Natasha Capper

Coming Up

Pastry depends on precision, patience, and a tolerance for repetition, and Natasha Capper has built her work around those terms. Baking is the method she chose early and still names plainly as her favorite, which tracks with a career shaped by sugar, butter, chocolate, and the control required to make them behave. Even before professional kitchens, the habit was there: menus sketched, cooking practiced, the table dressed when her parents entertained. That early focus was not just on food, but on service as a complete frame around the meal. Training at Johnson & Wales University led into a first kitchen post as Pastry Cook at The Omni Grove Park Inn (1991–1993), where the work was already defined by discipline rather than improvisation. From there, Capper moved through Assistant Pastry Chef roles at Renaissance Waverly Hotel (1994–1995) and Ritz-Carlton Hotel (1996–1998), each step extending the same core skill set: consistency, timing, and a steady hand under pressure. In pastry, those are the measures that matter. Capper has said she wanted to create art without being a “starving artist,” and pastry offered exactly that middle ground: a space where technique carries expression, and where utility does not exclude refinement. Her record shows that balance clearly. The work is decorative only if the structure holds; the craft is most convincing when the finish looks easy. Piedmont Driving Club became the long-term setting for that approach in 1999, when Capper took on the role of Executive Pastry Chef and remained there. The position suits a kitchen culture that asks for polish without excess. Beyond the club, she also taught as Adjunct Instructor at Chattahoochee Technical College (2008–2011) and represented Barry Callebaut Group as Chocolate Ambassador (2010–2023), extending her practice into instruction and product-facing work without leaving the technical ground of the trade.

Where They Are Now

At Piedmont Driving Club in Atlanta, Capper serves as Executive Pastry Chef. The setting fits a pastry program built on finish, control, and attention to detail, with baking still at the center of the work.

In Their Words “I wanted to create art without being a “starving artist” and although I consider myself to be creative I’m not a particularly good artist.” “I’m a pastry chef so there is no question; my favourite method of cookery is definitely baking.”