Saturday, October 8, 10:00 am
Members $50, guests $60

Nick Malgieri may have been the only teenage boy in New Jersey who collected chocolate recipes instead of comics. But that early preparation and obsessive dedication served him well, helping him establish a solid reputation as one of the country’s foremost pastry chefs and culinary educators. As the author of six books—including How to Bake, a 1995 James Beard Foundation Award winner, and Cookies Unlimited, a 2000 James Beard Foundation Award nominee—and as a frequent contributor to Gourmet, Food & Wine, and Cooks Illustrated, a regular on the television cooking show circuit, and an esteemed culinary instructor in various cooking schools, Malgieri has spent the last 25 years perfecting his baking skills and passing his knowledge on to legions of eager apprentices around the world.

Malgieri’s ascent up the pastry ranks began with his own education at the CIA, followed by an apprenticeship in Switzerland and positions at hotels in France and Monte Carlo. Once he returned to the United States, Malgieri moved to New York City, where he worked as an assistant pastry chef at the Waldorf=Astoria, executive chef at Paine Webber, Inc., and executive pastry chef at Windows on the World. In 1979 he returned to the classroom as an instructor at the New School Culinary Arts Program, where he eventually became chairman of the Baking Department. He developed a baking curriculum for the New York Restaurant School (now the Art Institute of New York) as well, before moving on to the Institute of Culinary Education, where he now serves as director of the baking program.

This month, Harper Collins will release Malgieri’s latest cookbook, A Baker’s Tour, which takes a globetrotting approach to baking, highlighting notable pastry recipes from such far-flung locales as Syria, China, Italy, Jamaica, and Austria. But whether he’s making gooey banana bread, buttery linzer hearts, or an aromatic apricot crumb cake, Malgieri’s ability to bring new and exciting twists to classic recipes has made him one of the most popular baking instructors in the country. A day in the kitchen with him is guaranteed to surprise and satisfy your adventurous sweet tooth.