Faculty FrontDoor

Patricia Polin

I was born, raised and educated in Orlando.
I developed a love for baking at an early age. When I was only 10 years old I would always want to be in the kitchen with mom. I would ask, how much flour do you add to the batter? Or how much salt or baking powder, and the answer was usually something like “a little bit, a pinch or two handfuls”. This was confusing and didn’t make sense, so I knew I just had to watch and learn by observation.
By the age of 12 I had started my own baking business with one loyal customer that would order a pound cake from me every week. Baking cakes and cookies were my favorite pass time. The love of baking soon expanded to cooking as well. Hours upon hours were spent studying cookbooks and experimenting with recipes. A recipe might look good, but I always put my personal spin on it.
I have always been passionate about pastries. But it wasn’t until 2005, after receiving a Baking and Pastry management degree from Valencia College, that I knew it would be my career. It brings me such joy to have been in the inaugural class and received the honor of President's List during my two years at Valencia College
Fresh out of Pastry School, my mentor, Chef Professor Steven Rujak asked me to work for him at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress. I worked for him for 10 years. During that time, he asked me to teach at Valencia. It is such an honor to be teaching Pastry Arts at Valencia where I once was a student of Pastry Arts!! I enjoy teaching and broadening the minds of students pursuing their passion for pastry.
In 2015 I decided to move my family to Philadelphia. I taught at a technical college in Lancaster PA with Chef Susan Notter for two years. In 2017 I accepted the position as Pastry Chef to The Master's Baker in West Chester, PA in 2017. This bakery opened in 1970, and it is a custom pastry shop that makes 1,600 wedding cakes a year! The bakery does not have a retail store front, and they make everything from scratch from Pate a Choux to wedding cake. What I loved most about working there was the large seasonal Petits Fours menu I created twice a year and creating cakes for special dietary needs clients.
In 2021 we moved back to the sunshine state, and I started teaching at Valencia College again. I was also able to join Loews Hotels at Sapphire Falls Resort at Universal Orlando.