Chef and Faculty Bios

The French Pastry School of Kennedy-King College is the premier international institution of pastry arts education. Superb instruction, superior equipment, and top quality ingredients enable the co-founders, Chefs Jacquy Pfeiffer and Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F., to uphold an exceptional educational facility for all things sweet and baked. The French Pastry School’s team of award-winning instructors has grown to a faculty of many renowned chefs, including Kristen Ryan; 2011 National Pastry Champions, Della Gossett; Scott Green; Joshua Johnson; Master Cake Artists, Nicholas Lodge and Mark Seaman; World Baking Champion, Pierre Zimmermann; and World Pastry Champions, En-Ming Hsu and Dimitri Fayard.

The French Pastry School instructs over one thousand students and pastry professionals in hands-on classes each year and offers four main programs: L’Art de la Pâtisserie, a full-time 24-week pastry and baking certificate program; L’Art du Gâteau, The Professional Cake Baking and Decorating Program, a full-time 16-week certificate program; L’Art de la Boulangerie, an 8-week Artisanal Bread Baking Course;and Continuing Education courses, 3 to 5 day long classes year-round for professionals as well as food enthusiasts. Additionally, the Chef Instructors of The French Pastry School lead demonstrations on the premises and around the country for thousands more pastry professionals and enthusiasts.

The French Pastry School offers you the rare opportunity to learn the art of pastry in an intimate setting, being personally mentored by masters in their field. Your skills will be finely honed through hands-on practice and repeated exposure to the best pastry techniques, tools, and ingredients. Our school is dedicated only to the art of pastry, and it is our goal to be the finest pastry school in the United States, producing the best-prepared professionals entering the industry.

The French Pastry School's programs are approved by the Illinois Community College Board through Kennedy-King College at City Colleges of Chicago. Students in our full-time certificate programs earn from 16 to 24 college credit hours.