BA in Vancouver

Hehe, what started as a day-by-day breakdown of Chicago morphed into a dissection of confectionery topics. Quite fitting actually. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we would start a project one day and then finish it two days later, so actually remembering what we did day-to-day is actually a bit tricky. One of the […]

It’s been a tough few months. Being unemployed has its obvious perks – no alarm clock to jar you awake, no battle on the daily commuter bus, no late evenings, no deadlines… But I miss having coworkers, motivations, a steady schedule…and of course a steady paycheque. I’m getting closer to that deadline I set for […]

Another year, another blueberry bundt cake. This is another recipe that has truly become “a classic”. It’s something I make every year and it’s always delicious. Of course I only make it when it’s blueberry season – which we are well into. And it’s really only for this recipe that I break out the nice […]

A couple of years ago, my birthday present to myself was a chocolate making course at a local pastry school. It was an all-day course and we learned how to manipulate chocolate into various forms – including how to temper chocolate by hand. Tempering chocolate is extremely difficult and takes years to master. I’ll quickly […]

Chef stood at his usual place behind the demonstration table. In his French accent, he declared, “Today, we make croissants.” He began to explain to us the methodology of croissants and the work involved. I always knew croissants were tricky and labour-intensive. Every flaky layer is created by pockets of butter and unlike pie crusts, […]

I think for those around me on a day to day basis know that I’ve been planning this Chicago trip for a long time. At the end of 2010 a beautiful and moving documentary called “The Kings of Pastry” was released in Vancouver. I had heard about this movie months before and the screening week […]