Ana Sofía Pino
Lutèce | Washington, D.C.
February 2026
It was the annual summer trips to Peru, where her parents grew up, that made Ana Sofía Pino curious about food. Time spent at her grandparents’ house was always centered around food: who they were hosting that night, what was for lunch, and even at lunch, conversations about what was for dinner. At the markets they visited together, her grandparents taught her how to pick fresh produce and appreciate ingredients. At home, Pino would bake with her mom, but it wasn’t until she took classes through her high school’s restaurant management program that she realized cooking could be a career.
Pino studied at the Culinary Institute of America, completing an externship at Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore, Maryland, where she learned under Rising Stars alum Sarah Malphrus, eventually following her to Magdalena at The Ivy Hotel as Malphrus’ pastry assistant. The two went to Rye Street Tavern, where, over the next three years, Pino worked her way up from the pastry station to pastry sous chef in a fast, efficient, and high-volume kitchen. She then went on to work at Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery in Washington, D.C., for six months, clocking 60-hour weeks and early morning shifts, before traveling back to Maryland to join Duck Duck Goose in Bethesda as their pastry director, helping open the Dupont Circle and Baltimore locations.
In 2024, Pino staged with and then joined the team of Rising Stars alumni Matt Conroy and Isabel Coss’s Lutèce, eventually taking over as the restaurant’s pastry chef. While leading the team and creating desserts like her sponge cake with fig jam, petit Basque crumble, buttermilk ice cream, fig sorbet, and tiger figs, Pino is grateful for the opportunity to trust and collaborate with her team, consistently learning from those around her.
2026 StarChefs D.C.-Maryland-Virginia Rising Stars Award Winner
