Barbados

Grant

Baking & Pastry for Chefs

Culinary Institute of America, New York, USA

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, along with Hilton Barbados and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, for affording me such an enlightening opportunity and for their commitment in helping me along the way. I can definitely say that my course was beneficial and I look forward to sharing what I learnt with my colleagues.

The course I completed was entitled Baking and Pastry for chefs, which although requires lots of patience and attention to detail, proved to be very interesting and insightful. The course took place at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. My class consisted of ten persons, including myself. Most of who came from diverse backgrounds/cultures and fields within the kitchen.

On day one, we introduced ourselves and met our course instructor Chef Phil Crispo, who I deem to be one of the best instructors ever. We also did an array of cakes, sponges, breads and crusts, with short demonstrations done in between each, which were done by the chef. We did pate a choux, pies, focaccia bread, batard and baguettes on day two. My team did a selection of profiterole shells, éclair shells, lemon meringue and blueberry pies. Here we learnt the fundamentals of proofing, resting, the difference between lean versus enriched dough, just to list a few.

Day three started with a lecture, where we did an overview of what we were going to be doing. From here we went straight to the kitchen and in our teams/groups again, did frozen desserts, custards, meringues we started the previous day, parfaits and caramels. Also interesting was the restaurant on campus which was managed and operated by full time students. The food there is exceptional and the decor was just as good. What topped it for me was the outstanding service.

The last day in my opinion was the day I enjoyed the most, as it was when we got to create our own plated desserts, using any material or food which were made from the days before. On this day we also did dessert sauces, phyllo creamsicles, crème brulees and my favourite, molten chocolate lava cakes. At the end of day four each of our plated desserts were put on display and reviewed by our instructor. After this we returned to the classroom where we reflected on the days that had passed and were presented with our certificates.

This was the first time I got the opportunity to travel abroad to develop and improve my skills at an international level. I enjoyed the time spent and am grateful for being granted the opportunity which this exposure afforded. The CTO must be lauded for its’ commitment to continuous investment in people in the sector.

I would like to give a special thank you to the following individuals and organizations:

• Hilton Barbados Hotel

• The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association Education Foundation

• Chef Phillip Crispo (Chef Instructor at the Culinary Institute of America)

• The Caribbean Tourism Organisation Foundation

• The Culinary Institute of America

• Everyone who assisted me in making this possible, it was extremely educational.

Year of Grant

2011