Dana Cree

Posted February 1st, 2016 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

I met Amanda Rockman over bowls of boiled chicken and rice, Hianese style, curled up on upholstered dining room chairs next to each other. It was an evening of the kind of laughter that contorts your face, cramps your stomach, and otherwise leaves you feeling drained in the best way possible. We might have left… Read more »

Posted December 2nd, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

 Mathew Rice, the pastry chef at The Publican restaurant in Chicago, sat down for a lovely chat about his recent experience on the first all dessert episode of the Food Network’s cooking competition, Chopped. Spoiler alert! He was crowned victorious, and with his winnings he is investing in his own exciting website, called Spilled Milk… Read more »

Posted November 27th, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

  my latest contribution to Chefs Feed delves into what it’s like for a chef to vacation. I struggled to write this piece, as I had only vacationed as a chef. But after a few months away from the grind of restaurants I took a trip to Mexico for a friends wedding. Two days after… Read more »

Posted November 21st, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

We have a new writer joining the community here at The Pastry Department! Harry Flager has just returned stateside after staging in various restaurants through out Asia. If you know Harry, you know that staging is the foundation of his self structured education, a practice I HIGHLY encourage all young cooks to consider. Heck, old… Read more »

Posted November 17th, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

My latest installment over at Lucky Peach is just in time for your holiday baking! A guide to pie crusts includes the in’s and outs of making pie crusts, or maybe it’s the why’s and how’s? I dare say, it’s quite explanatory, I’m not sure Ive ever written the word “fat” so much. Attached are my 4… Read more »

Posted November 2nd, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

If you read my last column for Lucky Peach, you should be ready to make proud, hollow cream puff shells. But what of their filling! Worry no more, the follow up to that piece discusses pastry cream, the classic companion for pate a choux. You may have seen pastry cream in a fruit tart, or… Read more »

Posted October 20th, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

I first started following the work of Ron Mendoza, long before I started following the work of Ron Mendoza. It’s confusing, I know. But about 3 years ago, I started coming across pictures of desserts made by the pastry chef of Aubergine. They resonated with me in a way few do, our desserts are kindred… Read more »

Posted October 16th, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

The latest column from Chefs Feed, this one discusses what happens to those left behind when a chef leaves. I’ve left a team behind at blackbird, just as I inherited one when I arrived. Likewise, I’ve been a cook, left behind when a chef decided to move on and a new one brought a sea of change into… Read more »

Posted October 13th, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

Danielle Snow walked into my life one lunch service, over a year ago. She had applied for the pastry cook position I had posted, and took it upon herself to come in and express her interest in person. It takes guts to cold call a chef, in person. It must, because I’ve rarely seen it… Read more »

Posted October 8th, 2015 by Dana Cree & filed under Uncategorized.

Hot off the presses! My latest piece at Lucky Peach discusses the earliest fundamental recipe I tackled. My first menu, at a neighborhood restaurant called Eva in Seattle almost always had a profiterole on it, hiding under seasonal fruit compotes, standing in for biscuits in a strawberry shortcake, or holding scoops of spiced pumpkin ice… Read more »