Background: Craig Kominiak began his cooking career in the US Navy, where he had the unusual experience of cooking three times a day for 200 sailors. After being in the Navy for five years, Craig enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America. He then worked as a pastry chef. In 1990, Craig became the Pastry Chef at Arizona 206 and within a year became the Executive Chef of the famed New York Ecce Panis.

 Restaurant: Ecce Panis Bakery, New York, NY
Featured Recipes: Focaccia

Program #102
Baker: Alice Medrich from Berkeley, CA

 Background: Alice Medrich is an author, pastry chef and teacher. She is the only two-time recipient of the James Beard "Cookbook of the Year" award for her books Cocolat: Extraordinary Chocolate Desserts and Chocolate and the Art of Low-fat Desserts, both from Warner Books. Alice began making chocolate in 1976 when she founded the renowned San Francisco chocolate and dessert company, Cocolat. The large-sized American Chocolate Truffle was born in Alice's kitchen. She has contributed to the food revolution by insisting upon unparalleled sophistication, the highest quality, and the freshest possible ingredients.

 Featured Recipe: Chocolate Raspberry Ruffle Cake

Program #103
Baker: Michel Richard

 Background: Michel Richard grew up in the Champagne region of France. He began his cooking apprenticeship at the age of 13 in a restaurant that also ran a pastry shop. Pastry became Richard's passion and eventually his profession. He worked for the world-famous pastry chef Gaston LeNotre and in 1974 he came to Manhattan as the executive chef for the first American LeNotre shop. Richard soon opened his own pastry shops in Santa Fe and Los Angeles. He eventually opened his own restaurant with a cuisine that has come to define the Southern California style of cooking. Richard was nominated for 1990 Chef of the Year and won a place in The James Beard Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America.

 Restaurant: Citrus, Los Angeles, CA
Featured Recipes: Tourte Milanese, Aprícot Pastries Sunny-Side-up

Program #104
Baker: Lora Brody from West Newtown, MA

 Background: Lora Brody is an author, spokesperson, lecturer and cooking instructor. For nearly two decades she has been an influential force and mentor in American kitchens. She has published 14 cookbooks including the best-selling Bread Machine Baking, Perfect Every Time. She is best known for making the bread machine a common well -utilized household appliance. She entered the industry in Boston as a caterer, and fell in love with chocolate. In 1978, Lora founded the Women's Culinary Guild, which has served as a prototype for dozens of sister organizations across the country.

 Featured Recipes: Bread Machine Buttermilk, White Bread, Salsa Quitza

Program #105
Baker: Marcel Desaulniers

 Background: Marcel Desaulniers is the executive chef and co-owner of the Trellis Restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia. Marcel has received numerous awards and accolades, including the James Beard award for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic States. He has published four cookbooks including the award-winning The Burger Meisters, a compilation of 45 burger recipes from fellow graduates of the Culinary Institute of America.

 Restaurant: The Trellis, Williamsburg, VA
Featured Recipes: White Chocolate Pattycake with Chocolate Tulips

Program #106
Baker: Gale Gand

Background: Gale Gand spent her college years studying silver and goldsmithing. When she took off to work in a restaurant, she discovered that the skills she had learned in art translated well to cuisine. She soon started her own catering company and then worked for three years at the Strathallen Hotel in New York, where she met Rick Tramonto, whom she later married. Gale spent time in pastry classes at LaVareene in Paris and several restaurants in New York, where her desserts started earning her awards. Rick and Gale returned to Chicago and after a lot more experience at well-known restaurants, they opened Brasserie Tin in 1995. It was an instant success.

 Restaurant: Brasserie Tin, Northfield, IL
Featured Recipes: Chocolate Napoleon, Fettuccine Ice Cream Sandwiches

Program #107
Baker: Norman Love

 Background: Norman Love, the South Florida based pastry chef known for his artistic, sculptural pastry creations, is the corporate pastry chef of the Ritz-Carolton Hotel Company. A native of Philadelphia, Norman spent most of his youth in the South Florida and loved it enough to make it his home. He joined the Ritz-Carlton Company in 1990 from the Beverly Hills Hotel in California where he was the executive pastry chef. South Florida is a prevalent influence on his work which features exotic fruits and Caribbean spices. Norman is currently designing a wedding cake as a possible prototype for the Ritz-Carlton Company.

 Restaurant: Ritz-Carlton, Naples, FL
Featured Recipes: Espresso Profiteroles, Choux Paste, Cucumber-Dill Choux Puffs, Chocolate-Cinnamon Beignets

Program #108
Baker: Lauren Groveman from Larchmont, New York

 Background: Lauren Groveman planned to become an actress; in fact, it wasn't until she was married with small children that she decided to pursue a culinary career. She studied at some of the top schools in New York, and learned all of the classic techniques. Lauren adapted this knowledge into nurturing wholesome and traditional recipes for classic food. Lauren founded her company, Lauren Groveman's Kitchen, Inc., and started cooking and baking classes in her home. Her first cookbook, Lauren Groveman's Kitchen, was published in 1995 and she has appeared in several television broadcasts, and serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Association of Cooking Teachers.

 Featured Recipes: Bagels, Matzos, Pumpernickel Loaves

Program #109
Baker: Mary Bergin

 Background: Mary Bergin has worked as the head pastry chef at the Los Angeles institution of Spago since it opened. She is now the head pastry chef of the new Spago in Las Vegas. Prior to Spago, Mary had worked as a prep chef at a trendy Hollywood eatery, as well as a pastry chef at the popular Le Toque restaurant. Her innovative desserts have been enjoyed by celebrities, world leaders, and fellow chefs alike. Her first book, Spago Desserts, published by Random House in 1995, enables fans of Mary's to create her desserts in their own homes.

 Restaurant: Spago, Las Vegas, NV
Featured Recipes: Chocolate Bundt Cake with Créme Brulée, Nectarine Upside Down Chiffon Cake

 Program #110
Baker: Steve Sullivan

 Background: Steve Sullivan moved from Los Gatos, California to Berkeley to attend the university in 1975, and started working as a busboy at the well-known Chez Panisse restaurant. During a European vacation, Sullivan picked up a book titled English Bread and Yeast Cookery, and upon his return home, began to make bread as a hobby. Soon he was baking for the restaurant. Not long after, the word was out, his bread a success, and the Acme Bread Company was born. Sullivan's breads are now distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and have earned many awards.

 Restaurants: Acme Bakery, Berkeley, CA
Featured Recipe: Walnut Bread, Decorative Loaves

 Program #111
Baker: Nancy Silverton

 Background: Nancy Silverton, is one of America's best bread bakers, and has written two very successful cookbooks. Gourmet magazine describes Campanile, the Los Angeles restaurant she owns with her chef-husband Mark Peel, as the "Mom and Pop restaurant of its time." Before they opened their own restaurant, Silverton as the pastry chef and Pell was head chef under Wolfgang Puck for more than three years at Spago. Silverton, a graduate of the Cordon Bleu and LeNortre's Pastry School, as well as a wonderful teacher, creates the desserts and breads baked at their La Brea Bakery and has just published Breads from the La Brea Bakery with Villard Books.

 Restaurant: La Brea Bakery, Los Angeles, CA
Featured Recipe:Twice Baked Brioche, Savory Brioche Pockets, Pecan Sticky Buns, Brioche Tart wtih White Secret Sauce

 Program #112
Baker: Nick Malgieri from New York, NY

 Background: Nick Malgieri is the former executive pastry chef of the Windows of the World and the author of three baking books including his most recent treatise, How to Bake, from Harper Collins. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he went on to some prestigious appointments throughout Europe and New York. He began teaching in 1979 for the New School Culinary Arts program and went on to develop and teach, as well as author the professional baking testbook for the New York Restaurant School. He has taught and guest lectured extensively, been published in a vast number of literary works, and is a member of many of the finest culinary associations.

 Featured Recipes: Zaleti, X Cookies, Amaretti, Pizzelle, Classic Biscotti, Tuiles

Program #113
Baker: Flo Braker from San Francisco, CA

 Background: Flo Braker was born and raised in Evansville, Indiana and attended the University of Michigan. Her culinary education was culled from the Ecole Le Notre in France and Richemont Professional School in Switzerland. She specializes in European baking and pastry making as well as chocolate work. Braker has held presidential seats on many culinary societies and associations, and has ben featured in many magazines. She has worked as a baking consultant on a motion picture and authored two cookbooks.

 Background: Esther McManus was born in Marrakech in 1938. She has lived and studied the culinary arts in many exotic locations, including France, Israel, and Italy. After moving to the United States to obtain her master's degree from Northwestern University in linguistics, she went on to work as a chef, a baker, an instructor, and a consultant from Philadelphia and is also the Board Chef for Campbell Soup Co. McManus is the mother of two children, Talya and Daniel.

 Featured Recipe: Almond Croissants, Plain Croissants, Chocolate Croissants, Paté filled Croissants, Basteeya

Program #202
Baker: Beatrice Ojakangas from Duluth, MN

 Background: Beatrice Ojakangas is the country's foremost expert on Scandinavian baking. She has written more than a dozen cookbooks. She also finds time to write for various food magazines, work as a consultant for Pillsbury, and teach baking classes. Beatrice lives in Duluth, Minnesota.

 Featured Recipes: Danish Pastry Pockets, Danish Braid, Norwegian Potato Crepe, Potato Lefse, Swedish Oatmeal Hardtack

Program #203
Bakers: Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford from Toronto, Canada

 Background: Naomi Duguid & Jeffrey Alford are married have they have two children. They currently reside in Toronto, Canada. They have traveled extensively, both together and separately, throughout the world. For the last five years, Duguid and Alford have been traveling to incredibly far reaching locations, specifically in search of flatbreads, and have written an incredible book on both the experience and the recipes. They are currently freelance food and travel writers and photographers, and have been published in a wide variety of publications, from Natural History and World Book to Bon Appetit and Eating Well.

Featured Recipes: Pita Bread, Afghan Snowshoe Bread, Middle Eastern Lamb & Tomato Breads

Program #204
Baker: Danielle Forestier from Oakland, CA

 Background: Danielle Forestier is a maître boulanger, instructor, and consultant to the baking industry. She currently resides in Oakland, California, and has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia. After receiving her BA from Bennington College in Vermont, Forestier became the first American woman to attain the title of maître boulanger from the Chambre de Commerce in Paris. Forestier then returned to America and opened a French Bakery in Santa Barbara where she remained for six years. She has published numerous articles, spoken at countless seminars, and is a member of various culinary associations.

 Featured Recipes: French Baguette, French Boule, Pain de Mie, Pain de Campagne

Program #205
Baker: Markus Farbinger

 Background: Markus Farbinger is currently the team leader for baking and pastry arts curriculum in the Culinary Institute of America's Education Division. His formal education includes a degree in hotel and restaurant management from the School for Economic Development in Salzburg, Austria. He also attended professional school in Salzburg as well as Bernhard Lambrecht Schule in West Germany. His professional experience includes positions at such prestigious establishments as Le Cirque and Marquet Patisserie in New York City. Farbinger has written for several magazines and newspapers, and recently won first prize at a wedding cake competition at Cristie's in New York.

 Culinary Institute of America, New York, NY
Featured Recipes: Cardinal Slice, Poppyseed Torte

Program #206
Baker: Charlotte Akoto

 Background: Charlotte Akoto was born in Ghana, West Africa and spent her early years making miniature replicas of the meals her grandmother was preparing. Soon she became the family chef. In 1984, Akoto moved to New York and worked at the Drake Swissotel where she created basic pastries. During her tenure at the Drake, Akoto was inspired by other local pastry chefs and restauranteurs to branch out and create more elaborate pastries. She was discovered by the Algonquin and next by the Pierre Hotel, where she was quickly promoted to head pastry chef. Currently, she is the head of pastry production at the Old Williamsburg Company.

 Restaurant: The Old Williamsburg Company, New York, NY
Featured Recipes: Meringue Cookies, Cocoa Nests with Caramel Mousse, Tropical Napoleon

Program #207
Baker: Marion Cunningham from Walnut Creek, CA

 Background: Marion Cunningham was born in Southern California in 1922. She spent much of her culinary career assisting James Beard in his nationwide cooking classes. Cunningham has authored several cookbooks, most notably the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. She contributes regularly to Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Food & Wine and Saveur magazines. In 1993, she received the Grand Dame award from Les Dames d'Escoffier, and in 1994 was named as Scholar-in-Residence by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

 Featured Recipes: Buttermilk Crumb Muffins, Buttermilk Scones, Popovers, Irish Soda Bread, Baking Powder Biscuits

Program #208
Baker: Johanne Killeen

 Background: Johanne Killeen, named one of the top twenty women chefs in the country, was educated in the fine arts as a photographer. Now, the kitchen is her studio and the food her canvas. Along with husband George Germon, Johanne is chef and co-owner of Al Forno, an extremely popular restaurant located in Providence, Rhode Island. Together they co-authored Cucina Simpatica and have contributed to several magazines and newspapers. Their successful and talented methods for preparing hearth-baked and grilled dishes have been the subject of many publications, and it is no surprise that Killeen was inducted into the Johnson and Wales University Culinary Hall of Fame.

 Restaurant: Al Forno, Providence, RI
Featured Recipes: Fresh Rhubarb Upside Down Baby Cakes, Hazelnut Baby Loaves, Geranium and Gingerbread Baby Cakes, Johnnycake Cobblers

Program #209
Baker: Leslie Mackie

 Background: Leslie Mackie has cooked, planned meals and opened restaurants across the country for more than twelve years. Her latest enterprise, Macrina Bakery and Café in Seattle, Washington, was opened in 1993 and has been strong ever since the first day. Mackie is a Portland, Oregon native and was educated at the California Culinary Academy. She then worked in Boston and Los Angeles, then moved on to Seattle in 1989. Modeling her own bakery after a traditional village bakery (and naming it after a fourth century Greek saint), Mackie creates incredible desserts and breads for her very supportive clientele.

 Restaurant: Macrina Bakery and Café, Seattle, WA
Featured Recipes: French Apple Tart, Fruit & Yogurt Tart, Double-Crusted Blueberry-Nectarine Pie, Raspberry-Fig Crostata

Program #210
Baker: David Ogonowski

 Background: David Ogonowski studied mathematics in college, dropped out to play the guitar in a rock band, then finally decided to give the world of pastry a chance. He has been working as a pastry chef and baker in both San Francisco and in Boston in the ten years since making that big decision. Ogonowski recently garnered "Best Desserts" in the prestigious "Best of Boston" awards while pastry chef at Olives in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Recently, he left Olives and is planning to open his own bakery.

 Restaurant: Olives, Charlestown, MA

 Featured Recipes: Crispy Cocoa Cookies, Chocolate Truffle Tartlets, Chocolate Waves

Program #211
Baker: Joe Ortiz

 Background: Joe Ortiz is the co-owner of Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria in Capitola, California. His breads have received critical acclaim and notoriety from the International Bread Competition, as well as culinary publications like Cooks Magazine, Food & Wine, and Bon Appetit. Ortiz shares his skills and knowledge through frequent lectures and demonstrations throughout the country, and has taught bread baking classes at Tante Marie's Cooking School, the UCSC Recreation Department, and at various chapters of the American Institute of Wine & Food. His book, The Village Baker, is the recipient of the International Association of Culinary Professionals Julia Child Cookbook Award.

 Restaurant: Gayle's Bakery & Rosticceria, Capitola, CA
Featured Recipe: French Country Sourdough

Program #212
Baker: David Blom

 Background: David Blom is a third generation baker. His parents owned a small German bakery in Philadelphia for fourteen years, and Blom spent most of his childhood playing baker. As he grew, so did the bakery, finally moving to a new location where it remains to this day. By the time Blom graduated from high school, he had also graduated to full-fledged cake baker and decorator at the bakery. He entered the Culinary Institute, and after graduation, worked in several well-known New York restaurants. The last stop in New York was for six years at the famous Montrachet as pastry chef. He recently accepted a position at Chef Allen's in North Miami.

 Restaurant: Chef Allen's, Miami, FL
Featured Recipes: Ginger Snaps, Babas, Tuiles, Savarins

Program #213
Baker: Norman Love

 Background: Norman Love, the South Florida based pastry chef known for his artistic, sculptural pastry creations, is the corporate pastry chef of the Ritz-Carolton Hotel Company. A native of Philadelphia, Norman spent most of his youth in the South Florida and loved it enough to make it his home. He joined the Ritz-Carlton Company in 1990 from the Beverly Hills Hotel in California where he was the executive pastry chef. South Florida is a prevalent influence on his work which features exotic fruits and Caribbean spices. Norman is currently designing a wedding cake as a possible prototype for the Ritz-Carlton Company.

 Restaurant: Ritz-Carlton, Naples, FL
Featured Recipes: Savory Puffs: Salmon Mousse Eclairs and Marscapone Vegetable Medley
Featured Recipes: Petit Fours, Ladyfingers, Madeleines, Miniature Florentine Squares
 

Martha Stewart, star of her own television show, magazine and author of the very popular "Weddings" book joins Julia through two episodes to bake one grand and glorious, three–tiered wedding cake.

Episode #301 (Part 1): Martha prepares the batter and bakes each layer in graduated diamond shaped cake forms. While the cake bakes, and then chills, Martha creates a variety of delicately realistic and delicious marzipan fruits, right down to the little stems and leaves. She also makes and chills enough vanilla rum buttercream to ice the entire cake.

Episode #302 (Part 2): Martha shows us how to assemble the cake: first she makes the dacquoise and fits it into each layer; next, she crumb–coats and ices the cake, constructs the support system for the three tiers, and decorates the entire cake with the marzipan fruits.

Program #303
Nancy Silverton, owner of La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles, bakes a crème fraîche brioche torte with fresh fruit poached in white wine.

Program #304
Master chef Michel Richard, owner of Los Angeles' renowned Citrus restaurant, works his magic with puff pastry making mini–pizzas and then deep–fried parmesan cheese twists. Next, master teacher Alice Medrich bakes vanilla hazelnut biscotti.

Program #305
Lauren Groveman, New York cooking teacher and cookbook author, demonstrates how easy it is to make European ethnic specialities like rich brown pumpernickel loaves and crunchy matzos.

Program #306
Johanne Killeen, chef and co–owner of Al Forno Restaurant in Providence, Rhode Island, bakes two American classics: gingerbread baby cake and Johnnycake cobblers.

Program #307
Marcel Desaulniers, chef and owner of the Trellis Restaurant in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, as well as the author and host of the television show "Death by Chocolate," teases our palate with oven–roasted plum cakes with chocolate sauce and chocolate–mint nightcaps.

Program #308
Nick Malgieri, master teacher at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School and author of several award–winning books on baking, demonstrates authentic Sicilian specialities like savory Pizza Rustica and fig–filled treats called "X" cookies.

Program #309
Mary Bergin, of Las Vegas Nevada, and head pastry chef for Wolfgang Puck's Spago Restaurant, demonstrates how to make a vanilla chiffon cake with a twist—a full vanilla flavor and a thin, flexible shape, ideal for rolling with chocolate–laced walnut mousse.

Program #310
Markus Farbinger, master teacher  at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, bakes a warm poppyseed torte with poached apricots.

Program #311
Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, husband and wife baking team from Toronto, Canada, demonstrate how to make two different kinds of Naan. Plus, cookbook author Beatrice Ojakangas from Duluth, Minnesota, teaches how to make a Scandinavian flatbread called Swedish hardtack.

Program #312
Gail Gand, pastry chef and owner of Chicago's Vanilla Bean Bakery, demonstrates "not–your–usual" lemon meringue pie–for–one. Florida baker David Blom makes cookies: delicately curved tuiles, and tasty little gingersnaps.

Program #313
Flo Braker, San Francisco Bay Area baker, author and cooking teacher, turns out two wonderfully crunchy butter galettes, one that's great as a sweet treat with fresh berries and whipped cream, and another with tomatoes and savory herbs. Plus, Leslie Mackie, owner of Seattle's Macrina Bakery, demonstrates a raspberry–fig crostata.