The Culinary Institute of America
The Culinary Institute of America
If you dream of opening your own bustling bakery or stylish café, creating and styling spectacular cakes, or preparing hundreds of desserts for an elegant catered affair, a career in pastry is for you. As a pastry chef, you'll make the chocolates, confections, pastries, and plated desserts that delight customers. With jobs as varied as pastry cook, pastry chef, executive pastry chef, chocolatier, and boulanger, opportunities abound in places like hotels, restaurants, resorts, bistros, bakeries, and private clubs. Pastry chefs must be both artistic and detail-oriented while working in a fast-paced environment.
To chocoholics, working with the "food of the gods" all day seems like the fantasy job. But to become an exceptional artisan chocolatier like Andrew Shotts '90, it takes a tireless passion for your work, a commitment to using only the best ingredients, and a sharp eye for business. Andrew's road to twice becoming one of Pastry Art & Design's "Ten Best Pastry Chefs in America" started with a … [Read more...]
After nine years of creating award-winning desserts, Andrea Zelen decided to focus on an American classic and rethink it as only a CIA graduate can. Her idea to elevate the common brownie to the level of gourmet fare came on her last day as executive pastry chef at Disney's celebrated California Grill. That's when the pan of homemade brownies she brought to thank co-workers was so popular it … [Read more...]
Walk into Oliver Kita Fine Confections in Rhinebeck, NY and the rich cinnabar-colored walls and deep browns of the elegant display furnishings immediately set a tone. You get the impression of quiet luxury and a European sensibility. But step further into the space and you see a huge serviceable marble-topped worktable, a chocolate tempering maching, and shelves of molds just waiting to be filled. … [Read more...]
Johnny Iuzzini is the executive pastry chef at Jean Georges, one of only four restaurants in New York City to earn a Michelin three-star rating. Chef Iuzzini's interest in the pastry arts began at age 17, when he started work at The River Café in Brooklyn, NY. Although his primary responsibility was garde manger, the young Johnny frequently visited the pastry kitchen to marvel as Pastry Chef Eric … [Read more...]
A little serendipity goes a long way. Nicolette Eyherabide was originally planning to take a "safer" career path and become a lawyer, but fate intervened. Nurturing a passion for food that she wanted to explore—"If I didn't try it, I'd wonder about it my whole life"—she decided to throw her hat into both rings. "I applied to law school and to culinary school at the same time," she explains. … [Read more...]
As a child, Derek's family had encouraged him to create something with his hands, be it painting, sculpting, or, in his chosen field, cakes and cake decorating. "I decided to take my love of art and creating and make it edible, to put my own flare on the cake world," said Derek. "Now I have taken my cakes to a new level with a combination of the technical skills I learned at the CIA and my love of … [Read more...]
Can you stand blindfolded, smell a food, and then accurately list the ingredients found within? Kishi Aroora can. Maybe that's the reason she left her studies at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in India to attend the CIA in Hyde Park, NY. And maybe it's why she graduated with an AOS degree in baking and pastry arts with high honors and the International Student Endowed Scholarship. Whatever the … [Read more...]
