Stella Parks

Last updated

Stella Parks
Born
Kentucky

Stella Parks is an American pastry chef and food writer based in Kentucky. She has worked in various Lexington-area restaurants, notably Table 310, and was a longtime contributor to Serious Eats . Parks received a James Beard Foundation Award in 2018 for her bestselling cookbook BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts.

Contents

Early life and education

Stella Parks was born in Kentucky, where she grew up in Versailles. [1] [2] She began working in restaurants at the age of 14. [3]

Immediately after graduating from high school, Parks left to study at the Culinary Institute of America. [4] [3] She graduated in 2002 from the school's baking and pastry program. [1] [5]

Restaurant career

Parks worked in a variety of restaurants in the Lexington, Kentucky, area, including Wallace Station and the Holly Hill Inn. [6] She also spent time in Tokyo, moving there to study Japanese as part of a self-described "quarter-life crisis." [5]

In 2010, she was hired to work at the new Lexington restaurant Table 310 as its pastry chef. [5] [2] In 2012, she was named one of America's Best New Pastry Chefs by Food & Wine magazine in recognition of her work at Table 310. [7]

Writing

As part of a project with a photographer friend, Parks started her food blog BraveTart in 2010. [2] [8] A year later, she began writing a "BraveTart" column at the food website Serious Eats. She became a longtime contributor to the publication, where she served as a senior editor and was dubbed the website's "pastry wizard," though she has continued to be based in Lexington. [8] [9] [10] After contributing to Serious Eats from 2011 to 2019, with three years as its pastry editor, Parks became editor emeritus at the site. [11]

Parks's work combines baking, history, and science. [12] [13] She is known for developing precise, complex recipes that often elevate American childhood favorite desserts through copycat recipes. [14] [3] [9]

In 2017, Parks published her debut cookbook, BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts. [15] She spent six years working on the book, which involved archival research as well as recipe testing. [12] The cookbook celebrates iconic American desserts and explores the history of the commercial food industry's influence on home baking. [8] [16] The BraveTart cookbook became a New York Times bestseller and was well received by critics. [4] It was described as "the most groundbreaking book on baking in years" by Saveur and "one of the greatest dessert books of our time" by Bon Appétit . [1] [17] In 2018, Parks's BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts won a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Baking and Dessert Book. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheesecake</span> Cheese-based dessert

Cheesecake is a dessert made with a soft fresh cheese, eggs, and sugar. It may have a crust or base made from crushed cookies, graham crackers, pastry, or sometimes sponge cake. Cheesecake may be baked or unbaked, and is usually served chilled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Key lime pie</span> American custard pie

Key lime pie is an American dessert pie. It is made of Key lime juice, egg yolks, and sweetened condensed milk. It may be served with no topping, with a meringue topping made from egg whites, or with whipped cream. Traditionally, Key Lime pie is made using a graham cracker crust. It may be made with or without baking in a pie crust or without crust. The dish is named after the small Key limes, which are more aromatic than the common Persian limes, and which have yellow juice. The filling in a Key lime pie is typically yellow because of the egg yolks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Silverton</span> American chef, baker, and author (born 1954)

Nancy Silverton is an American chef, baker, restaurateur, and author. The winner of the James Beard Foundation's Outstanding Chef Award in 2014, Silverton is recognized for her role in popularizing sourdough and artisan breads in the United States.

<i>The Best Thing I Ever Ate</i> 2009 American TV series or program

The Best Thing I Ever Ate is a television series that originally aired on Food Network, debuting on June 22, 2009.

Gale Gand is a Chicago-based pastry chef, cookbook author, television personality, and winner of the 2001 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. Gand was the host of the Food Network show Sweet Dreams. She was the Chef-in-Residence at Elawa Farm, in Lake Forest, Illinois. Gand is a partner and was the founding Executive Pastry Chef at Tru, a contemporary fine-dining restaurant affiliated with Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises. Gand and her partners at Tru won the 2007 James Beard Foundation Award for Service. She has blogged for the Huffington Post, was a contestant on Iron Chef America in the 2006–2007 season, and was a judge on Bravo's Top Chef in 2008 for the episode Wedding Wars. Gand was also featured on the Great Chefs television program.

Maida Heatter was an American pastry chef and cookbook author who specialized in baking and desserts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Yee</span> American chef, specializing in pastry

Jennifer Yee is an American chef, specializing in pastry. Born and raised in San Francisco, she worked in several pastry kitchens in some of New York's finest restaurants, including Lafayette in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan as Patissière, and The Grill in midtown Manhattan's Seagram Building, as the opening Pastry Chef, before becoming the Executive Pastry Chef for Chef Linton Hopkins' restaurants in Atlanta. Her work has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation in both New York and Atlanta.

Pichet Ong is a 5 times James Beard Award nominated chef who specializes in desserts. As a self-taught chef with no formal training Chef Ong is best known for pioneering savory techniques and forgoing the heavy use of sugar in his desserts. Ong mixes classic technique and whimsical culinary style which are inspired by his heritage and local ingredients.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Guas</span> American chef (born 1975)

David Guas is a chef, TV personality, restaurateur and cookbook author from New Orleans, Louisiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Iuzzini</span> Pastry chef

Johnny Iuzzini /u-zee-nee/ is a New York City-based American pastry chef, television celebrity, and cookbook author. He served as executive pastry chef at Daniel from 2001 through 2002 and at Jean Georges from 2002 through 2011. Iuzzini is the author of two cookbooks and was a judge on the first three seasons of The Great American Baking Show. On November 29, 2017, Iuzzini was accused of sexual harassment by four former employees and the third season of The Great American Baking Show was pulled after one episode.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Tosi</span> American chef, author and TV personality

Christina Tosi is an American chef and cookbook author. She is founder and co-owner with Momofuku of Milk Bar and serves as its chef and chief executive officer. Food & Wine magazine included her in their 2014 list of "Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Kenji López-Alt</span> American chef and food writer

James Kenji López-Alt is an American chef and food writer. His first book, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, became a critical and commercial success, charting on the New York Times Bestseller list and winning the 2016 James Beard Foundation Award for the best General Cooking cookbook. The cookbook expanded on López-Alt's "The Food Lab" column on the Serious Eats blog. López-Alt is known for using the scientific method in his cooking to improve popular American recipes and to explain the science of cooking.

Sherry Yard is an American chef, restaurateur and cookbook author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claire Saffitz</span> American pastry chef and video host

Claire Saffitz is an American food writer, chef, and YouTube personality. Until mid-2020, she was a contributing editor at Bon Appétit magazine and starred in several series on the Bon Appétit YouTube channel, including Gourmet Makes, in which she created gourmet versions of popular snack foods by reverse engineering them. Since leaving the company, she has published two cookbooks, Dessert Person and What's for Dessert, which both became New York Times Best Sellers. She has continued work as a video host on her own YouTube channel and as a freelance recipe developer, including for New York Times Cooking.

Nick Malgieri is an American pastry chef and author.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are annual awards presented by the James Beard Foundation to recognize culinary professionals in the United States. The awards recognize chefs, restaurateurs, authors and journalists each year, and are generally scheduled around James Beard's May birthday.

Michelle Polzine is an American pastry chef, author, and former owner of the 20th Century Café in San Francisco, California.

David Lebovitz is an American author primarily known for writing about food. He worked as a dessert and pastry chef before starting to write cookbooks. He also wrote a memoir about his experiences buying and renovating an apartment in Paris.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Craddock, Kat (March 22, 2019). "BraveTart is the Best Baking Book We've Seen in Years". Saveur. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Hilliard, Emily (March 18, 2013). "Give Me Some Sugar: Getting to Know Stella Parks". Southern Living. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Hoffman, Maggie (January 12, 2012). "Get to Know Us: Stella Parks, BraveTart". Serious Eats. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Stella Parks: Pastry Wizard". Serious Eats. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 "Stella Parks". Kentucky Women Writers Conference. 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  6. ↑ Rosen, Kristina (October 21, 2020). "Chefpreneur Ouita Michel announces her first-ever cookbook". Ace Weekly. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  7. ↑ Brion, Raphael (February 15, 2012). "Food & Wine's Best New Pastry Chefs 2012 Announced". Eater. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 Crowley, Chris (August 14, 2017). "A Baking Book That Celebrates the Science of Junk Food". Grub Street. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  9. 1 2 Lower, Claire (March 14, 2019). "I'm Pastry Chef Stella Parks, and This Is How I Eat". Skillet. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Masthead". Serious Eats. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  11. ↑ "Stella Parks: Editor Emeritus for Serious Eats". Serious Eats. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  12. 1 2 Patton, Janet (July 25, 2017). "American desserts celebrated in new cookbook by Lexington baker". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  13. ↑ Moussa, Adam (May 28, 2020). "I'm Baking the Hell Out of This Quarantine Thanks to 'BraveTart'". Eater. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  14. ↑ Craddock, Kat (September 7, 2017). "Bravetart's Stella Parks on How Corporate Marketing Invented American Dessert". Saveur. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  15. ↑ Parks, Stella (2017). BraveTart : iconic American desserts. Santos, Penny de los, López-Alt, J. Kenji. (First ed.). New York. ISBN   978-0-393-23986-7. OCLC   959875767.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  16. ↑ Black, Jane (July 25, 2017). "'BraveTart' is packed with clever upgrades of baking classics". Washington Post. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  17. ↑ Beggs, Alex (May 1, 2019). "May's Cookbook Club Pick Is BraveTart, One of the Greatest Dessert Books of Our Time". Bon Appétit. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  18. ↑ JBF Editors, ed. (April 27, 2018). "The 2018 James Beard Media Award Winners". James Beard Foundation. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.