Entering culinary school with a desire to begin a new career
as a young pastry chef is both exciting and daunting. Entering culinary school with a desire to
start a second career as a middle-aged pastry chef is even more so! But
for me, the emphasis is on exciting.
When I realized that I am just a handful of years away from
being eligible to retire from my job with the State of New Jersey, I decided
that I should have something “in my pocket” in case I decide to take advantage
of that eligibility. I thought that it
was time to take my passion for baking and pastries and make it work for me. After searching the internet for classes to
take, I found the Auguste Escoffier School
of Culinary Arts. I was surprised to
learn that they offered an accredited
online Professional Diploma in Pastry
Arts program. Realizing that this is the
“real deal” it didn’t take me long to decide that this was something I needed
to do.
Pastry and baking is in my DNA. I recently learned that my “second cousin
three times removed” was the pastry chef in the imperial court of the Emperor
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire! His name
was Mark Bieberbach. In April 1871, just
shy of his 19th birthday, Mark was hired as a “kitchen boy” at
Schöbrunn Palace in Vienna, the heart of the great Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Just a year later, he was
appointed “Court Cook 2nd Class. In 1883, after a decade in this position, he
was promoted to Head Chef 1st
Class. He retired in 1909. My cousin’s photograph hangs in my kitchen as
a source of inspiration and motivation.
Among the many awards granted to my cousin, the Order of the Red Eagle was the most
prestigious. It was an order of chivalry
granted by the Kingdom of Prussia. The
emblem for the order, the red eagle, is the portrait photo I am using for this
blog.
I have always enjoyed cooking and baking. I remember buying children’s cookbooks when I
was in elementary school when we would order books from the Scholastic Book
Company. I remember watching Graham Kerr
as The Galloping Gourmet come running into the studio and jump over the counter
at the beginning of his show. What I
remember most of all was the sandbox my friend Katie and I would play in as
kids. Her father built a giant sandbox
in their back yard and her mother gave us old pots and pans to use to make our
mud pies and other creations. This was hands-on baking and it was fun!
I started seriously cooking real food when I was in college
and began traveling extensively to Europe.
I would come home and try to replicate the dishes I had overseas. Eventually, after my parents passed away, I
decided to approach my cooking more seriously.
In 2015 I attended a week-long culinary boot camp at the Culinary
Institute of America and I began watching scores of online videos offered by
Craftsy.com (now Blueprint). Most
impactful, however, was a week-long course offered by Susan Herrmann Loomis at On Rue Tatin in Louviers, France. I wanted to take a cooking class overseas for
my 50th birthday and I stumbled upon a video advertising Susan’s
class. I immediately enrolled and in
April 2018 I found myself in a small village about an hour north of Paris
learning how to cook French cuisine in the magnificent kitchen in her 12th
century home. Susan has become a dear
friend and my “culinary mentor”.
While in France, Susan somehow got me to agree to something
I normally would never have agreed to.
Her son was going to graduate from college in Maryland that spring and
she was supposed to supply the food. It
was obviously going to be French-themed and she had ideas for everything except
dessert. I suggested macarons. She shook her head. “Oh, they’re too difficult to make.” I laughed at this and said that I make them
all the time! Oops! With that, I mysteriously found myself
agreeing to make the macarons for her.
Initially is was just going to be a small batch, but by the time I made
them, the count had grown to nearly 100!
I thought I had to be crazy to agree to do this, but I did it. Susan knew I needed a confidence boost and
getting me to successfully make 100 French macarons for a French chef and
culinary instructor was the best way to do that. And it worked! I finally realized that yes, I can bake and I bake well. When Susan told me that I should be baking
professionally, that was just the trigger I needed!
If not for those macarons and Susan’s
encouragement, I would not be embarking on my new journey in pursuit of pastry.
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| Some of the macarons for Susan |
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