Best Pastry Chefs

They Reign Supreme
For decades, pastry chefs in restaurants have been relegated to the rear of the kitchen, creating the sweet finish to a meal, but surrendering the applause to chefs in the front of the line. No disrespect to chefs who chose a savory lifestyle—I was one myself—but most savory cooks aren’t capable of the intense focus, greater understanding of food chemistry, and commitment to precision and replication that pastry work requires. Pastry pros are often responsible for everything from the amuse bouche to breads to desserts, plus chocolates, candy, and the quirky fruit concoctions at the bar. But as restaurant overhead has skyrocketed, many restaurants have outsourced their pastry program or subdivided it among line cooks. The most reliable spot to discover true pastry genius today is at a fine hotel, as you’ll see here. Great pastry chefs have always been hard to find, but here are the five who set our local standard.

For great recipes from our top pastry chefs, click here.

Christina Kaelberer
RESTAURANT: Chambers Kitchen
YEARS IN PASTRY: 5
FAVORITE SWEET: Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies

The new kid on the block is Christina Kaelberer. Comparatively, she is almost a toddler, but her food is complete, her execution consistent. Kaelberer believes in keeping desserts simple, a fitting philosophy considering she is taking direction from the king of contrasting simple with elegant, Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Kaelberer studied at the Valrhona chocolate school in France and The Arts Institutes International in Minneapolis. She worked as a pastry cook at Vincent before joining Cosmos, working under Jonathan Saliba. The passion fruit soufflé with passion fruit caramel and bitter chocolate sorbet that she turns out each day at Chambers is one of the three best desserts in the Twin Cities. For the holidays, she is poaching figs in port wine and serving them with cumin ice cream. She says she will be working with plenty of local apples, doing something with pumpkin, and serving a peach-and-lavender ice cream float with white chocolate–ginger cookies. 901 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-767-6979

Leah Henderson
RESTAURANT: D’Amico Cucina, plus Masa, Campiello, Lurçat
YEARS IN PASTRY: 20
FAVORITE SWEET: Mom’s rhubarb pie

Leah Henderson grew up on a Midwestern dairy farm and has pursued a lifelong devotion to sweets. In her thirteenth year with the fratelli D’Amico, she draws inspiration from an immense collection of vintage cookbooks, her rootsy pedigree, and a love affair with Italian flavors and technique. The result? Lemon mascarpone panna cotta with roasted black mission figs, ruby port glaze, and candied spiced pecans. An amalgam of caramelized peaches, prosecco-zabaglione cream, and almond cake served with white pepper gelato—all the proof you need that there is nothing simple or folksy about Henderson’s fare. Come fall, she switches to a palette of richer and more complex flavors. Toward holiday time, she always features traditional Italian sweets. Butler Square, 100 N. 6th St., Mpls., 612-338-2401

Carrie Summer
RESTAURANT: Spoonriver
YEARS IN PASTRY: 20
FAVORITE SWEET: Warm cake doughnuts, baklava

Carrie Summer has some of the country’s best-known restaurants on her résumé: She worked at Morimoto and Jo Jo in New York before moving to the new Cue in 2006. Summer joined Brenda Langton, Lisa Carlson, and Liv Benser at Spoonriver last winter, a perfect fit considering Summer’s natural hankering for combining elements on a plate in a modern style. Her vibe stops just short of experimental, but she’s a classicist at heart. Check out her chicory-chocolate cream and sake apricots, the tofu cheesecake with prickly pear géleé and candied wolfberries, the olive oil–and–yogurt almond cake with berries and yogurt ice cream, the cardamom bête noire with cocoa-nib brittle. Summer serves up her famous mini doughnuts at the Mill City Farmers’ Market and is planning holiday creations such as pumpkin doughnuts, a modern take on crèpes suzettes (perhaps with banana), and a fruit pot pie. 750 S. 2nd St., Mpls., 612-436-2236

Khanh Tran
RESTAURANT: Cosmos at Graves 601 Hotel
YEARS IN PASTRY: 10
FAVORITE SWEET: Warm beignets and Vietnamese chicory coffee

Khanh Tran is a familiar name to sweet freaks. She was pastry chef at Auriga, then Turtle Bread Company, and Levain. Tran is a restaurant baby—her family founded Lotus Vietnamese restaurant in Minneapolis, but she got her formal education at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. Tran also attended the acclaimed Ecole de Gastronomie Française in Paris, staying on for an apprenticeship at the Ritz–Escoffier Hotel. She is in love with contrasts: hot-cold, salty-sweet, crisp-soft. But her real trump card is the well-played joker—avocado custard or buttermilk sorbet with a basil géleé. She puts white pepper ice cream with smoked hot chocolate; spiced figs and salted almond praline are elements in a chocolate-tart composition. For the holiday season, she’s going with homey—think brown-butter cake and citrus fruits or tropicals paired with nut flavors. 601 1st Ave. N., Mpls., 612-312-1168

Michelle Gayer
RESTAURANT: La Belle Vie and Solera
YEARS IN PASTRY: 17
FAVORITE SWEET: Ice Cream

Michelle Gayer is the most acclaimed pastry chef living in the Twin Cities. The former pastry queen at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago cowrote Charlie Trotter’s Desserts and has worked with Nancy Silverton of La Brea Bakery, so she is as at home with the exotic and experimental as she is the rustic and classical—she also teaches at Le Cordon Bleu. In 2002, she received a James Beard Best Chef nomination and a year later was named Best Pastry Chef by the editors of Bon Appetit. She has just come out of restaurant retirement to take over the pastry program at Solera and, more prominently, La Belle Vie. Her La Belle Vie menu is not set, but she’s working on a more natural approach with a simplicity she believes is the way the pendulum is about to swing. That said, she will also be incorporating savory flavors such as olive oil and herb infusions. For the holidays, all she’s promising is lots of browned butter. 510 Groveland Ave., Mpls., 612-874-6440