The Making of a Pastry Chef

My amusing story about my first baking experience...

When I was very young I remember helping my mother with baking. My sister and I had to hold the bowl while she stirred her yeast breads together by hand. I remember standing on one side, my sister on the other, both of us holding on for dear life while rocking back and forth against our mother's strength. Then she would remove the dough from the bowl and knead it by hand, explaining to us the reason for every step and what was going on in the dough. I had my own small rolling pin and loaf pans and when the dough was ready my Mom shaped the bread in loaves and braids and gave me a small piece to shape and proof in my own small loaf.

It's funny that my sister doesn't have the same memory, or never had the same perception as I did. This is what makes me believe I've chosen the right path for me. These lessons stuck with me and when I chose to go into cooking, specifically baking and pastry it seemed like such a natural choice. I could have continued with Hospitality Administration or gone into any other number of fields, but baking and pastry is what I love.

The first recipe I did on my own was actually not a recipe at all. I told my mother that I was going to bake a cake and I didn't want any help, I knew just what to do. I didn't measure anything, just threw ingredients together like I had helped my mother do so many times. I put the cake in a round pan and baked it. Surprisingly it actually baked, didn't rise much and was a little dense but it wasn't soup, I had gotten some of the chemistry right. I must have sprinkled powdered sugar on top or something, I just remember bringing it to my mom to taste. It was dense and tasted eggy but sweet. I don't think I even enjoyed it. That must have been when I realized it was important to follow a recipe.

I am grateful to my Mom for giving me the freedom to experiment at such a young age and for being brave enough to taste my experiment! As I look to the future and try to find places to draw inspiration from I enjoy looking back to my humble beginnings. I like to think that even as a child me and food had an understanding. Through all other life lessons that never really clicked, I always got what was going on with food, why things were done a certain way and how to get things to turn out how you wanted. I tried to learn to play the guitar, paint, play soccer, write, understand science, speak foreign languages, dance; and was never really successful. But me and food...we have an understanding.

"Dessert ideas may turn in circles like the seasons, but there is always that new customer to please and the new day ahead, or evening's service to be ready for. That allows the opportunity to do better than the day before, to learn, to improve. This is how we participate and find our place in the long process of history and make a personal contribution to better pastry." Andrew MacLauchlan, The Making of a Pastry Chef

"I've always said that I wake up in the morning and never go to work. I wake up and do what I was meant to do in life. I am so happy that I found food and dessert making because it allows me to do what I truly love." Nancy Silverton