Hi there – my name’s Renee, and welcome to my pastry blog. This is the companion blog to my website pastrysampler.com. I’ve been selling pastry tips and tools forever to just about every country on the planet (literally), and have been writing about pastry for just as long.
About me: I worked at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel doing wedding cake couture for about 6 years during the 1990s, and prior to that I was the restaurant pastry chef for the hotel’s formal restaurant The Dining Room. I had the incredible opportunity to watch the pastry and culinary scene literally explode since then. I’ve worked with a lot of talented chefs, met even more, and got to create some pretty awesome cakes along the way for many creative brides.
My time since then has been watching my three amazing kids grow and shuttling them between cheer, soccer, tennis, lacrosse, gymnastics and tumbling, art classes, softball, basketball, band, and ROTC practices and events over the years. It may sound crazy busy, and it is, but it has actually kept me grounded since being diagnosed with breast cancer. Since then, I take no day for granted. I try to smile everyday. And just enjoy each day that I have on planet earth because I know God has his plan for us all, and you never know when our time is up.
Finding joy in each day includes a little sweet things here and there. Like below:
This is me kissing a goat at Rooster Cogburns Ostrich Farm in AZ on a recent road trip.
And this is me about forever ago when I worked at the Ritz-Carlton as The Dining Room Pastry Chef.
Enjoy looking around here. And drop me a line. It’s fun talking ‘shop’ with pastry people. 🙂
Pastry Sampler
PO Box 1344
Ramona, CA 92065
– Renee.