French Pastry School

The French Pastry School (FPS) is a vocational secondary school located in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States. Its courses cover pastry, baking and confectionery arts. The French Pastry School is a for-profit school,[1] and the only culinary school in the United States dedicated exclusively to teaching pastry.[2]

The French Pastry School
TypePrivate
Established1995
Academic staff
Jacquy Pfeiffer
(Dean of Student Affairs)
Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F.
(Dean of Faculty and Programs)
Location
226 W. Jackson Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60606

41.8783°N 87.6349°W / 41.8783; -87.6349
NicknameFPS
Websitefrenchpastryschool.com

History

The school was founded in 1995 by master pastry chefs Jacquy Pfeiffer and Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F.[1][3] Pfeiffer and Canonne met in Chicago in 1992, where they discussed the lack of a serious pastry school in the US.[1] They formed the school in order to teach traditional French pastry making, based on the European master-apprentice model.[1]

At the outset, Pfeiffer and Canonne offered professional continuing education classes out of a small studio on Grand Avenue in Chicago.[4][5] Enrollment grew, and in 1999, Mayor Richard M. Daley helped the school become affiliated with City Colleges of Chicago and the school moved into a state-of-the-art facility in the City Colleges building at 226 West Jackson Boulevard.[1][2] The affiliation with City Colleges allowed the school to provide financial aid to students.[6] In 2009, they began an 11,000 square-foot renovation, adding kitchen space in the expansion.[1][7]

Courses

The French Pastry School offers three certificates: L'Art de la Pâtisserie, a 24-week professional pastry and baking program; L'Art du Gâteau, a 16-week professional cake baking and decorating program; and L'Art de la Boulangerie, a 10-week artasanal bread baking course.[8]

L'Art de la Pâtisserie was launched in 1999 and includes six months of pastry education. In the 24-week accredited program, students are taught classic French pastry methods, with subjects including baking theory and science, food sanitation, breads and breakfast pastries, cakes and tarts, and chocolate and sugar decoration.[5][9][10][11]

In 2010, L'Art du Gâteau was added for students to specialize in the art of cake baking and decorating. The 16-week accredited program focuses on all aspects of creating wedding, celebration and specialty cakes. The students learn cake baking and construction, mini pastries and party favors, gumpaste and pastillage, rolled fondant, sugar and chocolate decorating, airbrushing, mold-making methods, and cake business planning.[12][13]

L'Art de la Boulangerie debuted in 2011, designed for students wishing to specialize in the art of bread baking. The 10-week program includes fundamentals of French breads, pre-ferments, techniques and applications for levains and starters, specialty whole grains and organic breads, advanced breakfast pastries and viennoiseries, and specialty breads.[12][14]

The school emphasizes discipline, following instructions precisely, being thorough and detail-oriented, and learning from mistakes by being persistent if a recipe does not work properly at first.[6][15] Class size is limited to 18, allowing students to work one-on-one with master pastry chefs.[2] The students are given on-going career counseling and placement assistance from the school after they graduate.[16] The school also offers 3-to-5-day, hands-on continuing education courses to both professionals and amateurs.[5][16] These courses are taught year-round and on a variety of subjects. The school also invites international experts like Pierre Hermé, Oriole Balaguer and Jean-Pierre Wybauw to teach special courses.[16][17][18]

Founders

As early as 1998, the school was known for having a faculty made up of some the best pastry chefs in the world, including its founders, Sébastien Canonne and Jacquy Pfeiffer.[4] Canonne is a native of France and one of a few pastry chefs in the United States to be awarded the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, which is the French Ministry of Labor's highest honor for craftsmen.[1] Pfeiffer was born and raised in Marlenheim, a small Alsatian village in France, to a family of bakers.[15][16][19] His pursuit of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France commendation is the subject of the 2010 documentary Kings of Pastry, directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker.[19][20][21] Pfeiffer co-wrote the 2013 cookbook The Art of French Pastry with Martha Rose Shulman,[15][22] which won the 2014 James Beard Book Award for Baking and Dessert.[23]

References
  1. Ben Goldberger, “New Chef Will Help Pastry Level to Rise,” New York Times, February 6, 2010.
  2. Virginia Gerst, “Crème of the crop,” Chicago Tribune, June 1, 2005.
  3. Stephen J. Serio, “The C-Suite Life: The French Pastry School,” Crain's Chicago Business, April 13, 2012.
  4. Margaret Littman, “As Washburne Adjusts Recipe, Rivals Spice Up Their Menus,” Crain's Chicago Business, November 28, 1998.
  5. William Rice, “Here Comes the Cake,” Chicago Tribune, January 11, 1998.
  6. Andie Thomalla, “Chicago’s French Pastry School: Redefining Vocational Education,” Gapers Block, July 9, 2010.
  7. “French Pastry School to Expand,” The Food Channel, May 19, 2009.
  8. Barbara Revsine, “Candy Kisses,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 11, 1998.
  9. Jody Robbins, "Sweet Studies," Where Chicago, February 2005, p. 17.
  10. Elizabeth Owens-Schiele, “Serving up the courses,” Chicago Tribune, August 22, 2012.
  11. Eloise Marie Valadez, “Chicago’s French Pastry School turning out talented bakers and confectioners,” The Times of Northwest Indiana, October 19, 2011.
  12. “The French Pastry School,” So Good.. Accessed September 20, 2015.
  13. “French Pastry School Announces Two Expansions,” The Food Channel, May 18, 2009.
  14. “French Pastry School offering artisanal bread course,” Bakers Journal, April 8, 2011.
  15. Judy Hevredjs, “Perfecting pastry,” Chicago Tribune, December 11, 2013.
  16. William Rice, "Back to School," Pastry Art & Design, April/May 2005, pp. 48-53.
  17. Louisa Chu, “Herme to teach workshop at French Pastry School,” Chicago Tribune, February 13, 2008.
  18. Rick Smilow and Anne E. McBride, Culinary Careers, New York: Clarkson Potter, 2010, p. 44.
  19. J.S. Marcus, “Sugar, Spice and All Things Nice,” Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2013.
  20. Mike Hale, “Behind All the Sweets There’s Lots of Stress,” New York Times, September 14, 2010.
  21. Monica Eng, “’Kings’ of Chicago,” Chicago Tribune, September 29, 2010.
  22. Martha Rose Shulman, “A Health Maven’s Sweet Secret,” New York Times, June 18, 2013.
  23. “2014 Book Awards Recap,” jamesbeard.org, May 2, 2014.
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