KAILUA-KONA — Bryson Perkins spent his childhood gazing up at starry Hawaii skies, dreaming about how he might one day reach the rest of the world.
The master sugar artist and one of the foremost cake decorators in the world, Perkins, now 36, left home at the age of 19 for a small town outside Boston with no inkling of what he would become.
As he flew across the Pacific, he opened up a cookbook a waitress from his former place of employment gave him before he left. In the back, she inscribed a bit of advice for Perkins.
She suggested when he was homesick, he should turn to the kitchen.
In the spirit of that advice, soon after he arrived he went to a Borders bookstore to pick up a second collection of recipes.
But his calling wasn’t among the shelves.
“On the floor of the aisle was a cake decorating book,” Perkins recalled. “I picked it up, forgot what I’d come into the store for in the first place, and never put it down.”
After 17 years away from home, Perkins is planning a return to Hawaii Island this summer once his international tour is complete. And this time, he’s coming home for good.
Perkins was back in Kailua-Kona earlier this month for a visit. During his trip, he hosted a day of informal, introductory decorating seminars, one for adults and another for keiki, at King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel.
The experience and the discussions there added to his sense of a yawning market gap not only on this island but throughout the state.
Now, after perfecting his craft around the globe — from competitions in Italy to trips to Monaco, where he researched inspirations for elaborate decorative undertakings — Perkins wants to open a specialty bakery in West Hawaii.
“People get their cakes from the grocery store, and they pay the cost I charge at my own bakery,” he said.
When he’s not taking wedding cake orders or making edible art for other special occasions, Perkins plans to travel Hawaii, teaching courses like those he staged in Kona a couple of weeks ago.
“For me, the only thing to do is pass (the gift) along because it was given to me,” he said. “I feel it’s my duty.”
He has mentors from around the globe. He’s won his share of awards and accolades.
But the first teacher and supporter he ever had — and the muse who inpsired his creativity — still lives in West Hawaii — his grandmother, Peggy Carmack.
Carmack remembers when he was only a small boy, her grandson would shadow her in the kitchen, tugging at her side asking, “How do you this, grandma? How do you do this?”
Still, she admitted she never anticipated the unique and far-reaching career arch Perkins paved for himself.
“I never thought he’d be a baker, honestly,” Carmack said, adding she was as surprised as she was overjoyed to learn about the path Perkins chose. “Bryson could do it all and when he took up baking, I knew he’d make a go of it.”
It wasn’t only the family Perkins had that inspired his creativity, which includes four sisters and a host of aunties who will be on hand when he returns to start his bakery. It also was all the material things he lacked that pushed him to explore and discover.
“Growing up poor with (a bunch of) siblings in Hawaii, I had to be resourceful,” he said. “That’s what drove me to be inventive and creative. That all culminated when I started my cake decorating career.”
Perkins began decorating on his own 14 years ago. He went pro a dozen years back. And he started entering competitions in 2012 to bring notoriety to the business he worked for as well as to start making a name for himself in the industry.
He has for several years offered demonstrations around the world as a brand ambassador for multiple culinary corporations, offering demos to captivated audiences.
And coming in March or April, the Food Network will air a one-hour documentary special about his life.
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
