Lisa Raffael

Not always a pastry chef, Lisa Raffael’s life pre-sugar, piping bags, and cake pans was filled with marketing positions for industrial companies. Lacking passion, she explored various options through career counseling and discovered that her true passion was cooking. Raffael enrolled in the Professional Chef’s Program at the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts in 1991, earning a Culinary Arts diploma in 1992. Upon graduation, she worked for Steve DiFillippo, also a graduate of the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, at Davio’s Restaurant as an assistant pastry chef. During this time she launched Delicious Desserts in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Due to the commute from the Cape to Boston, she left Davio’s, balancing three part-time jobs to make ends meet, including opening the bakery department of the Windfall Market. Delicious Desserts soon became popular with wedding cake reservations happening a year in advance of the big day.

Lisa continued studying pastry arts at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and trained under the guidance of Norman Love, Worldwide Corporate Pastry Chef of the Ritz Carlton Hotels. Most recently, Lisa studied at The International School of Confectionary Arts in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with Colette Peters, internationally acclaimed cake designer and best selling author.

In November 2005 Lisa appeared on the Food Network’s "Ultimate Wedding Cake Challenge," where she competed “piping bag to piping bag” with five other wedding cake designers; she received third place. The show aired in June 2006. She also appeared on the Food Network’s "Celebration Cakes" this past February, which was aired the last week of July 2006; she received second place. Lisa was invited to make her third appearance on Challenge in April 2008. The show, a nursery rhyme-themed cake contest airs in the fall of 2008. Raphael's Delicious Desserts was voted "A-List Best Wedding Cake" by CBS Channel 4 in July 2006 and July 2007.

Her other accolades include a wedding cake featured in Bride’s Magazine September/October 2003 issue, which led to publication in the book The Perfect Wedding Details by Maria McBride. In May 2005, Raffael was invited by BRIDE's Magazine to participate in the Cake Walk at Grand Central, an event that highlighted the top 50 wedding cake designers in the country. BRIDE's Magazine also featured one of Lisa's wedding cakes in it's March/April 2008 issue featuring "America's Most Beautiful Cakes."

Raffael teaches the baking component in the Professional Chef's Program.