Baking is a science. That's what people often say, implying that pastry and breadmaking are an inflexible world of fixed formulae.

But for pastry chef Cherilyn Chun, "It's always been easier" (than other forms of cooking). Yes, the science of how various ingredients affect each other, of leavening and shortening, flour types, fats and sugars must be understood. But the Pearl City High School graduate ('92) said from the days of her earliest food, nutrition and food service classes, "I was good at hands-on."

Today, the 33-year-old's hands are on the desserts served at Cassis by Chef Mavro. At Kapi'olani Community College, and then at the Culinary Institute of America (from which she graduated in 1996), she learned "what not to mess with" (in baking recipes). Today, she feels free to create variations on classics that range from tarte tatin (the French upside-down apple pie) to the Island favorite chantilly cakes.

"Pastry is kind of a mystery to many people. They get the dessert, but they don't realize what went into the making of it. They say, 'How do you doooo that?' But, really, (dessert-making for restaurants) is a process of putting simple things together to make them really intricate," she said. The home cook can master many of those simple things.

Not, perhaps, puff pastry. Even Chun said she wouldn't try to make that at home (unless she had a climate-controlled kitchen, a marble countertop and too much time on her hands). "But you don't have to make it. Nowadays, you can find anything anywhere," she said — including frozen puff pastry, pre-made fancy garnishes and so on. (Check out Hans Weiler pastry supply at Y. Hata & Co.)

Chun's advice to home bakers is to give some thought to presentation. A homely bread pudding or a simple cookie can become a showstopper if it's cut into an interesting shape, for example. "As long as it tastes good, you can make it look good. You eat with your eyes first," she said.

Among Chun's favorite ingredients are nuts and chocolate.

At the Waialae Country Club, Chun often made a nut bar that was popular on the buffet line — and a bit different. It's not a cookie but a shallow, eggy cake packed with macadamia nuts and chunks of pineapple (see recipe in this section). She adapted it from an old cookbook.

Like most pastry chefs, Chun likes to toast nuts before she uses them, bringing out the flavor. Toast on a baking sheet in a low oven, keeping close watch. To remove skins from walnuts afterward, place in a clean kitchen towel and rub between your hands.

She doesn't often grind nut flours — "to me, that's very European." She prefers the less fussy, more refined texture of chopped nuts.

As to chocolate, Chun's got dobosh cake down, she says. It's all about the cocoa powder: Buy a good quality, mild-flavored dutched type — the pure, unsweetened powder made from cacao beans from which the butter has been extracted. Dutched cocoa powder has been treated with an alkaline solution, which darkens its color and tames its acidity.

It would surprise many consumers to hear how often matters of economy and practicality come up in the conversation of chefs. Chun is acutely aware of the sharply rising cost of milk, cream, butter and eggs and adjusts recipes to "make do," so nothing is wasted. That's where knowing recipes intimately comes in handy — knowing when you can substitute milk for part of the cream, or fruit juice for the milk, or use fewer yolks or more whites without ill effect.

Chun also isn't stuffy about store-bought stuff. Though she makes ginger ice cream from scratch at Cassis by Chef Mavro, she has no problem with a home cook substituting a good quality vanilla ice cream into which minced crystallized ginger has been stirred.

Not that she takes many shortcuts. "Pastry people are real anal retentive," she says almost ruefully, in contradiction to the easygoing attitude she's shown throughout the interview. "I like things to look perfect. It bothers me when they're not."

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.