Lynette Pflueger, a Spokane native and the former pastry chef at Santé Restaurant and Charcuterie, is up for the title of The People's Best New Pastry Chef in a competition sponsored by Food  & Wine magazine.

Pflueger is one of 16 chefs named by Food & Wine magazine among the best new pastry chefs in the West. The magazine picked 50 chefs nationwide. Reader votes will determine who wins the title. The voting closes on April 8.

Pflueger grew up in Spokane and went to North Central High School. She attended the Washington State University hospitality program for three years, spending one abroad in Australia before she decided to go to culinary school. She attended culinary school at the Art Institute of Santa Monica, graduating in 2006.

She worked in Florida and Connecticut before returning to Spokane to work for Santé Restaurant and Charcuterie from July 2009 to February 2011.

"I wanted to gain more experience in fine dining and was seeking out a James Beard award winning chef or a Michelin star chef," Pflueger wrote in an email message. 

She works for Chef Mavro in Honolulu, which has been honored by James Beard and had Michelin stars in France. Chef Mavro also has five diamonds from AAA and has been honored as one of the top 40 restaurants America by Gayot.

In the competition, Pflueger describes her quintessential dessert as Island Madre chocolate crisped with black walnut, truffle white chocolate, tarragon ganache, pear coulis and Molokai black salt.

Here's the link to vote for Pflueger.

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