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shuna
quirky, seasonal-fruit inspired pastry chef.
Interests: knitting, eating delicious food, loving delicious people, adventuring, flirting with d o g (s), taking photographs, being an inspirationalist and a mentor, reading old peanuts cartoons, drinking strong black tea, eating fruit off trees, watching my houseplants grow., cooking
Recent Activity
can i get all these at one job: more guidance, more responsibility, more learning & more money?
It takes a long time of working in kitchens to develop a knowing over-the-shoulder glance at what the wake of your boat means. Like reading tea leaves, one has to drink a lot of tea before one notices patterns at... Continue reading
Posted Dec 5, 2013 at eggbeater
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0
Stagiaire Advice.
I get a lot of email from cooks, chefs, soon-to-be cooks, culinary students, parents, spouses of BOH peeps, etc. They are looking for advice from someone in the field that no for-profit culinary school, or glossy magazine will tell them... Continue reading
Posted Oct 28, 2013 at eggbeater
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4
Pastry Chef at Large.
Happy September. The city's summer quiet comes to a close this weekend, as if tying off a scarf one began in April. So much has happened since I wrote on eggbeater last. I'm sorry to have been away for so... Continue reading
Posted Sep 1, 2013 at eggbeater
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12
Professional Cooks & Our Relationships
A sous chef I worked with once said to me, with no irony or malice, "In this business you can have a romantic relationship or friends. You will not have time for both. You will not have energy enough for... Continue reading
Posted Dec 16, 2012 at eggbeater
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22
pastry chef roles, styles, challenges. part 1
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How many restaurants do you frequent per month? ___ What percentage of them have a chef? ___ What percentage of those that have chefs also have a pastry chef? ___ What percentage of those restaurants with both chef and pastry... Continue reading
Posted Apr 11, 2012 at eggbeater
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leaving without saying goodbye.
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I like to say my g_d has a sense of humor. A notoriously tricky one, I dare say. Not exactly sinister, but definingly dry and definitively abrupt, like the person who pulls a tablecloth out from under the table settings,... Continue reading
Posted Apr 4, 2012 at eggbeater
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Killed By Dessert.
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On January 16, 2012 Bill Corbett, Lincoln Carson, Francisco Migoya, Christina Tosi, Brooks Headley, and Michael Laiskonis put together an epic dinner of dessert. Aptly named Killed By Dessert, the affair was intimate, attended by 60 people. I offered my... Continue reading
Posted Mar 30, 2012 at eggbeater
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The James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. {*please consider this post a call to action}
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The James Beard Foundation has just published their extensive list of semifinalists for 2012. There are dozens of names listed in every category. My name was on that list last year. It was a cause for great excitement and anticipation.... Continue reading
Posted Mar 1, 2012 at eggbeater
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how to mentor, manage, inspire, push, listen to, grow, promote, share with, challenge and send off cooks.
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Chefs are {in}famous for posessing many traits. Patient & Understanding are not two of them. Not high on the list at any rate. We're famous for more popular antonyms like hot-tempered and unforbearing. We bristle at critique, take everything personally,... Continue reading
Posted Dec 1, 2011 at eggbeater
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27
nyc sweet eating/dessert news.
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if a city could have a business card, new york's might read: nyc, not for the meek. nyc, fuck the economy. nyc, you think you know me? nyc, i'm not what you think. i'm so much more. nyc. yeah you... Continue reading
Posted Oct 23, 2011 at eggbeater
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StarChefs Sixth Annual International Chefs Congress 2011 NYC {& I won an award!
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In just a few hours the ICC will kick off another year at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City and, like last year, I will be attending. But this year will be a little different... In July I... Continue reading
Posted Oct 1, 2011 at eggbeater
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12
Michael Lydon on 'Memories of the 1960's'
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Most of my life, and even still, various people stop me in my day to day to ask, 'aren't you Michael and/or Susan Lydon's daughter?' Apparently I have my mother's impossible-to-miss voice and I've always known I look exactly like... Continue reading
Posted Sep 29, 2011 at eggbeater
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What does being held accountable mean? What does commitment mean?
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One of the questions I ask in interviews is, "If your last chef could say what one of your strengths and one of your weaknesses was, what would they say?" I find that this question startles a lot of people,... Continue reading
Posted Sep 24, 2011 at eggbeater
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Eater National: "How Hard Is it to Find Good Young Cooks?"
If you can look past the fact that the only chefs quoted in this piece on Eater National are male, you'll find that I'm not the only chef wondering where the cooks I remember working alongside 20 years ago, are... Continue reading
Posted Jul 24, 2011 at eggbeater
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teaching. baking, manners, accountability, cleanliness, efficiency.
kitchens are never just about cooking. they are communities, cities, families, gangs, partnerships, cities, empires, kingdoms, islands, homes, churches, refuges, prisons, forests. schools of fish could teach us a thing or two. no one goes to work amongst their brethren... Continue reading
Posted Apr 3, 2011 at eggbeater
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20
happy first day of spring. to you~ joy.
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Posted Mar 19, 2011 at eggbeater
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Food52 Hones In On Custard Making, with me, at Peels {Pastrylandia}
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A long standing aversion to being inside fast whizzing frames, aka TV & film, has recently been challenged, in the best possible way. Amanda Hesser & Merrill Stubbs, the incredibly energetic, lively, smart, generous, silly, gorgeous women behind & inside... Continue reading
Posted Mar 7, 2011 at eggbeater
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NY 1, Rachel Wharton of Edible Manhattan & Shuna Lydon of Peels Restaurant
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all in one neat package, Edible: East Village Bakery Uses Sweet Elements Of Surprise on TV, for your viewing pleasure. I must say, for the record, what an absolute pleasure and honor it was to work with Rachel Wharton! She... Continue reading
Posted Feb 26, 2011 at eggbeater
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valentine's day sweet thangs.
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raspberry jam filled bambolini from Heather Bertinetti petit fours from Kiyomi Toda-Burke & Sandra Palmer brown butter-pecan cream puffs {c'est moi} mini mallowmars from Kiyomi Toda-Burke & Sandra Palmer chocolate "sweethearts" at Peels by yours truly. Continue reading
Posted Feb 13, 2011 at eggbeater
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James Beard House Valentine's Tea Sunday February 13, 2011
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The Day before Valentine's Day proper, yes. My first time ever inside the James Beard House. woot! You might have seen me mention it on Twitter... It's where I am today, along with Heather Bertinetti, Sara Jenkins, Jennifer McCoy, Meg... Continue reading
Posted Feb 12, 2011 at eggbeater
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professional cook blues.
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One busy Saturday night service, many years ago, my station partner and I looked down the line, at one of the meat cooks, and knew something was amiss. There had been an exchange between him and our expediting sous chef... Continue reading
Posted Jan 24, 2011 at eggbeater
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24
two thousand ten.
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Posted Jan 4, 2011 at eggbeater
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culinary school changes the playing field. for all cooks.
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In High School it became apparent to me I would not score as high as my friends on the SAT. Because I didn't have money. The test didn't cost any money. But the tutoring did. And the more money you... Continue reading
Posted Dec 27, 2010 at eggbeater
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Kelly Choi, Shuna Lydon, Peels Spicy Ginger Cake & Pastrylandia on TV, NYC
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It's not every day someone famous calls you up and asks you if you'll be on TV with them to talk about one of your favorite recipes. For this I, and my nervous system, are eternally grateful. It was great... Continue reading
Posted Dec 14, 2010 at eggbeater
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5
Memorializing the Living. or, celebrating people before they're dead.
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For a few years now I've had an idea. I've thought about how terrible it is for the dead to miss their own obituaries. I've often wondered if a person's quality of life might be bettered if she/he knew how... Continue reading
Posted Dec 5, 2010 at eggbeater
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