Chef Shuffles

Chicago’s Most Colorful Pastry Shop Owners? They’re Baaaaack

Photo: courtesy Facebook/Chicago Magazine

One of them was literally colorful— in terms of tattoos and punk rock hair. The other tended to be more colorful in terms of language in tweets— especially when referring to other pastry chefs. But either way, the world of pastry was a wilder, edgier place when we had Michelle Garcia of Bleeding Heart Bakery and Natalie Zarzour of Pasticceria Natalina feuding with other people in the business and expressing no-holds-barred opinions at the drop of a hat. Then, for one reason or another, their businesses were no more. But Dish reports this week that, in a nice example of serendipity, both have returned to the scene. Garcia actually left town briefly— she spent three months as pastry chef of The Four Seasons in San Francisco— but she tells Dish she missed the customer interaction of retail, and she’s now at E.Leaven in the Gold Coast. While Zarzour spent time in Italy working on farms before coming back to make pastries at David Schneider’s Greek-Turkish restaurant Taxim in Wicker Park. Zarzour sounded burned out about Chicago when her shop closed, but as she explains to Dish… well, you just need to go read it for yourself. It’s pure Natalie being herself. [Dish]

Chicago’s Most Colorful Pastry Shop Owners? They’re Baaaaack