RISING STAR PASTRY AWARD SPONSORED BY 

Tara Lane
BLACKBIRD | Chicago

Biography
Tara Lane produces desserts that demonstrate classic principles and ideas, yet alter the way we perceive them, pushing the limits of flavor, texture and design. The plates that emerge out of Lane’s kitchen at Chicago’s Blackbird, tease out subtle characteristics of ingredients not often combined and utilized in pastry. Her desserts are framed by the season as she works directly with farmers of the region. Tara’s pastries are clean and crisp, with a little humor, always evoking a second look, and thought.

Tara Lane intuitively invents desserts as she pulls from her various perspectives on creativity, while remaining humble to classic flavors. The eldest of seven, Tara was raised eating breakfast lunch and dinner with the entire family that consisted of fresh organic food grown on her family’s farm. With this foundation, she began formal study at the Le Cordon Bleu of Western Culinary in Portland, Oregon. She continued under the tutelage of François Payard in New York, thus obtaining her culinary education rooted in the classics. In order to hone her aesthetic skills, Tara attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she studied various forms of design from print work to sculpture. It was here that she began to focus on the discussion between white space, texture and dimension that composed much of the world of art and design.

Returning to the kitchen, Tara has melded her classic culinary and artistic training to innovate pastry. At once comfortably familiar and refreshingly imaginative, Lane has found a balance to her work without giving up on the creativity all artists crave.