Friday, April 17, 2009

Pastry Forum


I got asked the other day If I'm going to attend the World Pastry Forum in Arizona. Well The answer is I'm not sure yet. Hopefully I will make it for the Nationals at least. That got me thinking about the past Pastry Forums that I attended and really I got so much out of some of them. Often I think I've been around too long to get much from the classes but every time I go I manage to pick up some new techniques and some great recipes. Oh, and photos, lots and lots of photos. I also heard rumours (not true) that the event may have been cancelled. Thank god thats not the case. Although the forum is a little pricey once you include theroom and airfare etc.. It is still the best event we have as Pastry Chefs. High level competition, great seminars and classes and great chances to meet fellow like minded Pastry professionals to make connections and often friendships We need more places where we can share ideas have great chefs do demos,create bonds and a sense of community. If you can't afford to fly across the country and take some classes maybe you can organize in your own area. This makes the meetings or seminars much more affordable. Years ago in atlanta we had a group called Pastry Atlanta that would meet once a month, do demos and get to share comncerns and ideas. I got a little monotonous sometimes and eventually after many uears it just fizzled out.
Looking back though I realized I had created many good friendships during those times and those last to this day. I guess what I'm trying to say is sometimes we forget the importance of lasting friendships in this business. There are many people I can call at any time for advice or a recipe or even a job if I need one. This is mostly becasue we have developed lasting relationaships. We share common stories and struggles. So if you have the chance take some classes go to the forum bond with other chefs. These bonds you develope now can help you greatly throughout your carreer.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Pastry Profiles Store

The other day I had to make some pastries for my daughters Ballet reception. I had to go and do some shopping. Well, this proved to be more challenging than I had expected. I could not find a good white chocolate, dark chocolate, gelatin sheets or transfer sheets. I was immediately reminded of all the times my students ask me where they can find the products that we use at school. I usually don't have a great answer for them because I've been buying from purveyors for most of my adult life. I had thought about this dilemma in the past but this weekend really brought home the fact that some items are just not that available. I must admit that I had been throwing the idea of starting a store on the Pastry Profiles site for at least a year but after lots of thought and considerations I have decided to go ahead with it.We will be opening a store at the Pastry Profiles site. Not for people that need 25 pounds of chocolate or fondant but for those who need a couple of pounds and can't find it elsewhere. We will also be carrying some specialty molds and books to try to cover all your pastry needs. So you heard it here first. The store is in the works and we hope to be open in three or four weeks. Please let me know if there may be an item that the Pastry Profiles store should carry.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Welcome: Pastry Profiles

We will be starting a blog at pastry profiles to chronincle the Pastry Profiles Community. Pastry Profiles has been up for about 7 years now and gone through lots of changes. We are a fairly large site in the Pastry Community and get visitors from over 50 countries per month.What most people don't realize is that the site started out as a side project while I was the president of the US Pastry Alliance Atlana Chapter. During the computer boom I was taking classes and getting certified in a couple of different areas. Web design was one of them. I decided to put up a site where people could post their bio and contact info and be found by other pastry chefs. This worked for a while but people weren't really that computer centric at the time and people were slow to get me their information. In the meantime I started posting pictures from competitions or demos and that information started showing up on search engines and gradually more and more people found the site. Today we are growing rapidly and recently started to do pastry chef interviews.we will also be posting our first short video soon. Stay tuned more to come.....