get excited and share in the joy I feel making the pastries. The biggest compliment I receive is when people ask me to make them a cake and the only direction they give me is “to get crazy with it”. Having that intimate of a relationship with customers where they give me their full trust that I will make them something delicious and unique is such an amazing honor.

Currently, I am doing a sale about twice a month and taking special orders for large format items like cakes, tarts and flans. I am planning on doing more pop ups and utilizing a larger kitchen so I’m not breaking as many hearts with my limitations.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Trying to get past my lack of confidence was extremely difficult, I had a bad case of imposter syndrome. At my first position as Pastry Chef at a hotel I had some major failures with my desserts. I was still trying to do the fine dining experimental plated desserts which was my comfort zone, and it was the wrong crowd. The flavors were too unfamiliar for the clientele. I didn’t think pairing arroz con leche with lychee, sapote, persimmon, taro and makrut lime was too edgy. I was wrong. However this was a great teaching experience that a lot of fine dining folks struggle with. I learned it’s better to have three great components than ten that get lost in the mix. This became the foundation of what I do today with Alebrije Dulce. I utilize fine dining components but present them in a familiar format.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m all about playful aesthetics and creating a whole vibe. I am known for color, color, and more color. My food however is known for being balanced and not overly sweet by embracing fruit and citrus flavors instead of being rich and decadent (not to say that I don’t also do/love that).

What sets me apart is probably my cakes. I am the most proud of my banana cake with guava jam and passion fruit curd. I think of myself as a Pastry Artist and like to create psychedelic landscapes using my buttercream as the paint, and cake as the canvas. When people give me full creative control, I like to ask what their favorite colors are (or creep their insta) to make something that suits their personality.

What were you like growing up?
I was born in Jalisco, Mexico and moved to California when I was 8. I was an introvert with crippling stage fright which still haunts me to this day (yes, I can cook in front of you but I’m also having a panic attack). I have always loved art and enjoyed oil painting, watercolors, and ceramics. When I was little, I actually had a toy pastry set and recipe book that my Mom got for me at a Tupperware party with her friends in Mexico. So baking has been a part of my life for a very long time. I love to go out to nature and I feel like my trips to nature now heavily influence my cakes and pastries because I’m always trying to recreate the places that I love.

Contact Info:

• Email: Alebrije.Dulce@gmail.com
• Instagram: @alebrije_dulce