Pastry Wars

As a followup to Adam Platt's take down of restaurant desserts, a number of chefs and pastry chefs weigh in on the challenges of maintaining a good pastry program. Much of it comes down to money. As Karen DeMasco, the former pastry chef of Locanda Verde puts it, "When chefs are forced to make the tough decisions about how to cut labor costs, the pastry department is often the first thing to go...because you can have a cook put together a couple of desserts and get away with it." [GS]