Stella Parks

Pastry chef

Biography

CIA-trained pastry nerd, prodigal food writer, and resident pastry wizard. Once upon a time, Stella cashed out her life savings to attend language school in Tokyo so she could read the secret menu at her favorite sushi joint. Later, Food & Wine cited that compulsive dedication in naming her one of America’s Best New Pastry Chefs. When not in the kitchen, Stella spends most of her time polishing Star Trek quotes, playing video games, and waiting for the arrival of her first cookbook, BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts.

Lee Bailey's Country Desserts

Lee Bailey

Had this book as a kid, and read every word like it was the Bible. It made everything from chocolate angel food cake to peppermint ice cream seem so breezy and approachable.

Delicious Desserts (Anne Willan's Look & Cook)

Anne Willan

Another one from my childhood. I was obsessed with the tidy photos of the mise en place for each recipe, and the visual detail for ever step. I wanted so badly for my own dessert prep and execution to seem that clean (I was, like, 12 at the time).

Mrs. Field's Cookie Book

Debbi Fields

I baked this book cover to cover as a fairly small child, and it was such a boss introduction to a variety of cookie styles.

The Cake Bible

Rose Levy Beranbaum

My parents gave me this book for my birthday when I was 14 years old, and it represented so many firsts for me! The first time I ever used weight measurements, the first time I'd ever made Swiss buttercream, the first time I ever made a sponge cake, and I was obsessed with all the variations that were included with each recipe.

Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft

Culinary Institute of America

The definitive textbook from my alma mater.

The Last Course

Claudia Fleming

Bought this book as a graduation present to myself after culinary school, and it was my bible during my first gig as a "pastry chef" when I was 20 years old.

Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts

Maida Heatter

Picked this during that same period, when I was a newly minted pastry chef and overthinking everything from technique to flavor profiles; it was a great reminder that classics are classic for a reason.

How to be a Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

I started working in restaurants when I was 14, so by my second job post-culinary school as a so-called pastry chef, food was just work. But here's Nigella having the freaking time of her life on every page, drinking wine, measuring things by the handful, and generally having fun. It helped me get back to having fun in the kitchen.

Baking by Flavor

Lisa Yockelson

Didn't discover this book until my second job as a pastry chef, and it was my first real introduction to the idea of amplifying a flavor by pairing it with a secondary flavor, like using nutmeg to amplify butter, or by layering different forms of the same flavor to create more dimension. Helped me unclutter my palette.

King's Highway Cook Book

Park Street Congregational Church

This 19th century cookbook was such an amazing resource as I was researching my own cookbook, and so shockingly ahead of its time, with recipes for desserts that we'd recognize as chocolate chip cookies or devil's food cake (though under more antiquated names).

Follow Stella Parks

What's playing in Stella's kitchen?

I listen to a lot of Bjork while I'm in the kitchen, mostly because her entire discography is so familiar to me at this point that it's a second skin that doesn't distract me from my work. Otherwise, I tend to lose my train of thought very quickly when listening to music while I'm baking.

Listen to Stella's playlist