L'Art de la Pâtisserie
The Professional Pastry and Baking Program
a 24-Week Program Accredited by the Illinois Community College Board
The premier 24-week,hands-on certificate program in pastry, baking, and confectionery arts education offers superb instruction, superior equipment, and top quality ingredients to our students. This intensive program is designed to meet the needs of students wishing to attain a broad and thorough foundation in the art of pastry and baking, from bread to chocolate to ice cream, and everything in between.
Learn from internationally-renowned master chef instructors in L’Art de la Pâtisserie - The Professional Pastry and Baking Program at The French Pastry School. This all-inclusive, 24-week, full-time course is custom-designed to meet the needs of students who want to specialize in the prestigious art of pastry.
This unique hands-on program focuses on all aspects involving pastry, baking, and confectionery arts. You will receive personal attention from your chef mentors in the kitchen every day in a comfortable, yet thorough training.
For career changers, professionals, and novices, L’Art de la Pâtisserie – The Professional Pastry and Baking Program is the ideal, one-of-a-kind course to build a solid foundation of knowledge and achieve a successful career. You will be prepared to excel in the pastry industry after only 24 weeks.
Financial aid, career counseling, and continued personal attention to your professional goals are all provided. L’Art de la Pâtisserie - The Professional Pastry and Baking Program is a certificate program offering the best possible instruction, with small class sizes in the comfortable, active, and passionate environment of the renowned French Pastry School.
| START DATE | END DATE | TUITION |
|---|---|---|
| January 3, 2011 | June 17, 2011 | $22,000 |
| July 5, 2011 | December 16, 2011 | $22,000 |
| SESSIONS AVAILABLE |
|---|
| Morning Session |
| 6:45 am to 12:45 pm Monday through Friday |
| Afternoon Session |
| 1:15 pm to 7:15 pm Monday through Friday |
| APPLICATION FEES AND DEADLINES Application fees are applied toward tuition |
||
|---|---|---|
| January 2011 Session (Jan 3 to Jun 17, 2011) |
Before Nov 30, 2010 |
After Nov 30, 2010 |
| July 2011 Session (Jul 5 to Dec 16, 2011) |
Before May 31, 2010 |
After May 31, 2010 |
Total Program Cost includes: Tuition, books and course materials, three full uniforms, complete pastry tool kit, all premium ingredients, and use of state-of-the-art equipment. There are no additional fees upon registration confirmation. The application fee is applied toward the total tuition payment. Admissions are conducted on a rolling basis, and classes fill quickly, so it is in your best interest to apply early to ensure your space in the desired session.
More on the Application Process
Visit our Photographic Tour
Baking Theory, History and Science
The foundation for all the others, this course takes you deeply through the technology and science of the ingredients of pastry. Learn the differences between various types of flours and sugars, and how the interactions of ingredients affect the outcome. Immerse yourself in the noble history of French pastry, the development of the palate, and the hierarchy of a kitchen.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Food Service Sanitation
In this course, you will learn all about the importance of providing food safely, assessing the microbial world including all possible contaminants in order to prevent foodborne illness. You will have a firm understanding of procedures necessary in a commercial kitchen.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Bread Making and Breakfast Pastries
The aroma of your own bread permeates this course while you learn the chemical reactions when you proof and bake, make a levain, and learn the perils of overmixing and undermixing. Many things occur when yeast, liquid and air meet and become a broad range of breads such as pain à la bière, or a classic French baguette, a flaky croissant, or a buttery brioche.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Petits Fours and Mini Pastries
Learning to make these tiny masterpieces gives you a foundation for acquiring techniques in all classic French pastries. The elements of petits fours such as ganache filled macarons, meringues, individual fruit tarts decorated with candied citrus zest, pâte à choux and éclairs are taught along with how to beautifully display the final product.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Cakes and Tarts
Perfect cakes are not just made, they are built. In this course, you learn all aspects of creating cakes and tarts, from doughs to fillings, and study the art of cake architecture. Produce beautiful versions of pastry classics like the Lemon Tart, Chocolate Tart, or Mille Feuille, and more cutting-edge creations like the Hazelnut Chocolate Cake, or Coconut Passion Cake. Only then do you have the solid foundation necessary to create your own.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Ice Cream and Sorbets
Everyone's favorite dark chocolate ice cream is taught in this course, but more importantly, you gain the knowledge needed to create from scratch any flavor of delicious, frozen dessert you can imagine. Upon understanding the science of the delicate balance between fat, sugar, flavor, and liquids, fashion a variety of recipes like a silky banana, or hazelnut and praline ice cream, a smooth white peach, or a raspberry rose sorbet. Your skills are sharpened when you produce other frozen creations like Tahitian vanilla parfaits or an icy apple calvados granité.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Plated Desserts
Cutting-edge presentations and elegant designs are the hallmarks of this course, which teaches the philosophy of plated desserts including balance of taste, texture, and presentation while stressing the importance of using the highest quality and freshest ingredients. Students learn to craft a classic crème brûlée, an enticing vanilla and raspberry soufflé, à la minute desserts such as a warm dark chocolate cake or a refreshing seasonal fruit soup.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Jams, Jellies, and Preserves
Raspberry and rose jam, apricot and toasted almond jam, or old-fashioned cherry preserves – these are a few of the recipes you make in this course along with practicing several different jam and jelly making methods. Learn the science of this age-old culinary practice that not only preserves your favorite fruits, but turns them into a delicacy. From picking the right fruit, to classifying the different types of fruit, to understanding how all the ingredients work together, to applying your knowledge to a production model, you gain a thorough understanding of the art and science of making marmalades, compotes, and preserves.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Wedding and Specialty Cakes
A beautiful, multi-tiered, elegantly decorated and delicious tasting cake is a monument to any special occasion, and often the most memorable moment of a significant event. The mysteries behind creating these edible masterpieces are unveiled to you in this course. Bake sponge cake from scratch, make fillings like chocolate or vanilla buttercream, assemble the components, and decorate a variety of celebration cakes. Acquire the necessary methods and techniques so that you can produce your own designs. Practice cake covering techniques with rolled fondant and buttercream. Finish your piece with detailed decorations such as lifelike daisies or lilies made from gumpaste; royal icing filigree piping; rolled fondant bows; or buttercream roses.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Chocolate and Sugar Candies
Understand why chocolate has been prized for centuries, since the age of Aztecs who first cultivated the cocoa tree to the European innovations of the 19th century bringing chocolate to consumers around the world. With appreciation for the history and complexity, you then receive thorough training in the science of chocolate. You learn a variety of tempering techniques, invaluable knowledge for any burgeoning chocolatier. Using updated methods applied to traditional recipes, you prepare hand-dipped, molded, or enrobed candies. You make delicacies such as ganaches, pralines, elaborate chocolate bonbons or truffles using dark, milk, and white chocolate French couverture. Create traditional and always popular sugar confections such as caramels, lollipops, marshmallows, or nougat.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
Chocolate and Sugar Decoration
Your understanding of chocolate tempering and sugar confections is applied in constructing edible and stylish sculptures. Dark, milk, and white chocolate, molds, spray gun, and cocoa butter colors enable you to make cut-out decorations, and finally a chocolate showpiece. Pastillage, a useful technique in sugar work, is rolled out, shaped and airbrushed. Glass blowing techniques are used with pulled and blown sugar resulting in a delicate, brilliant sugar masterpiece.
Click on photo to view image gallery.
This full-time program is accredited
by the Illinois Community College
Board through Kennedy-King College
at City Colleges of Chicago for
24 college credit hours.
