The art of french pastry phần 7

creations out of dough while my father slept I would bake them in the brick oven, which would still be hot hours after it had been turned off for the day I loved molding things so much that my mom saved the red wax wrappers from the Babybel cheese we ate because she knew I liked to fashion it into flowers and other shapes I’d do it at the table every night As I got older and watched my father’s business grow I began to understand that an artisan can have a good life Hard work and discipline are required, but we Alsatians are a disciplined lot My father often told me not to go into the food business— it was too hard—while at the same time I knew that he secretly hoped I would someday take over his bakery But I wanted to do something more artistic Pastry was my calling, and so I asked my father to look for a pastry chef I could apprentice with My exposure to pastry work had begun at my father’s side Although he was a boulanger, not a pâtissier—a baker, not a pastry chef—he made his share of éclairs, millefeuilles, cookies, and cakes Alsace is a land of traditions For hundreds of years bakers have been making the same items for each important date on the calendar A birthday, first communion, graduation, or wedding in our village meant that my father would be very busy in his bakeshop He could make an excellent sponge cake filled with delicious chocolate, coffee, or vanilla butter cream (butter cream was king when I was growing up in the ’60s) and decorated with oldfashioned Victorian filigree piping If there was a big wedding in the village he’d get thirty, forty, or fifty ... But I wanted to do something more artistic Pastry was my calling, and so I asked my father to look for a pastry chef I could apprentice with My exposure to pastry work had begun at my father’s side Although he... pâtissier—a baker, not a pastry chef—he made his share of éclairs, millefeuilles, cookies, and cakes Alsace is a land of traditions For hundreds of years bakers have been making the same items for... work and discipline are required, but we Alsatians are a disciplined lot My father often told me not to go into the food business— it was too hard—while at the same time I knew that he secretly hoped I would someday take over his