Subjects Covered:

-Baking theory, history, and science

-Food service sanitation

-Breads and breakfast pastries

-Petit fours (miniature pastries)

-European-style cakes and tarts

-Ice creams and sorbets

-Plated desserts

-Wedding and specialty cakes

-Chocolate and sugar candies

-Chocolate and sugar decorations/showpieces

Photo (Below): Gumpaste flower spray on top of  three-tiered fondant cake

Class Schedule:

In my class of 18, we spent at least six hours a day together, in the kitchen. I wanted a school where more time was spent in the kitchen, rather than in a classroom.  A typical day would go as followed:

-Chef demonstration of the products being made that day

-Scaling of ingredients

-Student preparation of products

-Additional chef demonstration of finishing touches/techniques

-Cleaning of kitchen at the conclusion of class

Highlights:

We were able to taste everything we made, and usually we had products to take home. You can imagine that this worked out really well for a girl who lived alone with her cat. Ha!

Stages:

The chef instructors also encouraged us to do lots of stages. A stage is when you make an arrangement with the pastry chef of a restaurant, hotel, bakery, catering company, wedding cake shop, chocolate shop, etc., to go in and work one shift. For free. While they may get some free labor, you are also getting experience in different pastry venues. You usually pick up a couple of new tricks while you’re there, too. And don’t forget about connections!

Focus:

One last note is that I chose to attend a school that focused primarily on French baking and pastry arts, so we didn’t cover American-style layer cakes, pies, cookies, brownies, etc. We did, however, learn the techniques that would enable us to create them with success.

Photo (Below): Hazelnut chocolate cake

Photograph (below): Sablees

Photograph (below): Assorted chocolate candies