OK. Let’s talk about pastry, baking and Apicius, the Culinary Institute of Florence.
Suffice it to say that taking the baking and pastry program at Apicius was eminently worthwhile for Susan, and that it will prove a vital stepping stone to the next level in her search for the “perfect” pastry program. But we would caution anyone contemplating coming to Apicius for their “year-long” baking and pastry program to think carefully before making any commitment.
The good stuff first.
The school possesses sophisticated and modern, up-to-date facilities and a large office and administrative staff who always proved helpful and friendly.
Equally, if not more importantly, the school also arranges for some of the best local chefs and bakers and restaurateurs to serve as instructors for their variety of baking and pastry course, instructors who certainly play a vital role in how the school is perceived. In fact if there is one thing that Susan found most appealing during her time at Apicius it was the quality of such instructors, the things they know and were willing to share; men of such caliber and talent as Michele (baking techniques) and Andrea (chocolate), Simone (pastries), Fabrizio (breads). Without such talent the program would have been in a word, nothing, “niente”.
One of the fundamental problems Susan encountered, at least in the school’s beginning level pastry and baking program, was the lack of commitment on the part of a large number of the college-age students. Certainly the instructors were by and large serious and most were eager to see the students learn and practice what they learned.
Also in general the classes were pretty “laid back” without much structure. Some instructors would have the class work on two or three recipes simultaneously, requiring group or teamwork, thus prohibiting each student from being able to prepare and complete an entire receipt from start to finish. In other words, not everyone could be involved in every step of the preparation, thus seriously limiting the “hands on” part of the experience. It would seem more valuable to have a demonstration followed by application.
But the reality is simply that many of the college students could really care less. Some students of course take their studies seriously even if they have no intention of working in that particular field, and of course there were two or three other students in the program which Susan met and enjoyed working with since they too shared a deep interest in what they were doing. But the fact is folks the majority of these college students at Apicius were/are not here to learn to cook, or to become pastry chefs or anything of the sort. Whether it’s the summer abroad or a semester abroad it doesn’t matter. Many of these kids just aren’t serious about baking.
Nor can one blame them frankly. They aren’t here to learn a trade or a set of skills in order to enter a chosen niche in a specific part of the job market. They already have their jobs set up for them: they’re college students first and last. Period.
Of course this begs the wider question, one that I am certainly not qualified to answer (but when has that stopped me before), the question of what is in fact going on with all these universities and their “pseudo-programs” here in Florence. For example, as Susan related it to me time and again, many of the students on her courses left every single weekend to travel; not to travel locally or to see parts of Italy. Few did that or did it only infrequently. Rather they were going to Spain, to the UK, to Holland, to Germany, to Switzerland and on and on and on.
But hey that’s not my business. I say more power to them. They’re here to enjoy themselves and many see it as their moment in the sun (literally in some cases). No I don’t fault the kids, because that’s what they are, “kids”. One can see every day that the majority of these kids spend their time together, just like they would at home, very few learn little if any of the language and much of anything at all about this place which is really their home for some months.
One other point should be made about the school and that is their disorganization and uncertainty in going about the business of being a school. Now much of this is probably inherent in the Italian way of life, a consequence of having to contend with a nightmarish bureaucracy 24/7.
But two examples will illustrate this particular problem.
The first example is fairly trivial but set a tone that was indicative of how the school ran its organization. During orientation it was absolute chaos in handing out materials, no one knew what was happening or how it had to happen – students were informed they had to go across the street to Mail Boxes Etc to pick up the Xeroxed student handbooks, one for each pastry course with the recipes etc. Yet upon going there the staff knew nothing about any handouts!
Far more serious however, and one which goes to the very heart of our main problem with the school is the misleading nature of the school’s program.
If you go to the website for Apicius and click through to the course programs and schedules you will find the advanced baking and pastry program clearly identified for the fall of 2006, even listing the names of the instructors (the one course which lists the instructor as TBA is the language course which is taken through the school Linguaviva).
Now when Susan first enrolled in the program she asked about whether she could do the advanced program in the summer, as an intensive study course. “Yes”, she was told that might be possible, if there are enough students.
By mid-April it was clear, after much pestering of the school for clarification that the summer intensive was not going to happen. OK, so now we wondered if we will have to cool our heels in Florence for the summer.
But then, we started to get the feeling that it might not happen in the fall either. The more we investigated the matter the less certain we were that it might happen even in the fall. And yet they list it in every term’s course offerings.
Now in the fine print the school does say that at least eight students are necessary for the program to run – although one advisor at the school told Susan that if there were four students the course would go forward. But were there four students? “Ummm, no.” “Maybe.” “We don’t know.”
So the course will not be held?
Well, if enough students sign up yes.
No matter whom she asked about the status of the advanced course the answer was always the same: “we don’t know”, “maybe”, “perhaps”, “it’s uncertain”, “we’re waiting for the 4th student,” etc.
Finally, it should also be pointed out that no certificate is awarded without completing the entire program, and understandably so since she didn’t finish the entire program. Yet if the second, advanced portion of the program isn’t offered then in fact how can one “finish” the program to get the certificate, the credential, the documentation? Selling the program as a yearlong, integrated, certified course of study under such circumstances is, it seems to us, open to some question.
Indeed, the end of the term came and went and not one word from the school. Not a phone call. Not an email not a text message. Nothing telling Susan what the status of the fall program was or what she should do. Not a word.
Susan committed herself, her money, her intellect and most importantly her time to becoming a pastry chef by attending Apicius, a school that looked much better on paper (and online) than it really is. That commitment on her part was not matched by the school’s commitment to her.
So if you are thinking of coming to Apicius to study baking and pastry, fine. Know what you’re in for and be prepared accordingly.
In our case we learned the hard way. The school’s failure to commit to her and yet requiring her to commit money and time, two very precious commodities, have forced us to look elsewhere.
The good news is Susan has just been accepted into the Patisserie Diploma program at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris beginning in August.
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