Pastry Chef

The burly French chef standing in the kitchen in his starched whites at Table 31 in the Comcast Center spoke broken English. But since Table 31 chef Chris Scarduzio proudly says he is fluent in "South Philly and kitchen French," he and Arnaud Languille got along famously last week. "I got a little lucky," said Scarduzio, who got his language lessons from his business partner, Georges Perrier. Languille, chef at Clostan Traiteur in Lyon, flew in with 10 other French chefs for a series of culinary pairings at Philadelphia restaurants tied to the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

Emily Luchetti, head pastry chef at Stars, a celebrated San Francisco restaurant, says that at the end of the day, she would rather smell like chocolate and strawberries than garlic and shrimp. To that end, she spends each week turning 200 pounds of butter, 40 gallons of cream, 80 pounds of chocolate, 450 pounds each of sugar and flour, and 1,500 eggs into some of the country's finest desserts. Now she interprets these recipes for the home cook in Stars Desserts (HarperCollins, $27.50)

Baked pastries - the basic wheat-flour and shortening kind - are about the last thing that Americans have come to expect on a Chinese menu. So it may come as a surprise to find a pastry chef from China preparing sweets for the annual series of Chinese New Year banquets now under way at the Chinese Cultural and Community Center, 125 N. 10th St. Wu Naiying is part of a cuisine team representing Taiyuan, in Shanxi Province, a region near Beijing...

After an investigation that spanned nearly four years and never strayed from its focus, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office yesterday charged Guy Sileo Jr. with first-degree murder in the 1996 slaying of James Webb, his business partner at the General Wayne Inn. Authorities portrayed Sileo, 33, of Wallingford, as a failed restaurateur and husband who had, in the months before the killing, repeatedly told a pastry chef that he might...

If you order pumpkin pie at Continental Mid-town, you won't get a hunk of shimmering, brown-orange pie set in a flaky crust. Kate Honeyman, pastry chef for Buddakan and Continental Mid-town, says she and her staff wanted to create something seasonal. Someone came up with pumpkin creme brulee. "The flavor was great," Honeyman said. "But then we asked how can we do it differently?" The finished dessert is a pumpkin custard piped into cinnamon pizzelle cones and topped with vanilla whipped cream.

Yo, Chefs! I am a prison inmate and am interested in becoming a chef. Can you suggest a top-notch school? - Name withheld Dear Chef-To-Be, Cooking professionally is stressful work with long hours. But if you love to cook and think you can take the heat in the kitchen, now is the perfect time to consider culinary school. After struggling for many years, Philadelphia's restaurant business is booming. Because of that, a second major culinary school is opening this fall.

Nick Malgieri, award-winning cookbook author, educator and renowned pastry chef, will be the recipient of the 2006 Toque Award, presented in conjunction with the 22d annual Book and the Cook event, a 10-day restaurant and food festival scheduled for March 17-26. The program pairs nationally known cookbook authors with Philadelphia-area restaurants and their chefs. The Toque Award was instituted in 1990 to recognize exceptional lifetime achievement in culinary arts and letters. It is given jointly by the Book and The Cook and the City of Philadelphia.

Susan Detscher Pizzano, 63, of Chestnut Hill, who raised money to build the Top of the Hill Fountain near the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike, died of breast cancer Sunday, Nov. 20, at home. Her husband, Joseph, said she was cochair of Friends of the Fountain Plaza. "She had a very complex, interesting life," he said. After working as a nurse, teacher, and pastry chef, Mrs. Pizzano was attracted to the writings of Michael Harrington, author of the 1962 work The Other America: Poverty in the United States . "I went to Holy Cross College, and he went to Holy Cross.

Here's an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat of April 2, 2013: Craig LaBan : Good afternoon, hungry friends. It's been two weeks since we last got together. Please dish, so we can catch up. We do have a Crumb Tracker Quiz, with a chic apron for the first person who names all three places I ate these dishes: (1) crawfish mac-n-cheese; (2) shrimp "cupcakes"; (3) Puerto Rican-style fried chuleta pork chops. Ready, set - start crumbing! Reader: Do you know where the former Vernick pastry chef who made their delicious blueberry pie went?

Locally sourced ingredients and a daily menu are the watchwords behind the homey Russet (1521 Spruce St., 215-546-1521, www.russetphilly.com ), an American BYOB that opened Tuesday at the former site of Ernesto's 1521 Cafe. Andrew and Kristin Wood's fresh philosophy - he is into whole-animal butchery and traditional cooking; she is a pastry chef with an eye and nose for cheeses - is reminiscent of other top husband-and-wife duos, including Django and The Farm & Fisherman.

Here's an excerpt from Craig LaBan's online chat of April 2, 2013: Craig LaBan : Good afternoon, hungry friends. It's been two weeks since we last got together. Please dish, so we can catch up. We do have a Crumb Tracker Quiz, with a chic apron for the first person who names all three places I ate these dishes: (1) crawfish mac-n-cheese; (2) shrimp "cupcakes"; (3) Puerto Rican-style fried chuleta pork chops. Ready, set - start crumbing! Reader: Do you know where the former Vernick pastry chef who made their delicious blueberry pie went?

        The chef merry-go-round keeps spinning. Le Bec Fin shed its executive chef, Walter Abrams, and his fiancee, pastry chef Jennifer Smith, after only seven months. This results in a new kitchen, helmed by their deputies - Steven Eckerd, an Osteria veteran, as executive chef, and Abigail Dahan, previously a sous chef at Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas, as pastry chef. But management, brushing off suggestions that financial concerns inspired the changes, says Abrams and Smith are consulting with it on new, unspecified projects.

There's no getting around pie, not at this time of year. No matter how innovative our kitchens, there's always going to be a mandate for pumpkin, a demand for apple, an insistence on pecan, especially on the Thanksgiving table. "It's just a traditional thing. Most people love the idea of a warm dessert, especially when it's served with ice cream," says Amy Edelman, owner of Night Kitchen Bakery in Chestnut Hill, which sells pies five days a week in the lead-up to Thanksgiving. "I'm always surprised at the number of people who show up the day after Thanksgiving for pie - I guess they want it to go with their leftovers.

Mike Golic, the former Eagles lineman turned radio celebrity, was emphatic about several things Wednesday. Let Michael Vick be Vick. Andy Reid is a great coach. The Eagles have a great chance this season. And he's got a new game now, controlling his diabetes, and a new coach, his doctor. Golic, 48, cohost of ESPN's popular Mike and Mike in the Morning show, went to City Fitness on South Street to talk about BloodSugarBasics.com, a website sponsored by Merck and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.

The morning of March 27, 2011, smoke and flames drove brothers Andrew and David Wallace and Andrew's girlfriend from their apartments above the family-owned Churchville Inn , a landmark in Southampton, Bucks County. "There were three walls left standing," said their father, Jeff, last week, as the landmark reopened (1500 Bustleton Pike, Southampton, 215-357-3967). The main dining room is spruced up with a mural, crafted from barn wood by Murrie Gayman, that depicts historic events and people from Bucks County history.

S'mores redux It's hard to improve upon this summer classic, but pastry chef Jessica Mogardo has pulled it off with this gussied-up version she's offering at Garces Trading Company. With a center of crushed graham crackers, a swirl of house-made fluff, a layer of blackout chocolate cake, and a finishing coat of ganache, this indulgent dessert brings back memories of that old lunchbox treat, the Ho Ho, only oh-so-much better. S'mores, $7, at Garces Trading Company, 1111 Locust Street Philadelphia, 215-574-1099.

Help the Cooking Channel celebrate its 2nd birthday with the Summer Eats pop-up event from 6-10 p.m. Thursday? at Reading Terminal Market, 12th & Arch Streets. Free food and bev, plus celebrity guests G. Garvin, of "Roadtrip with G. Garvin," and Eden Grinshpan of "Eden Eats. " Gluten-free dining is easy at REX 1516 (1516 South St., 267-319-1366, rex1516.com ). The Southern-inspired restaurant has gluten-free brunch, dinner and dessert selections and will add lunch items soon.

Husband-wife veterans Guy Shapiro and Luli Canuso have been around the block a time or two after meeting at the once-trendy Mirabelle on Callowhill Street in the 1980s. She was a pastry chef at Le Bec-Fin. He cooked for Russian mobsters, among other employers. Now they have set up on a sunny corner near their Fairmount house with BlueCat (1921 Fairmount Ave., 267-519-2911). Named in homage to the couple's pussycat - who Canuso says "is a domestic gray but thinks he is a Russian blue" - the BYOB features modern Latin fare at modest prices.

The answer to the hottest question in town: Walter Abrams. The former French Laundry sous chef (six years) is winging his way east to Le Bec-Fin , where he will become executive chef for new owner (and his former Laundry-mate) Nicolas Fanucci. This is a package deal, as Abrams' girlfriend, former French Laundry pastry chef Jennifer Smith, will become LBF's exec pastry chef. The South Florida-born, Colombia-reared Abrams left San Francisco hot spot Spruce as chef de cuisine this week.

Locally sourced ingredients and a daily menu are the watchwords behind the homey Russet (1521 Spruce St., 215-546-1521, www.russetphilly.com ), an American BYOB that opened Tuesday at the former site of Ernesto's 1521 Cafe. Andrew and Kristin Wood's fresh philosophy - he is into whole-animal butchery and traditional cooking; she is a pastry chef with an eye and nose for cheeses - is reminiscent of other top husband-and-wife duos, including Django and The Farm & Fisherman.