Master Baker, and Bakery Director at King Arthur Flour, Jeffrey Hamelman returns to The French Pastry School to teach artisan breads using specialty flours and whole grains. During this three-day hands-on baking course, you will make flax seed rye bread, honey spelt bread, carrot and walnut bread, brioche using whole wheat flour, plus several other classic breads including a few breakfast pastries to round out your spectacular baked buffet.

We are honored to have Chef Bronwen Weber teach her first class at The French Pastry School.

Stéphane Leroux, M.O.F., one of the world’s great chocolate masters, comes to teach at The French Pastry School for the first time, as well as teaching for the first time in the United States. In this course, you will design, plan, and assemble a chocolate showpiece to be used for competition or display. Chef Leroux will share with you the rules of designing, template making, and assembling. He will share tips and tricks with you, and how to troubleshoot. You will then create your own unique showpiece using the Chef’s masterpiece as inspiration for your own.

This advanced course for professional chocolatiers will cover in depth the science and technology of chocolate. Chef Wybauw, a faithful colleague of The French Pastry School for over five years, will share with you secrets of extending shelf-life naturally with methods that not only improve shelf-life, but also add to the artistry of your chocolate. Explore with Chef Wybauw  the crystallization process of sugars—including saturated and unsaturated sugar solutions. Learn about the theory of ganaches and different techniques in making them.

Join Master Chocolatier, Jean-Pierre Wybauw, who has been sharing his passion and expertise at The French Pastry School for more than five years, in this professional-level, hands-on course to learn the art of classic fine chocolate candies. In this course, you will review the theory of tempering and cooling, cover issues of shelf-life extension, and general problem solving. You will create an array of fine chocolates including molded, dipped, piped and cut chocolates.

Are you ready to begin your cake decorating education? This three-day hands-on class is a beginner’s guide to creating wedding and special event cakes using gum paste, rolled fondant and royal icing techniques with The French Pastry School’s Chef Instructor, Laura Ragano (bio). She will guide you through creating an artfully arranged posy of gumpaste flowers to decorate a small cake covered in rolled fondant. Some flowers you will create include roses and carnations, as well as a berry garnish.

Master Pastry Chef, Stéphane Glacier, M.O.F. is a renowned pastry chef and consultant of pastry and confectionery arts. Chef Glacier has compiled a complete work of the traditional macaron. Macaroon Swoon, Glacier's newest book, includes seventy recipes exploring various possibilities for these classic desserts, which may look simple but are actually little wonders of traditional, precise, know-how and gourmandise. Culinary fashions may come and go, tastes may evolve, but macaroons remain a must! 

How a wedding cake tastes is just as important as how it looks. Chef Donald Wressell, in his fourth year at the school, will teach you just that: how to create a cake that tastes extraordinary and is well-constructed even when you are under pressure to produce a high volume.  In this three-day hands-on class, you will focus on the baking, filling, and building of your cakes.

During this three-day hands-on class Nicholas lodge will teach you to make an assortment of the most popular bridal and wedding flowers used on wedding and celebration cakes. Flowers taught will include the classic rose, gerbera gardenia, calla lily, moth orchid, dendrobium, orchid, stephanotis, sweet peas and hydrangea, as well as all of the accompanying buds and leaves. This is a great class full of new techniques and methods in making gum paste flowers. Take this opportunity to learn from one of the most widely internationally recognized cake artists in the world.

In this four-day hands-on class you will learn advanced chocolate candies, and candy bars. Following his second successful class last year at The French Pastry School, Chef Kestener will return to teach the art of making ganaches and chocolate fillings sous vide.