762: Amanda Perdomo Is Your Favorite Pastry Chef’s Favorite Pastry Chef
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Amanda Perdomo, a Louisiana-raised pastry chef based in New York, shares her journey from a childhood filled with cherished food memories—like her first birthday cake, a New Orleans-style dough bash cake, and microwave-heated honey buns from her mother—to a decade of working in some of New York’s most prestigious restaurants. Her career highlights include stints at Del Posto, Cafe Ultra Paradiso Floor Bar under Natasha Pikowitz, and roles in major restaurant reopenings like Contra and Wild Air. After a period of personal and professional uncertainty following the closure of her restaurant Cool World, she found renewal working in the savory kitchen at Romans, gaining invaluable skills that reshaped her approach to pastry. This foundation led to her current triumph: Amanda's Good Morning Cafe, a pop-up at Strange Delight celebrating Louisiana cuisine with deep-fried honey buns, grits with red-eye shrimp gravy, and inventive desserts like the carrot cake eclair. The pop-up, initially a one-day experiment, became a beloved weekday fixture, blending sweet and savory with a deep sense of care and community. As she prepares to return to New Orleans in May to launch a new restaurant, Perdomo reflects on her New York chapter with gratitude, nostalgia, and a profound appreciation for the emotional weight of food as an act of love and memory.
Food is an act of care—seasoning grits with butter, salt, and pepper isn’t just a step, it’s a ritual of love.
The best desserts often come from emotional memories, like a microwave honey bun from a mother who didn’t like to cook.
Pastry chefs in New York must now be versatile—mastering savory stations to thrive in modern kitchens.
Pop-ups like Amanda’s Good Morning Cafe are more than food—they’re community-driven, emotionally resonant experiences.
Reinventing tradition doesn’t mean abandoning it; it means healing old wounds, like making every slice of cake have both flavors.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
The First Taste: A Birthday Cake That Changed Everything
“If you come to the cafe, we run a special sometimes that's called The Great Divide. And it's not exactly lemon. It's passion fruit. If I could reinvent that cake, it would be with passion fruit. And every single bite has a little bit of passion fruit and a little bit of chocolate. So nobody has to fight for those two slices that have just a bit of everything.”
From Louisiana to New York: A Thousand-Dollar Dream
Amanda shares how she moved to New York with $1,000 and no plan, then enrolled in culinary school and landed her first pastry job at Dominique Ancel during the peak cronut era. She describes the city’s food scene as a revelation, especially working at Del Posto under Melissa Rodriguez and later under Natasha Pikowitz at Cafe Ultra Paradiso Floor Bar.
The Power of Community: When Restaurants Close, People Rise
“She was like, what if you just spent a little bit, a couple months just cranking out pastas? She's like, it's only going to make you a better chef.”
The Birth of Amanda's Good Morning Cafe: A Pop-Up That Became a Movement
“We don't have to do that. You could do it yourself. We do that because it's an act of love. It's just—it's perfect.”
The Future: Returning Home to New Orleans
“I'm actually going to be leaving New York City to take on a new project, a new restaurant opening in May. End of an era.”
“We don't have to do that. You could do it yourself. We do that because it's an act of love. It's just—it's perfect.”
“I'm actually going to be leaving New York City to take on a new project, a new restaurant opening in May. End of an era.”
“If you come to the cafe, we run a special sometimes that's called The Great Divide. And it's not exactly lemon. It's passion fruit. If I could reinvent that cake, it would be with passion fruit. And every single bite has a little bit of passion fruit and a little bit of chocolate. So nobody has to fight for those two slices that have just a bit of everything.”
Host
Guest
Amanda Perdomo
person
Strange Delight
other
Eliza Barbanel
person
Ham Elway Lee
person
Natasha Pikowitz
person
Cafe Ultra Paradiso Floor Bar
other
Del Posto
other
Kellogg's Diner
other
Romans
other
Cool World
other
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