We could list all of the finalists for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef—or we could show you the cake. The proof's in the pudding! So to speak. If you want to know who's making the best cakes, cookies, and satsuma sorbets in the country, these are your chefs. Find out who the winner is on May 1 when the James Beard Awards take place in Chicago, then plan your road trip accordingly.
Kelly Fields: Willa Jean, New Orleans
Last year we declared—with mouths full of crumbs—Kelly Fields's chocolate chip cookies + sidecar beater of raw cookie dough one of the five best desserts of 2016.
Above is Fields's Satsuma Creamsicle, which is frozen satsuma mousse with curried granola (whaaat), carrot cake, carrot sorbet, and whipped buttermilk.
Maura Kilpatrick: Oleana, Cambridge, MA
At the Cambridge go-to Oleana, Maura Kilpatrick is torching her way to your heart (eh? eh?) with the Baked Alaska. Inside the meringue topcoat is coconut cake, coconut ice cream, and a passionfruit caramel drizzle.
Her dondurma, pictured at the top of the page, has Turkish ice cream, peach-fennel jam, shredded phyllo crunch (yesss), and fennel pollen.
Margarita Manzke: République, Los Angeles
Pastry chef and co-owner of République Margarita Manzke is the person responsible for your little croissant habit. Yeah, you, ordering "one of each," we see you over at that display case. Oh wait, that's our reflection. Huh.
And after you eat dinner and this pavlova shows up (mascarpone cream, strawberry sorbet, glistening berries), you might be sitting at a communal table—but that doesn't mean you have to share.
Dolester Miles: Highlands Bar & Grill, Birmingham, AL
Dolester Miles has been working at Highlands Bar & Grill since it opened in 1982. There's a reason why diners keep coming back, but we'll let her coconut cake (above) speak for itself.
Miles's Chilton County peach upside-down cake with peach coulis and Chantilly cream.
Ghaya Oliveira: Daniel, NYC
Executive pastry chef Ghaya Oliveira at Daniel makes desserts that could easily hang on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art—if they didn't drip all over the canvas. Until then, they'll be served on plates and ooh-ed and ahh-ed over at the iconic New York restaurant. Above is Turkish coffee ice cream, Jivara-coffee Chantilly cream, ginger caramel, and chocolate fondant.
Above is Oliveira's whimsical Miel: Lemon-bee pollen sorbet with honeycomb meringue, mango, and papaya.