Who is the pastry chef at Herons?

  1. With more than 10 years of experience in some of the best pastry kitchens in the country, Daniel Benjamin displays his talents as the pastry chef at Herons. His desserts are available on the lunch and dinner menus, and are also available during afternoon tea at the Five-Star restaurant. Originally from a small town in Indiana, Benjamin moved to New York City and enrolled in the French Culinary Institute in 1998. He’s worked as a pastry chef in restaurants around the country — from San Francisco to Washington D.C. — picking up techniques from world-renowned kitchens until his own style emerged and he came to North Carolina to join Herons.

  2. Daniel Benjamin is celebrated for his creative and modern approach to Southern sweets as pastry chef of the Umstead Hotel and Spa and Herons.

    A true master of his craft, Benjamin?s forte spans from preparing pre-desserts and petit fours for fine dining to prepping expanded dessert selections for banquets. Noted for his contemporary take on dessert staples of the South, original Benjamin menu items exclusive to Herons have included the luxurious, burnt sugar cake with chocolate rice pudding, stewed cherries,and horchata ice cream; the sweet potato soup with apple, raisin, gingerbread panzanella and pain d?epic ice cream, and bourbon chestnut moon pie, with toasted almonds, candied chestnuts,and burnt almond ice cream.