My inbox is overflowing like a molten lava cake. Turns out, some of you want to be pastry chefs and are looking for advice on the how to go about it. Well, thanks for thinking of me, I’m happy to help. I’ll tell you what I wish someone told me when I first started because at the time, I had no idea how I was going to do it, and the thought of it left me bewildered. It was like trying to swim across the ocean.
First, we have to squelch The Fear. I remember how intimidated I was. It all seemed so out of my reach, like the industry was made up of untouchable gods, able to work miracles that us mere mortals only imagined. Please.
Once I saw the motley crew that was really behind the scenes, I wondered what scared me so much in the first place. There they were, night after night, leaning against the “pass” (the area where you pass finished plates to the waiter), looking half dazed and gearing up for another night of drinking after a long shift. You had your career changers, illegal immigrants, drop outs, misfits, those with no English, bookish scholarly types and those who never touched a pastry bag in their lives (including me.) Some people were in the kitchen because they really didn’t know what else to do with themselves, and fell into the job accidentaly. Fer cryin’ out loud, if you can fall into a job accidentally, it can’t be that hard to do it on purpose.
I had a career going in advertising when one day I got the crazy idea to start over and become a pastry chef. Now I'll show you what I learned working in fine dining restaurants all over NYC right here with step-by-step photos. So grab your rolling pin and join in.
