Striving Toward Pastry Perfection: Meet Chef Jeff

By Carly DeFilippo

In the course of any career, there are moments that change everything. For young restaurant manager Jeff Yoskowitz, a disagreement with his chef—in specific, one phrase: "You don't like it? Why don't you do it yourself?"—was all it took to spark a life in the kitchen.

Though his initial motivation to move from management to the back of the house was to master a wider range of skills (and become a better manager), it soon became clear that Jeff had a future in cooking.

While Jeff started out on the savory side of the kitchen, it was a chance encounter with a bakery on the Upper West Side—Les Friandises—that would lead him to pastry. The chef, Jean-Claude Sanchez, was the original pastry chef at famed French restaurant, Le Bernadin, where he helped restaurateurs Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze earn their first four-star review from the New York Times. Though he was already employed in another kitchen, Jeff asked if there was a position open. It was a decision that would forever change his career.