I love to bake; but I’m not a professional pastry chef by any means. I have never made a large celebration cake. I have never before made homemade puff pastry, tempered chocolate or crafted a loaf of bread. I’m sad to report that my piping skills lack accuracy and precision.
As a middle child, I love the possessive, selfish quality of individual desserts. I can’t get enough of how individual desserts allow you the gleeful but politely silent exclamation, “This is all mine.” I love to find methods to shrink the large into the miniature.
Mind you, I have suffered my share of pastry defeats. Most notably was my attempt at Parisian macaroons. To be kind, they were less than artful in both taste and appearance. After five tries, I was so frustrated, I called a time out and went on to climb other baking mountains. It also took me five different recipes to find a meringue with a decent texture. I think my close proximity to the ocean hindered my results.
I yearn to have the skills of a gifted pastry chef. I started collecting baking pastry and cookbooks and fell in love the pictures and the challenging techniques. Almost all the skills that I crave to possess are described and demonstrated within my ever-expanding collection. I just needed to learn the techniques step-by-step and take time to practice and improve. I found that I Bo Friberg’s The Professional Pastry Chef, Fourth Edition (PPC) is a good beginning point in most of my lessons.
This is how Pastry Chef by Fire began. My goal is to bake my way through my entire collection. Through my lessons with my culinary friends Julia Child, Sherry Yard, Chris Kimball, Dorie Greenspan, Gale Gand, Ina Garten, Warren Brown, Bo Friberg and others, I will increase by skills week by week. I don’t really know these chefs and bakers -- but I do consider them my friends in the kitchen. As I said, I do know, own and love their books.
I post all my triumphs; lessons learned, crash and burns, follies, and challenges here at Pastry Chef by Fire. Please check back often and learn with me.