About Attending Pastry School

Life in San Francisco is always wonderfully fast-moving, but the past nine months have been a whirlwind. I completed Tante Marie's fall 2011 pastry course, interned at Tartine, and catered a few private events. I'm now finally able to sit and write about how and why I decided to attend Tante Marie's. For a few years after college I researched culinary programs in the Bay Area: The CIA, Le Cordon Bleu, SFBI, International Culinary Center, CCSF (city college program), and Tante Marie's. At that time, The Art Institute did not yet have a program. It now does and Chef Cindy Muschet, my teacher and possibly the most knowledgeable and nurturing teacher in the world, teaches there.

I chose Tante Marie's for the same reasons most do. It is a part-time course designed for people serious about baking but who still work a 9-5 job. I put a lot of thought into how I could make this dream a reality while not falling into a financial hole. Tante Marie's allowed for that without substitution for quality. School still not a small sum of money and for full disclosure, I was able to pay for this school with savings.

What I love about Tante Marie's:

• So many things! But an important one is they take only 15 students every six months and there is one teacher, a teacher's assistant and a number of special guest appearances. It is an intimate environment, but enough space to focus on your own work. Tip: Get used to the cozy atmosphere, most professional pastry chefs end up with even less room then your working space in class. It helps you remain organized, precise and focused while creating desserts.

Questions you should be able to say "yes" to if you think Tante Marie's is for you:

• Have you been a home baker for many years? If you have absolutely no foundation to start from, you'll struggle to excel in this course.
• Do you have the will to practice and learn on your own? In class you have the opportunity to make many things twice, but other recipes, not at all during class and the only way to get better is to practice
• Can you do a 12 hour day? You should say yes, if you want to be a pastry chef at all ;
• Will your employer be understanding of your schedule? They may have questions for you, like why you're going to pastry school and if you will leave your current job for it. They'll also might ask if you will bring in treats. At Tante Marie's, we did not bring very many items home from class.

I hope you said yes to all of the above and that now you've been accepted to Tante Marie's!...

Items you may need for class in addition to the chef uniforms and book:

• Timer that clips on to your clothes (once you're in a professional bakery, you don't get one)
• Permanent marker (to keep in the pen pocket of your chef uniform)
• Giant binder to keep all recipes
• Close-toed shoes you can stand comfortable in for eight hours (Never did I think I would LOVE clogs so much)

Items you must have at home practice:

• Fine mesh strainer
• Scale (I hope you already have one)

...Don't worry, you'll find plenty of other things you "need" too.

I can't wait to hear from you about your opinions, stories and thoughts about attending Tante Marie's or any other pastry program.

nerd'ing out with my wedding cake

one of my final cakes with sugar flowers

Mary & me, graduation day
My face=literally bloated from no sleep due to baking for three days in preparation

An Update

I just wanted to write a quick post for anyone that may stumble across my blog. I am about five weeks away from graduating Tante Marie's professional Pastry Course and busy as ever with so many things to look forward to including; creating a croquembouche, an American wedding cake, working with chocolate with The Alice Medrich and my final project (still to be determined by me.)

I look forward to start writing and participating in the blogging sphere sometime in March 2012. Here's a peak at what I've been up to...

Vol Au Vants

Napoleon

Cake with fondant & sugar flowers

Banana Maple Bread

I wasn't sure what to do when I woke up extremely early this Saturday morning when I didn't have pastry school at 8am, so what did I do? I got in the kitchen and baked. First I prepared custard cups for creme caramel to be finished later that day. Then, feeling once again inspired by Love Veggies and Yoga's simple/healthy/vegan/gluten free/delicious recipes, I made a tiny batch of banana maple muffins. They were insanely delicious with strong maple flavor and a nice chewy texture. I love this recipe because all you need is a fork and a large bowl to mix the ingredients in- barely any mess! All of the ingredients can be found at Trader Joe's too.

With just one over-ripe banana, this recipe makes four muffins. You could easily multiple the ingredients by three, and get a dozen muffins.

A few days later I multiplied this recipe by SIX (I had to get rid of six bananas, ok!?) and it was still delicious. I tried swapping crunchy peanut butter for the almond butter and next time I will stick with almond butter, the flavor profile matched the other ingredient's flavors better.


The best is when you get a little pocket of maple syrup in the muffin, yummm.

Banana Maple Muffins
vegan, gluten free

Ingredients (to make 4 muffins):

• 2 tbsp ground flax seeds
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1 medium over-ripe banana, mashed
• 1/3 cup unsalted raw almond butter
• 1/3 cup almond flour (or 3/4 cup all purpose flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix flax seeds through banana in a medium bowl until well combined. In another bowl mix together the flour(s) through salt. Mix the dry ingredients in to wets until well combined. Pour the batter in to lined muffin tins. Bake for about 18-24 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Pastry School in Pictures

Now I understand why there aren't very many blogs out there chronicling pastry school, there's no time! Here is the past few weeks in pictures (some are my creations, others are not):

All these delicious pastries are made with Pate au Choux dough

Gateuau Paris-Brests

Gougere (with egg white salad) for Blue Grass Festival

Profiterols with vanilla ice cream

Lemon Souffle

 

Strawberry Mousse

Chocolate Mouse with whipped cream and chocolate curls

That's how the center is supposed to look. Chef hacked it open to show us :)

My First Week at Tante Marie's

Friends and co-workers are already asking me where the goods are. But it turns out I won't be taking any home because they go to a much better cause. Mary (Tante Marie herself) started Food Runners in 1987, a nonprofit that delivers food from restaurants to those in need in San Francisco. All of our leftovers (that are edible) go to those in greater need- hooray!

On my second night I successfully made a dark caramel sauce and almost successfully made a creme anglaise, which is still cooling in the fridge for Saturday's class. After a lot of egg whisking and boiling sugar Chef Cindy Muschet demo'ed pate a choux (cream puff dough), which we'll dive right into at 8am on Saturday along with creating pastry cream for eclairs.

Here's our second class in pictures

Coffee Pot de Creme

Maple Custard

Creme Caramel