TOP PASTRY CHEFS 2007

Age: 34
Home Town: Sonora, CA
Favorite Ingredients: Almonds, bananas and dark chocolate
Signature Dish: Espresso mascarpone trifle
Mentor: Many influences but no single mentor

Fluent in French and Portuguese, Morgan Wilson shows he’s also fluent in the many languages of pastry. As the pastry chef of the highly acclaimed restaurant Bijoux in Dallas, Wilson became known for making refined, delicately presented desserts designed to balance textures and flavors across the palate, like his trio of pumpkin sweets and espresso mascarpone trifle, a riff on tiramisu. But a long-time career goal recently lured him to the brand-new The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, where he now serves as executive pastry chef creating pastries for The Lobby Lounge and its renowned Ritz-Carlton tea service (think inventive spins on classics like a Sachertorte with bold apricot flavor, a pistachio macaroon and a Texas-inspired maple pecan tart that conjures a sense of place) as well as overseeing pastry for six other hotel outlets. The remarkable résumé of this California Culinary Academy grad includes rigorous training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, as well as a breadth and depth of experience from serving as a chef-instructor in pastry at the Cordon Bleu-affiliated California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena to an adventurous three-year stint in Brazil. There he created pastry menus for restaurants Cannelle and Supra in Sao Paulo, and oversaw the opening of the city’s Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro for famed confectioner Francois Payard.