A look back at Apicius two years later

On a whim I recently surfed over to Apicius online to see if they've instituted any major changes since Susie was there studying baking and pastry in 2006.

Well they have -- and for the better, or so it seems.

First off, there appears to be two separate entities under the umbrella of Apicius: the Apicius International School of Hospitality and the Culinary Institute of Florence located at Apicius. The latter offers courses designed mainly for the tourist and those seeking culinary programs of fairly short duration (a month or less).

The AISH offers programs up to four years in the fields of culinary arts, pastry and baking, wine and hospitality management. As before, the pastry and baking program is offered in two sections: the Beginner in the fall and the Advanced in the spring term. The one burning question is do they in fact offer both sections as scheduled no matter how many students are enrolled?

That was the problem for Susie in 2006 -- not only didn't they offer each section each term, as outlined in the literature, but in fact she would not know one way or the other until the very last moment.

So she said non to Apicius and oui to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. The rest, as they say, is history.

There's no denying the fact that Apicius employed some pretty incredible instructors, and one would hope they still do. And the kitchen facilities seemed first rate.

But the uncertainty of the program's schedule combined with the school's focus on US college study abroad students rather than serious culinary students, left it an open question as to how "professional" the school's baking and pastry program really was.

Mind you this was a good thing, a very good thing. Had we not found ourselves faced with an uncertain future that late spring of 2006, we never would have ended up in Paris.

And that would have been tragic indeed.

What was your experience at Apicius like?