Abby Swain stands as the Executive Pastry Chef of Tom Colicchio’s Temple Court restaurant located within the iconic Beekman Hotel. This landmarked building offers as a glimpse into the beauty of the gilded age in New York. At Temple Court, Chef Abby applies the knowledge she has acquired through her past experiences to create innovative desserts influenced by classic New York cuisine, seasonal ingredients, and time-honored recipes to curate an unforgettable experience.

Christine Alaniz has over a decade of experience in the fine jewelry industry, and has designed thousands of custom engagement rings.

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For every piece of custom jewelry, she works with her clients one-on-one by sketching, sourcing diamonds and gemstones, and creating the perfect unique design. From the initial discussion to casting, polishing, and stone setting, every piece is handmade on historic Jeweler's Row in Philadelphia.

BEnoit is BElgian Master Chocolatier, graduated from Ceria Culinary Institute in Belgium, and was Chocolate Chef at the Belgian Pavilion in Shanghai World Expo in 2010. BE Chocolat is exclusively using Callebaut Fairtrade Finest Belgian Chocolate. Production is hand made locally in USA in small batches to preserve the subtleness of tastes of premium and mostly organic ingredients.

Corina Chase designs costumes for theatre, opera, dance, and film. She currently resides in NYC, where she recently earned an MFA from NYU Tisch. Recent credits include Bound (dir. Ashley Tata) for Fresh Squeezed Opera, Three Days in the Country (dir. Tazewell Thompson) for NYU Tisch Graduate Acting, The Visitation (dir. Drew Gregory), an immersive performance staged in the Wyckoff Museum, and Providence, RI (dir. Skylar Fox) for Nightdrive, an innovative theatre company where she is the resident costume designer. She received a Weston Fine Arts Award from Brown University in 2013. Her costumes were featured in a production of Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (dir. Abby Colella), which won a 2013 NY Innovative Theatre Award for an Outstanding Performance Art Piece, and her designs for Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play (dir. Connie Crawford) were nominated for Best Costume Design for a University Production in the 2016 Motif Theater Awards.

DAVID C. WOOLARD (Costume Designer) received Tony Award nominations for The Rocky Horror Show and The Who’s Tommy. He has designed over 20 shows on Broadway and over 200 shows around the world. Including West Side Story, Damn Yankees, the operas It’s a Wonderful Life, Cold Mountain, Everest and L’Italiana in Algeri .  In addition to his Tony nominations, Mr. Woolard has won a Drama Desk Award, the Henry Hewes Design Awards and was nominated for an Olivier Award. For additional credits please visit http://davidcwoolard.com.

DEDE AYITE is a Costume Designer based in New York City. She recently designed American Son, Children of a Lesser God on Broadway. Her recent Off-Broadway credits include The Rolling Stone (LCT); The Secret Life of Bees (Atlantic); By The Way, Meet Vera Stark (Signature); BLKS, School Girls… (MCC) and Slave Play (NYTW). Regionally she has worked at The Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Steppenwolf; American Repertory Theater, Denver Center; California Shakespeare; La Jolla Playhouse; Berkeley Repertory; Baltimore Center Stage; Arena Stage; Cleveland Playhouse; McCarter Theatre and Hartford Stage. She is a recipient of a Lucille Lortel, Helen Hayes, Theatre Bay Area, and Jeff Awards, including Four Drama Desk Nominations. She is thrilled to be participating in Salon du Chocolat NY. What an honor to combine her love for chocolate and design.

For over 13 years House of Knipschildt has been renowned for creating exquisite quality artisan chocolate. Knipschildt Chocolatier is the oldest brand of House of Knipschildt and delivers preeminent quality handmade, hand-painted and hand packed artisan chocolate. For Knipschildt Chocolatier, Fritz Knipschildt combines exquisite old European craftsmanship, intriguing avant-garde flavor combinations and state-of the art handpicked natural ingredients to create artistic customized chocolate pieces. Fritz Knipschildt’s early passion and innovative ideas to creatively infuse elements from the savory kitchen into the world of chocolate and confection have been highly awarded at numerous national and international food competitions through the last decade and is frequently showcased on national TV stations like The Food Network and CNBC as well as in major publications like the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Oprah Magazine.

Master Chocolatier and Chocolate Sculptor, Håkan Mårtensson was born in the heart of Sweden’s southern countryside and began to study the techniques of baking, pastry preparation and confectionary design while in high school. At just 19 years old, he was offered a position working alongside head pastry chef, Stefan Johnson-Petersén. Håkan worked with an extensive array of chocolate varieties and a true passion inevitably evolved over the years. In 2003, Håkan began to experiment with creating chocolate sculptures after witnessing his mentor, Stefan, carving chocolate into designs. His talents were noticed and Håkan was invited to join the Swedish Culinary Team, setting him up for high levels of success in the international arena. His team won silver in the 2006 World Cup, and in 2008, they won bronze in the Culinary Olympics in Erfurt Germany (IKA Olympiade Der Köche). In the individual showpiece category, Håkan proved to be a force to be reckoned with, earning the gold medal in chocolate sculpturing.  Not long after his international successes, Mårtensson set his sights on New York City. Today he works alongside FIKA founder, Lars Åkerlund, as FIKA´s Master Chocolatier.

Award-winning international Fashion Designer and recognized as Remodista’s 2019 Women2Watch in business disruption honoree, Ia Faraoni is the Founder and Designer of Ia’s Threads - a sustainable fashion brand best known for their award-winning luxury bags & Minaudière, ethically sourced in collaborations with small communities across the Philippines. She is passionate about Sustainable Fashion and is the prolific force behind the brand’s innovative zero-waste fashion clothing - creating designer dresses using a design method that is informed by the use of reclaimed and recycled textiles, trimmings, materials and eco-friendly fabrics.

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With designing and marketing as her core skills, Ia is a successful designer-entrepreneur and has executed business strategies that landed global brand awareness for Ia’s Threads. Her sustainable fashion designs were featured in sold out shows during New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week. As evident through her vibrant color choice and unique shapes, an Ia Faraoni piece will infuse anyone’s wardrobe with a striking style to make a statement. This impactful woman believes that wearing values always leads to making a difference and she relates her style to confidence, inner beauty, and vibrancy.

Originally from Northern California, Chef Jansen Chan began baking at a very young age. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in architecture, he followed his true passion for baking by moving to Paris and graduating from Le Cordon Bleu with a pâtisserie diploma in 2000.After culinary school, Chef Jansen went to San Francisco to continue his training in some of the city’s finest restaurants: Kuleto’s, John Frank, and the Fifth Floor. He then accepted an invitation to work for Chef Alain Ducasse in the kitchens of his eponymous restaurant at the 3-Michelin starred Essex House in New York City, as well as Mix restaurants in Las Vegas and New York City. Under the tutelage of Ducasse, Chef Jansen came to master the craft of baking and pastry in fine dining as executive pastry chef of Oceana. For five years, he indulged New York City diners with his sumptuous and visually arresting desserts and artisanal breads.

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His approach to the art of baking and pastry combines applying classic French techniques to fresh, seasonal ingredients to create exciting flavor profiles. His desserts have been featured in high-profile publications such as Food & Wine magazine, Art Culinaire, and Baking and Pastry: North America. His desserts were declared “splendid” by former New York Times critic Frank Bruni and in 2009, Chef Jansen’s doughnut platter was named the best dessert in the city by Time Out New York. Chef Jansen’s creations express his innate passion for sweets and reveal the depth of expertise he acquired from his classic culinary education and training as an architect. He joined the International Culinary Center (ICC) as Director of Pastry Operations in 2012 and immediately oversaw the modernization of the prestigious pastry curriculum, originally designed by Jacques Torres.

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In 2017, he founded Pastry Plus at ICC, an annual conference that promotes the constructive exchange of ideas and information for pastry professionals. Pastry chefs, new and established, gather to explore the latest in craft, innovation and workplace. In conjunction, an all-star charity bake sale, Pastryland, is held to benefit non-profit organizations.

Chef Jansen is a member of the 2019 Advisory Council for Salon du Chocolat New York and continues to serve as a judge for the annual Tiptree World Bread Awards USA. 

Jürgen David brings the rich history of classic Viennese confections with him to the Pastry Arts Program. Born and raised in Vienna, Austria, Chef Jürgen was deemed a certified confectioner by the esteemed Viennese Commission of Confectioners. His determination and creativity have taken him from the 400-year-old landmark Kvikne Hotel in Norway to New York’s James Beard House, with many stops in between. One of the most enjoyable projects Chef Jürgen has worked on was the construction of the world’s largest Hershey’s Kiss. Early in 2013 Chef Jürgen lead the team to create a four foot sugar and chocolate showpiece of The Phantom of the Opera’s “Red Death”, commissioned by Sir Cameron Macintosh for the 25th Anniversary of “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway Gala at the New York Public Library. In 2018 Chef Jürgen presented the new Broadway Phantom, Swedish pop star Peter Jöback, with a custom “Welcome to Broadway” cake on Opening Night, joined onstage by VIP guests and press. In his opinion, practice is what it takes to be successful in this field. “Never stop learning. Always try to make it better.” Chef Jürgen joined The International Culinary Center in 1997. 

Katzie Guy-Hamilton is dedicated to inspiring others to embrace real food as a means to thrive: saving room for joy, celebration, and dessert. As a top ten Pastry Chef, Certified Health Coach, Food and Beverage Director, and Author, Katzie is redefining healthy eating.  Her first book: Clean Enough: get back to basics and leave room for dessert, delivers on this sustainable approach, through an artistic collection of real food recipes, best of class desserts, and mindful lifestyle methods. A graduate of the International Culinary Center, she trained at Spago before founding the pastry kitchen of the Breslin, and running Food and Beverage for Max Brenner International. Recently named as Wanderlust's 35 under 35 to watch in Wellness, the bridge has been made between pastry and health. Guy-Hamilton is continuing her research, development, and storytelling of heritage foods and how they both unify and heal communities globally.

Libat Ohayon (aka Libi) is a multi-disciplinary artist; a painter, illustrator, costume and prop designer, mixed media and installation artist, and in her most recent incarnation, tattoo artist. Her art has been displayed across New York City’s galleries, the Chelsea Museum and the United Nations. Ohayon’s works are a visual allegory, hopeful in nature, with mystical and spiritual allusions. They represent a melding of the Israeli and Moroccan influences from which she descends, while paying homage to New York, the city she has called home for the past 18 years.

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Since 2012, Libat has been an artist-in-residence at The Hive, a New York art collective featuring collaborations between musicians, as well as theater, fashion, dance, and fine artists. Her primary role at The Hive comprised the design and crafting of costumes and props for all shows and theater productions. Libi and her Hive friends eventually produced a series of fashion shows entitled “Rags Etc.”, which showcased her costumes and provided a free stage for other up-and-coming costume designers to present their creations accompanied by an extravaganza of original theater, live music, dance and circus acts.

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Today, Ohayon is a tattoo artist at the Brooklyn based Gallery Five Four, and sells her original miniature metallic paintings through her company “Pocket Art Design”  in Williamsburg.

Lisa Mansour is an award-winner, third generation expert in cake decoration and the co-founder and co-owner of NY Cake, the premier destination for baking and decorating supplies in New York City. Mansour is also the head of NY Cake Academy, a hands-on cake decorating and baking school where she teaches classes on fondant, specialty cakes and seasonal topics for baking and cake decorating enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels. In addition, Mansour has created industry-leading events that celebrate the art of cake decorating, including The New Cake Show and the NY Cake Annual Gingerbread and Cookie Competition.

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In Lisa Mansour's 30 years in the industry, she has been recognized as one of the top professional cake designers in the world, having received wide critical acclaim from national and international media and winning awards and recognition from global competitions and organizations. At NY Cake, Lisa frequently received cake requests for celebrity events as well as Food Network and production companies for cakes and decorated desserts to be used for TV and movies.

NY Cake is a women-owned, family-owned business, run by Lisa Mansour along with her mother, Joan Mansour, and her sister, Jenny Kashanian.

A natural-born artist, Marilyn thrives on combining her well-honed sculpture and painting skills with her talent and passion for baking and edible creations producing art forms that others can enjoy as much as she can. Her constant experimentation with different products and processes eventually led to her discovery of a unique edible fabric-like compound called Flexique® which has been receiving international acclaim for its unique variety of uses.

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She has been featured in national cake decorating publications, has earned top honors in professional sculpted cake and other edible art competitions, and her work has been featured internationally by ICES.

As the Owner and Creative Director of Unique Cakes, LLC, she specializes in non-traditional wedding cakes, three dimensional sculpted cakes and blown & pulled sugar amenities. For a full gallery of her work visit www.UniqueCakes.biz.

As a co-owner of Unique Flexique, LLC, Marilyn has pioneered new techniques in cake decorating, and is the leading authority on all applications of the Flexique® line of products. She continues her exploration and development of unique edible accents, and shares product combinations and innovative uses with the community.  Visit www.flexique.com to see all currently available products, accessories and tutorials.

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Joe spent 26 years in the US Army then 18 years as a Certified Program Manager.  He has a BS in Mathematics, a Master’s in Computer Science and Business Administration.  He has been actively involved in his wife’s cake business and understands the cake community. Joe has experience building complex structures for three dimensional creations and has presented an informational session briefing on some of these structure fundamentals. He is currently the co-owner of Unique Flexique which produces the Revolutionary Flexique product line.

Classically trained at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), Matt spent a year honing his craft in Holland after graduation. After a stint at Prezza, in Boston’s North End, Matt was ready for his own restaurant where he could fulfill his vision for a menu replete with dishes made from the freshest meats and fish, local farm-grown seasonal produce, and artisan-made foods. Matt and his wife, Kristin opened Chez Pascal in the spring of 2003.

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In the summer of 2009, after a year fabricating on old linen truck, Matt launched his newest passion, a mobile food truck. Hewtin’s Dogs Mobile focused on a changing variety of house made sausages, sandwiches, soups and more. Then in 2011 after a car hit the front of the restaurant, Matt & Kristin decided to turn the dent into a walk up window serving house made sausages and sandwiches. They retired the truck, put a small open kitchen inside Chez Pascal and The Wurst Kitchen was born.

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In 2016 Matt designed and procured manufacturing in Rhode Island of his own chef designed apron aptly called the Chezpron. Over the years, Matt has been invited to participate in numerous food and wine festivals both in and out of state. Demonstrating his cooking techniques at the Epcot Food and Wine festival, Saborea Puerto Rico and Holland America cruise ships. His national television credits include The Today Show, The Cooking Channels’ Food-ogrophy, Meat & Potatoes & Eat Street as well as House Hunters International & Cultivating Life where he was a regular guest chef.

Miro Uskokovic is the Pastry Chef of Gramercy Tavern. Born and raised in Serbia, Miro grew up on a family farm where his mother had small cheese and cake-making operations. At seventeen, he traveled to the U.S. for the first time to live in Greentown, Indiana for a year as part of a high school exchange program.

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After returning home to Serbia and attending hospitality college, Miro relocated to Greentown where he nurtured his love of baking, working with local Pastry Chef Andrea Kirkpatrick in her shop Pastry Diva, known for modern American cakes. He then enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, where he received an Associate’s Degree in the culinary program in 2010. While completing his externship in the savory kitchen at Wallsé, Chef Kurt Gutenbrunner’s flagship restaurant, Miro met Jean-Georges’ Pastry Chef, who offered him the opportunity to train as his production intern during his days off.

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After completing his program at the CIA he returned to Jean-Georges as a pastry cook. Within a year and a half, Miro had become the Pastry Sous Chef at Jean-Georges. He later moved on to become the Pastry Chef at Aldea, before landing at Gramercy Tavern in 2013. In addition to leading Gramercy Tavern’s pastry program, Miro was also the Opening Pastry Chef of Untitled from 2015 to 2017. Miro’s contemporary American desserts are created out of a collection of personal memories and experiences, as well as influence from other cuisines. In 2015, Miro was named one of Dessert Professional’s “Top 10 Pastry Chefs."

My name is Moran and I am a New York based chocolate artist. I was born in Be’er Sheva Israel and moved to New York City eleven years ago. Drizzle was established six years ago in 2013. Drizzle is a fantasy world of chocolate fashion.

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My brand, Chocolate Fashionistas was born out of love for self expression through creativity. My edible chocolate fashion includes marvelous collections of dolls, human sized chocolate busts, high heel shoes, masks and jewelry. The designs that guide me in my work are inspired by my personal style. It is greatly influenced by the depth and layers of New York City.

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A great love for me are conducting fun and playful chocolate workshops where both adults and children can bring their creativity to life.

NICK MALGIERI, former Executive Pastry Chef at Windows on the World and 1996 inductee into Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America, has recently retired as founder of baking programs at the Institute of Culinary Education. The author of PASTRY and 11 other cookbooks, including the James Beard winner How to Bake and the IACP/Julia Child Cookbook award-winner Chocolate, Nick’s recipes have been published widely, including in The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, Food & Wine, Gourmet and Bon Appetit. He is a frequent contributor to Pastry Arts magazine. Nick has appeared on national morning shows and local television throughout the United States, as well as on the Food Network and with Julia Child and Martha Stewart. Visit Nick’s website at www.nickmalgieri.com.

Paul Joachim grew up in Florida, and he still lives just outside Orlando. Always in love with art, Paul had the opportunity to study Fine Arts at Florida State University where he obtained a BFA in Studio Art.

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After graduating from college, Paul started a web development business and, as a hobby, he turned cooking into his own personal art form. Over a decade later, he discovered a love for cakes and transforming them into delicious edible sculptures. After pushing the envelope of what was possible in cake design for four years, in 2011 Paul was invited to appear on Food Network where he won the Extreme Alien Cake Challenge. For Paul, this pivotal moment was a milestone that launched his chocolate-carving career.

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Paul is now ranked as one of the best chocolatiers and chocolate artists in the world. He travels the globe showcasing his unique brand of chocolate speed-sculpting at world-class brand launches and internationally-recognized events for clients including Godiva, Delta Airlines, Oreo, Universal Studios, and the NBA. Perhaps you caught Paul, The Chocolate Genius, on one of his TV appearances on The Talk on CBS, Australia’s The Today Show, A&E, Hallmark Channel and multiple Food Network shows.

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At Salon du Chocolat NY, Paul will be creating a large-scale sculpture made from chocolate donated by Endangered Species Chocolate, a company with more than 26 flavor varieties, a commitment to high quality ingredients, and a mission that promises a better future. 

"I firmly believe that you should have a little treat every day. You never know when a mack truck could take you out and you shouldn't be living on some sad diet shake."

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At 17 years old, I learned how to make and decorate cakes and I have never been able to get enough of it. I packed up my beloved Kitchen Aid and moved from Utah and headed to NYC and went to The French Culinary Institute where I graduated at the top of my Pastry Arts Class.

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I've worked alongside the best in the industry, had cakes published in Brides and New York Magazine's while always making my own signature cakes on my own. I make bespoke cakes for your special event, teach 'how to' cake decorating classes and host Food Tours in Nolita & Greenwich Village in New York in my spare time.

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Need more of me? You can find me on The Cooking Channels "Unique Sweets" as well as a judge on The Food Networks "Sugardome" "King of Cones" "Beat Bobby Flay" "Bakers vs Fakers" and "Worst Cooks in America".

Rocco began training in the kitchen as a teenager, seeking out some of the best chefs in Philadelphia and New York to learn his craft. It was one of these chefs who noticed Rocco’s continuous curiosity for what he did not know and natural affinity for pastry. He urged the young chef to expand beyond the savory side of the kitchen to specialize in the sweet. So Rocco honed and refined his pastry skills in the legendary pastry kitchen of Le Bec Fin.

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Rocco then stepped out on his own as the opening pastry chef of Le Bec Fin’s sister restaurant, Brasserie Perrier. It was a role that gave him the opportunity to cook for many culinary icons, like Julia Child and Paul Bocuse, and to develop his focus on elegant but playful desserts. His simple but startling innovations on pastry became a diner favorite, winning him numerous press awards and features in national magazines.

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By 26, Rocco was lauded as one of the best pastry chef in the city by Philadelphia magazine. But his curiosity pushed him to take a gamble, leaving Philadelphia for the emerging food mecca of San Francisco to learn the art to artisan bread baking and deepen his expertise with gourmet chocolate confections.

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Rocco decided to return to Philadelphia to help out a friend. After a five year stint as the pastry chef at Miel Patisserie, Rocco then returned an old friend, as Corporate Pastry Chef for five star chef Georges Perrier, overseeing the pastry departments in all five of Perrier’s restaurants. It was a high-profile post that gave Rocco another chance to further refine his skills, working alongside an MOF to completely revamp the pastry program in each of the restaurants.

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Rocco began sharing his passion of pastry as an Instructor at The Art Institute of Philadelphia and as an Ambassador for Cacao Barry. In 2017 Chef Rocco joined Barry Callebaut team as East Coast Technical Advisor. He now brings his many years of cooking and teaching to pastry chefs on the East Coast.

As the lead chef for the Chocolate Academy™ Online, Chef Russ Thayer curates the curriculum and leads the chefs who contribute to its content. He himself specializes in modern confections based on traditional techniques, while also having a robust knowledge of pastry as a whole. Russ is also a classically trained savory chef, however it is the technical accuracy and attention to detail in pastry and confections that fascinates him. Prior to joining the Barry-Callebaut group, he was the Pastry Chef at PreGel America, and before this, he worked as a Pastry Chef for the Ritz-Carlton hotel group. He has also held Pastry Chef positions in several prestigious private clubs. Russ is a graduate of both the Pastry Arts and Culinary Arts programs at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Russ has won numerous gold medals in ACF sponsored pastry competitions as well as being a finalist in Cacao-Barry’s L’Art du Chocolatier Challenge 2012. Chef Russ joined the Chicago Chocolate Academy™ team in 2014 to further his dedication for research and innovation. In 2018, Chef Russ relocated to Montreal, Canada to become the Lead Chef for the Chocolate Academy™ Online. His strong desire to work with the best pastry chefs in the industry continues to push him forward.

Sean grew up in the South where food was at the center of every gathering. He attended Appalachian State University where he majored in Nutrition and Food while spending his externship at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. After graduation, he stayed at the Greenbrier for two years working his way through many stations in all of the restaurants of the resort. Working under Chef Rich Rosendale, CMC; he was advised to spend a year with Chef Hardmut Handkee CMC in Ohio. It was under Chef Handkee that Sean realized that pastry was his passion.

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He began working with Jean-Georges in 2008 when Market Restaurant was opened in One&Only Palmilla. Sean spent five more years at Market creating the menus for all of the outlets of the resort, designing special creations for the vast amenity program and produced many wedding cakes for the resort's elite clientele. In September 2013 Jean-Georges invited Sean to NYC to be the executive pastry chef ABC Kitchen, ABC Cocina and corporate pastry chef Jean-Georges international properties. In 2015, Sean became the pastry chef at Jean-Georges Restaurant while continuing the corporate gig. The focus of his desserts are on market driven, seasonally focused desserts. "I believe less is more and strive to create food that is elegant, sophisticated and simple. While I’m not working, I enjoy making pasta with my wife and two daughters."

Born and raised in London, England, Chef Theresa Farrell was exposed to the culinary heritage of her family coming from an Irish/Caribbean background. She found her calling to the culinary arts in England working in the prestigious area of Victoria, London. Starting out in the savory department she quickly transition to pastry and found where her true passion lies.

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In 2005, Chef Theresa made a decision with her children to move to America in pursuit of the American dream. In Florida, she established her catering business and catered to attorneys, doctors, NFL teams, and celebrities. In 2007 she went on a weekend visit to Austin, Texas and fell in love with the city. Three months later, she moved to Austin where she lived for nine years. Working at Whole Foods corporate office, she was given the opportunity to build a pastry team for the catering department which became successful and saw her make pastries for MTV music awards, SXSW, Prince, Elton John and Martha Stewart to name a few.

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In 2016 Chef Theresa moved to New York and took time out to trial in Michelin restaurants like The Modern, Cosme, Per Se and Jean-George. Chef Theresa’s culinary view of plant based living comes from over three decades of living what she teaches, incorporating flavorful, locally sourced ingredients into her desserts.

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Over the last five years, she has contributed her time to teaching/cooking on a voluntary basis, working at homeless shelters, schools, and culinary programs. Chef Theresa currently works for Levy Restaurant Group and has helped to establish the brand Cultivated building the first pastry department at the Javits Center.

Chef Vanessa Greeley is a graduate of French Culinary Institute in New York. Her accolades include winning top places at some of the most prestigious cake competitions in the country. Her work has also been featured in numerous magazines and newspapers as well as on CBS News, NY1, Fox News, CNN, Reuters, and CNBC to name a few.

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Vanessa made her TV debut competing in a live challenge for Wedding Cake Wars on WEtv. She has been a guest chef on Telemundo’s “Cooking with Susso” and on Univision’s “Housewives of Connecticut”.  Vanessa loves competing on TV. She competed on the “Chocolate Myths” episode of Food Network’s Challenge, and on the “When Toys Come to Life” episode of Food Network’s Sugar Dome. Most recently you may have seen her on Cake Wars Christmas Special and Food Network's Gingerbread Giants Season 2. When not competing, Vanessa enjoys teaching at her studio in beautiful Warwick NY. She also serves as a judge at several cake competitions throughout the country and at the International Culinary Center in New York.

Before becoming a chef, Chef Toni Dickinson graduated from Smith College with a double major and danced professionally with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater of New York. After great success in the performing arts world, she traded the stage for the kitchen and enrolled in The International Culinary Center. This training led to pastry work in restaurants like the River Café and Le Cirque, and private catering positions with the Italian Consulate as well as her own catering company, Amye J’s. She brings her remarkable teaching skills to the Pastry Department, where her thoughtful interaction with students challenges them to think—and cook—creatively. Chef Toni Lynn joined The International Culinary Center in 1998.