Paris pastry prodigy Aurélien Cohen wants to share his kitchen skills through masterclasses as much as he wants to sell you his delicious creations. Cohen began his life in pâtisserie making baked goods to order from his home, and grew an online fanbase through his user-friendly tutorials, which break down the complexity of fine pastry and chocolate to help anyone get decent results at home. Visit his Asnières-sur-Seine shop for a taste of his Paris-Tahiti choux with vanilla almond praline and whipped vanilla ganache, the Miss Coco Tartlet with whipped coconut ganache, coconut confit, and coconut almond praline, or the Chocolate Hazelnut Passion Tartlet with its milk chocolate ganache, hazelnut praline, and passion fruit caramel. His signature Miss Vanilla Tartlet is emblematic of the store and Cohen’s approach, which is to build textures alongside taste. Look out for his tours, popups and book, Architexture de la Pâtisserie.

Justin Lee is one of Korea’s very best pastry chefs and an outstanding talent known for his dedication and vision. His famous JL Dessert Bar, opened in 2016, serves exquisite dessert tasting menus that display his eye for innovation and clever flavor pairings such as his signature Tomato, Yoghurt, Basil, Parmigiano, and Olive dish, along with Bacon, Parmigiano, Onion, Apple, and Cider. There’s also Blue cheese, Kumquat, Camomile, Hazelnut. Lee began his kitchen career at home in South Korea in 2003, before discovering pastry a decade later while working in New Zealand, at Clooney in Auckland. He has worked with many luxury brands including Bernardaud, Jimmy Choo, and Baccarat, and last year expanded his business with the opening of Hugely, an artisan ice cream shop on Jeju island full of whimsical frozen desserts, cakes, and jellies.

As pastry chef and co-owner at République Café & Bakery in Los Angeles, Margarita Manzke serves her French-inspired bread and pastry to the great and the good of Tinseltown. The building is also home to her husband Walter’s restaurant and a storied location, built in 1928 by Charlie Chaplin and later home to La Brea Bakery and Campanile Restaurant. Chef Margarita, known as Margie, has built République into one of LA’s most respected and interesting bakeries while working on a clutch of other businesses, including fine dining restaurant Manzke, Mexican-inspired Petty Cash Taqueria, Filipino rice-bowl restaurant Sari Sari, and the bistro Bicyclette, as well as a chain of Wildflour Bakeries in the Philippines, where she grew up. In 2023, she won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Joanna Yuen, pastry chef and founder of online dessert shop Otera in Hong Kong, made the switch from advertising to pâtissierie a decade ago and soon became an exciting name to watch in the field of innovative pastry. She began as a self-taught wedding cake designer and from there moved into professional kitchens, including the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, NOBU, and Ando, excelling at the signature Japanese confectionary Wagashi, crafting beautiful petits fours sweets. At Otera, which she takes on the road to fine dining omakase events, she is famed for her umami desserts and mastery of flavor and technique, with Soy Sauce Caramel, Sake and Kumquat, and Maple Pancetta flan cakes, and mung bean and kombu Mooncakes. Advertising’s loss is undoubtedly pastry’s gain!

Noelia Tomoshige, founder of Madrid’s Monroebakes, is an outstanding new face on the Spanish pastry scene even though it is her second career. She spent ten years working in luxury retail before a visit to Tokyo led her to a short course in Japanese pâtisserie at the Fait Beau Tokyo school, where she discovered her vocation. She went on to complete the pastry diploma at Le Cordon Bleu Madrid and in 2021 opened Monroebakes, her dreamy cocoon of a cake shop selling French pastry with Japanese influences and a few nods to her Spanish home, such as Pistachio, Yuzu, and Mandarin Tart, Matcha cheesecakes, and Mille Crepe cakes of filled stacked pancakes. “Monroebakes is my imagination come true,” explains Tomoshige. “A pastry shop where the three cultures that define me merge: Japanese, Spanish and French. A place where creativity knows no limits and where everything is possible.”