Chef Victoria Love's Biography

Executive Pastry Chef, Victoria A. Love graduated from Skidmore College in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Theatre Directing and Design. For the following five years, she worked at Agency for the Performing Arts in Manhattan.

But a childhood passion led her first to study at The New School’s Culinary Arts Program and then to study at The French Culinary Institute where she received a Grand Diploma in Pastry with a Certificate in Excellence. After graduating in December 1998, Chef Victoria honed her cake decorating skills by interning for Colette Peters at Colette’s Cakes for six months. She assisted Colette in designing and decorating special occasion cakes for up to 650 guests, and helped create the cakes for the photo shoots that were featured in her publication Colette’s Birthday Cakes.

Developing an even greater love for cake production and decoration, Chef Victoria went to work at Patisserie Les Friandises as Head Decorator, where she produced and decorated all seasonal specialty items and wedding cakes. While continuing her production responsibilities at Patisserie Les Friandises, she was eventually promoted to Kitchen Manager and Assistant General Manager.

In May 2001, she was asked to be the Sous Pastry Chef at The Water Club owned by famed restaurateur Michael O’Keeffe.

Promoted to Executive Pastry Chef in July 2004, Chef Victoria manages a staff of seven employees and up to 12 interns a semester. Her responsibilities include production and plating of a la carte dining for up to 300 guests, a weekly Sunday brunch for up to 300 guests, banquets for up to 700 guests, as well as all special occasion cakes.

From May 2003 to February 2004, while continuing her responsibilities at The Water Club she also worked as Pastry Chef at Laura Belle, a private club owned by Mr. O’Keeffe, responsible for production and service of banquets for up to 800 guests.

In March 2005, The French Culinary Institute, where she is a guest lecturer, invited Chef Victoria to join their Pastry Advisory Board. Shortly thereafter, NYC & Company, the city’s official tourism marketing organization, requested Chef Victoria to create a sugar showpiece of a New York City Landmark for the International Pow Wow event held in May 2005 at the Museum of Modern Art.

Her scale model of The Palm House at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens was graced with a branch of cherry blossoms made of pastillage, gum paste and royal icing to honor the Cherry Blossom Festival held every year at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Also in May 2005, Chef Victoria was honored with being selected as a finalist in the category of Cacao Noel Best Confection for PastryScoop.com’s Second Annual Golden Scoop Award.

In December 2005, Chef Victoria was invited to participate in the Gingerbread Homes for Animals third annual event. Pastry Chefs from around New York City are invited to create a gingerbread house for an animal which are raffled off as a fundraiser for Rational Animal, ASPCA and The Mayor’s Alliance for Animals. They were on display in the Dana Conservatory in Central Park during December. Chef Victoria created a scale model of The Dairy in Central Park out of gingerbread surrounded by a menagerie of marzipan animals to commemorate The Central Park Conservancy’s 25th Anniversary.

Chef Victoria’s Cheesecake with Strawberry Champagne Consomme and Strawberry Mint Salad was featured on the cover of Greenwich Magazine’s April 2006 food magazine “In Good Taste”.

Again in May 2006, Chef Victoria was honored with being selected as a finalist in the category of Cacao Noel Best Confection for PastryScoop.com’s Third Annual Golden Scoop Award for the second year in a row.

In November of 2006, Chef Victoria was awarded The French Culinary Institute’s 2006 Outstanding Alumni Award for Excellence in Pastry Arts.

Gingerbread Homes for Animals invited Chef Victoria to participate again in the Fourth Annual event in December 2006, which was held in Chelsea Market. She created a gingerbread house resembling a doll’s house titled “Spot and Bailey’s Christmas Cottage” named after her cat and rabbit. The interior was filled with gumpaste, pastillage and royal icing furniture, a fireplace, a Christmas tree, mice in the attic, wreaths, a cat and a rabbit.

Chef Victoria was invited to be a Chef Instructor at PastryScoop’s Spring 2007 Conference in May and demonstrated royal icing decorations.

PastryScoop invited Chef Victoria to return for the Fall 2007 Conference in October and she demonstrated buttercream decorations. Due to the popular demand for this class, PastryScoop asked Chef Victoria to teach a 4 hour seminar on buttercream decorating on March 29, 2008.

In November of 2007, The French Culinary Institute asked Chef Victoria to contribute a recipe to the school’s pastry text book, which is a companion to the James Beard Award wining The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Cuisine.

Chef Victoria participated again in the Fifth Annual Gingerbread Homes for Animals event in December 2007 at Chelsea Market, creating a western landscape and sunset out of gingerbread and pastillage with a pastillage wild horse in the foreground.

On March 10, 2008 Chef Victoria was one of the guest chefs for the GMHC’s benefit dinner “Savor – A Culinary Journey through France”. She created a Provencal dessert tasting plate; Lillet Gelee, Chocolate Meringue Roches with Candied Mint, and Lavender Honey Nougat Glace for the benefit which raised funds and awareness for AIDS research. The event raised $650,000 for the GMHC.

In April, August and November of 2008 The French Culinary Institute asked Chef Victoria to assist with creating the finished products for the photo shoots for their up-coming text book. The book, The Fundamental Techniques of Classis Pastry Arts by Judith Choate debuted in November 2009.

“Wine Spectator” commissioned Chef Victoria to create two LU cookie sculptures for their California Wine Experience at the Marriott Marquis on October 16 & 17, 2008. She created two grape trellises, one depicting Spring and the second one depicting the Fall harvest, using gumpaste, pastillage, royal icing and LU Le Petit Ecolier cookies.

Chef Victoria returned again to teach at the PastryScoop Fall 2008 Conference. The subject of this demonstration was royal icing cookie decorating.

PastryScoop invited Chef Victoria to be a judge at this year’s Golden Scoop Awards held in June 2009, and was at this time invited back for the Fall 2009 Conference to teach Gingerbread Houses.

Chef Victoria was featured in the December 2009 issue of “Dessert Professional” with a 2 page spread profile and her dessert creation - Banoffee Parfait, which is based on the Irish pub dessert Banoffee pie. The name comes from combining Banana and Toffee.