Visions of Concord grape bubbles, cocoa sablé crumbs, and carrot glass have been dancing in Pastry Chef Jordan Kahn’s head since he was a child. His first kitchen job was in his hometown of Savannah, Georgia when he was only 15 years old. A year later he enrolled at Johnson & Wales and graduated in just eight months. His first job out of school was at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry. Kahn was 17; the youngest chef to ever work in Keller’s kitchen. But that’s Jordan Kahn for you: inexhaustibly creative and—perhaps a bit insanely—driven.

Kahn was asked to join the opening pastry team of Keller’s New York City four-star outpost Per Se, where his inventive desserts and techniques caught the eye of Chef Grant Achatz of Chicago’s groundbreaking Alinea. In 2005, Kahn moved to Chicago to work with Alinea’s Pastry Chef Alex Stupak, who helped the young pastry daredevil further develop his signature style. Kahn returned to New York in late 2006 to become the pastry chef at Varietal, where he won national acclaim for his culinary artistry. The New York Times food critic Frank Bruni compared the pastry chef to Jackson Pollock and the New York Observer likened his dishes to Salvador Dalí paintings. Kahn was 23.

In 2009, Chef Michael Mina tapped Kahn to work at his eponymous restaurant in San Francisco. Kahn then transitioned into a corporate role, assisting in the opening and operations of Mina’s multiple restaurants across the US and in Mexico. Kahn settled down at Mina’s Los Angeles flagship, XIV, where he once again broke boundaries and redefined dessert.

Kahn’s mission to challenge convention and reinterpret tradition (think: wood ice cream) has already distinguished him in the culinary world. Where he’ll take pastry next remains to be seen, but his next up-and-coming venture takes him to the savory side and deep into Southeast Asian flavors to be served at his French-Vietnamese restaurant, Red Medicine.