My First Year at Johnson and Wales University

 

   My first year of college has been full of challenges but lots more of positive experiences. In this baking program I attend 4 sets of labs over 2 years along with a few sanitation courses and some general education courses in order to receive an associates degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. I am so excited and grateful to be able to learn from some great chefs, my favorite being Chef Marcia Kramer who teaches structure and proper standards for everything as well as efficiency in the kitchen. She is known for her difficult grading and she rarely gives As but she always explains what can be improved. I appreciate that she expects excellence from her students and I take her grading as a challenge to be the best student I can be. As students we are expected to demonstrate good teamwork, time management, excellent baking & plating skills, and food safety and sanitation skills.

    There is a strict attire for baking labs. We where chef whites free of wrinkles and stains (complete with a white coat, a white undershirt, loose checkered chef pants, comfortable black shoes, white crew socks, a white cap, colored collar, a name tag,and an apron). We also must be free of long nails, nail polish, facial hair, jewelery, and makeup. Everyday at the beginning of class we are inspected for this proper attire and hygiene.
    After inspections we watch a lecture facilitated by chef about our focus food. Then there is usually a quiz on the previous lecture or on baking conversions. In each lab there is a project or paper due on Day 8 or 9 of the course. Practicals are my absolute favorite part of labs. It's when each student individually produce a number of items learned in class to demonstrate our knowledge. Lastly we have a final written exam consisting of around 50 questions.

     To name some of the courses I've had so far, I completed Hot&Cold Desserts, Baking Fundamentals, Chocolates & Confections, Classic Pastry, Viennoisserie, Pies & Tarts, How Baking Works, and Cookies & Petit Fours. My favorite baking lab so far was How Baking Works in which we learned the purposes and affects of different ingredients in baked goods such as sugars, flours, leaveners, fats, and thickeners by testing different ratios of them in recipes everyday. We observed each of them by color, flavor, taste, volume, etc. Although tasting these items wasn't so fun, it was the best way to understand the purpose of each ingredient. This helped me test recipes and create new ones. 
   I'm now half way through my baking labs and I'm looking forward to the challenge of more advanced baking labs that will give me the title of pastry chef!!!