Tastemaker Awards

10 best pastry chefs in Dallas make dining out a sweet experience

Le PasSage's Dyan Ng is a nominee for Pastry Chef of the Year.

Le Passage

We're here with another chapter in the 2025 edition of our annual CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, celebrating the people and places that make Dallas such an exciting dining destination.

In this special editorial series, we're highlighting restaurants, bars, and chefs who've been nominated in eight categories by our esteemed judging panel of last year's winners and local dining experts. We’ll celebrate the nominees and reveal the winners at an awards ceremony and signature tasting event on Thursday, May 1 at the new Astoria Event Venue. (Early Bird tickets are on sale now at discounted rates of $60 for general admission and $99 for VIP.)

We've already covered Best Neighborhood Restaurants, Rising Star Chef, and Best Coffee Shops, and Best Eatertainment Restaurant. Now it's time to look at Pastry Chef of the Year: the ones who promise a sweet ending for every meal.

Here are our 10 nominees for Pastry Chef of the Year in 2025:

Meriel Bautista, Cafe Momentum
Bautista is a valued member of the team at Café Momentum, the nonprofit restaurant that provides internships for justice-involved youth aged 15-19. A graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, she previously held pastry positions at Cowboys Club, Sweet Pearls Ice Cream, Celebrity Cafe & Bakery, Joy Macarons, Nobu, and Jeng Chi, and also founded her own company, Devious Desserts & Creamery.

Matt Bresnan, Bresnan Bread and Pastry
After being a chef his whole life, Matt started baking in 2016. By the end of 2018, he and his wife, Jenna, were selling baked goods at St. Michael’s Farmers Market. In 2020 they quit their jobs to do the bakery full-time and opened their acclaimed bakery in 2022. They do all the important baker categories: sourdough bread, traditional croissants, and for fun, they also do a Friday-night special of pizza.

Chelsea Gannon, Ruby Baking Co.
Gannon started experimenting with vegan and gluten-free baked goods after she and her daughter changed their diet. In 2024, she opened a storefront in Rockwall where her menu includes cupcakes, cookies, cinnamon rolls in both traditional and strawberry flavors (topped with strawberry-flavored icing and strawberry preserves), brownies, and cakes. She's also known for her custom-order decorated cakes and smaller to-go cakes.

Macarena Gomez, LA 57
The enterprising Gomez already knew Mexican pastry, which she learned from here grandmother, but then studied the art of croissants in Paris. She opened LA 57 in Ennis as a coffee shop selling coffee drinks plus croissants, Danish, and breakfast sandwiches, then followed that up in 2023 with a location at the Dallas Farmers Market, where customers line up for her "supremes," the trendy croissant creation shaped like a circular "slice."

Bryan Motta, Breadhaus
BreadHaus, a family-owned European-style artisan bakery in Grapevine that has been open for 25-plus years, got new owners last year. In June 2024, husband-and-wife duo Bryan and Fara Motta took ownership of the bakery with a plan to continue the legacy of providing high-quality, organic and preservative-free baked goods to the community.

Dyan Ng, Le PasSage
Born in the Philippines of Chinese and Filipino descent and raised in California, Ng has worked for more than 20 years in prestigious restaurants such as Francois Payard’s Payard Patisserie & Bistro, Restaurant Guy Savoy, and Alain Ducasse’s Mix in Las Vegas, where she met chef Bruno Davaillon. She oversees pastry programs at Le PasSage and sister restaurant Rose Café, where her love of the savory side of culinary and palate influenced by Asian cultures result in vivid, multi-faceted dessert creations.

Leen Kim Nunn, Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa
Nunn left a banking career for pastry in 2010 and been slaying ever since. She's been with Omni Hotels & Resorts since 2016, and came to Texas to open the Frisco resort in 2022. She was honored in 2018 by Hotel F&B magazine as one of 25 Women to Watch, and competed on Food Network’s Chopped Sweets, where she was the 2020 season winner. She's currently executive pastry chef overseeing the pastry program development for banquet events and new signature restaurant concepts at Omni PGA Frisco Resort.

Sara Saginaw, Swirled Peace
Saginaw left a career in the medical field to open this one-of-a-kind dessert shop in Bishop Arts, doing all-vegan/plant-based soft serve ice cream — similar to a self-serve frozen-yogurt shop, but with non-dairy instead, made with oat milk using recipes she developed herself. There's no plain vanilla here: intriguing flavors options include chocolate with sea salt, Mexican vanilla, peanut-butter cup, white chocolate, strawberry balsamic, and Oreo "Borealis."

Ryan Stipp, Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa
Stipp attended culinary school then worked his way up through a series of appointments at restaurants across the southeast from Tennessee to Virginia to North Carolina. He joined the brilliant team at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort in 2023. He's a big enthusiast for competing on TV, and has made multiple appearances on shows such as Holiday Wars, King Of Cones, and Haunted Gingerbread Showdown.

Golda Sumpon, Ollio Patisserie
Sumpon walked away from a 20-year career in corporate IT to fulfill her passion for baking. She attended culinary school then founded Ollio in 2019 — first selling her creations at the Frisco Fresh Market before opening a brick-and-mortar artisan French bakery in The Colony in 2021. She does macarons, croissants, Danishes, cookies, and desserts.

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The Tastemaker Awards program is brought to you by The Yuengling Company, Brioche Gourmet, Still Austin Whiskey, Hornitos, Whataburger, Reyka Vodka, Silent Pool Gin, PicMe Events, and more to be announced soon. A portion of the proceeds will benefit our nonprofit partner, Harvest Project Food Rescue.

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Mex-Mex News

Upscale Mexican restaurant Jako Cocina to open in Uptown Dallas

jako

A polished Mexican restaurant is expanding to Uptown Dallas: Jākö Cocina Y Agave, which first arrived on the DFW scene in 2024, will open at 3301 McKinney Ave. #200, in the high-profile space previously occupied by the Quarter Bar, now closed.

This will be a second Jākö, following the original at The Grandscape in The Colony. According to co-founder Adafel Acosta, they'll open Uptown in mid-November.

"We're excited to debut a new Jākö Cocina Y Agave in such a dynamic location," Acosta says. "We always had the intention of expanding and are looking forward to sharing our unforgettable food and drink with diners in Dallas."

The unforgettable food and drink features authentic Mexican flavors with a South American twist by executive chef José Caballero, a native of Venezuela who previously worked at Michelin-starred restaurants. The menu combines familiar dishes such as birria and enchiladas with a modern take on Mexican gastronomy.

Ceviches are a big theme, such as their Ceviche Mixto, with whitefish and shrimp in a "leche de tigre" citrus marinade. There are upscale starters such as beef-stuffed empanadas, or croquettes with Iberian ham; tacos filled with barbacoa, fried snapper, and pollo al carbon; and the masterpiece picanha a la parilla — Allen Bros. Prime beef with truffle cilantro potatoes.

"Even though we describe the menu as 'elevated Mexican cuisine,' we have a pronounced Caribbean influence," Acosta says.

Cocktails feature a striking visual presentation, with an emphasis on tequila and mezcal, including margaritas in many varieties.

"The Uptown location will keep to the core of what we've done at The Colony that has worked out so well," Acosta says. "The major difference will be that the McKinney Avenue space is smaller, at about 3,200 square feet, so we will not have the division between lounge and restaurant we've had at The Colony. Instead, it will be a 100-percent restaurant environment."

There is one thing Uptown will have that The Colony does not: a patio.

"The space comes with a courtyard, and we are thrilled to have an amenity like that in Uptown," Acosta says.

The Quarter Bar was not in great shape (it supposedly was closing temporarily in January for a remodel which apparently never took place), and Acosta and company have been entrenched in renovation, infusing the space with Jākö's Caribbean-style vibe, evoking the resort town of Tulum. One note: For now, they are taking only the ground floor of the two-story structure; the disposition of the second floor space is still TBD.

One other new feature will be hours: Unlike The Colony, which is open for dinner and brunch only, Jākö in Uptown will serve lunch.

Prior to launching Jākö, Acosta worked for 25 years in the hospitality industry, mostly in hotels such as Virgin. He was part of the group that founded 3ntourage Hospitality, which has a revolving cast of players who've launched multiple concepts around Dallas over the years.

"Thankfully, Jākö has been successful," Acosta says. "This was a beautiful concept put together between two friends, with a goal that everyone else would love the concept, too."

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