orders at once because it was the tradition in Alsace that when somebody married off his daughter or son the parents would give filled and decorated cakes to all of the family and friends who came to the wedding as a thank-you On such occasions, my siblings and I would spend many hours helping my dad, cutting the sponge cakes into three layers, sprinkling them with syrup spiked with kirschwasser, and filling them with butter cream My dad would ice the cakes, stick toasted sliced almonds on the sides, and pipe the decorations on top After I began my apprenticeship I often helped in the family bakery on weekends or after work during these busy periods, and by then I could also do the decorating Piping countless cakes for my dad is how I perfected my skills: pipe a lot, and you will eventually know how to do it But the road that stretched between the time I made my decision to apprentice and the time I could pipe filigree onto my father’s cakes was an arduous one I apprenticed with a master pastry chef named Jean Clauss in Strasbourg, twenty kilometers from my village, who trained his apprentices well but was a mean alcoholic My idyllic boy’s life changed forever on the day I walked through his door in September 1976 at the age of fifteen You will read some of my stories about those difficult days in the pages that follow I was tempted to give up on more than one occasion, but I had a long-term goal and a vision for my future: I knew that apprenticeship, where you learn all of the fundamentals, was crucial to a career in pastry, and that my tough boss was ...cakes into three layers, sprinkling them with syrup spiked with kirschwasser, and filling them with butter cream My dad would ice the cakes, stick toasted sliced almonds on the sides, and pipe the decorations on top... decorations on top After I began my apprenticeship I often helped in the family bakery on weekends or after work during these busy periods, and by then I could also do the decorating Piping countless cakes for my dad... to do it But the road that stretched between the time I made my decision to apprentice and the time I could pipe filigree onto my father’s cakes was an arduous one I apprenticed with a master pastry chef