Kathryn Gordon is a Chef-Instructor in the professional Pastry & Baking program at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in NYC. In 2017, she was named one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in the United States by Dessert Professional magazine. She is the Chair of the Center for Advanced Pastry Studies (CAPS), ICE’s continuing education program for industry professionals. Kathryn is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier, NY Chapter and the Green Tables Committee.

Chef Kathryn is a co-founder with two partners of Food Startup Help, a consultancy group for bakeries and food entrepreneurs with projects across the country and abroad. She graduated from Vassar College, and worked in management consulting after finishing an MBA at NYU Stern in Finance, but turned her knowledge and interest for cooking into a passionate career. In her path to pastry chef, Kathryn was privileged to work under renowned pastry chef Jacques Torres, M.O.F. She earned honors certification from L'Academie de Cuisine in Maryland and began working in Washington D.C. at Kinkead’s Restaurant, Criollo Chocolate and Occasions Catering. She then returned to Manhattan and trained at two 4-star NYC restaurants—Le Bernardin and Le Cirque. She refined her culinary skills while working in the kitchens of The Rainbow Room and Windows on the World, where she was the Pastry Chef of Cellar in The Sky.

Chef Kathryn has also taught at the New York Restaurant School (later the Art Institute), Brookdale Community College and Kingsborough Community College (CUNY), and has been a reviewer of many of the industry’s textbooks. Chef Kathryn was an assistant producer for the Carymax World and National Pastry Championships and the World Pastry Forum for 12 years, including helping to emcee the live 2-day competitions. She has competed on Food Network with a colleague from ICE, and participated in the Paris Gourmet US Pastry Competition, regional chocolate showpiece competitions, and placed third in a national plated desserts competition.

Kathryn is a featured chef in the American Almond Lookbook. Chef Kathryn is the Director of Loire Valley Cooking, a program she has since 2002. Her best selling first cookbook, co-written with Anne E. McBride and released in 2011 by Running Press, Les Petits Macarons, Colorful French Confections to Make at Home, has been described by The Wall Street Journal as the most “comprehensive and inspiring” book on macarons in any language, and has been translated into Chinese. Their second book, Les Petits Sweets, Two Bite Desserts from the French Patisserie, was released in 2016.

Chef Kathryn’s third cookbook is now released! Le Moulin Brégeon, Le Petit Moulin of the Loire Valley: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/197721455X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=197721455X&linkCode=as2&tag=amz024b-20

Kathryn’s website is kathryn-gordon.com. She resides in Brooklyn with her wife Jessie Riley.

Anne E. McBride regularly writes on topics related to professional and experimental cooking, including contributions to Food Arts, Gastronomica, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Savoring Gotham, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, and Food Cultures of the World. She is the co-author of three books with famed pastry chef François Payard, including Payard Cookies (November 2015), of Les Petits Sweets (September 2016) and Les Petits Macarons with Kathryn Gordon, and Culinary Careers: How to Get Your Dream Job in Food. She is the program director for the Worlds of Flavor® International Conference & Festival at the Culinary Institute of America. At New York University, where she is finishing a Ph.D. in food studies and regularly teaches, she is the director of the Experimental Cuisine Collective, an interdisciplinary group of more than 2600 scientists, chefs, media, scholars, and food enthusiasts. A native of Switzerland, McBride sits on the board of the Association for the Study of Food and Society and on the James Beard Foundation Awards Committee, and was a two-term board member of the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance and past board member of The Culinary Trust. She is a frequent presenter and moderator at scholarly and trade conferences. Find her on Twitter at @annemcbride and online at annemcbride.net.