Award-nominated pastry Chef Karen Smith is excited to announce her new venture, Curated By Karen. It is a fresh concept where Karen will offer high quality patisserie in specific collaboration with restaurants and professional kitchens.
A beautiful dessert is like couture, extravagant and special. Many restaurants dream of desserts that perfectly encapsulate who they are, but lack the workspace, experience, and indeed, time, to execute them.
Curated by Karen proposes: desserts that represent your vision.
Fans of Karen’s desserts recognise her detail, refinement, design, and also deliciousness. However, much of Karen’s joy lies in the additional challenge of being mindful of other people’s palates, passions, backgrounds, and, indeed, dietary restrictions.
Do you have a sweet dream? A pastry fantasy? Let Karen be your curator! She will bring your visions and flavors to life. As a Curated by Karen client, your level of involvement is up to you. In the end, your dessert will be lovingly crafted, painstakingly detailed, exquisite to taste, and above all, unique to you and what you represent.
Curated by Karen: It’s something sweet to meet your brief.
About Karen Smith
Award-nominated Karen Smith is the founder of Curated by Karen, and Head Pastry Development Chef of HipKeyCafe. She has worked at China Sichuan, the Lady Helen at Mount Juliet, and the Four Seasons and Intercontinental in Dublin.
Karen’s confections have been lauded by the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and the Sunday Business Times, among others. Critic Tom Doorley has described Karen’s Opera as “the best gateau opera I have had outside of France.”
Having worked in international kitchens all her life, Karen has been influenced by the people around her. Although she herself is a self-confessed chocoholic, Karen loves the playful yet classic combinations that reflect the world – basil and strawberry, chestnut and Cointreau, bergamot and white chocolate. Karen also enjoys accommodating dietary and allergy restrictions.
“There’s something exciting about the challenge of taking something out without compromising flavour,” she says, “it appeals to the precise pastry chef in me.”
