Pastry Arts Curriculum

Culinary School of the Rockies Pastry Arts/Pastry Track curriculum is broad and intensive. You produce a variety of pastry and baking items each day. The lessons continually increase in complexity. Your skills, technique, understanding and confidence develop quickly and efficiently.

Profile of a Typical Day

• Pastry Arts begins with a lecture and discussion about the day's lesson.
• You work individually or with a partner to build and create the finished products.
• Tasting together is an important and unique part of your culinary education. You and your classmates explain, critique and evaluate each item for flavor, texture and artistry.
• The last job of the day is thoroughly cleaning the kitchen, a critical component of any professional kitchen.

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Techniques and Methods
Pastry Arts is based on the fundamentals of classic pastry and baking techniques, methods, and terminology. Our curriculum is designed to help you develop skills that are applied again and again as you create more challenging pastries and desserts and practice contemporary plating styles. To successfully work in a pastry kitchen, it is essential to understand scaling, proper use of equipment, proper temperature of ingredients, and how to assemble a meticulous mise-en-place.

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Palate Development
Pastry Arts' focus on palate development radically distinguishes us from other culinary schools. You taste everything you make. You learn the importance of flavor, its subtleties, harmonies, and contrasts. Everything we teach — techniques, methods, menu development — begins and ends with tasting. Most culinary schools do not focus on this critical art of palate development. Your future employers and customers will value this skill and recognize your competitive edge.

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Product Identification and Usage
Chocolate — semisweet, unsweetened and bittersweet. Flours — pastry, all-purpose, cake. They look similar but you need to understand the distinctions of usage, taste, and functionality. Pastry Arts takes this analytical and practical process seriously across all categories of baking ingredients and products.

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Guest Instructors
Visiting guest instructors enhance your learning experience in Pastry Arts. They range from experienced pastry chefs, to entrepreneurs, to chocolatiers, to artisan producers.

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Pastry Vocabulary
Think of the words "pâte brisée, pâte sucrée." These terms are used in pastry kitchens around the world. In Pastry Arts, we stress the importance of building your pastry vocabulary, acquired naturally in the baking process each day. Your ability to communicate with the universal language of the pastry kitchen is vital to your success.

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Written and Practical Exams
Culinary School of the Rockies uses quizzes and written and practical exams as educational tools. The Chef Instructors give you great thorough feedback on your practical exams to measure your progress. The practical exams also mirror a typical working interview for a job.

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Bake Sale
You participate in producing a community supported Bake Sale. It is a multi-dimensional process that includes theme, menu, baking, plate presentation, packaging, pricing, decorations, menu labels, drink selection, table setting, service, timing, and budget. This comprehensive exercise teaches you the logical steps necessary to create, market, and sell great tasting and looking pastry items. The Bake Sale is treasured by Boulder foodies.

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The Graduation Celebration
The program culminates with a buffet-style graduation celebration for family and friends. You are responsible for theme, menu, cooking, plate presentations, drink selections, table setting, room layout, service, audience, and budget.

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