Philip Speer began baking profes­sion­ally at seven­teen and has risen to become one of Austin's highly-renowned pastry chefs. In 1994, Speer worked his way up from a.m. baker at Cooks Night Out to pastry chef at the crit­i­cally praised Jean-Luc's Bistro, where he created memo­rable dinners and events while oper­ating what was then Austin's youngest five-star restau­rant.

In 2003, Speer accom­pa­nied Chef Shawn Cirkiel who was asked to prepare a dinner at the pres­ti­gious James Beard House in New York City. Speer then helped open Bank by Jean-Georges in Houston's Hotel Icon as the pastry sous chef with James Beard nomi­nated finalist Bryan Caswell.  It was here that Speer was able to combine his expe­ri­ences with different cuisines to create desserts that blend a variety of textures and palates.

Upon his return to Austin in late 2004, Speer worked at two popular Austin restau­rants, Star­lite and Seven. Speer's work and versa­tility have garnered him numerous awards in both the Austin Chron­icle and the Austin-Amer­ican Statesman as well as national acco­lades in Bon Appetit, Cooks Illus­trated, and U.S.A. Today. He appeared as a judge on the Food Network's "Throw­down with Bobby Flay" as well as part of Chef Tyson Cole's team that competed on the Food Network's "Iron Chef America." Speer was recently named a James Beard Award semi-finalist in the overall pastry chef cate­gory.

While awards and recog­ni­tion are greatly appre­ci­ated, Speer will tell you that "at the end of the day, it's all about my love affair with food, utilizing the freshest raw ingre­di­ents to show­case different learned tech­niques."

Speer is perfecting and expanding these tech­niques at Uchi where he is excited to be part of "such a high caliber estab­lish­ment with such diverse and talented chefs." Chef Speer looks forward to working alongside nation­ally acclaimed Chef Tyson Cole and exec­u­tive chef Paul Qui as Uchiko opens in the summer of 2010.