Chef Stephen Durfee '85 is leading "Chocolate 101" at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Saint Helena, California on Saturday, Oct. 27 from 9 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. This special event will include an overview of everything you need to know about chocolate, a participatory event making candies with Chef Durfee in the Culinary Institute's kitchen and a buffet lunch.
Stephen Durfee '85 is a Pastry Chef Instructor at The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena. Chef Durfee, a former schoolteacher with a degree in American studies from Hamilton, began his kitchen career as bread baker at Nosmo King in TriBeCa and pastry assistant at Le Pactole and Maxim's. After studying at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School, he landed a job as pastry chef at Alison on Dominick with Tom Valenti. He was working at the Wheatleigh Hotel in Massachusetts when he was recruited to help open The French Laundry, where he worked for more than five years.
He won the 1998 James Beard Award for "Outstanding Pastry Chef" and was named one of the "10 Best Pastry Chefs in America" in 1999 by Pastry Art & Design and Chocolatier magazines. In July 2007, Chef Durfee represented the CIA at the National Pastry Team Championships, where his team placed third. In August 2007, he was awarded the title Certified Executive Pastry Chef by the American Culinary Federation.
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