Kathryn Gordon

Kathryn Gordon received her bachelor's degree from Vassar, later attending New York University’s Stern School of Business for her graduate MBA degree. She began her career as a Wall Street consultant before switching to food. After deciding to change professions, Gordon earned an honors certification from L'Academie de Cuisine and worked at leading restaurants such as The Rainbow Room, Windows on the World, Tavern on the Green, Le Cirque and Le Bernardin.

Chef Kathryn was an assistant producer and co-host of the live Carymax World and National Pastry Championships for 12 years. She joined ICE in fall 2003, transforming her knowledge and experience into a passionate career in education, helping to launch ICE’s culinary study abroad programs and co-chairing the Center for Advanced Pastry Studies at ICE for over 10 years. Chef Kathryn has been a formidable competitor in national and regional pastry competitions and a nationally featured chef in the first American Almond Lookbook; is a regular panelist at culinary industry events — most recently, the inaugural Chicago Baking & Pastry Forum; and taught a Craftsy class on Contemporary Layer Cakes. 

Additionally, she is the author of several books. Chef Kathryn wrote the cookbook for Le Moulin Brégeon, Le Petit Moulin of the Loire Valley, and in 2011, published "Les Petits Macarons, Colorful French Confections to Make at Home," a best-selling guide to crafting French macarons — one of the pastry world’s most notoriously tricky sweets. The latter, which The Wall Street Journal called “comprehensive and inspiring,” has sold over 70,000 copies. Her most recent cookbook, “Les Petits Sweets, Two-Bite Desserts from the French Patisserie,” is available through Running Press.

Chef Kathryn is a founding partner in Food Startup Help, a food consultancy for entrepreneurs building wholesale or retail bakeries, or bringing a CPG food product to production, and co-wrote their textbook on how to launch a food product.  She is a member of Les Dames d'Escoffier, Culinary Historians of New York and helps with the Billion Oyster Project.

In ICE’s New York teaching kitchens, Chef Kathryn aims to create extreme scenarios that challenge students to think on their feet. Inspired by her attention to detail and determined focus, Kathryn’s students have gone on to find their own significant success, including Dana (Loia) Pollack of Dana’s Bakery, Jenny Ammirati of Culture, American Yogurt Company, Alon Langleib (Miriam Restaurant) and Helen Nyugen (Saigon Social).

For Chef Kathryn, the term "culinary voice" means, “thinking about the food you're serving from the ingredient level up — what the ingredients are, where they came from and how they were grown, and how they go together in delicious and perhaps surprising manners.”