Introduction to the French Pastry School Confectionery Arts Course Rouxbe Review: A Fun Challenge for Home Chefs

Like many people, During the pandemic I have created new and hard habits, good and bad. I run or walk the same route in a clockwise direction almost every day. What’s more, I’ve become a night owl. I try to check with my friends more often. It also cost me to delve into big projects, but I took it when the opportunity arose to try an ambitious online cooking class.

After reading his “world-class online education,” I signed up for a deep-sounding cake course Chicago French Pastry School through a cooking platform called Rouxbe. I’ve always been too weak in cooking, and I was curious to know if spending that $ 700 on a course to close that gap would be worth the investment.

The Introduction to the Confectionery Art course it is divided into 229 individual tasks into 20 units. There are lessons written with photos and videos; questionnaires and exams; recipe demos; and the recipes you make at home themselves, taking several steps along the way. The French School of Pastry calls it a “120-day course,” but what it really means is that you have 120 days of access to its interactive side, such as submitting your work and receiving feedback, but you have access to content for life. The course is deep! Includes cookies and cakes, brownies and breads, mousses and macaroni. There are a few weeks that are worth the practical work.

The first units set expectations, explain the structure of the course, and determine what you know; which also gives you an idea of ​​what you are looking for. You start with the smart basics: kitchen sanitation, a risk zone for bacteria, FIFO (get in first, get out first, which means “use old things first”). It is of paramount importance when using kitchen scales to measure the weight of the ingredients. There’s a lot of class work going on before any baking happens, and when the teacher finally asks you to tie an apron, the first job in the kitchen is to “do what you want”. I chose unleavened bread, uploading photos as I went. I sent a photo of my location; all the ingredients were weighed and prepared before they were ready. I took out one of the doughs after a night of rehearsal and one more finished loaf of bread, cut in half to show the crust and pulp. It was a little weird to sign up for class and then I knew I was doing something, but it’s also a smart and gentle invitation to start things off with the right foot.

Upper crust

Although I have enjoyed working as a chef in restaurant kitchens, baking is his discipline. I was moving fast to a new realm and wanted to succeed. The courses also highlighted the detail-oriented baking, something that gave my OCD side a warm blur.

I started a dedicated notebook and filled out the pages with notes on how to weigh egg whites and cream, and how to fold them into a mixture. (It becomes light, staged, slow, if you are curious.) I also put in the cake dough, making the classic pâte sucrée, where working with ingredients at room temperature is essential to creating the dough, but then leaving it in the cold is best to expand the fridge.