Norma Arellano-Salazar

Chef Norma Salazar has more than 30 years of experience in the pastry industry as an executive pastry chef and instructor. She owned a catering company in Long Beach, California, and spent five years as a pastry cook at California hotels before becoming executive pastry chef at Hotel Queen Mary in 1993. She held three additional pastry chef positions in hospitality before 20 years of instructing at five higher education institutions.

She's competed and coached in various pastry competitions, winning seven gold medals, a dozen silver and bronze medals, and the gold medallion as part of the California Culinary Olympics team, which placed fifth globally  at the 1996 Culinary Olympics in Berlin.

Chef Salazar continued her education with professional development in sugar and chocolate, has judged food competitions and been a guest speaker at food events, and became executive pastry chef at Delicieux Simply Eggless Bakery in Artesia, California, in 2017. She joined the Institute of Culinary Education's Los Angeles campus in 2019.