Zac Young

About

Zac Young (born 1982) is an American pastry chef and TV personality. He has been featured on various baking shows on Food Network and the Cooking Channel, most notably on Top Chef: Just Desserts and Unique Sweets. He also appeared as a guest judge on baking competition show Nailed It! on Netflix, Food Network’s Halloween Baking Championship, and Food Network’s Chopped.

Zac Young was born in Portland, Maine in 1982 to Jonathan and Susan Lebel Young. Growing up, he wanted to learn how to bake after his vegan mother never baked cookies for him. After participating in community children’s theatre shows from third through eighth grade, Young was admitted to Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts. Young momentarily worked as a costume designer before deciding that baking was his true passion. He then moved to New York City in 2003 to enroll at the Institute of Culinary Education and graduated in 2006.

Following graduation from the Institute of Culinary Education, Young first worked under Sebastien Rouxel and Richard Capizzi at Bouchon Bakery, then accepted a pastry chef position at Butter. Young trained in France with Philippe Givre at Valrhona…