Stephen Durfee

As a prospective student, Stephen Durfee ventured into the kitchen of what was then Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School and found Director of Pastry & Baking Arts Nick Malgieri preparing for an event. Malgieri told Durfee that he should stick around and help. Slathering a mixture of butter and lard onto dough for sfogliatelle, Dufree knew there was no going back to his job teaching English and history at a boarding school. That moment set in motion what would become a long and prolific career as one of America's greatest pastry chefs.

After graduating from ICE, Dufree spent his early years working at such legendary establishments as Charles Nob Hill in San Francisco, Wheatleigh Hotel in Lennox, Massachusetts, and Alison on Dominick Street in New York City.

By 1994 he had an impressive resume and found himself as the opening pastry chef at Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in Yountville, CA, what would become one of the world's greatest restaurants. In his time there he won the highly competitive James Beard Award for Pastry Chef of the Year (now called 'Outstanding Pastry Chef) and was named one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in Americaby the esteemed Pastry Art & Design Magazine. 

In 2000 Dufree returned to roots as an educator when he joined the Pastry & Baking faculty for the Napa Valley campus of the Culinary Institute of America. In this role, he competed on national and international pastry teams, including finishing third in the World Chocolate Masters competition and earning the position of chocolatier on the U.S. team for the prestigious Coupe du Monde de Pâtisserie in Lyon, France.

After more than a decade helping to mold the next generation of great pastry professionals, he narrowed his focus to chocolate education and currently serves as Director of Curriculum for Dandelion Chocolate in San Francisco.