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UNDER THE TOQUE
According to Nicole Kaplan, working as a chef is not unlike working as a performance musician. Both careers require inventiveness, total dedication and a willingness to put oneself and one's creations out in front of an audience night after night.
Thus, Kaplan says the transition wasn't hard when she gave up a career as a globetrotting flutist 10 years ago to pursue her other passion: pastry. After working at Osteria del Circo in New York, Kaplan developed her signature understated style at New York's Eleven Madison Park, an American bistro, where she has worked as executive pastry chef for the past four years. There her desserts are characterized by simple sophistication in both flavor pairings and presentation. Recently, Pastry Art & Design magazine named Kaplan one of the top 10 pastry chefs in America.
Title: executive pastry chef, Eleven Madison Park, New York
Birth date: Oct. 31, 1969
Hometown: Spring Valley, NY.
Education: B.A. in music performance, Mannes College of Music, New School University, New York; M.A. in music performance, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY; culinary degree from Peter Kump's New York Cooking School, now called the Institute for Culinary Education, New York.
Career highlights: having recently been named one of the top 10 pastry chefs in America by Pastry Art & Design magazine.
Your first career was in music performance, as a flutist. Tell me about that experience.
I freelanced with all the major groups in the city, the New York City Ballet, etc. I toured a lot outside of the United States with the Montevani Orchestra, through Japan, Korea and China. The travel was very exciting. But the life of the musician, when you're starting out, is picking up freelance work. A lot of the positions are for three or six months, part time. So you're always filling in with other things.