Well I’ve completed 2 weeks of pastry school now, and I’m feeling great about the decision to do this. My classes are certainly varied, with different personalities for instructors, all of them being Italian with levels of English knowledge ranging from minimal to very good. There are different numbers of students in each class, 2 of whom are also in the baking and pastry program with me, so the 3 of us are in every class together.
Monday morning is “Basic Baking Techniques” with Michele. Each week we prepare a standard dish, e.g. basic tart crust, pastry cream, puff pastry (the one thing I really wanted to learn), sponge cake, choux and on and on. We made puff pastry this past week, and it turned out really well. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to make much with it other than some simple twists sprinkled with sugar, but there will be more work with puff pastry in the future. The class is one of the largest that I’m in due to the fact that all of the general culinary students also take it as part of their curriculum.
Monday evening is “Chocolate and Confections” with Andrea Bianchini, who is an award winning chocolatier, having won the Italian championship in 2003. He was just involved in one of the James Beard dinners in NYC this past November also. He has his own shop and chocolate laboratory at a separate site from the school and that’s where we have our classes. Last week we learned how to temper chocolate, which was a fascinating look at how chocolate changes with different temperatures. Before class started we tasted three flavors of his small chocolate candies – pistachio, olive oil and balsamic – and boy were they good. It’s amazing the different flavors that can be incorporated into chocolate. This class has 7 students, and everyone is very interested in and involved in the class. It’s truly amazing to us how much the Italians love chocolate – it is everywhere here from the lowliest bar to the fancy confectionary shops.
Tuesday afternoon is “Pastry Shop” with Simone who is a really nice guy and speaks pretty good English. Although I still like to try to communicate with the teachers in Italian, many of the other students don’t understand, so it’s really not fair to them. Anyway Simone seems to have a grand interest in American recipes. He and his brother have their own restaurant near Santo Spirito in the Oltrarno (on the south side of the river Arno), and they do a Sunday brunch, which apparently includes eggs and bacon among other things. This class includes many different pastry items, including various cookies, cakes, puff pastry, brioche, etc. so you can see that there is some overlap in the classes. Last week we made banana muffins, and this week one of the recipes is cornflake cookies (I came to Italy for this?!!). He was also extolling the virtues of his carrot cake and I had to tell him of my mother’s wonderful carrot cake (Mom, he asked for the recipe).
Wednesday is my least favorite day (not that I’m complaining), with “Breads of Italy” with Fabrizio in the afternoon. We do exactly what the title would suggest – bake bread. The problem is that there is a lot of down time, what with the rising and baking times, and all of the 5 students in the class are very quiet (even me, surprise, surprise). Fabrizio’s English is fair and he certainly tries to give us some insight into the various regional breads and techniques, but there is only so much one can say or ask about this topic. Anyway it is not a rowdy or talkative group, so it’s kind of boring, but I love getting my hands into the dough and kneading and shaping and hope to include bread baking in my list of baking “do’s” in the future.
Right after bread baking I have my Italian language class, which is going OK. It reminds me of how much I have to learn, that is for sure. The late afternoon and evening classes on Wednesday make for a long day, which is primarily why Wednesday feels a little unexciting.
Thursday is “Introduction to Basic Italian Cakes” with Giuliano, who is a Kramer like personality (for you Seinfeld fans) and acts pretty scatterbrained, but according to those in the know, he does indeed have his act together. This class focuses on the individual regions of Italy, and each week we make specialty items from a particular region. Toscana was the focus the first week and we made Schiaciatella, a traditional Florentine cake as well as Ricciarelli, the famous almond cookie from Siena. The second week we focused on Piemonte and made zabaglione (an Italian type of custard) which I’ve made many times before. and a hazelnut cake with chocolate on top.
We do taste everything we make, but the sad thing is we are not allowed to take anything made in the classroom out of the school (some Italian law supposedly). So if there is anything left, which invariably there is, unless the other classes or the staff at the school eats it, everything is thrown out. This applies to the entire school! A ridiculous waste it seems to all of us. For example in our bread class we bake multiple loaves of bread, which just sit in a basket at the end of class just begging to be taken home. I don’t even want to think about what happens to all that great food.
A majority of the students are college age so for me it’s a very different scene, listening to them talk about going out to discos, where they’re going for the weekends or spring break, clashes with roommates and all those college kinds of things. I think most of them are serious about the classes, but I get the sense that some are here just for a fun semester abroad. I try to remember what things were like when I was that age.
In general I’m happy with the school and the curriculum, despite some of the overlap in the classes and the waste of food. I get to bake everyday (although I haven’t baked anything here at the apartment yet), get my hands in the flour, sugar, butter and eggs and contemplate my future in this field. Baking is so relaxing for me and makes me feel so calm and content, and I love the fact that medicine is so far removed right now. I just don’t understand why Stan could never get into baking . . .
As things progress I hope to have some more observations as well as visions for the future!!
Ciao,
Susan
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