RACHEL LANSANG (New York, Park West HS, 1999)

The winter before graduation, Rachel volunteered for C-CAP’s annual fundraising champagne and culinary event and was fatefully paired with Florian Bellanger—the Executive Pastry Chef at Fauchon, who at the time was the Executive Pastry Chef at Le Bernadin. Recognizing Rachel’s talent and potential, Chef Bellanger took her resume into his safe keeping, and called her on the day of her graduation from the Culinary Institute of America, offering her a job at Le Bernadin to start the following Monday. Gladly accepting, Rachel was put in charge of desserts and petits fours for The Salon, Le Bernadin’s private event space. When Chef Bellanger was selected to be Fauchon’s first Executive Pastry Chef in New York he chose to include Rachel as a key member of his opening team. Over the course of three years at Fauchon, she worked her way up to the position of Pastry Sous Chef. In the summer of 2003, Rachel was hand-picked by Chef Bellanger to represent Fauchon New York in a delegation of American pastry chefs to the Valrhona L’Ecole du Grand Chocolat at Tain L’ Hermitage, France. At just 22 years old, Rachel was the youngest member of the group—including pastry chefs from Jean-Georges and Daniel. In 2004, 23-year-old Rachel Lansang went to Aureole as Pastry Sous Chef. On August 1, 2006, Rachel Lansang was promoted to Executive Pastry Chef at Aureole. In August, 2006, Rachel married C-CAP Graduate Angel Hidalgo, presently working at Manhattan’s BLT Prime as Sous Chef.