27 Apr 2023
Stories Talk | Presentation Skills and Effective Storytelling
By Christina Katsantoni
His name is now synonymous with sweetness and elegance. Stelios Parliaros is a pastry chef that was born in Constantinople alongside smells and pictures of an era long gone but that he still carries with him.
He discovered the art of baking by making cakes in Papaspirou patisserie and learned the trade secrets beside Egyptian teachers in Hilton.
He studied, experimented and made tonnes of sponge cake and mousse. He studied in pastry schools like the Ecole le Νôtre, the Escoffier of hotel Ritz, Valrhona of Lyon and the famous pâtisserie Fauchon. In 1982 he opened his first patisserie in Kolonaki, Athens, changing the taste and course of pastry making in Greece.
His sweets have a distinct character and his first pastry shop quickly became a chain store.
Through television, his highly-aesthetical books and his partnership with the press, he introduced the art and the techniques of high-quality pastry making to the general public and taught terms like food styling, having now acquired the title of the “national pastry chef”.
In his Leaders Talk, the “national pastry chef” recounts a life full of cinnamon scent and taste of sweet and bitter chocolate. He speaks about the need of constant study and experimentation, recollects successful moments but also some of his most negative life experiences, shares trade secrets of his art and gives advice, and explains the difference between pastry making and cooking and why the first one is not just a dessert.
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