Katherine Clapner serves as Executive Pastry Chef at Stephan Pyles restaurant in Dallas, Texas, working directly with Chef/Owner Stephan Pyles on dessert menu development and execution. Clapner brings more than 18 years of experience teaching and working in the restaurant industry.

Most recently serving as Pastry Chef at the new Hilton Hotel in Austin, Clapner was responsible for the pastry department's culinary direction, including oversight of the menu at the hotel's two restaurants, Liberty Tavern and Finn & Porter, and the coffee shop, Java Coast, as well as food service for the 800-room hotel and event catering for up to 3,000. Prior to serving in that position, she spent five years at Central Market working on the corporate side of culinary business development and store openings in Texas, as well as creating new dessert items for the Dallas area locations.

Clapner first began working with Chef Pyles at Star Canyon, AquaKnox, and Taqueria Canonita, where she developed desserts to accompany Pyles' wide array of cuisines. Since beginning her culinary career as Pantry Chef at Sam's Café in Dallas, Clapner has extended her training internationally and gained many years of valuable experience at notable establishments worldwide. She has worked under the instruction of recognized names such as Chef Charlie Trotter and Chef Kevin Graham, and has trained and held Pastry Chef positions at Charlie Trotter's (Chicago), The Windsor Court Hotel (New Orleans), Hotel Cipriani (Venice, Italy), The Savoy Hotel (London, England), and in Austin, Texas, Mansion at Judges Hill, Ranch 616, and Liberty Tavern and Finn & Porter at the Hilton Hotel.

A native of Texas, Clapner attended the University of Texas at Arlington. She later enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in New York, where she earned an Associates Degree in baking and pastry.

Clapner has been a featured pastry chef in such prestigious publications as Bon Appétit, The Chicago Tribune, Gambit Weekly, The Times Picayune, Restaurants and Institutions, Sante Magazine, Austin Monthly (top pastry chefs), Austin Women's Magazine (top women responsible for the Saveur Hill Country Wine and Food Festival), Austin Chronicle (top 10 food moments and one of four top women pastry chefs in Austin) and on local television shows in New Orleans, Dallas, and Austin. Clapner was also a contributing writer for Southwestern Vegetarian, the acclaimed cookbook by Chef Stephan Pyles.

Clapner is very active in civic organizations among the culinary community. She currently serves as the chair of Stars Across Texas for Saveur Hill Country Wine and Food Festival. She has been recognized as the first chair to introduce Pastry Chefs as a major component of the event and the festival.