Will Goldfarb

Will Goldfarb (born June 24, 1975, in Port Washington, New York, US) is a Bali, Indonesia-based American pastry chef who was named The World's Best Pastry Chef in Cacao Barry's The World's Best 50 Restaurants 2021 and considered one of the pioneers of the dessert-only tasting menu. Originally from Port Washington, New York, Goldfarb owns with his wife Maria the Ubud, Bali, Indonesia-based restaurant and cocktail bar Room4Dessert. Goldfarb is one of the four pastry chefs featured in the 2018 Netflix series Chef's Table: Pastry, along with Jordi Roca of El Celler de Can Roca, Sicilian gelato maker Corrado Assenza, and Christina Tosi of David Chang's Momofuku Milk Bar chain.

Early career Goldfarb started working in restaurants at age 15, doing everything from being a valet parking staff to being a busboy, waiter, bartender, food runner, and host. Instead of proceeding to law school after finishing college at Duke University, he opted to go to Paris where he studied pastry cooking at Le Cordon Bleu while working at night. After being exhausted by this routine, he went back to New York City and worked with someone who put up large gastronomic events. He later decided to go back to Europe, however, and landed a six-month apprenticeship post in Florence. Later, he was hired as a family chef in the French Riviera. In 1999, inspired by the book The Flavors of the Mediterranean by Ferran Adrià, Goldfarb worked for El Bulli, where he came across apprentice chefs who would later make big names for themselves in the industry, namely Massimo Bottura, René Redzepi, and Grant Achatz, and where he worked side by side with Ferran's brother, Albert Adrià.

After a year and a half at El Bulli, Goldfarb went to Australia where he worked with chef Cheong Liew in Adelaide for a few months before moving to Sydney. In Sydney, he first worked in a building site in the morning and a fine-dining kitchen at night before he was called to work at Tetsuya's by Tetsuya Wakuda, where he worked for eight months before he finally sought a change anew. Goldfarb then went back to New York and worked briefly as Paul Liebrandt's pastry chef partner, staging culinary events at Papillon.

With the regenerative farming and sustainable ethos of Room4Dessert and its menu under the direction of Goldfarb's wife, the restaurant also developed an academy where the couple runs month-long pastry workshops and also offers funding for apprenticeships abroad to restaurants like Belon. The couple also expanded their regenerative farming and permaculture gardening ideas to their community in Bali. Goldfarb, meanwhile, has lectured on dessert design around the world and launched his specialty pastry product of innovative ingredients, WillPowder.

Philosophy Goldfarb has emphasized that his restaurant's farm is not focused on production solely but on process. In an interview, he stated that he requires a whole year to get just 3 ml. of clove essential oil from his garden. He further stated that his workers at the farm have learned to make a gummy without pectins or texturizers, using only the gelatinous core of the aloe vera plant. He added that while it is not bad to work with a seasonal fruit jam, "it is better to work with fresh products". As for serving healthy desserts, he said that "with less sugar and fat you feel better. It’s not a question of saving the world or making it more sustainable, and we pastry chefs are not doctors either, but your digestion is better if you eat less fats and sugars, and more plant-based products."

Selected institutions in career

Apprentice, commis, El Bulli, Roses, Spain, 1999—2000 Pastry chef, The Ryland Inn, Whitehouse, New Jersey, 1999—2001 Garde manger manager, Atlas, New York City, 2001 Pastry chef, Papillon, New York City 2001—2002 Pastry chef, Castine Inn, Maine Pastry chef, Morimoto by Masaharu Morimoto, Philadelphia, 2002—2004 Pastry chef, Cru, New York City, 2004—2005 Owner, Picnick, New York City, 2007 Founder, AKWA, Experimental Cuisine Collective Owner, chef, Room 4 Dessert, since 2006–2008 in New York, 2012—present in Bali

Books

Room for Dessert: The Book, with a foreword by Albert Adrià

Awards

Named one of the 10 Best Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Art and Design Won Starchef.com's "NYC's Rising Star" award Nominated, James Beard Foundation Award for Best Pastry Chef in America Named Noteworthy Chef, Marquis Who's Who Won, 2021 – Best World Pastry Chef by the 50Best World Restaurant List