Our goal is to heighten our customers' appreciation for
fine pastry by providing high quality, competitively priced cakes and pastries
using fresh, natural ingredients. We are focused on creating
beautiful products in a wide range of flavors and textures to
challenge even the most discerning palates. We believe in fostering a
healthy working and learning environment for our employees by
creating mentor relationships and allowing room for creativity. We
aim to become your oven away from home and your favorite destination
for all your sweet cravings.
About Karen Yang Jao
My passion for cooking started in high school, when a persistent saleswoman convinced me to invest months of allowance money on a set of Williams-Sonoma cookbooks. With the encouragement of friends and family, I started to spend more time in the kitchen, making pizza, pasta, roast chicken, breads, pies, cookies – anything that I felt inspired to make.
At that time, I never really thought of cooking as a career, and so as I went off to Stanford for college, I pursued a Computer Science degree, a subject I found fascinating and challenging as I knew absolutely nothing about it. After my sophomore year I decided to spend my summer in Paris, completing the Basic Cuisine and Pastry program at Le Cordon Bleu. Upon completing the program, I became an intern for the pastry chef at the newly opened Marriot Hotel at the Champs Elysées. I loved every minute of my stage – plating beautiful desserts, creating chocolate petit fours, tarts and sauces – I think this was where the pastry chef in me was born. I came back home with a nagging dream to open my own pastry shop. And so even after graduating as a techie and working as a software developer, I would always go back to Paris, finally completing the pastry program in 2002, and perfecting my craft by working alongside the best pastry chefs at Pierre Hermé Pâtisserie.
By opening Chez Karine, I hope to inspire the pastry lover in you; and as you take a bite of my pastry, I hope to hear the magic word – Mmmm…
