Sunday, March 21, 12:00 noon
Members $60, guests $70

Beginning in the 10th century, the guild system developed and grew throughout Europe. As merchants and craftsmen concentrated in cities, they organized themselves into formal associations and established rules of conduct. Butchers, bakers, tinkers, cobblers, and other groups of like-talented individuals joined guilds, the precursors to modern-day labor unions and professional associations. Guilds helped counteract the uneven distribution of power between the ruling classes and the working classes. Today, although the idea of a guild may be anachronistic vis-à-vis power and professionalism, there’s no denying the inspiration derived from associating and sharing with a group of one’s peers and one’s friends.

That’s no doubt the idea behind the Professional Pastry Guild of New England, a group of 100-plus pastry chefs founded in 1996. Five members of the Guild’s Board of Directors are coming to the Beard House this month to prepare a sumptuous Sunday brunch, proving the age-old adage that there is strength (and delicate pastry) in numbers.

Although she’s now working at Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville, California, it was in New England, in Boston, to be exact, that pastry chef Judy Mattera made a sweet name for herself. In Beantown she worked at The Federalist, Grill 23, and Olives. Lee Napoli, pastry chef of Sandrine’s, was a co-founder of the guild. She mastered her craft at Icarus in Boston’s South End, and then worked at Boston’s legendary Maison Robert. Napoli succeeded Mattera at Grill 23. Stints at Anago and Metro followed, before she settled into her post at Sandrine’s. She divides her time between Sandrine’s and Dedo.

Suzi Parks is a native of New Mexico who found her niche in Boston’s wedding whirlwind, where she operates Wedding Angels, a full-service consultancy from goodies to gown. Parks studied with Albert Kumin and worked at Mamma Maria, where the Boston Herald critic noted that her “impeccably fresh renditions” of Italian desserts “will delight you.”

Paige Retus put the sugar in Todd English’s sails at Olives for six years—developing desserts for all his properties around the country and co-authoring The Olives Dessert Table with him—before she left to help Jody Adams open Blu in The Ritz-Carlton. This CIA grad’s pastry résumé includes stints at One Market and The Sherman House in San Francisco, and Blantyre in Lenox, Massachusetts. Boston Globe reviewer Amy Graves said Blu “was stealing the show” from some of the other restaurants in town.

Elaine Stella has been the pastry chef at Jimmy and Bonnie Burke’s Tuscan Grill since 1998. Also a graduate of the CIA, Stella worked at Pillar House, Blue Wave, the Bay Tower, and the Radisson in Boston before she settled in at the Grill. (She also does desserts at Tullio’s Grotto, a sister restaurant.)

This brunch is scheduled for the first day of spring. It’s a sweet way to ring in a new season, and to celebrate the centuries-old idea of a guild of skilled pastry chefs cooking, sharing, learning and having fun together.