An honors graduate of Harvard College with a degree in applied mathematics and economics, Joanne Chang left a career as a management consultant to enter the world of professional cooking. She started as garde-manger cook at Boston’s renowned Biba restaurant, then worked as a pastry cook at Bentonwood Bakery in Newton, and in 1995 was hired as pastry chef at Rialto restaurant in Cambridge. Chang moved to New York City in 1997 to work in the cake department of the critically acclaimed Payard Patisserie and Bistro. Returning to Boston a year later with dreams of opening up her own pastry shop, she brought her French and American training to Mistral where she was the pastry shef until summer of 2000. In 2000, she opened Flour, a bakery and café, in Boston’s South End. In 2007 she opened a second branch of Flour in the Fort Point Channel area and in 2010 a third branch in Cambridge near MIT and Central Square. The fourth Flour location opened up in Boston’s Back Bay in January of 2013. Flour has been featured in Gourmet, Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Lucky Magazine, Inc. Magazine, and Boston Magazine and has received numerous Best of Boston awards. Flour was also featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on the Food Network in which Chang’s sticky buns won over Chef Flay’s. Chang writes pastry articles and reviews cookbooks for Fine Cooking magazine. She teaches classes and advises pastry cooks both within the bakery and at area cooking schools. She opened a Chinese restaurant called Myers + Chang with her husband Christopher Myers in the South End neighborhood in the fall of 2007.