Pastry chef and co-owner of Quarter Sheets in Echo Park (Los Angeles), she put slab cakes at the heart of California’s dessert scene. In 2023 she was named a Best New Chef by Food & Wine. Training between the Bay Area and LA, with stints at Chez Panisse, Quince, Bar Tartine, and Nopa.
Raised in California, she began working in pastry in 2010 with a stage at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, then continued through some of the Bay Area’s most influential kitchens: Quince, Bar Tartine, and Nopa. This path refined her taste for ripe fruit, calibrated acidity, and tender textures—hallmarks of her cakes.
She later moved to Los Angeles, where she led desserts at M.Georgina and, during the pandemic, launched the micro-bakery House of Gluten, a creative base that seeded her current project. In 2022, together with partner Aaron Lindell, she opened Quarter Sheets in Echo Park: pan pizza and a pastry program that set a new aesthetic and flavor code for LA’s baked desserts.
Her pastry is seasonal and “produce-forward”: fresh fruit and aromatics, herbs, bright acidity, and restrained sweetness. The slab cakes—rectangular shareable slices—quickly became cult items: ginger chiffon with yuzu bavarois and blackberry-Lambrusco compote; olive-oil and polenta chiffon with crème fraîche chantilly and rose-geranium preserves. Pre-orders are often essential.
The project won over both guests and critics: Eater LA charted the rise from pop-up to restaurant; Food & Wine named her among Best New Chefs 2023; Cherry Bombe recapped accolades including mentions by the New York Times and LA Times among the city’s best restaurants. Ziskin’s identity—between “princess cakes,” tarts, and fruit pies—has become a reference for the new Californian pastry, where lightness and technique converse with Lindell’s savory kitchen.
Today, Ziskin keeps exploring doughs, whipped creams, and ice creams (a declared passion), aiming to expand the bakery side without losing the bond with the neighborhood and with California seasonality that guides every choice.
