Flour Roulette & Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
if you want to bake something sweet this Valentine’s Day, I’m going to recommend you play a little game I call Flour Roulette.
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The culinary school case for induction stoves
When I first walked into the Le Cordon Bleu kitchens in Paris, I learned that induction, not gas, reigns supreme amongst these disciples of Escoffier and Paul Bocuse and Julia Child.
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My favorite ways to use sourdough discard
I’ve rounded up a few of my favorite recipes from around the internet for how to use sourdough discard in delicious ways.
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On regenerative baking
On Regenerative Baking September 26, 2022 Regenerative baking is what I’m calling the thing I’m doing, at least until I come up with a better name. I see bits and pieces of it happening everywhere: in bakeries, at flour mills, and yes – even on TikTok. Regenerative baking is baking for a more joyful, sustainable,…
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The Mock Exam
The Mock Exam May 23, 2022 I don’t know how this happened, but somehow it’s late May in Paris, and I’m closing in on the end of my pastry diploma program at Le Cordon Bleu. How it started (chipper and ready to bake) How it’s going (using my last brain cell to issue the most…
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Dispatch from Superior Pastry
Dispatch from Superior Pastry (Apr. 28) Hurry. That’s the word that best evokes my first few weeks of Superior Pastry at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. After two terms of French pastry making, my classmates and I have finally made it to the last, highest level of the pastry diploma. Just a little over two more…
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A Week in Buzet Wine Country
A Week in Buzet Wine Country (Apr. 3) I am not a wine snob. In fact, I’m a wine idiot. But that didn’t appear to be stopping me, I thought, as vineyards and castles in shades of early-spring brown whizzed past my train en route to the Gascony vineyard where I’d be volunteering for the…
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10 Can’t-Miss Pastries at Paris Bakeries
10 Can’t-Miss Pastries at Paris Bakeries You just arrived in Paris, a little jet-lagged and bleary-eyed. But it’s 10am somewhere (here, as it turns out), and you know exactly what you want to do first: Go to a bakery! The smell of butter and chocolate pulls you in as you approach the first boulangerie you…
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The End of Intermediate Pastry, and the Key Lime Story
The End of Intermediate Pastry (And the Key Lime Story) I can’t believe it, but somehow I just finished Intermediate Pastry at Le Cordon Bleu Paris! I’m about to be a Superior student, one of those white-clad people roaming the institute cradling 2-foot-tall sugar sculptures and 3D chocolate masterpieces they’ve just made in class. (Me?…
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