Pastry

Travis Watson

Executive Pastry Chef and
Executive Sous Chef

Travis Watson, one of the newest members of the T. Cook's culinary team, was first named Executive Pastry Chef in September 2010, then in December of 2011, transitioned to Executive Sous Chef.

As a former University of Arizona football player, "chef" seems like an unlikely career choice for a guy who also loves shooting and Brazilian jiujitsu. But then he was inspired at 14 by his first football coach who was also an Executive Chef at a restaurant where Watson was employed as a dishwasher. Cooking seemed much cooler and definitely more fun, and once he was promoted to prep cook a few months later, the die was cast.

Chef Watson's friends and co-workers describe him as "hardworking, driven and dedicated" and accurately so. After moving to Arizona from his native Watts, California when he was 12, Watson worked two jobs through high school so that he could attend Scottsdale Culinary Institute. Upon graduation, he did an impressive externship under Chef Jacques Paccard in Paris.

Upon his return to the States, enrolled in the University of Arizona in Tucson. Bit by the travel bug, he spent summers and the years after graduation traveling, working and learning in cities like Seattle, Los Angeles and Denver and countries such as Japan, France, Italy and Mozambique.

In 1999, Watson settled back in Arizona, working for Fox Restaurant Concepts as Corporate Pastry Chef where he was responsible for opening 27 restaurants across the country over the next eight years. He left Fox to take over the helm as Executive Chef of Avalon, an independent restaurant focused on organic produce and sustainable practices in Scottsdale. In just a year's time, Chef Watson and his team at Avalon were named "Best New Restaurant" and "Best New Chef."

Now at Royal Palms, he says he's captivated by the opportunity to create delicious food for T. Cook's, room service, banquets, weddings and special events.

Kay Brickley

Assistant Pastry Chef

Though Pastry was not Kay Brickley's first career, it has always been her true love.

"In a former life," as Brickley puts it, alluding to her more mundane years spent in the corporate world, "I decided to make a wholesale change in life. I decided to pursue something I was really excited about."

In 2004 Brickley finally made the creative jump, quitting her office job and diving head first into the whims of culinary school. While studying the art of pastry, she ended up briefly working for A.J.'s Fine Foods—one of the Phoenix area's premiere high-end food retailers—as well as for the award-wining independent pastry shop Honeymoon Sweets in Tempe, Arizona.

However, it wasn't until 2005, when a rare opening in the halls of T. Cook's esteemed pastry department presented itself—and a chance to work with then Executive Pastry Chef Pierino Jermonti—that stars began to truly align for Brickley.

"When I saw Royal Palms was hiring, I jumped at the chance," Brickley says emphatically. "I knew it was THE place to start out my pastry career."

Though Brickley only worked under Chef Jermonti's helm for a few years, before he himself left to pursue his own life's next course, she considered the career investment to work under him invaluable. "While it was sad to see him go," she admits, "I was very fortunate for the opportunity."

After eventually graduating from culinary school, all the while honing her pastry skills in T. Cook's pastry department, Brickley quickly began applying her inherent passion and new found culinary pedigree toward her growth at T. Cook's. Within just a few years, Brickley blossomed from cake decorator to PM Pastry Chef, to her current benchmark of Assistant Pastry Chef, working hand-in-hand with T. Cook's current Executive Pastry Chef Travis Watson, helping to craft and refine one of the Phoenix area's most exalted pastry programs.

Recently, Brickley won T. Cook's prestigious dessert competition, held each year within the department, earning her submission—now known as "T. Cook's Royal Éclairs"—a prime-time headline on the restaurant's dessert menu, not only quickly becoming one of its most popular options, but also continuing to wow both her peers and superiors with her creative talents and tasteful skills.

As Brickley's trajectory continues to bloom, T. Cook's is all the more valuable with her in the fold.