Pre-Departure

I’m on my way to being a senior at Whitman College, but for the past couple of years I’ve been finding secret pleasure in making cakes and desserts for my friends at school. Its one of those alternate dreams, something I never thought I would actually pursue, but have always enjoyed doing. Who knew people could really bake and (eventually) be paid for doing it? So hardly back from my last overseas adventure, I’ve decided to hop a plane and sink my teeth into another escapade… literally.

For the next 8 weeks I’ll be a student at l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Pâtisserie (The National Superior School of Pastry) in Yssingeaux, France. With a group of 29 other students I’ll be joining the likes of a Mississippi rodeo princess, a Spanish playboy, a Mexico City clubber and a Greek fashionista in learning how to make entremets, petits gateaux, and soufflés in the Chateau Montbarnier.

So for the next two months and 300 hours of intensive baking, I’ve created this blog to chronicle the daily trials, tribulations, and hopefully moments of extreme joy of a pastry student in rural France. And who knows maybe this will be the beginning of a long education in the art of becoming a professional patissier. We shall see…