Ghaya Oliveira

Tunisian

Any great pastry chef knows that baking is as much an accurate science as it is a creative endeavor. Fortunately, DANIEL Executive Pastry Chef Ghaya F. Oliveira has talent to spare in both areas.

Ghaya Oliveira, a Tunisia native, moved to the states in 1998 to attend culinary school.

Ghaya’s first career was not in the kitchen, but as a stock trader in her native Tunisia, but after moving to the United States in 1998, she chose to pursue creative challenges in the kitchen rather than on the trading floor. Nearly 20 years later, she reached the pinnacle of the pastry profession.

Upon graduating from the Culinary Academy and then earning a degree in Restaurant Management from the French Culinary Institute, Oliveira joined Café Boulud in 2001 and worked her way up to executive pastry chef of Bar Boulud in 2007. As a pastry commis, under Executive Pastry Chef Remy Funfrock, Ghaya learned the importance of precision and refined her technique. She continued to learn from Chef Funfrock, as well as Daniel Boulud’s Corporate Pastry Chef Eric Bertoia. She credits the former with teaching her to cook fruit with delicacy, care and respect for their natural flavors.

In 2013, Oliveira became executive pastry chef of Boulud’s flagship DANIEL where she earned a 2017 James Beard Award for “Outstanding Pastry Chef.”

Ghaya Oliveira

Pastry Chef