It feels like it’s been quite a while since I’ve written my culinary blog, but it’s been just enough time for me to complete my baking & pastry block. Our school is like Hogwarts in that all the students are here to train with the greatest, but we are split into categories: bakers and cookers. There’s a joke that you can almost tell who’s who as soon as you meet someone because the baking and pastry students seem more relaxed. In contrast, culinary students usually have a hardened look in their eyes, especially after we’ve all returned from our summer externships out in the real world. There is also a drastic ratio difference in terms of gender. The baking side is predominantly women, with a few men scattered in each class, while the culinary side is surprisingly still visibly male-dominated, and I am usually one of three or four women that make up a class of eighteen men.

The funniest comparison of these two groups was clear to me when I first started the baking block three weeks ago. On day one, our chef immediately could tell the difference in our species. My class is full of rowdy, high energy, but productive folks. We’re fast with our work and clean up, but with spit fire conversation and borderline inappropriate jokes tossed in between all of our activities. Right away, he pointed out that people as chaotic as us are why he ended up choosing the baking path. But, he said that with endearment and almost pride that we are living up to the industry standard.

Our baking chef was beyond impressive, though. As a certified master baker, his recipes are solid and sound.