photo: Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times

Lindsey Remolif Shere
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Lindsey Remolif Shere was born in Chicago, Illinois, June 7, 1935, but soon moved with her parents to the suburb of Munster, Indiana. In 1947 the family relocated once again, this time to a sizable ranch in Sonoma County, California, where she spent the next ten years among milk cows, apple and prune orchards, hayfields, and four younger sisters. She graduated from Healdsburg High School, Santa Rosa Junior College, and the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in a group major in French language, literature, and political history.

In 1971 she joined Alice Waters to open the restaurant Chez Panisse, where she continued as Pastry Chef until her retirement in 1998. In 1987, she opened Downtown Bakery & Creamery in Healdsburg, together with partners Kathleen Stewart and Thérèse Shere.

Largely self-taught as a cook, she began focusing on baking and desserts as a teenager, delighted by the fresh dairy and orchard products available on the family farm. Her interest in the French language and in European culture led to further investigations into cuisine. She has traveled extensively throughout western Europe, especially in France and northern Italy: her mother’s family was Alsatian; her father was born in the Italian Alps.

Widely read, she counts among her major influences James Beard, Ada Boni, Robert Courtine, Curnonsky, Elizabeth David, M.F.K. Fisher, Richard Olney, and Waverly Root, as well as the chefs associated with her at Chez Panisse, especially Alice Waters.

Her book Chez Panisse Desserts was first published in 1985 and is still in print in the 1994 paperback edition. She was named Pastry Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation in 1993. Among the chefs who have worked for her in the Chez Panisse pastry kitchen have been bakers Diane Dexter, Gayle Ortiz, and Steve Sullivan; pastry chefs David Lebovitz and Mary Jo Thoresen; and chefs Deborah Madison and Mark Peel. She was a founding member of Baker's Dozen San Francisco and a major contributor to The Baker's Dozen Cookbook (2001).

When she retired, she and her husband Charles left Berkeley for a rural life in Sonoma County.  She lives there still, dividing her time among gardening, family and friends, reading, and travel.

 

Book

	Chez Panisse Desserts New York: Random House, 1985. ISBN 0-394-53860-9. Preface by Alice Waters. Illustrated by Wayne Thiebaud. 341 pages; index. Out of print but often available secondhand.
	Second edition (first paperback edition), 1994. ISBN 0-679-75571-3.

 

Press & interviews Interview with Clark Wolf  on Savoring Sonoma, KRCB-FM, July 9, 2023 Chez Panisse reimagined the way we eat. After 50 years, is that enough? Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2021 A Remarkable Almond Cake Made Even Better Melissa Clark, New York Times, August 6, 2021 A Journey from Chez Panisse with Charles and Lindsey Shere podcast interview: Sydney Finkelstein, The Sydcast, November 29, 2020 Chez Panisse Desserts: the secret to delicious sweets is in the detail, and the ingredients Susan Jung, South China Morning Post Magazine, September 28, 2020 Yes, pastry chefs are real chefs and women are leading the baking revolution Karen Tabiner, Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2019

 

Recipes
 

Chez Panisse Almond Tart (David Lebovitz)

Cranberry Upside-Down Cake (David Lebovitz)

A Remarkable Almond Cake Made Even Better (Melissa Clark, NYT)

Chez Panisse's Blueberry Cobbler (Molly O'Neill, NYT)

 

 

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