Changes were afoot!

I wrote this in early 2017 just as I was being cast on the Holiday Baking Championship and couldn't yet say what was going on. Unfortunately, it was also right after Dorothy Cann Hamilton was killed in a car crash. She was the owner/founder of the International Culinary Center. It threw us into a downward spiral. The school never recovered. I retired. I sadly lost my dream job. I had to find my way all over again.\

Here I am with my son who graduated from the school in 2019 just a couple of months before it closed. I am so grateful he got to experience this wonderful school and I got to experience his graduation.  

I never got around to publishing this blog. I think I was both scared of what was on the horizon and what might happen to the school now that Dorothy was gone. We continued teaching and hoping but ultimately the guy who became the CEO did not possess the passion or interest in the school that Dorothy had and he let it die. I know Dorothy would be so disappointed if she knew that he let it just dissolve. It was such a great school with a stellar reputation. So much so that each student that came out of the school and wanted to succeed in this industry did extremely well. Employers who saw our school on a resume gobbled up our students. No pun intended. 

Now the food industry suffers. There are not enough good qualified cooks or bakers out there looking for work. Consequently, those still on the stoves and ovens are working longer hours and more days to make up for the lack of good people. We need culinary schools. We need trade schools in general. The world is changing and we need to think of the young ones coming up. 

Being a cook or a baker is honorable work. Yes, it is very physical and the hours suck. But there is nothing more rewarding than feeding people who love good food. Or being part of someone's special day by making their special occasion cake or meal. 

I miss my students. I miss teaching and guiding them into this exciting and tasty industry.  

Here is the piece I never published...it's unfinished. 

As I approach 12 years teaching a full time professional Pastry Arts Program at the International Culinary Center (Ok, for the first 5 years it was the Professional Culinary Institute until ICC bought them) I look back at the delicious and beautiful projects that both inspire and thrill the students and instructors. Beginning with cookies and moving all the way through chocolate confections, wedding cakes and showpieces, the students always make me proud! We learn from each other and I try to give them all the tricks and lessons I have learned while in this business for the last 44 years.
My career seems to be taking a leap... perhaps a leap of faith...but certainly a leap into something exciting and unknown... to me anyway.
I will elaborate on that at a later time. Now I want to share some of the highlights of my experience here at
the ICC.

 The classic Apple tarte tatin created by a beautiful mistake.
Caramelized apples baked under a layer of flakey puff pastry.
The story goes like this: two sister pastry chefs in France owned the Hotel Tatin and were famous for their apple tarts. One day when sister Stephanie was making the tarts she got distracted and over caramelized the apples. Attempting to save the apples, she quickly put the crust on top baked it and the tarte was born!

 A cupcake class where the students got to play with buttercream, fondant, marzipan, fresh fruit, food colors and sprinkles.
When will this trend of cupcakes end? Hopefully, never!

 My personal favorite gooey, sweet, sticky, nutty, spicy, sticky buns! We make it with a light orange flavored sweet dough rolled up with a cinnamon filling and a glaze of brown sugar, honey and butter... it is just addictive!

 Here are the gorgeously light and rich Challah breads. Braided and seeded, they cut like cake and taste like an eggy buttery bread. One of my favorite desserts is bread pudding made with a good Challah bread... of course french toast is marvelous with this bread too.

 Classic Charlotte with fresh raspberries in the summer and poached pears in the winter. Topped with a perfect chantilly cream and handmade ladyfingers around the outside.

A classic French dessert that never goes out of style is the Marjolaine. A nine layer cake with chocolate, hazelnut, coffee and vanilla flavors between the layers. 

I love to make yeasted breads because they are alive and grow. One of my seasonal favorites is Panatone. A typical Italian Christmas bread. 

The Hippie Bakery 1970s, more about my memoir.

Some of my funniest stories come from my eight year tenure at The Staff of Life Bakery. Yes, today it is called a grocery store with a bakery but when I worked there (1974-1980) it was a natural foods bakery and deli. 

We were a tight knit family of sorts...several of us lived, worked and played together. It was a fun atmosphere to learn baking and life skills. Yes, there were lots of parties! Lots of weed! But we managed to get the work done and get the orders out to the stores and the people who loved our food. 

On Fridays several of us would head down to Happy Hour at the Catalyst. One dollar pitchers of beer and great company made it a ritual for many years. After too much cheap beer we somehow made it out to Aptos to Manuel's Restaurant for their Friday night special; red snapper with a sour cream sauce on a bed of rice with salsa and hot tortillas. Every Friday night. I miss those days. Those days of freedom. And I am thankful for them as well. It was my young adult up-bringing. Since my parents were gone, I had to learn my lessons on my own. Having a group of good friends was my answer to family. It worked for me. 

We formed a co-ed softball team and I volunteered to play. You need to know something about me... I am not sporty or have I ever involved myself in sports. So when I said I would play, I was wanting to be included. I am a slow runner, can't throw a ball far, and can't even hit a softball. The guys helped me by coaching me on batting and throwing the ball. I got a little better. 

During a game, I actually hit the ball and made it to first base. I was so excited my heart pounded in my chest. The next one up hit the ball to shortstop and as I was running to second base he tossed the ball the the second base player. I turned on my heels and began to run back to first. The guy on second then threw the ball with all of his force to first to get me out... and he did. The ball hit me square in the back of the head. I hit the ground face first. Out cold, everyone came running up to me and pulled me out of the dirt. I was seeing stars. I decided that would be my last game playing softball. 

I learned to love the craft of baking. Its early hours, heavy bags and boxes, dangerous equipment, tasty treats, team work, quality ingredients, and creativity. 

 In the picture above, I was seven months pregnant with my son. Easter was it's way and I was the sole baker to produce the hot cross buns that are traditional for the holiday. The conical shaped machine I am throwing dough into is called a rounder. It spins around and when the dough is thrown into the center, it rolls around the outside guided by the metal spiral and then flies out onto the tray. 

In order to cut them evenly we used a machine called the Dutchess. I weighed the dough and pressed it into the round pan, slid it under the cutter, grabbed the long metal handle and pulled down to press the dough and cut it into thirty-six equal pieces. Today they are automatic presses. 

After rounding the pieces, they went on a tray to rise and then bake. After baking, the traditional cross was piped on top. 

These pictures were taken for an article written for the local newspaper about hot cross buns. Circa

 1979.

The little boy came in to ask me for a taste of the icing I put on the buns. His parents would not let him eat any type of sugar outside of fresh fruit. I gave him a taste each time he came to see me. 

In the beginning I had the good fortune to work with a gal who was a chemistry major at the university. She taught me the science of baking. A foundation I used to grow in the business. Ultimately, it led me to teaching pastry arts. I am forever grateful to that woman, whose name I don't remember.

I loved learning about all the clever bakery machines. Even if they were antique. The more I learned the more I wanted to know. It was the 70s and women were not considered capable enough to work in traditional bakeshops. I was so lucky to have started in an alternative business. One where my talents were appreciated and I was encouraged to create. 

I remember working at the Staff and someone told me about how croissants were made by layering butter into the dough. I wanted so much to learn the fine art of French pastry, I thought I would try. I made a yeasted whole wheat dough and  melted some butter. I rolled the dough out and painted the melted butter over the dough and then folded it into three. I kept doing that five or six times. Then I rolled the dough out an cut out my croissants, rolled them up, let them rise and into the oven they went. I was so saddened when I opened the oven and saw these crescent style rolls with no layers. Many years later when I learned how to layer pounds of cold butter into the dough, I laughed at myself for trying something I knew nothing about without a recipe or directions... but I tried. 

Again, luck came my way after my son was born. A woman-owned French bakery called Gayle's opened up in the late 70s. When Ian became one year old in 1981, I decided to go back to work (I had to really). Gayle's trained me in the art of French pastry. I was thrilled. It was my springboard to finding my passion. I loved the precision and all the new ingredients I had not had a chance to work with as of yet. Chocolate instead of carob. White sugar instead of honey. Butter instead of oil. It was a huge and wonderful change for me. These ingredients offered a lot more variety of products. Cake decorating was taken to new heights for me with European style buttercreams instead of cream cheese icing. I learned to make laminated doughs such as croissants and danish in the correct manner. 

I was on my way to becoming a classically trained baker and pastry chef.