About

Photo by Greg Gorman

I spent nearly thirteen years at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, a popular restaurant owned by Alice Waters. I worked in the pastry department with executive pastry chef Lindsey Shere, creating desserts and baking with an amazing team of people.

I was also the pastry chef at several San Francisco restaurants and was named one of the “Top Five Pastry Chefs in the Bay Area” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

In addition to local accolades, I’ve received acclaim in such publications as Bon Appétit, Chocolatier, Cooking Light, Fine Cooking, Food+Wine, Gourmet, Condé Nast Traveler, Cook’s Illustrated, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, The New York Times, People, Saveur, Sunset, and USA Today. And yes, that was me in People magazine, with Paula Abdul.

I’ve appear on national television programs such as Gourmet magazine’s Diary of a Foodie on PBS, the Discovery Channel, NBC’s Today Show, and Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel.

I attended Callebaut College in Belgium and Ecole du Grand Chocolat Valrhona in France, and took advanced courses in baking and the art of confectionery at the renowned Ecole Lenôtre in Paris. Because we bakers like to share, I lead culinary tours of Paris, which focus on chocolate, ice cream, breads, and the pastries of France.

In 1999, I left the restaurant business and wrote Room For Dessert, which was honored as a finalist for an IACP/KitchenAid Cookbook Award. The New York Times called Room For Dessert “brilliantly appealing (with) recipes so good it becomes clear what a master baker he is” and the San Francisco Examiner hailed Room For Dessert as an “instant classic”.

My second book, Ripe For Dessert, is filled with classic and contemporary desserts with fruit. Because of changes in the publishing industry, both of these books are now out of print, never to be seen again. But the good news is…

…my book, Ready for Dessert (Ten Speed), features my all-time favorite recipes from both of those books. I completely updated the recipes that I picked out, added a bunch more recipes that I couldn’t resist sharing, included metric measurements, and has sixty all-new photographs. It’s a pretty stunning book, if I do say so myself.

Delving into the world of chocolate, I wrote The Great Book of Chocolate (Ten Speed), the ultimate guide to all-things chocolate. The Great Book of Chocolate was cited as one of the top books of the year by The New York Times and Food+Wine magazine.

The Perfect Scoop (Ten Speed) is the best-selling guide to ice cream and frozen desserts, and contains hundred of recipes for ice creams, sorbets, and granitas… plus all the deliciously gooey, nutty, and chocolaty things that get mixed inside and drizzled over the top.

I also penned, The Sweet Life in Paris (Broadway), a food-based memoir of my first fun-filled years in Paris, packed with humorous and delicious stories about the city, with French-inspired recipes that are both sweet and savory.

The Sweet Life in Paris was a finalist in the Best Literary Writing category for a 2010 Cuisinart/International Association of Culinary Professionals award.

I started my website in 1999, which featured frequently updated stories and recipes. In 2005, I added blogging software, which made writing and updating it a lot easier so it could officially be called a “blog”. I never realized how many people would start reading it, but folks keep coming back for more—and more.

You can also find me on Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.

Please read the following prior to sending a message…

As much as I appreciate folks asking, I’m unable to get together with individuals who visit Paris due to work commitments. I hold events on occasion, which get announced on my Schedule page, and I’m happy to meet guests at any one of them.

If you’d like to know where to get certain foods or food-related items, you can find out at my post: How to Find Foods and Other Items Mentioned On the Site.

If you have questions about making ice cream or frozen desserts, post them here and I will respond in that forum, to share the frozen love with others.

For queries about specific products, I recommend contacting the manufacturer as they’re best equipped to provide you with assistance.

For questions about using my recipes on your website or blog, you can read the post I did on Recipe Attribution, and follow the guidelines there.

If you have questions about a specific recipe or post, leave your question in the comment field of that post and I will answer it there. If the comments are closed, that means that most questions about that recipe have been asked and answered.

For queries about Paris restaurants, blogging and cookbook writing, cooking classes, transportation, or hotels, or would like career or Paris internship advice, you’ll find comprehensive answers to those on my FAQ page or at My Paris.

Please do not send requests for link exchanges, paid or promotional link opportunities, or invitations to join aggregating websites.

If you have media-related questions about The Sweet Life in Paris, please contact Ellen Folan at Random House. For requests about Ready for Dessert, please contact Kristin Casemore at Ten Speed.

If you’re enjoying The Sweet Life in Paris, please feel free to leave a positive review on Amazon. And you can also leave one for Ready for Dessert, too. Merci! : )

Answers to almost all other queries can be found on my way-too-comprehensive FAQ page.

-David

Did you read those? Are you sure? If you send a message and don’t get a response, it’s likely that the answer to your query can be found on the aforementioned FAQ page. We pastry people tend to be meticulously thorough, so look there first.

Due to the volume of mail and work-related commitments, I’m unable to answer all messages and I do apologize if I’m unavailable to personally respond to yours.

Thanks!