Kyra Farkas: Taking Flight

Cheery, Arty Kyra Farkas Gives Wings to Oriole’s Desserts

At the two-Michelin starred Oriole, Kyra Farkas joined an already talented corps of pastry chefs who have turned Chicago into a foodie’s dream. With a deft hand, Farkas has brought savory accents to her kitchen to help make Oriole a must-visit in the Windy City.

So where did you grow up and were there other foodies in your family?

I grew up in Orlando with two younger sisters. Nobody worked in the food industry, but I found out after going to pastry school that it was always my dad’s dream to be a pastry chef. I had no idea my entire life. He (Joe) works in I.T.

What was your guilty pleasure and what did you like to bake?

Probably my mom’s chocolate chip cookies. She kind of adopted it from the Toll House recipe and she had her own secret way of making it a little bit better. I liked baking sugar cookies. I always gravitated towards cookies because they were easiest, because you could decorate them and I loved frostings.

Did you have an artistic side as a kid and how did that lead you into pastry?

I was always into art classes and painting and stuff like that. My grandmother would paint with me, too. I knew growing up that I didn’t want a desk job. I wanted to do something with my hands, something artistic, but I didn’t know what that was. I kind of fell into pastry because I was always doing it.

You had your first pastry job at Disney World. What were your responsibilities?

I graduated high school and got a job that summer. My responsibilities were minimal, because I was very green. I had two mentors there who helped me grow into a better cook when I went to college. They gave me a really good baseline for everything from cakes to breads to small confections for buffets.

Then you went to Johnson & Wales in Providence. What was the thing you made at J&W that told you, “I’ve got this?”

Breads were my first love and my first class. I started at 6 a.m. Just having my hands in dough and being able to watch it progress into a loaf is something so beautiful, and it captured me for sure. It’s a beautiful metaphor for life – not to get too deep — you have a certain amount of control, but there are also things you just can’t really factor in and it’s going to change every time you make it.

Tell me about the time you spent in France.

I went to a pastry school outside of Lyon in Yssingeaux. It was a three-month program. Every week we were doing something different with a different chef from all around the country. Each week we were focusing on a different technique. We would go into French breads and Italian breads, then confections and sugar work. I’ve always wanted to move to Europe and do pastry over there, so it was a really cool experience to interact with those chefs and hear their stories and learn from them. They put us in a French class once we got there. I have always loved languages, so I did pick it up and I was able to speak throughout the town pretty okay.

While I was there, we were able to go to the Valrhona chocolate factory. I’ve always loved their chocolates. Seeing it, from the nibs they were bringing in and the cacao pods and actually being able to taste the chocolate they were making that day was insane.

Are you a chocoholic?

I don’t usually gravitate to American chocolate desserts, but I do love the wide array of chocolates that are now available and seeing how their flavor profiles differ so dramatically; one is primarily red fruit, another has spiced notes. They could be the same percentage, but they all have different flavor distinctions.

Tartine Bakery in Los Angeles was your next stop. What took you there?

It was kind of unplanned. I graduated from Johnson & Wales in 2020. I was originally supposed to go to a manager-in-training program with Marriott. They cancelled the program because of Covid. My sister was moving out to L.A. for design school. My mom said, “Why don’t you go with her?” So I did. I had followed Tartine for a while. Their initial bread book was like my Bible. It’s something I’ve studied so many times. To be able to go into that space was a completely different environment than a restaurant.

I knew growing up that I didn’t want a desk job. I wanted to do something with my hands, something artistic.

You’ve worked at three restaurants in Chicago. Take me through those.

I started at Elske. It was my first Michelin kitchen. It was kind of a dream job. I had followed [chef-owners] Anna and David [Posey] throughout college. She was always someone I looked up to because she had an art degree. So I gravitated to that; the artistic influence in her desserts and also that Nordic design. I stayed there for about a year.

Then I went to Ever with Curtis Duffy. It was a very different experience than Elske. It was intense, but it was very structured. You’re a cook, through and through. No talking during prep at all. There was also not as much artistic influence, but being there taught me how to put my head down and get things done. It definitely taught me commitment to craft.

I was at Elske and Ever both a little over a year. I came to Oriole thinking it would be similar to Ever in how there was this disciplined kitchen, quiet and reserved. It was completely the opposite. We’re on the same level here, with two Michelin stars. What’s so beautiful about Oriole is that every single person has the freedom to be themselves. They’re not trying to fit you into this mold or box.

What’s so beautiful about Oriole is that every single person has the freedom to be themselves. They’re not trying to fit you into this mold or box.

What is it about your chef personality and style that fits with what they were already doing?

I’ve always been a kind of bubbly person, easy going for sure. I like to have fun, but I also really want to be the best at what I do. I think this place is really an accumulation of all of that.

Tell me about some of your signature desserts.

I think the dessert with lapsang souchong [chocolate sorbet; see recipe in Pastry Arts in Winter, 2025] is the one that’s gotten me the most attention, which is strange to me because I felt like it was a relatively easy dish. I was talking to [chef/owner] Noah [Sandoval] about it. We wanted something that was reminiscent of s’mores; smokey chocolate vibe going into winter, and then I fell in love with black currant when I was in France. I just think the really sharp, intense flavor is so beautiful. Pairing that with lapsang souchong, which is this really smoky, caramelly tea, alongside chocolate; being alongside the black current, really elevated it in my eyes. The green cardamom, black cardamom came along at the end to add a spice note to round out the smokiness of the tea.

The rosemary dessert has been on the menu since one of my first weeks as the pastry chef here. I grew up with a lemon tree and a rosemary bush in my backyard. I wanted to encapsulate those flavors. It was a huge part of my childhood, just like making lemonade and using rosemary in a lot of my father’s cooking. I have a memory of making icees. We had this plastic little machine to shave ice at home. So I would do that with my sisters when I was a kid. The rosemary is in a blended lemon pastry; the texture inside is more of a jelly. Then I add an olive oil sorbet, and then a rosemary-infused granita. I don’t get to go to that home very often anymore, but I picture myself there whenever I taste that dessert.

You had one with red pearl onion . . .

I did. It was an Okinawa sugar canelé. A canelé can be technically difficult. I’ve found it to be one of my favorite things to make. We were slicing it in half and pairing it with one of Noah’s favorite cheeses, which is delice de bourgogne. It was this salty, sweet comparison, a bit of fennel pollen and then the red onion to round it out as this savory cheese moment. That was very different from a normal cheese course where you’re just kind putting cheese on a plate.

What do you think of savory applications with sweets?

I love them. I do have a sweet tooth, but I never liked super sweet sticky desserts that are just all sugar. It’s really valuable in utilizing as many savory ingredients as I can get my hands on. Sometimes I butt heads with the savory cooks. I’m like, I’m going to take this flavor.

Give me an ingredient you use that’s sort of out there.

Maybe not super crazy, but Hoja Santa leaf. It’s also considered a Mexican pepper leaf. It’s these larger leaves that look like they’re from a tree. But when you blanch them, they have this root beer flavor. We turn that into an ice cream. It’s now in our pavlova dessert. We’re pairing it with Tonka Bean and Sumo Mandarin. It eats like a root beer float, but it’s much more sophisticated.

Having the platform this has given me, being able to create, has given me so much joy.

What is it like to have the pressure of working in a two-star Michelin kitchen?

I definitely felt the pressure the first two years of being a pastry chef. There’s pressure I put on myself, but I think once you reach that role of pastry chef, you kind of feel the pressure from other sources. We always want to impress people and there’s always going to be a bad review once in a while. But being able to adapt and figure out what to take from that has been a big part of personal growth. I did leave for a period of time last year and I thought maybe I didn’t want to do this. Coming back has given me a huge realization that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I could be an art teacher. I could teach culinary school. But having the platform this has given me, being able to create, has given me so much joy.

As good a food town as you have here in Chicago, do you get caught up in the competitive part of it?

Everyone does at times, but ultimately what steers me away from that is that I want to create the program and I want it to look a certain way regardless of what’s going on at other restaurants or pastry shops. I do think there’s some healthy competition. When you see a dish with a chef doing something different, you think, oh, that’s really cool. How can I one-up that?

Is there an ingredient you haven’t worked with that you’d like to?

Caviar. I want to pull a little more savory into pastry. That’s been my recent endeavor.

What else is in the future?

I definitely want to move to Europe for a period of time. I would like to do a Michelin kitchen, for sure. That’s where I feel comfortable. I recently travelled to Copenhagen. It’s sunny and beautiful there. The entire culture is very captivating to me. I’ve been to Europe a few times. I absolutely love travelling for that reason, experiencing new cultures, new people, maybe ingredients you’ve had before. Also, I have not been to Asia at all, so I think I’m going to have to make my way over there.

Photos Courtesy Kyra Farkas

(This article appeared in the Spring 2026 issue of Pastry Arts Magazine)