About Me
Hello There!
I’m Jenni Field, the voice, the recipe developer, the photographer, and the social media manager who runs Pastry Chef Online. With a background in both education and pastry arts, I am uniquely qualified as an expert in teaching baking and pastry in a fun and accessible way.
After spending 16 years teaching special education, I took a leap of faith and attended culinary school at Orlando Culinary Academy to refine and hone my knowledge. During and after completion of my AS in Baking and Pastry, I helped to open a bakery and did production baking of everything from huge eclairs to puff pastry treats and all sorts of cookies.
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I also held pastry positions from pastry cook to pastry chef in fine dining restaurants in Winter Park, Florida. I worked at Luma on Park, which had a strong 15-year run, and I was on the opening team of The Ravenous Pig, which has grown and expanded since opening in 2007.
Over the seventeen years (and counting) I’ve run Pastry Chef Online, I have refined my focus based on readers’ needs, and today, I specialize in:
- Testing and perfecting sweet and savory recipes
- Providing resources for people who want to understand the whys and hows behind the whats of baking
Cool stuff I’ve done
COOK THE BOOK WITH DENISE AND JENNI. One really fun and rewarding thing I’ve done is host a cookalong show with my friend, food stylist, culinary instructor, and cookbook author extrordinaire, Denise Vivaldo.
Through producing and cohosting that show, I’ve had the pleasure to cook and bake with, either in person or virtually, many, many culinary heroes of mine.
Some of the guests we had the honor of platforming include:
- The Julia Child of Southern Cuisine, Nathalie Dupree
- IACP Cookbook Award Winner, Kian Lam Kho, Chinese cooking authority and author of Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees
- World-Renowned pie baker, instructor, and cookbook author Kate McDermott
- Twice James Beard Nominated and IACP Award-winning baker, author and teacher, Abby Dodge
- Undisputed expert in the cooking and foodways of Latin America, Sandra Gutierrez
- Joyful and talented ambassador of Thai food as well as Southern cakes, pies, and more, cookbook author and instructor, Nancie McDermott
I have had opportunities to work with many wonderful brands such as Barilla, North Carolina State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Harris Teeter, and the Idaho Potato Commission.
I’ve been honored to be a judge for the James Beard Foundation’s annual celebration of all things food in the United States, The James Beard Awards in the Book Awards Category.
I’ve also judged prepared foods for the North Carolina Specialty Foods Association, cake decorating at the North Carolina State Fair, and beef recipes for a North Carolina FFA competition.
I’ve appeared as a guest on local radio shows including The Story with Dick Gordon on our local NPR affiliate and on several food-centric podcasts, including Women Beyond a Certain Age, All the Right Ingredients, and Recipe of the Day from Cook the Story.
Sometimes I get to talk about food in online articles. I’ve been quoted in articles sharing tips for making cinnamon rolls, for troubleshooting cheesecakes, and for the best ways to use frozen croissants, to name a few. I will and can talk about food with anyone. Try me! (new section)
A born-and-bred North Carolinian, I was honored to be the first blogger ever to work with Got To Be NC to promote North Carolina beef, pork, and poultry, organizing a group of talented NC bloggers trips to local farms and coordinating blogging events featuring recipes using local meats.
I was inducted into our local chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier, an international philanthropic organization of women in food, in 2018.
What you will find on this Blog
Learn or reinforce your basic baking skills by jumping into my Ingredient Function and Mixing Methods sections.
Interested in becoming an expert in making creme brulee? Or maybe pie crust? I have exhaustive tutorials on both of those.
Don’t want to necessarily become an expert, but you’d like to make a great dessert for an everyday treat or special occasion? I can help with that, too. Maybe a sour cream coffee cake you can be sure will be moist and full of flavor. Consider some tasty, old-fashioned date bars that are a cut above the ordinary. Or try a perfected peanut butter cookie made with brown butter and a ton of peanut butter.
And knock out your guests with some moist, fudgy chocolate stout cake with a burnt caramel buttercream I developed specifically for this cake. Or a sublime chocolate mousse that will make people’s eyes roll back inside their heads. And there’s not much better than my family’s English trifle recipe.
After writing PCO for a few years, I realized that people cannot live by dessert alone, even if we sometimes wish we could, so I now have a really solid collection of tasty savory recipes, from pizza to breads and rolls to creative and/or comforting side dishes.
My hope and goal is to be your friend in the kitchen, teaching you what you need to know to be successful and fearless, whether you want to master a technique or just make a really excellent cookie.
And I am never more than an email away. I try to be as accessible as possible, so you can use the contact form on the site, email me directly, comment on any post, or find me on social media and ask a question on the Facebook page.
