Bill Caplis is a gourmet pastry chef with many years of professional experience.

He has baked for The 21 Club and The Silver Palate in New York City, and also for The Blue Ribbon Bakery, his own business, in Hackensack, New Jersey.

Bill's first baking job was at the Mobil Oil skyscraper on
42nd Street, where he baked for over 2,000 people every
day. He often had to make 30 pies in an hour!

In his next position at The 21 Club, Bill created wonderful soufflè, one of that restaurant's specialties. Working with the Club's expert chefs, Bill learned the finer elements of presentation and began to develop his own style.

The Silver Palate is well-known now, but this gourmet store was just beginning to be noticed on the upper West Side at the time when Bill started baking there. With owners Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso, he developed a distinctive pastry style for The Silver Palate -- a style relying on the use of fresh, high-quality ingredients.

Eventually Bill decided to open his own bakery where he continued to test new recipes and techniques. In order to offer high-quality baked goods at affordable prices, Bill constantly developed more efficient baking methods.

Throughout his years as a professional pastry chef, Bill has never forgotten the joys of baking just for fun. He still remembers helping his mother and his aunt in the kitchen as a young boy, and later delighting in the marvelous pies baked by his mother-in-law.

Bill believes that gourmet baking should be easy and enjoyable, so his recipes are full of practical tips for creating fantastic baked goods with a minimum of time and fuss. His many years of hard work mean less work for you.

With the I dream in pastry cookbook, you can create a dreamy assortment of pastries for your family and friends -- and have fun doing it!
 

While working as a volunteer at the Westerly Area Rest Meals Shelter in Westerly, RI, Bill developed a firm commitment to helping homeless people and to raising awareness about the issue of homelessness in our country.
 
This is why we donate 25% of our cookbook profits to the WARM Shelter.
 
Also, our web site features information about WARM and about the problem of homelessness.
 
We encourage you to read that information and to become involved in addressing this important issue.

The I dream in pastry coobkbook is dedicated to Bill's mother Helen, his great-aunt Mary, and his mother-in-law Florence, all of whom nurtured his love of pastry and influenced his baking style, and to the memory of Dick Jeffery, whose beautiful photographs enhance the book.