Pastry Arts Curriculum

At Culinary School of the Rockies the Pastry Arts curriculum is focused and jam-packed. You produce a variety of pastry and baking items each day. The lessons continually increase in complexity. Your skills, technique, understanding and confidence develop quickly and efficiently.

Profile of a Typical Day

• Pastry Arts begins with a lecture and discussion about the day's lesson.
• You work individually or with a partner to build and create the finished products.
• Tasting together is an important and unique part of your culinary education. You and your classmates explain, critique and evaluate each item for flavor, texture and artistry.
• The last job of the day is thoroughly cleaning the kitchen, a critical component of any professional kitchen.

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Techniques and Methods
Pastry Arts is based on the fundamentals of classic French pastry and baking techniques, methods and terminology. You learn the important formulas for such basic building blocks as pâte sucré, crème anglaise, and tempering chocolate. Our curriculum is designed to help you develop skills that are applied again and again as you create more challenging pastries and desserts, and practice contemporary plating styles.

To work in a pastry kitchen, it is essential to understand scaling, proper use of equipment, proper temperature of ingredients, and how to put together a meticulous mise-en-place.

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Palate Development
Culinary School of the Rockies' focus on palate development radically distinguishes us from other culinary schools. Everyone's palate is unique. You need to know your own.

You taste everything you make. Tasting is how you learn to understand the differences between French and American baking styles and results. You learn the importance of flavor, its subtleties, harmonies and contrasts.

Everything we teach - techniques, methods, menu development, and "System of Creation" — begins and ends with tasting. Most culinary schools do not teach this critical art of palate development. Your employers and customers will value this skill and recognize your competitive edge.

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Product Identification and Usage
Chocolate - semisweet, unsweetened and bittersweet. Flours — pastry, all-purpose, cake. They look similar but you need to understand the distinctions of usage, taste, and functionality. Culinary School of the Rockies takes this analytic and practical process seriously across all categories of baking ingredients and products.

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Guest Instructors
Visiting guest instructors enhance your learning experience in Pastry Arts. They range from experienced pastry chefs, to entrepreneurs, to chocolatiers, to artisan producers.

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Culinary Vocabulary
Think of the words "pâte brisée, pâte sucrée." These terms are used in pastry kitchens around the world. At Culinary School of the Rockies, we stress the importance of building your pastry vocabulary. You understand and use this vocabulary naturally in the baking process each day.

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Written and Practical Exams
Culinary School of the Rockies uses quizzes and written and practical exams as educational tools. The Chef Instructors give you great thorough feedback on your practical exams to measure your progress. The practical exams also mirror a typical working interview for a job.

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The Graduation Celebration
You participate in an extensive planning process for this beautiful and delicious buffet, including theme, menu, baking, plate presentations, table setting, room layout, and budget considerations.

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Sample Pastry Menu 1

• Vanilla Genoise
• Pound Cake
• Flourless Chocolate Cake
• Chiffon Cake
• Crème Anglaise
• Raspberry Coulis

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Pastry Techniques and Methods for Sample Menu 1

• Whipping eggs and sugar for genoise
• Creaming mixing method
• Variations of Chiffon
• Baking with Chocolate
• Proper baking, cooling and turning out of cakes
• Basic design principles of plated desserts

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Sample Pastry Menu 2

• Raspberry Mille-feuille with Ice Wine Granite
• Pear and Pistachio Napoleon
• Sauteed Apples with Ginger Cake and Sabayon Sauce
• Lemongrass Consommé with Coconut Panna Cotta

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Pastry Techniques and Methods for Sample Menu 2

• Fruit cookery for desserts
• Portion size control
• Proper mixing of elements and mediums
• Dessert production simplification

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Profile of a Typical Day
Techniques & Methods
Palate Development
Product Identification & Usage
Guest Instructors
Culinary Vocabulary
Written & Practical Exams
Graduation Celebration
Sample Menu 1
Techniques for Sample Menu 1
Sample Menu 2
Techniques for Sample Menu 2