AUGUST 2026 16 In the Kitchen with Hotel Valley Ho’s Pastry Chef Maria Arenas 6850 E. Main St., Scottsdale • hotelvalleyho.com In the Kitchen F or Maria Arenas, every dessert tells a story. Whether she’s putting an Argentinian spin on a classic, gathering ideas while traveling or creating whimsical cakes for Hotel Valley Ho, the pastry chef pours plenty of heart into her work. Where are you from originally? I was born and raised in Argentina and came to Arizona in 2018. My husband is also from Argentina, but he lived in Arizona with his parents as a kid. We met in high school in 2008 and married in 2017. We went to Las Vegas for our honeymoon, and he suggested we also check out Arizona to see where he grew up, and we decided to stay. Was it tough to acclimate to the Arizona weather? I’m from Buenos Aires; it’s way more humid there – kind of like Miami. In the summer it’s very hot, in the winter it’s very cold but it’s also humid. If you go south, there’s snow; if you go north, it’s dry and hot, so kind of like Arizona. We have all different types there. What about your parents? Are they in the food industry? Not my parents, but my grandmother. She was a pastry chef and used to run a pastry school. Growing up, I would go with her to the school and see this big studio with all the things, the instruments and bowls and things to decorate cakes, and she’d set me in the corner like, ‘Okay you stay over here. [ laughs ]’ I loved it. Did you attend culinary school? It’s kind of a funny story. When I finished high school, I didn’t go immediately to culinary school. I guess I didn’t realize how much I loved it, because I ended up at film school first! I’ve always loved films but as I was going through the courses, I thought to myself, ‘I don’t know if I like this.’ I decided to try pastry and attended a pastry school – not my grandmother’s, but a different one – and I loved it so much. I think my favorite thing to cook in school was macarons. I don’t have a good memory, but I remember that class being really fun. I graduated from that school and wanted to continue my education, so I signed up for more challenging courses at a different school and after graduation, I worked at a couple different restaurants. I ended up working in a kitchen – not in pastry – and I noticed that I liked that area, too, and as I grew and learned more, I realized that I enjoyed every aspect. Not just pastry, not just savory, I like everything from the culinary world. Then what happened? The owners of that restaurant offered me a front-of-house position so I could learn all about those areas as well; I worked that and became a general manager before they asked me to help open a few other spots. I was charged with building the menu and was running what you could call a production center that had a kitchen that would provide for all the restaurants. I built the menu and the team and managed three restaurants. I was working nonstop. It was fun! That was my last job in Argentina before moving to Arizona. Where else have you worked? When we got to Arizona I started at Chico Malo for a couple months, until my husband – who also works here – told me that Hotel Valley Ho was looking for a pastry cook. I wanted to work so I accepted the position in 2019. I was the cook, the lead and now I’m the chef. What are your responsibilities? Oh boy, everything [ laughs ]. We have Zuzu, amenities for the rooms, special events and banquets – I do the menus for all of those. I manage the team – there are four of us. There are so many special events and we are always trying new things… for example, there’s an Italian dinner coming up, so I do my research and find the most popular desserts in Italy. From there I try to do something Italian but adding my spin to it. That’s what I do with everything. When you’re hanging at home, what are you cooking? Well, that’s tough because I have a seven-month-old [ laughs ] but before the baby I would make crepes with dulce de leche. It’s easy, fast and delicious. Do you travel for food inspiration? In the last couple of years my husband and I have gone to France, Spain, Italy, Japan and Korea and we ate so much food. It was amazing. We love to eat and every place we went we took notes. We both work in the culinary industry so it’s the best thing to travel and try things – not just the food but also the service. We watch how the restaurants are being run, too. I loved everything in France – I’d go back a million times. Your signature dessert is the Grand Finale – tell us about that. We used to have a dessert called the

17 AUGUST 2026 Showstopper that was an over-the-top milkshake, and we wanted to try something new and different. We all love to make cakes, so we thought, ‘let’s just have a different cake every month.’ We make custom cakes for weddings, events, birthdays and we always get good feedback, so we decided to create a mini cake with a theme and sweet treats on top for each month. The August Grand Finale is a surprise, but I will say it’s a very popular, viral flavor. Have you ever had an idea for a dessert that didn’t quite work out? [ laughs ] I overthink all of my desserts. The short answer is yes but usually everything works out okay. Sometimes if I use, say, an Argentinian flavor that I think people might not like, I worry that it won’t work. For example, dulce de leche – people think it’s like a caramel but it’s not, it’s different. I work really hard to bring dulce de leche from Argentina, so any time you have it in the restaurant it’s coming straight from my home country. I’m used to it, but I worry that sometimes people won’t like how sweet, sweet, sweet the flavor is. Do you change the dessert menu on a regular basis? There’s one dessert on the menu that hasn’t changed in the last four years and that is the brookie. We changed it up a bit but it’s the classic brownie/cookie base. It’s one of the most popular. Who doesn’t love a warm dessert? What is one baking tip every baker should know? You see these recipes on Instagram and TikTok and the people will put a baking time or a temperature, but if the video comes from a professional kitchen, those ovens are high-powered. If I use my oven at my house, I bake a little longer because it’s not as strong as a professional oven. And practice makes perfect. Who are some other chefs that inspire you? Argentinian pastry chef Damián Betular. He is one of the best in Argentina. From France, pastry chef Cédric Grolet. And from America I’d say Thomas Keller. What is your least favorite baking techniques? My least favorite became anything with chocolate – tempering chocolate when it’s really hot outside makes it more challenging. You have to be in a very cold room for everything to work. When you’re not working what are you doing? Right now it’s baby, baby, baby [ laughs ]. Before that, though, I loved to go out and try new restaurants and bakeries. That was my hobby. What spot would you recommend to someone who is new to the Valley? I’d recommend JL Patisserie. You can see that and they make everything from scratch – it’s delicious and very French. My husband and I love their croissants! What’s one ingredient that you wish you could work with? For pastry, it’s hard to answer with just one ingredient, but I’d say dairy. Milk and butter from Europe would be an amazing thing to have. It’s not that American dairy is bad, it’s not, but in Europe the dairy has more fat and it’s more flavorful. I don’t know if it’s because of the processes or what – but I’ll stick with dairy. What’s your favorite part of the industry? The people that I work with. I have the best team ever. I couldn’t have done anything without them – every one of them has strengths that contribute to our success. And Chef Russell. I couldn’t have a better boss. In this industry it’s difficult to find nice people, so having him as a boss is really great. It’s like a big family. What advice would you give someone who’s just starting out in the industry? Be patient. Working in a kitchen is hard. There are long hours, you’re going to be tired. But if you’re patient and you work hard, there’s so much to learn. If you have perseverance, you can learn a lot and go really far in your career. I have the best team ever. I couldn’t have done anything without them – every one of them has strengths that contribute to our success.