Executive Pastry Chef at The Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group and Northside Social Coffee & Wine

Take your original idea, and stick with it. Countless times my preliminary attempts at creating a dish have fallen very short of my initial vision. When that happens, I can either decide to change course and allow things to unfold as they want to, or I can regroup and alter my strategy, while sticking with my original idea. The challenges are greater, but the creative satisfaction is ultimately deeper, and frequently I am pushed to explore new techniques and unfamiliar approaches. I think back to a variation of a millionaire bar that I decided to put on a dessert menu very early in my career, and how much trouble that sturdy-yet-gooey-at-room temperature caramel layer gave me. That original idea tends to contain all of the magic and whimsy that come hand in hand with the initial spark of inspiration, and it’s always worth pursuing.

Sometimes it feels impossible to separate my role as a chef from other areas of my life. Inspiration strikes in the most unexpected places and at any time of day - thumbing through a cookbook, enjoying a unique dish while on vacation that I think would translate beautifully as a dessert, noticing the smell of a certain ingredient while grocery shopping.

Travel is an important part of my family life, and a challenge I love is translating a culinary experience from another place and time into my menus. This allows me to share some part of that experience with others enjoying my dish, even if they don’t know it. Some of my herb-forward creations certainly have roots in the adventurous sage-infused crème brulee that I sampled in a tiny Tuscan café years ago.

Even after a long, tiring shift on my feet, there is nothing like a quick run to help me feel refreshed and centered. I also do some of my best menu planning while on a solitary run!

Throughout my career, I have had the pleasure of working alongside team members from a number of different countries and cultures, with a multitude of languages spoken in our kitchens. I have learned that an open door enriches all aspects of my baking program, and this extends down to an openness to trying recipes, ideas, and techniques shared from different cultures and traditions.

I reference a wide range of sources for inspiration and pleasure (recipe) reading, but cookbooks remain a pillar of professional and personal inspiration for me when I want to fully experience a baker’s philosophy. There is something about paging through the beautiful, glossy pages of a cookbook that can’t be rivaled. Dorie Greenspan and her body of work always provide a sophisticated yet approachable treat fix. What I consider “bakery cookbooks”, like Lisa Ludwinski’s “Sister Pie: The Recipes and Stories of a Big-Hearted Bakery in Detroit”, offer range and depth when you just want to bake something comforting and delicious. Thalia Ho’s “Wild Sweetness: Recipes Inspired by Nature” exemplifies a marriage between baking and nature that I adore, and Helen Goh’s “Baking and The Meaning of Life: How to Find Joy in 100 Recipes” features remarkably thoughtful ingredient pairings that, while paired with her writing, are thought-provoking and inspiring.