Andrea Lekberg
Owner - The Artist Baker
Grand Tasting, Saturday March 16, 2013

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, a move 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 Zagats. 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.

Since opening the shop, Andrea has been back to the French Pastry School in Chicago to study preserve making. This April she will study with author and Chef Paul Virant of Chicago.

Andrea works with the local Farm at Lafayette. This farm which is a part of Grow it Green Morristown, is farm which provides fair priced organic produce for locals as well as the local businesses. As soon as produce becomes available from the farm, Andrea will be using the produce in the her kitchen as well as preserving and pickling it.

There is a book in the works about The Artist Baker. Besides favorite recipes, the book will include what happens when you open a pastry shop/ cafe in a town and what you learn about community and yourself. Andrea is working on the book with photographer Dorothy Handelman.