Stella Parks

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 is 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] Parks is now an editor at large for 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. Craddock, Kat (2019-03-22). "BraveTart is the Best Baking Book We've Seen in Years". Saveur. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  2. Hilliard, Emily (2013-03-18). "Give Me Some Sugar: Getting to Know Stella Parks". Southern Living. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  3. Hoffman, Maggie (2012-01-12). "Get to Know Us: Stella Parks, BraveTart". Serious Eats. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  4. "Stella Parks: Pastry Wizard". Serious Eats. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  5. "Stella Parks". Kentucky Women Writers Conference. 2012. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  6. Rosen, Kristina (2020-10-21). "Chefpreneur Ouita Michel announces her first-ever cookbook". Ace Weekly. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  7. Brion, Raphael (2012-02-15). "Food & Wine's Best New Pastry Chefs 2012 Announced". Eater. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  8. Crowley, Chris (2017-08-14). "A Baking Book That Celebrates the Science of Junk Food". Grub Street. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  9. Lower, Claire (2019-03-14). "I'm Pastry Chef Stella Parks, and This Is How I Eat". Skillet. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  10. "Masthead". Serious Eats. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  11. Serious Eats Culinary Director Daniel Gritzer [@dgritzer] (2020-08-12). "Stella stepped away from a full-time role after years of going full-blast on both her book and SE content (and SE content had required monthly trips to NYC, which is exhausting after several years). She's now an editor at large and still part of the team in that capacity" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. Patton, Janet (2017-07-25). "American desserts celebrated in new cookbook by Lexington baker". Lexington Herald-Leader. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  13. Moussa, Adam (2020-05-28). "I'm Baking the Hell Out of This Quarantine Thanks to 'BraveTart'". Eater. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  14. Craddock, Kat (2017-09-07). "Bravetart's Stella Parks on How Corporate Marketing Invented American Dessert". Saveur. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  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.
  16. Black, Jane (2017-07-25). "'BraveTart' is packed with clever upgrades of baking classics". Washington Post. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  17. Beggs, Alex (2019-05-01). "May's Cookbook Club Pick Is BraveTart, One of the Greatest Dessert Books of Our Time". Bon Appétit. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
  18. JBF Editors (2018-04-27). "The 2018 James Beard Media Award Winners". James Beard Foundation. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
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