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As a prospective student, Stephen Durfee ventured into the kitchen of what was then Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School and found Director of Pastry & Baking Arts Nick Malgieri preparing for an event. Malgieri told Durfee that he should stick around and help. Slathering a mixture of butter and lard onto dough for sfogliatelle was the point of no return for Durfee, who had been teaching English and history at a boarding school. He worked at Charles Nob Hill in San Francisco, Wheatleigh Hotel in Lennox, Massachusetts, and Alison on Dominick Street in New York City. He returned to his roots as an educator in 2000 when he joined the California branch of the Culinary Institute of America.