Chef Biography
Born in 1969 in northern Louisiana, Doyle DeForest always wanted to be a pastry chef. His grandfather owned a bakery where the whole family worked, and his mother is still involved with pastries in Nashville.
In 1989, he moved to New Orleans to attend Delgado College where he received his degree in culinary arts. He apprenticed under Great Chefs Kevin Graham and Shane Gorringe at the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, and following graduation he stayed on at the Windsor Court, working his way up the ladder to pastry chef. He then married, moved to Colorado, and worked under chef Nick Malgieri at the Cooking School of the Rockies.
In 1995, he returned to New Orleans to help his mentor, Great Chef Shane Gorringe, open his own Zoe’s Bakery in Covington, Louisiana. Four years later in 1999, Chef DeForest opened his own bakery, Flour Power Confectionery, located in Chalmette, Louisiana, outside of New Orleans, and the Great Chefs television crew showed up to tape him for Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of America.
Flour Power survived the 2005 Hurricane Katrina and in 2006, Chef Doyle and his wife Ronda expanded the facility as a local theatre playhouse as well. Both his bakery and the playhouse continue to do well into 2016.
Recipes
Praline–White Chocolate Staircase
Serving: 8 Print Praline–White Chocolate Staircase By Great Chefs October 4, 2015 This is a spectacular dessert, using all the skills of a professional pastry chef. White chocolate tubes are filled with alternating layers of praline cream and chocolate mousse, capped by striped chocolate wafers. Successively smaller striped wafers are inserted into the sides of […]
Strawberry Bavarian Jaconde
Serving: 8 Print Strawberry Bavarian Jaconde By Great Chefs October 4, 2015 Professional pastry chefs are a cross between mathematicians and alchemists. Everything is weighed and magically transformed. Chef DeForest is the quintessential pastry chef, creating a magical dessert of strawberry Bavarian cream layered with sliced strawberries all contained in its own little marbleized cake […]
Sacher Truffle Torte
Serving: Makes 12 tortes Print Sacher Truffle Torte By Great Chefs September 28, 2015 These spectacular truffle tortes hide marinated cherries in their centers. They are decorated by Chef DeForest with a whimsical garden of windmill-like blossoms held aloft by striped chocolate stems. The exquisite chocolate decorations are not vital to the dish, and you […]