Experience Travel: Sweet Dreams

When you hit the age of 40, like I have this year, a sense of urgency and finally knowing what makes you happy becomes apparent. It's taken me a long time to reach this point, but the markers were always there on the map. You can look at graduates today and know that they may totally switch gears as their life unwinds and follow another path. When I was 17 all I wanted to do was go to Europe and study Fashion Design, which I did in Paris at Parsons School of Design at the American University in Paris. Fashion was my life, yet I always enjoyed cooking too. I was always that designated cook for the struggling students who pinched together their allowances and created a zillion and one pasta dishes. Art School can make or break you, and ends up breaking most, only the strongest survive.

After seeing the design world up close and dealing with more important family issues, I lost that desire. So the next few decades I forged a career and coped with my parents' illness with cooking. Food for me was another  medium in which I could create and make my loved ones happy. When I returned home to the States , my mother encouraged me to check out a culinary program. But after touring a school, I just didn't want to be a slave in a hot restaurant kitchen. I knew immediately what others who go to culinary school don't always comprehend: the restaurant business and lifestyle is no joke.

As I cooked more and found my groove I couldn't decide if I wanted to be a baker or a cook. A old chef friend advised me long ago that if you had the knack to cook, you don't need culinary school. But if you were interested in pastry then you do. And that's when that desire to go back to culinary school became more of an obsession. I wanted to be a master baker and cake decorator.

Unfortunately if you have a job, car note, mortgage and bills you just can't jump in.  But curiously enough more people my age are enrolling in culinary school at their mid career stage. I'm sure the glamour of food television has helped that, but the recession is only helping more.

The more I looked into schools, the more I yearned to go, but even continuing education courses were a pretty penny and it just didn't seem possible. Then I found French Pastry School Chicago, a world class institution that attracts the most reknown pastry chefs in the world to lecture. They have two full-time course programs that people come from all over the globe to attend. And though it's a city college it rivals some of the best culinary Schools in the world.

Knowing that time waits for no man or woman , I found a way to enroll in two classes this summer and make the courses my summer vacation.

The first class I took was a Pastry Camp totally devoted to Chocolate. Chef John Kraus created this inaugural class and I knew it will be very popular. The international group of students listened with rapt attention each day as he  gave various demos on the numerous components of recipes in our books, to finally be formed into world class desserts one finds in only the best patisseries in Europe. Then we teamed up with our partners and duplicated everything he taught us.

Chef Kraus kept us going like we were on a production schedule in a shop, so the reality of working as pastry chef was drilled in. We wore our toques, shoes, pants, and jackets. We woke at the crack of dawn to get to class. I felt a weird pride in wearing my chef’s whites to class. On our brief breaks the fellow students bonded and traded information.

I thankfully had a great partner throughout the week who was a seasoned veteran in pastry, having owned some shops in California. He was kind of mysterious in details but I gathered he flew in regularly for seminars and classes. Pastry was in his blood. We worked quickly and efficiently as compared to some other duos. There was none of that harsh competition but the pace was fast and one could not afford to let another’s lack of comprehension slow them down, thankfully chef stepped in when needed and patiently gave undivided attention to those that needed it.

The course description says it’s for food enthusiasts, but most of the students had semi or professional backgrounds in pastry. The classes flew by and to read the recipes and understand the science and preparation required some prior knowledge in my opinion. But the Chef was an excellent instructor who made it all approachable.
 
On the last day I was sad, naturally, that there would be no more dream kitchen, premium ingredients, stories, learning, and camaraderie. I actually made croissants, chocolates,bon bons, macaroons, various creams and mousses, layered complex entrements (filled cakes, desserts), plated desserts and so much more. I had to get used to going back to my lonely fridge and old gas oven, rather than the huge walk-ins for chocolate, fruits, dairy, flash freezers, chocolate tempering machines, Robot Coupes, and other equipment too expensive and inconceivable to dream of ever having. And the coveted interns who had all our ingredients scaled for each recipe and washed out dishes. Bliss. I asked what they gain by this, and they said connections and future rewards in getting placed in the best establishments for their stages.

I walked away from the first course with not only valuable skills, a sense of being centered , happy,and fulfilled, and with the aching feet, fatigue, and sore back that goes along with it. But it was worth every penny and ache. So what now you ask? In this economy it’s always great to have a back up skill. After this class and few others, I know I can survive in any commercial kitchen or perhaps branch out on my own.  When I said I actually feel like a pastry chef on the last day of class, Chef Kraus said “You are.”

Courtney Nzeribe is a Food contributor to EbonyJet.com and published the cooking blog Coco Cooks.