Born and raised in England, Susan Notter started baking at a young age, then attended culinary school while working in a pastry shop. After graduating, Chef Notter had the opportunity to work in Germany for Konditorei Heinmann, where she spent three years learning about European pastries and confections. Switzerland followed, and more experience with chocolate at Confiserie Bachmann in Luzern and Confiserie Honold in Zurich. While working in Zurich, Susan started taking sugar classes with Ewald Notter, who had just started the sugar school in Zurich. After a few months, Susan joined the school full-time, gaining more experience with pulled and blown sugar and eventually teaching classes alongside Ewald. The school grew and became internationally renowned; this led to world- wide travel, including to the U.S. to teach and demonstrate the art of pulled and blown sugar to many chefs.

In 2000, Susan moved to Alabama to open the Pastry and Baking division of Culinard, at Virginia College. Chef Notter has spent many years in the education field, teaching and as program director of pastry arts programs. In addition to this she has represented the country multiple times and the Culinary Olympics in Germany, placed 3rd at the Queen of Pastry in Italy and successfully coached 1st and 2nd place winners at the same competition. Currently, Chef Notter is the pastry coach of the USA Culinary Olympic Team, which represents the USA in international culinary competitions. She has appeared on numerous Food Network shows, including Halloween Wars, where she had the honor of being part of the winning team on the first season.

After spending the past four years as one of Felchlin‘s Corporate Pastry Chefs representing the company with technical support for the U.S. market, Chef Notter has now opened Elizabeth Moore Chocolates, where she is creating fine European chocolates, single-origin chocolate bars, teaching classes and designing special occasion sugar and chocolate showpieces.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Susan discovered her love of baking
• Culinary school and an apprenticeship at Konditorei Heinmann
• Jobs in Zurich and her introduction to pulled sugar
• Teaching sugar classes and giving demos all over the world
• Implementing college pastry programs in Alabama and Pennsylvania
• Working as a Corporate Pastry Chef at Felchlin
• Competing in pastry at the elite level
• Opening Elizabeth Moore Chocolates, a luxury boutique in Pelham, Alabama
• Susan’s best tip for tempering chocolate
• And much more!

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A fourth-generation pâtissier, Thomas Haas was first introduced to the delicate art of hand-crafting chocolates and pastries in the kitchen of Cafe Konditorei Haas, opened by his great-grandfather in the Black Forest region of Aichhalden, Germany, in 1918. Thomas carried the torch and continued his family’s long-standing tradition, apprenticing and working with top chefs in Michelin-starred restaurants across Europe en route to earning his stripes as Konditormeister, or Master Pastry Chef.

In 1995, Thomas was lured to Vancouver to take the role of Executive Pastry Chef at the Four Seasons Hotel, where he met his wife Lisa and twice placed in the top-three in the prestigious annual North American Pastry Chef of the Year competition in New York City. Thomas took an even larger bite of the Big Apple in 1998, when he moved to New York, and as Executive Pastry Chef, helped famed restaurateur and chef Daniel Boulud launch his flagship eatery, Daniel, in Manhattan's Upper East Side. During his time in Gotham, Thomas was singled out as one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America by Chocolatier and Pastry Art & Design magazines and saw his star further rise when he made several appearances on Martha Stewart Living, and other international television shows.

Today, Thomas and his wife Lisa own and operate Thomas Haas Chocolates & Patisserie in North Vancouver and the Kitsilano section of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.

Instagram: @thaaschocolates

Website: www.thomashaas.com

In this episode we discuss how Thomas fared:

• Growing up in Germany as part of a pastry and baking dynasty
• Surviving an apprenticeship with a “crazy genius” pastry chef
• Honing his skills at a five-star property in Davos and a Michelin one-star restaurant in St. Moritz
• Fulfilling a dream by moving to the U.S.
• Snagging the job of a lifetime: Executive Pastry Chef at Daniel in NYC
• Learning lessons from Chef Daniel Boulud
• Opening his own business in Vancouver, Canada
• And much more!

Katarina Cermelj (Kat for short) is an award-winning cookbook author, food writer, photographer and creator of the popular ‘free-from’ baking blog, The Loopy Whisk. She has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, having previously completed her undergraduate Chemistry degree at the same university. Being a science nerd, she loves to use a very scientific, analytical approach in her recipe development – and she’s also a big believer in not only providing reliable, fail-proof (and always delicious) recipes, but also the reasons for why they work.

Kat’s first cookbook, Baked to Perfection, has been described as "the only gluten-free cookbook you'll ever need" and has won The Guild of Food Writers Specialist Subject Award 2022, the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Debut Cookery Book Award 2022 and was a finalist in the IACP Awards 2022.

Her latest cookbook, The Elements of Baking, is an in-depth (and enthusiastically nerdy) guide to making any recipe gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan or even gluten-free vegan – all while ensuring it still tastes spectacular.

theloopywhisk.com
Instagram, Facebook and TikTok: @theloopywhisk

In this episode, we discuss:

• How an intolerance for gluten and dairy sparked the launch of The Loopy Whisk
• How her PhD in inorganic chemistry paved the way for a career as a recipe developer
• Why the formula matters – using GF flour doesn’t guarantee success
• What gluten is, and why it causes some people big problems
• Tips for making the best GF bread
• Why sometimes you have to adjust the amount of flour used in GF recipes on the fly
• What her two cookbooks, Baked to Perfection and The Elements of Baking, are all about
• The one GF recipe that Kat is most proud of
• And much more!