James Kubie

Pastry Chef

James Kubie, an Atlanta native, grew up with a great appreciation of southern food.  Hailing from a long line of professional cooks starting with his great grandmother Ella, who owned a diner during the Great Depression, James has always felt more at home in the kitchen than out of it. While studying sculpture at the University Of Georgia, James got his start as a bread baker at Big City Bread in Athens.  From there, he moved on to Chicago to continue his studies in both the art and culinary worlds.  As part of his graduate research at SAIC, James worked in community kitchens on the Southside of Chicago that focused on maintaining the practices of traditional Afro-Cuban and Brazilian cooking.  After school, James decided to devote his full attention to professional bread baking and pastry making in various kitchens around Chicago. Eventually, the desire to migrate back to the South brought James to New Orleans, where he apprenticed under Chef Zak Miller at Coquette. After three years of working with Chef Miller and Chef Maggie Scales, James returned home to Coquette, where he now heads the pastry department, combining his love of sculpture, his baking background and his rigorous pastry training, to make beautiful, innovative desserts.