Pastry Chef

Sterling Spoon Fresh Culinary Management, Woodruff Arts Center

In April of 2013, Chef Derrell Lawery joined Sterling Spoon Fresh Culinary Management as Pastry Chef, designing signature desserts and discovering new ways to provide an enjoyable experience to the clients. Combining years of industry training and knowledge, the south Georgia native takes pride in creating traditional desserts and adding his own southern flare.

Chef

Creations Restaurant
Art Institute of Atlanta

Chef Bill Lipscomb never in a million years would have guessed that he would grow up and become a Pastry Chef. He grew up in Washington, D.C. and enjoyed cooking with his parents. His mother cooked and did a lot of scratch baking when he was growing up and he always wanted to be in the kitchen with her.

He graduated from Hampton University in Hampton, VA, with a B.A. in Physics. After leaving Hampton, he returned to Washington, D.C. and began his culinary adventure working for Planet Hollywood. In 1995, he moved to Atlanta, GA, in time for the ’96 Olympics.
In 2000, he was fortunate enough to work under Certified Master Pastry Chef Chris Northmore at the Cherokee Town and Country Club. It was without a doubt one of the greatest learning experiences of his career. One of the biggest insights he got from working with Chef Northmore, was that he is right in the fire with you. He would put out the production list in the morning and by the end of the day, he had crossed more things off the list than you had. Chef Lipscomb also learned to have a deeper respect for bread. He was never crazy about producing bread, but, when you produce everything from scratch in Chef Northmore’s bake shop, you learn to have an appreciation for everything, even BREAD!!!!!!!

In 2002, he had the opportunity to travel to France and attend classes at Ecole L’Enotre for baking and pastry. He took classes in entremets, ice cream and sorbet, chocolate and sugar showpieces, plated desserts, chocolates and confections. These learning experiences gave him the chance when he returned to the states to become an Executive Pastry Chef for the Ritz Carlton Hotel company. He spent 1 year working as the assistant pastry chef for the Ritz Carlton Buckhead and then was promoted to the head pastry position in the downtown property where he spent the next 4 years.

He is currently a culinary instructor at the Art Institute of Atlanta. He teaches introduction to baking and pastry, as well as the advanced patisserie and display cake class. In recent years, he has gone back to his savory background and begun teaching American cuisine, Latin and Asian cuisine. He always tries to give students what he calls ‘my two cents’, and that is they should not limit themselves to just one particular area in the culinary world, be as versatile as you can. If you know both sides of the coin (savory and sweet) you are worth that much more to the chef you may be working for at the time.