On Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 PM the Morristown and Morris Township Library will welcome Morristown Pastry Chefs Andrea Lekberg of the Artist Baker, and Erica Leahy of The Jockey Hollow Bar and Kitchen. They will share their diverse experiences in the pastry profession, and how they craft their wonderful confectionaries.
Andrea and Erica have collaborated together on several projects over the years, including James Beard Dinners, and are good friends as well! Both Andrea and Erica were chosen to be the pastry chefs for the newly opened Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen across the street from the Library in the old Vail Mansion.
What better way to feel good during the cold winter months than to think about warm, baked goods!
Andrea Lekberg runs The Artist Baker in Morristown. After graduating from The Art Institute of Chicago and The Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago, Andrea moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to work at The Coyote Cafe. This wonderful kitchen run by Mark Miller and Mark Kiffin was a great beginning to a career. From there she worked at The Inn of the Anasazi before moving east to Durham, North Carolina. Durham, like Sante Fe, was a town with great farmer’s markets. Andrea learned about the relationship between chefs and local farms and the importance of that relationship in educating customers about seasonal food. From there, she moved to Brooklyn to work at Sweet Melissa’s Patisserie. During her tenure there as pastry chef, they received Best Pies and Tarts in New York from Zagat. Before opening her own shop, Andrea worked with Pichet Ong at his bakery Batch and studied with Biagio Settepani at The French Pastry School in Chicago.
Erica Leahy is a pastry chef at the Jockey Hollow Bar and Kitchen in Morristown. She previously worked as Pastry Chef for Craft Restaurants in Manhattan, the restaurant group owned by award-winning chef and Bravo TV Top Chef Tom Colicchio. Her professional career began with Daniel Boulud at Café Boulud and then moved on to DB Bistro Moderne, both in New York City before joining Sweet Melissa’s in Brooklyn. She joined Craft Restaurants in 2003 first working at Craft and then moving on to ‘Wich Craft, Craftsteak, and back to Craft as pastry chef. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and has completed the Professional Pastry Program at the Institute of Culinary Education.
Refreshments will be served.
This program is supported through funding from the Friends of the Morristown & Morris Township Library.
Do you really like food that just tastes good? So do we! What’s Cookin’ Morris County? is the Morristown & Morris Township Library’s ‘cook book book club’ of sorts that explores dining, cooking, and all topics related to food and drink.
