Craft LA’s pastry chef Shannon Swindle credits his family and Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters as his greatest inspirations for becoming a chef. In a time where people were eating canned vegetables and processed foods, his family made everything from scratch. His grandparents’ gardens spawned an obsession for ripe, perfect produce, and this obsession is apparent in Shannon’s fruit-focused dessert menu as pastry chef of Craft Los Angeles. Shannon began his restaurant career by volunteering in a professional kitchen, but soon found himself in the company of Texas’s most acclaimed chefs, working alongside Emmett and Lisa Fox, Dean Fearing, Stephan Pyles and Kent Rathbun. Shannon joined the Craft family in 2006, when he became the pastry chef at Craft Dallas. In 2009, Shannon moved west to become pastry chef of Craft Los Angeles. In his current role, he focuses on sourcing from local family farms and foraging for seasonal ingredients, and his creations have garnered praise from critics and guests alike for his unfussy, natural flavor combinations. In 2017, Shannon was a James Beard Semifinalist in the Outstanding Pastry Chef category.
