Personalities

Emily Luchetti

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Executive Pastry Chef - Waterbar, Farallon

With six cookbooks to her credit and numerous awards, Emily Luchetti has been the executive pastry chef at San Francisco’s Farallon since its inception in 1997 and at Waterbar since it opened in 2008.

After attending culinary school and working in a few restaurants in New York and staging in France, Emily moved to San Francisco and joined the opening culinary team at Jeremiah Tower’s legendary Stars restaurant in San Francisco. Three years later she made the switch to the sweet side of the kitchen and has never looked back. She was the pastry chef at Stars for eight years and also co-owned the retail bakery StarBake.

The petite powerhouse is the author of Stars Desserts (HarperCollins, 1991), Four Star Desserts (HarperCollins, 1995), A Passion for Desserts (Chronicle Books, 2003), A Passion for Ice Cream (Chronicle Books, 2006), and The Fearless Baker (Little, Brown and Company, 2011). Her first two books were rereleased as Classic Stars Desserts (Chronicle Books, 2007). Emily’s honors include the 1998 San Francisco Focus Magazine Pastry Chef of the Year, the 2001 Women Chefs & Restaurateurs Golden Whisk Award, the 2003 Food Arts magazine Silver Spoon Award, and the 2004 James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef. From 1994 to 1999, she served as chairperson of Women Chefs & Restaurateurs. Over the last three years, the San Francisco Chronicle chose Luchetti as one of 20 Visionary Chefs in the Bay Area, she was inducted into the Culinary Pioneers of America. In 2012, she was inducted into the James Beard Foundation Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America.

In 2007 Emily co-hosted the PBS show-The Holiday Table. Other television appearances include Jacques Pepin’s PBS Essential Pepin. Martha Stewart Living, Sara Moulton’s Cookin’ Live, The Food Network’s Ultimate Kitchens and Gale Gand’s Sweet Dreams. She is a regular contributor to California Bountiful sponsored by the California Farm Bureau.

Emily is the baking columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle newspaper and writes a blog for their website www.insidescoopsf.com. Over her twenty year career her recipes have appeared in Oprah, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Every Day with Rachel Ray, Better Homes & Gardens, Woman’s Day, Redbook, More, Family Circle and Good Housekeeping Magazines.

Emily has served on the James Beard Foundation board of trustees for six years, four years as the chair of the James Beard Awards Committee. She is currently chairperson for the board of trustees. Emily is Dean at The International Culinary Center in New York and California.