What does it take to become a pastry chef and how does the role differ in terms of hours and recognition than other chefs? What are the pros and the cons?
 
Lesley Chesterman, a former pastry chef herself will moderate a panel posing these questions and many others related to this fascinating culinary vocation.
 
Chesterman is a food and media rock star in Quebec, in both English and French. Apart from her twenty years of influential and informative restaurant reviews in the Montreal Gazette, she had a weekly reporting gig on Radio-Canada for a decade and continues to make countless other radio and television appearances as judge, commentator, and reporter. Lesley is so well known and so respected in French-speaking Canada that Chez Lesley, the award-winning French edition of her recently released cookbook, sold more than 20,000 copies thus far (The English edition is called Make Every Dish Delicious).
 
Joining her with their insights are some of the country’s most revered pastry chefs, Toronto’s Joanne Yolles, Montreal’s Patrice Demers, and Prince Edward County’s Michael Sullivan.
 
Chef Joanne Yolles is about as OG as it gets having started her career 40 years ago attending cooking school at Tante Marie’s in San Francisco. She is also the creator of Scaramouche’s legendary coconut cream pie, still the best-selling menu item some 30 plus years later.
Chef Yolles cites a major career highlight as baking for Julia Child.

Chef Patrice Demers is Montreal Pastry Chef royalty and was named Best Pastry Chef in Quebec in 2018 by the Lauriers Gala. In 2019, he was selected by Ladurée to collaborate on a Christmas Collection that was sold worldwide and also developed dessert programs in some of Montreal’s top restaurants creating desserts where fruits and acidity played an important role. Chef Demers, along with his wife, opened his pastry shop, Patrice Pâtissier, near Montreal’s Atwater Market in 2014 and hosted his own television show called Les Desserts de Patrice for five seasons on Canal Vie, and published four cookbooks, the most recent being Parcours Sucré in 2019.

Chef Michael Sullivan has been the head chef at Merrill House for over 18 years and has come from some Toronto’s finest kitchens such as Auberge du Pommier and The Fifth. With an affinity for French cuisine and pastry, his menus have evolved over the years to reflect the terroir of Prince Edward County. Inspired by recent culinary tours in France and the UK, Chef Sullivan continues to innovate whilst respecting the heritage of his dishes.