Stella Parks
Born
Kentucky

Stella Parks is an American pastry chef and food writer based in Kentucky. She has worked in various Lexington-area restaurants, notably Table 310, and was a longtime contributor to Serious Eats. Parks received a James Beard Foundation Award in 2018 for her bestselling cookbook BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts.

Early life and education

Stella Parks was born in Kentucky, where she grew up in Versailles.[1][2] She began working in restaurants at the age of 14.[3]

Immediately after graduating high school, Parks left to study at the Culinary Institute of America.[4][3] She graduated in 2002 from the school's baking and pastry program.[1][5]

Restaurant career

Parks worked in a variety of restaurants in the Lexington, Kentucky, area, including Wallace Station and the Holly Hill Inn.[6] She also spent time in Tokyo, moving there to study Japanese as part of a self-described "quarter-life crisis."[5]

In 2010, she was hired to work at the new Lexington restaurant Table 310 as its pastry chef.[5][2] In 2012, she was named one of America's Best New Pastry Chefs by Food & Wine magazine in recognition of her work at Table 310.[7]

Writing

As part of a project with a photographer friend, Parks started her food blog BraveTart in 2010.[2][8] A year later, she began writing a "BraveTart" column at the food website Serious Eats. She became a longtime contributor to the publication, where she served as a senior editor and was dubbed the website's "pastry wizard," though she has continued to be based in Lexington.[8][9][10] After contributing to Serious Eats from 2011 to 2019, with three years as its pastry editor, Parks became editor emeritus at the site.[11]

Parks's work combines baking, history, and science.[12][13] She is known for developing precise, complex recipes that often elevate American childhood favorite desserts through copycat recipes.[14][3][9]

In 2017, Parks published her debut cookbook, BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts.[15] She spent six years working on the book, which involved archival research as well as recipe testing.[12] The cookbook celebrates iconic American desserts and explores the history of the commercial food industry's influence on home baking.[8][16] The BraveTart cookbook became a New York Times bestseller and was well received by critics.[4] It was described as "the most groundbreaking book on baking in years" by Saveur and "one of the greatest dessert books of our time" by Bon Appétit.[1][17] In 2018, Parks's BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts won a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Baking and Dessert Book.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c Craddock, Kat (March 22, 2019). "BraveTart is the Best Baking Book We've Seen in Years". Saveur. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Hilliard, Emily (March 18, 2013). "Give Me Some Sugar: Getting to Know Stella Parks". Southern Living. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Hoffman, Maggie (January 12, 2012). "Get to Know Us: Stella Parks, BraveTart". Serious Eats. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Stella Parks: Pastry Wizard". Serious Eats. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "Stella Parks". Kentucky Women Writers Conference. 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  6. ^ Rosen, Kristina (October 21, 2020). "Chefpreneur Ouita Michel announces her first-ever cookbook". Ace Weekly. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  7. ^ Brion, Raphael (February 15, 2012). "Food & Wine's Best New Pastry Chefs 2012 Announced". Eater. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  8. ^ a b c Crowley, Chris (August 14, 2017). "A Baking Book That Celebrates the Science of Junk Food". Grub Street. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Lower, Claire (March 14, 2019). "I'm Pastry Chef Stella Parks, and This Is How I Eat". Skillet. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  10. ^ "Masthead". Serious Eats. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  11. ^ "Stella Parks: Editor Emeritus for Serious Eats". Serious Eats. Retrieved May 25, 2021.
  12. ^ a b Patton, Janet (July 25, 2017). "American desserts celebrated in new cookbook by Lexington baker". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  13. ^ Moussa, Adam (May 28, 2020). "I'm Baking the Hell Out of This Quarantine Thanks to 'BraveTart'". Eater. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  14. ^ Craddock, Kat (September 7, 2017). "Bravetart's Stella Parks on How Corporate Marketing Invented American Dessert". Saveur. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  15. ^ Parks, Stella (2017). BraveTart : iconic American desserts. Santos, Penny de los, López-Alt, J. Kenji. (First ed.). New York. ISBN 978-0-393-23986-7. OCLC 959875767.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  16. ^ Black, Jane (July 25, 2017). "'BraveTart' is packed with clever upgrades of baking classics". Washington Post. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  17. ^ Beggs, Alex (May 1, 2019). "May's Cookbook Club Pick Is BraveTart, One of the Greatest Dessert Books of Our Time". Bon Appétit. Retrieved November 14, 2020.
  18. ^ JBF Editors (April 27, 2018). "The 2018 James Beard Media Award Winners". James Beard Foundation. Retrieved November 14, 2020. ((cite web)): |last= has generic name (help)
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