kathryn-gordon

Kathryn Gordon

Chef-Instructor, Pastry & Baking Arts & Instructor, Restaurant & Culinary Management
Faculty

Biography

Kathryn Gordon received her bachelor's degree from Vassar, later attending New York University鈥檚 Stern School of Business for her graduate MBA degree. She began her career as a Wall Street consultant before switching to food. After deciding to change professions, Gordon earned an honors certification from L'Academie de Cuisine and worked at leading restaurants such as The Rainbow Room, Windows on the World, Tavern on the Green, Le Cirque and Le Bernardin.

Chef Kathryn was an assistant producer and co-host of the live Carymax World and National Pastry Championships for 12 years. She joined ICE in fall 2003, transforming her knowledge and experience into a passionate career in education. Chef Kathryn helped launch ICE鈥檚 culinary study abroad programs, and wrote the cookbook for Le Moulin Br茅geon, Le Petit Moulin of the Loire Valley. Chef Kathryn co-chaired the Center for Advanced Pastry Studies at ICE for over 10 years. Chef Kathryn has been a formidable competitor in national and regional pastry competitions, has taught a Craftsy class on Contemporary Layer Cakes and has been a nationally featured chef in the first American Almond Lookbook.

In 2011, she published "," a best-selling guide to crafting French macarons 鈥 one of the pastry world鈥檚 most notoriously tricky sweets. Described by The Wall Street Journal as 鈥渃omprehensive and inspiring,鈥 the book has sold over 70,000 copies. Her second book is also available through Running Press, 鈥淟es Petits Sweets, Two-Bite Desserts from the French Patisserie.鈥

Chef Kathryn is a founding partner in Food Startup Help, a food consultancy for entrepreneurs building wholesale or retail bakeries, or bringing a CPG food product to production, and co-wrote their textbook on how to launch a food product.  She is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, Culinary Historians of New York and helps with the Billion Oyster Project.

In ICE鈥檚 New York teaching kitchens, Chef Kathryn aims to create extreme scenarios that challenge students to think on their feet. Inspired by her attention to detail and determined focus, Kathryn鈥檚 students have gone on to find their own significant success, including Dana (Loia) Pollack of Dana鈥檚 Bakery, Jenny Ammirati of Culture, American Yogurt Company, Alon Langleib (Miriam Restaurant) and Helen Nyugen (Saigon Social).

For Chef Kathryn, the term "culinary voice" means, 鈥渢hinking about the food you're serving from the ingredient level up 鈥 what the ingredients are, where they came from and how they were grown, and how they go together in delicious and perhaps surprising manners.鈥

Awards and Honors

  • Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America, Dessert Professional magazine, 2017

Kathryn Gordon on the Blog