About
At Culinary Master Class, we know that it's possible to learn classic culinary skills without going to culinary school. This site was developed by Leslie Bilderback, a classically trained chef, Certified Master Baker, instructor, and author, as a way to teach classic culinary skills to people who like to cook, but don't feel like spending thousands of dollars on a culinary education. Following the same format as all the big schools, Culinary Master Class walks you through the techniques at your own pace, using recipes you'll actually want to eat! At Culinary Master Class there is no tuition, no dress code, no school rules, and every test is take-home and open book!
Why should you listen to Chef Bilderback? Because she knows what she's talking about. After studying music and art history at the University of Colorado and San Francisco State University, Chef Bilderback completed the professional chef program at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, graduating with honors in 1988. She completed her apprenticeship under internationally-renowned pastry chefs Robert Jorin and Bo Friberg. In the years following graduation she played a major role in several of California's most well-regarded and innovative restaurants, working as Pastry Chef of Sedona in Berkeley, Postrio and Zolas in San Francisco, and Angeli and Georgia in Los Angeles.
When it became apparent that motherhood and restaurant hours didn't gel, Chef Bilderback joined the original faculty of what is now the California School of Culinary Arts in 1995. After several years as Baking and Pastries Department Head, she became Executive Chef, leading the school as it entered into partnership with Le Cordon Bleu. In 1999 she became a Certified Master Baker, and in 2002 was a finalist on Team USA of the Coup du Monde de la Boulangerie.
Increasingly disillusioned with the quality of instruction available under a corporate banner, Chef Bilderback shifted her focus toward writing. She is author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Success as a Chef, the The Complete Idiot's Guide to Comfort Food, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spices and Herbs, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Good Food from the Good Book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Snack Cakes (Summer 2008), and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sensational Salads (2009). She also collaborated with Pastry Chef Sherry Yard of Spago on the James Beard Award-winning book The Secrets of Baking, (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). Chef Bilderback writes a regular column for the Arroyo Monthly (Southland Publishing), and has been profiled in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Culinary Trends Magazine, CookingSchools.com, Bridges USA, and Living Fit Magazine. She is ranked as one of the top 50 chef instructors in the nation on Chef2Chef.com.
Chef Bilderback lives with her husband, two daughters and two dogs in Southern California. She spends her time writing, teaching healthy cooking to kids in the Los Angeles Unified School District through the LAUSD Nutrition Network, training military cooks through the US Navy Adopt-a-Chef Program, and leading a Girl Scout Troop. Chef Bilderback is also an avid runner, having completed her first marathon in Los Angeles on March 4, 2007. She created all the art for this website.