Having grown up in a large family that bonded over a love of good food, Brian Mercury developed a sweet tooth at an early age. He could often be found helping his grandmother make cookies and desserts for family gatherings and was known to spend most of his allowance on candy. At the suggestion of his father, Brian attended the Culinary Institute of America, and received his Bachelors in food management from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Arriving in Boston in 2004, Brian first took a role under Executive Pastry Chef Dan Angelopolus at The Charles Hotel before later working closely with Pastry Chef Susan Abbott at Rialto. In 2011, Brian began his successful tenure as the Executive Pastry Chef of Cambridge, MA’s acclaimed Harvest, where he garnered local and national recognition, including Food & Wine’s 2013 “People’s Choice Best New Pastry Chef, East Region.” Locally, The Improper Bostonian awarded Brian’s menu at Harvest “Boston’s Best Desserts” in 2013 and Boston Magazine named Brian “Best Pastry Chef” in 2014. As the opening Executive Pastry Chef of Oak + Rowan, Brian creates artful, modernized presentations of classic sweets that earned The Improper Bostonian’s 2017 award for “Boston’s Best Desserts”, Boston Magazine 2018 “Boston’s Best Pastry Chef” & The Improper Bostonian’s 2018 “Boston’s Best Bread.”
