Presenters

Robert Wemischner

Pastry chef and culinary educator, Robert Wemischner has always been intrigued by the flavor potential of ingredients, from turmeric to tea and from cumin to coffee. Author of four books including Cooking with Tea and his latest, The Dessert Architect, a book for professionals and serious amateurs alike, Wemischner began his career to great media acclaim in the food business in the early 70's as the owner of a pioneering gourmet-to-go shop in Beverly Hills. He then went on to open a similar operation in Baltimore and in the early 90’s returned to LA and began teaching pastry and culinary arts in earnest. Drawing upon his exposure to classical cooking at a young age during informal apprenticeships to chefs in France, he has been imparting his knowledge to a diverse audience of students as a teacher of baking and pastry for the past twenty years at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. Over the years, he has been a valued and regular contributor to Fine Cooking, Food Arts, Angeleno, Pastry Art and Design and Robb Report magazines, among others, writing on a wide variety of food and food business-related subjects.

Over the past twenty five years, he has presented on baking, pastry and other food related topics to professional organizations including the International Association of Food Professionals, Retailers Bakery Association, Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, American Culinary Federation and has consulted and presented to food service professionals and media for companies such as Lipton Tea/Unilever, independent baking and food operations including start ups in the baking, food service and restaurant fields. He has also been invited as guest chef aboard Silversea Cruise lines where he lectured on tea and led a group to visit Dilmah Tea's manufacturing plant in Sri Lanka, and in addition, has been guest pastry chef aboard Crystal Cruise lines voyage through the Baltic where he lectured about cooking with tea, pastry and worked side by side with the ship's pastry chefs to produce signature desserts for special dinners onboard. This June, he will be presenting a seminar about cooking with tea at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. He will then be a featured presenter at the national conference of the American Culinary Federation in August and will also appear at the Retail Baker's Association's national convention in Las Vegas in September.