Westfield bakery run by French pastry chef serves pastries, pies and Jeff's Cookies
Traverse our region’s bakeries and you’ll find everyone from retired grandmothers to Portuguese immigrants to former accountants at the helm, all creating inspired, delectable baked goods.
But in Westfield, a new bakery is being run by a classically trained French pastry chef with some serious pedigree.
Uyen Kirshenbaum, executive pastry chef, and her husband, Jeff Kirshenbaum, opened Kirshenbaum Baking Co. at 62 Elm St. in late September with a menu of hearth-baked breads, artisan sandwiches, seasonal pies, handcrafted pastries, dietary-friendly cookies and signature cakes by the slice.
Uyen has been baking for more than two decades and spearheaded the pastry program of Two Star Michelin eatery Restaurant Guy Savoy. When she was 26, she became Chef Guy Savoy’s first female pastry chef.
She then opened a French restaurant on the Los Angeles Sunset Strip and, during COVID, built an online bakery sending sweets across the country. Now she’s brought her prowess to Westfield with her first bakery after the couple moved to the area to be closer to family.
“As a chef, it’s your dream to open your own brick-and-mortar and express who you are as a chef and share your knowledge and experience,” Uyen said. “Opening a bakery was the ultimate goal.”
Kirshenbaum Baking is a one-stop shop, Jeff said, whether you want breakfast, lunch, or dessert and coffee.
Everything is made in-house and by hand. That includes croissants made with imported French butter; Uyen’s signature key lime pie that has been her staple since her Los Angeles restaurant; and a black forest three-layer cake. But at the end of the day, it’s the simple that steals the show: Salted chocolate chip cookies are the bakery’s top seller.
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Those cookies, as well as other varieties like snickerdoodles, double chocolate chip, peanut butter chocolate and strawberry shortcake, are also available for delivery nationwide. So are Jeff’s Cookies.
“Jeff is dairy-intolerant so when we first started dating ... I would shower him with treats. And it wasn’t until a few months of gorging this man that he finally told me he was dairy-intolerant,” said Uyen, laughing. “So I created this cookie for him because if you ate it, you would never know it was some kind of dietary cookie.”
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Jeff’s Cookies are both gluten- and dairy-free and are “basically made of eggs and a lot of good chocolate,” Uyen said. The cookie is similar to a flourless dark chocolate cookie, with a cookie-like shell of chocolate on the outside and the consistency of a brownie inside. They’re filled with chocolate chips or other ingredients, such as dried cherries and almonds.
Those who opt to eat their cookies or other sweets inside the 2,400-square-foot bakery will be surrounded by a modern design with brass accent lighting and a refurbished, original 14-foot 1930s art-deco tin ceiling above Spanish porcelain floor tiles.
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“We have warm, earth tones, but it’s still elevated and sophisticated,” Uyen said. “It feels like a warm home rather than a bakery.”
Go: 62 Elm St., Westfield; 908-228-5134, kbcbakery.com.
Contact: JIntersimone@MyCentralJersey.com
Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, after becoming a blogger-turned-reporter following the creation of her award-winning travel blog. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Kirshenbaum Baking Co. in Westfield is run by French pastry chef
