In her nearly two years at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Pastry Chef Julianne Heath has created everything from elevated orange donuts to a 4.5-foot replica clubhouse cake. Below, she shares what inspires her work and why everything she creates is made with love.
Club + Resort Chef (CRC): Tell us about your background. How did you get into the baking/pastry chef world, and what drew you to country clubs and resorts?
Julianne Heath (JH): I initially wanted to go into interior design or architecture. But my family always thought baking might be more for me. I researched some schools and chose Johnson and Wales, where I was able to attend École Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie in Yssingeaux, France, for three months, my senior year of college in 2024.
During college, I had an opportunity to learn more about country clubs and had the opportunity to tour The Country Club (TCC) in Brookline, Mass., and had three friends who had internships there. I knew I wanted to work in Boston after college, and after interviewing at different places, I decided TCC was the one, and the rest is history.
CRC: What’s the scope of your pastry program? How many events are you supporting?
JH: My department works with the a la carte line, ensuring membership has an assortment of cookies, brownies, and plated desserts to choose from when they dine in. I also work with the banquets team on events that range from eight to 500 people.
On major holidays, we can have 400-500 people dine in over the period we are open. My favorite events we do are wine dinners, where I get to be more creative. Our pool has plenty of events, where platters of cookies or themed desserts are on display to take.
Also, we’ve started working on our bread program by making focaccia in-house. We make house-made granola bars that are sold in different areas around the club and course, too.
CRC: How does working at a private club differ from other pastry positions you’ve held?
JH: Shortly before this job, I worked on a line where orders would come in, and I would execute. Now, I do most of the prep and less line work. I hadn’t really touched large production baking before this job. My learning curve consisted of not making enough products and redoing them. I hate doing the same task over again, so I fixed that very quickly.
I like being able to see what I have to do for the next week and being able to write a prep list and plan ahead of time. In the restaurant industry, you’re not quite sure how many covers you’re getting a night. In the club industry, you can prepare yourself a little better.
CRC: What are the expectations from members when it comes to pastry and desserts?
JH: Consistency is a big one. Coming into this club, we had standardized recipes for certain products that were known to be TCC products. For example, our sticky buns, this is one item I am not allowed to change because they love the way the club makes them.
Members also expect us to be accommodating to their food/allergy restrictions. We strive for excellence over perfection, so it doesn’t have to be perfect, but we care about what we’re putting out to taste amazing.
CRC: How do you balance daily member dining needs with special events and banquets?
JH: Menu matching definitely helps in the fact that I can put my all into a dish and just mass-produce it. For special events like wine dinners, I have plenty of lead time to prepare and test before actually running certain things. This is because menus are made months in advance.
CRC: What’s your approach to prep and planning, especially during the busy season?
JH: I know my first two days are going to be heavy-hitting days. I try to multitask as best as I can. A rule I use every time I’m in the kitchen is—I should be starting something, working on something, and finishing something.
I’m big on time management and efficiency. Baking has a lot of interactive tasks ,and I try to time my tasks out with that in mind. A prep list that’s planned out the week before can help the team by showing them the timeline a product has to be done, and if they complete a list before, they can determine if they can get ahead on something.
CRC: Being somewhat newer to the industry, what have you learned about your role in general and in the club and resort space?
JH: I think, especially in the club industry, I learned that my role goes beyond what this dessert in front of you is. It’s about the experience you offer in the ability to adapt to how my membership likes things and knowing things about them. Consistency is also big. Having a simple product that’s delicious but perfect means more than a complicated dish that isn’t good. In the club industry, we’re feeding multiple outlets, so ensuring we nail these classic flavors means everything.
CRC: Did you have any mentors along the way?
JH: I definitely had many, and I look up to so many of my JWU chefs, such as Thao Rich and Jaime Schick. They helped me feel confident as a woman in the kitchen and refine my pastry skills.
My current director of operations, Samuel Gossett, has helped me grow into my position at TCC and has helped teach me about systems and operations.
CRC: What advice would you give people who are just starting out or want to get started in your line of work?
JH: Find your passion and what will keep you going. Also, have a work best friend who lets you scream and cry and then be able to make you laugh. At the end of the day, we’re making food, and it’s supposed to be an act of love and passion.
CRC: How would you describe your baking/culinary style?
JH: I love contemporary and organic plate-ups. I like fusions and unique flavor profiles. I always need a crunch factor in my desserts because it adds depth and dimension. I tend to stay away from one-toned plates because I like a range of colors on the plate. I also want to mention how intentional every touch point is on the plate. Every component is placed on the plate for a reason of some sort.
I really love creating plated desserts and thinking about flavor profiles. It feels like painting a blank canvas, but it’s not only about color and texture, but the flavor as well.
My favorite plated dessert I’ve done at TCC was an elevated orange donut. I made the brioche dough infused with orange zest and fried them off fresh and coated them in an orange sugar before the event. There was also piped chocolate cremeux, segmented oranges, chocolate crumble, candied orange peels, lace cookie, and an orange creamsicle ice cream on the plate.
CRC: In a LinkedIn post, you mentioned many accomplishments you achieved in 2025. What do you think has been your biggest accomplishment?
JH: It has to be the clubhouse cake I created in November. Samuel Gossett came to me with the idea and wanted to have a wrecking ball smashing through the left side. At first, I didn’t give an immediate yes. This task seemed daunting. I had never made a cake of this size and had one experience with a realistic cake that looked like a purse. I started taking photos of the clubhouse from the internet and trying to size and scale it. The numbers were too perfect, I said I could do it.
For the entertainment portion, I wanted a show, not just a ball that hit the side of the cake and got stuck. We bounced around ideas like a balloon within the cake and a needle on the wrecking ball, but we decided against it. My next idea was to place sprinkles and candy within that wing of the cake.
After a week of doing math and resizing and scaling the clubhouse, walking around and counting the number of windows, shutters, and pillars, I had to create a baking schedule to make and pull this cake off within three days (for quality of freshness) with my team of one other person, Peyton Graham. The cake was 4.5 feet by 1.5 feet and had 17 layers of cake.
CRC: What do you love most about being a pastry chef?
JH: Making people smile and producing cakes or plated desserts that can be so special to them. At The Country Club, I’m fortunate enough to make a birthday item for the culinary staff when that day comes around, and we get to celebrate with them. I try to make sure it’s something they love or from their culture. Everything I make is definitely made with love. And I get a sweet treat every day! Any extras are given out, and who doesn’t want a free cookie?
CRC: Where do you find inspiration for new creations?
JH: Talking to other pastry chefs definitely helps me. I live with two other pastry chefs, and we’re constantly bouncing ideas off of each other. I also love Pinterest. I have a food board that is broken down into sections of breads, plated desserts, chocolates, and more. Flavors also really inspire me, and how I can create a dish and play with it.
CRC: What trends are you seeing in club pastry right now?
JH: Definitely Dubai chocolate, which my coworkers asked me to recreate. I would also say the ASMR videos of nicely tempered chocolate shells on desserts. It’s really satisfying to watch.
CRC: Where do you see club pastry programs headed in the next few years?
JH: More production as well as higher refinement. We do this well for the space we have, but we’re building a whole new kitchen and bakeshop set to open in 2028. Here, we’ll start our own flour-milling program, where all our breads use freshly milled, unprocessed flour.
