1 week Ago By Geoff Hanson, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Barbara Marcos is the executive pastry chef at The Little Nell, where she oversees a 24-hour baking operation that services the luxury hotel’s different restaurants. She is leading the “Healthy Pastries Workshop” from 9:30 a.m.
to noon on Friday and a “Plated Dessert Master Class” at The Little Nell from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.
m., also on Friday. Marcos will team up with fellow local pastry chefs Sara Figueiredo and Benjamin Kunert for a “Salt and Sugar Collaboration” from 4:30 p.
m. to 6 p.m.
at The Little Nell. On Saturday, she will lead “The Family Cake and Cupcake Decorating Workshop” from 10 a.m.
to 12:30 p.m. at The Little Nell.
In 1992, the United States assembled a group of some of the greatest basketball players ever for the Olympics, and they became known simply as the Dream Team. This weekend at The Little Nell, Hotel Jerome and Aspen Meadows, an internationally renowned group of pastry chefs will come together to participate in the inaugural Aspen Pastry Invitational. Call them the Crème Team.
“We have three of Aspen’s finest executive pastry chefs and three pastry chefs from outside the valley that are all recognized as some of the best in their field,” said Patrick Davila, general manager of Hotel Jerome. “We thought it would be a great addition to the local community to bind together and bring some pastry superstars to create an annual event. We want to show how diverse the world of pastry is.
There is so much more to it than just sweet.” The 2024 Aspen Pastry Invitational Crème Team comprises six renowned creators of confections who will showcase their craft and be involved in masterclasses throughout the weekend. Here are their stories: Benjamin Kunert came up with the idea for the Aspen Pastry Invitational.
He has been the executive pastry chef at Hotel Jerome since 2022. He will team up with Tina Nguyen at Hotel Jerome for a seminar called “Festive World Treats” from 9:30 a.m.
to noon Friday, and from 4:30 p.m to 6 p.m.
Friday he will participate in a “Salt and Sugar Collaboration” at The Little Nell. • Hotel Jerome Pastry Chef Benjamin Kunert started his culinary journey in the German Alps in a small Bavarian hotel. He soon decided to specialize in pastry and went on to work at the three-Michelin star restaurant Schwarzwaldstube in the Black Forest for four years.
Kunert moved to Frankfurt as a pastry chef at the one-Michelin star restaurant Silk and the two-Michelin star Villa Rotschild. After years in the fine-dining world, Kunert became regional pastry chef for the Giardino group in Switzerland, overseeing three hotels’ pastry programs. In 2017 he moved to Santa Barbara, California, to help open the Hotel Californian and oversaw their pastry division.
He then worked all over the country including Los Angeles, Aspen and the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii, specializing in creating European-style pastries and desserts. Kunert moved to the Roaring Fork Valley in 2022 where he has been the executive pastry chef at Hotel Jerome. • Barbara Marcos, executive pastry chef at The Little Nell, started making custom cakes in college.
She moved to Aspen in 2013, working in the front of the house at the St. Regis Aspen Resort. She became focused on pastry and joined the 7908 restaurant’s pastry department, working with Chef Byron Gomez.
She worked with Jesus Escalera, widely held as one of Latin America’s best pastry chefs. She joined The Little Nell pastry team in June 2022 and is now the executive pastry chef. • Sara Figueiredos is the executive pastry chef at the Aspen Meadows Resort.
Her journey to the West Meadows has been a global one, with stops in Singapore, Thailand and beyond. She draws inspiration from these exotic locales to create unique and delicious pastries and desserts. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Johnson & Wales, before starting her career at Harvest in Boston’s Harvard Square, followed by Italian-focused restaurants at Babbo and Eataly.
She then moved to San Francisco where she worked at two Michelin-star restaurants. Figueiredos became the executive pastry chef at Craftsman and Wolves, where she created confections for an internationally acclaimed pastry shop. Figueiredos moved to Aspen in 2021 to join Gravity Haus as their corporate pastry chef.
Figueiredos runs a full pastry program at Aspen Meadows Resort. • Tina Nguyen is a Bay Area-based pastry chef whose journey into the world of desserts began through a lifelong love for sweets. After receiving a bachelor's degree in business, she switched gears and followed her passion for baking and went to work at restaurants in the Bay Area such as Alexander’s SV, Lazy Bear SF and Breadbelly SF, where she honed her skills and developed a distinctive style in which she balances Asian flavors with twists on classic recipes.
Nguyen started some pop-ups in 2019, but officially started her business The Baking Endeavor full-time during the pandemic in 2020. The Baking Endeavor started out in San Francisco and received support through La Cocina , a nonprofit incubator program that supports women, immigrants, and people of color in starting, growing and building their food businesses. • Sofia Cortina began her career at Pujol in Mexico CIty with Chef Enrique Olvera and later studied at Espai Sucre in Barcelona and Pierre Hermé in Paris.
In 2015, she co-opened the restaurant at Hotel Carlota in Mexico City. She started her boutique bakery La Vitrine in 2020 which focuses on French techniques and local ingredients. La Vitrine started as an online store and while she had a brick-and-mortar headquarters for some time, she returned to selling her confections online.
She was named Latin America’s best pastry chef in 2020. • Luis Robledo is a renowned chef with over 25 years of experience and the owner of Tout Chocolat, a world-famous chocolate and pastry shop. He graduated from the French Culinary Institute in New York City.
He joined Restaurant Daniel in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and in the summer of 2000, Robledo moved to Paris to attend École Lenôtre. During his stint in France, Luis worked in the kitchen of Michelin-starred establishments such as Le Pré Catelàn and the restaurant at the Hotel Baltimore Sofitel Avenue Kleber. In the fall of 2001, Le Cirque’s owner Sirio Maccioni named Luis executive pastry chef of his acclaimed restaurant in Manhattan, where his dessert “Red Fruit and Vanilla Napoleon” was named “one of the five best dishes around the world” by food writer Alan Richman.
After three years as Le Cirque’s pastry chef, Luis was named executive pastry chef at the prestigious Four Seasons Hotel New York. Robledo created a line of high-end chocolates that became an immediate success. In February 2006, Luis moved to Mexico City where he opened his first chocolate shop “Tout Chocolat.
” He’s been recognized as “One of the Top 10 Chocolatiers in North America” by Dessert Professional Magazine and “Chef of the Year” by Vatel Club Mexico. He has also won numerous competitions including the World Chocolate Masters Selection in 2010. Marcos said she was grateful to be a part of the inaugural pastry event.
“It is great to showcase pastry,” Marcos said. “We’re always the last course. It’s nice that we go to the front and it’s only us.
The best part has getting to know the other chefs. I just met Ben, Sarah and some of the other local pastry chefs because of this event. Everyone has gotten to know each other and work together.
” When asked what her goal was in making pastries, Marcos said, “My goal is always to make something that if someone has one bite, it is so good that they can’t help but finish the whole dish.” For a complete list of classes and ticket information for the inaugural Aspen Pastry Invitational, visit aubergeresorts.com/hoteljerome/experiences/pastry-invitational-2024 .
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