On 3rd July 2009 I embarked on a pastry experience never to be forgotten.

My destination, a small town in France by the name of Yssingeaux to stay in Chateau Montbarnier which is next door to a school named Ecole Nationale Supérieure de le Patisserie or ENSP for short.
The school is owned by Yves Thuriès and Alain Ducasse, both notable chefs in the industry.

The two month pastry campus is a new product for ENSP which brings pastry chefs, students and beginners together over the summer from all over the world to learn from the masters. During the year pastry chefs come from all over France to do one week stages (training) with master pastry chefs and Meilleur Ouvrier de France, the highest accolade to a person specializing in a craft in France.

I was in the laboratories (kitchen) from Monday to Friday from 09h00 – 17h00 with chefs from Greece, Portugal, Canada, Norway, Columbia and Spain. The curriculum consisted of classical and modern interpretations of tarts, entremets and petit gateaux, plated desserts, bread, molecular pastry and petit fours. Each Friday all three classes would present a dessert buffet to display the weeks work. This was a great indicator of our development.

In France a pastry chef trains over a 5 year period made up of going to school and serving an apprenticeship. This starts at the tender age of 15. By the time you reach 25 you are a well rounded and highly skilled pastry chef. What struck me most about the pastry chefs in France is the professional ethic that they adopt to pastry. Every recipe is completed enthusiastically with a confident understanding of ingredients and how they work when mixed together.
The design of the patisserie is elegant, stylish and flavourful. Textures are always considered and modern interpretations have roots in the classics. New flavours such as matcha and yuzu are widely used and classic French flavours such as violet have never been lost.

There is a wonderful tradition of buying bread and pastries from your favourite boulangerie or patisserie and you will not struggle to find one. In the small town of Yssingeaux there were 4 patisseries and 3 boulangeries. Eating croissant is a daily ritual and buying a petit gateau once a day is normal without over analyzing the GI Factor. The macaroons were heavenly and came in every flavour under the sun.

My weekends were spent travelling to Provence, around the Haute Loire Region and of course Paris. I visited and ate my way through Laduree, Dallyou, Fauchon, Pierre Hermes and many more.

I now plan on developing the existing pastry curriculum at Prue Leith Chefs Academy even further and there are some exciting plans for 2010 and pastry in the Prue Leith Group so watch this space. We will be offering an evening in November where the students will work with me on a dessert buffet so that I can transfer some of my knowledge to them before they go on practical. My intention is to offer South Africans high quality patisserie training at home.

I will return to France next year for a week stage. I am truly inspired and I would recommend that young chef and pastry chefs should work in France if they have the opportunity to travel. I say this with some skepticism though as I really do want you to come home. South Africa needs your skills and I would like to see patisseries and boulangeries opening here in South Africa.

All things pastry
Chef Lorraine