Team Dewitt
Gold Sponsor -
Guittard
Tracy DeWitt - Captain
Chef Tracy DeWitt started her baking career in a French-Viennese pastry shop in northern New Jersey when she was fifteen years old. She graduated from The Culinary Institute of America with two degrees, one for Culinary Arts and one for Baking and Pastry. Her most recent accolade was the gold medal she won (with teammate David Smoake) in the 2006 National Bread and Pastry Team Championship. In 2006, Chef DeWitt was invited to participate in two Food Network Challenges. She competed in a Gingerbread Mansion competition, and was honored with a bronze medal in the Rock and Roll Sugar Showpiece competition.
Tracy is currently a chef instructor for the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, a Le Cordon Bleu school. She is honored to be on the faculty where she has been training students in the fine art of pastry for the past fourteen years. Tracy has received many teaching awards including a highest honors retention award, three Crystal Apple Awards for teaching excellence, and was recognized as a top twelve finalists for the 2004 Educator of the Year. Employment history includes The Broadmoor Hotel, as well as high-end retail bakeries such as Balducci, Marie Antoinette, and AJ’s. Tracy has trained in many bakeries and has worked for many local caterers, but her true passion lies with teaching.
Dan Boman
Dan Boman graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management in Mumbai, India. He started his career working at the Taj Residency in Bangalore. He then graduated in the Pastry Chef Program offered by the Restaurant school Philadelphia.
He apprenticed at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia before moving to the Tropicana in Atlantic City. For eight years he worked under gold medal winning Pastry Chef Thomas Vaccaro. The experience of working with Chef Vaccaro was the most rewarding experience of his career.
He moved quickly up the ranks from being an Assistant Pastry chef to being the Executive Pastry Chef at the Trump Plaza Casino. He has won multiple gold medals at the New York Culinary Arts Salon awarded by the Societe Culinaire Philanthropique.
He has participated in various local fund raising events and is actively involved with the community. In 2007, Dan decided that his true love was sharing the wealth of knowledge he had accumulated over the years and found that teaching is an undeniably rewarding experience for him. He is now a Chef Instructor at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and has partnered up with his co-instructors Chefs Dewitt and Smoake to win the National Pastry Championship.
David Smoake
Growing up in El Paso, Texas, Chef David Smoake learned to appreciate food from a cultural level at a family owned German restaurant that emphasized a traditional level of cooking. To build on his natural talents, David attended the Scottsdale Culinary Institute where he received his Culinary Arts degree. He found his true talents lie in the art of baking and pastry. It was at that juncture that he accepted a position at the famed Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. David then worked as the assistant pastry chef at the Scottsdale Radisson Resort and Spa, and later became the pastry chef at the Buttes Resort in Tempe, Arizona. During this tenure in the industry, Chef Smoake continued to hone his skills in the areas of artisan bread, plated desserts, and chocolate production. David has also been very instrumental in various large charitable events for National Heart Association, Taste of the Nation and the American Dietetic Association.
In 2003 David was invited back to Scottsdale Culinary Institute to be a part of the faculty team in the Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie & Baking Program. Within his second year at the school, David received the Crystal Apple Award for teaching excellence and was named Instructor of the Year for 2005. "After many years in the industry," Chef Smoake states, "I have truly found my niche because I get to share what I love to do with others, and be a part of another’s educational venture." At the 2006 National Bread and Pastry Championship, Chef Smoake's team won the gold medal and Best Pastry Degustation.
