The French Pastry School (FPS) is a vocational secondary school located in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, in the United States. Its courses cover

pastry Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ma ...

baking Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred " ...

and

confectionery Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...

arts. The French Pastry School is a for-profit school,Ben Goldberger
“New Chef Will Help Pastry Level to Rise,”
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', February 6, 2010. and the only culinary school in the United States dedicated exclusively to teaching pastry.Virginia Gerst
“Crème of the crop,”
''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', June 1, 2005.

History

The school was founded in 1995 by master

pastry chefs A pastry chef or pâtissier (; the French female version of the word is pâtissière ), is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels ...

Jacquy Pfeiffer and

Sébastien Canonne Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F. (born 1968) is a French pastry chef and co-founder of the French Pastry School in Chicago, the Butter Book online platform, and EQUII. In 2004, he earned the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France. In 2012, he was named a ...

, M.O.F. Pfeiffer and Canonne met in Chicago in 1992, where they discussed the lack of a serious pastry school in the US. They formed the school in order to teach traditional French pastry making, based on the European master-apprentice model. At the outset, Pfeiffer and Canonne offered professional

continuing education Continuing education (similar to further education in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland) is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United ...

classes out of a small studio on Grand Avenue in Chicago.Margaret Littman
“As Washburne Adjusts Recipe, Rivals Spice Up Their Menus,”
''Crain's Chicago Business'', November 28, 1998.William Rice
“Here Comes the Cake,”
''Chicago Tribune'', January 11, 1998. Enrollment grew, and in 1999, Mayor

Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...

helped the school become affiliated with

City Colleges of Chicago The City Colleges of Chicago is the public community college system of the Chicago area. Its colleges offer associate degrees, certificates, free courses for the GED, and free English as a second language (ESL) courses. The City Colleges system ...

and the school moved into a state-of-the-art facility in the City Colleges building at 226 West Jackson Boulevard. The affiliation with City Colleges allowed the school to provide financial aid to students.Andie Thomalla
“Chicago’s French Pastry School: Redefining Vocational Education,”

Gapers Block Gapers Block (Gapers Block Media, LLC) was a Chicago-centric web publication focused on covering Chicago culture under the tag line: "''Slow down and check out Chicago''". The site, gapersblock.com, lists local events, aggregates other Chicago blog ...

, July 9, 2010. In 2009, they began an 11,000 square-foot renovation, adding kitchen space in the expansion.

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 artisanal bread baking course. 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. 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 Sugar sculpture is the art of producing artistic centerpieces entirely composed of sugar and sugar derivatives. These were very popular at grand feasts from the Renaissance until at least the 18th century, and sometimes made by famous artists. ...

, rolled

fondant Fondant is a mixture of sugar and water used as a confection, filling, or icing. Sometimes gelatin and glycerine are used as softeners or stabilizers. There are numerous varieties of fondant, with the most basic being poured fondant. Others inc ...

, sugar and chocolate decorating, airbrushing, mold-making methods, and cake business planning.“The French Pastry School,”
''So Good..'' Accessed September 20, 2015. 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 ''Viennoiseries'' (, "things of Vienna") are baked goods made from a yeast-leavened dough in a manner similar to bread, or from puff pastry, but with added ingredients (particularly eggs, butter, milk, cream and sugar), which give them a richer, ...

, and specialty breads. 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.Judy Hevredjs
“Perfecting pastry,”
''Chicago Tribune'', December 11, 2013. Class size is limited to 18, allowing students to work one-on-one with master pastry chefs. The students are given on-going career counseling and placement assistance from the school after they graduate.William Rice, "Back to School," ''Pastry Art & Design'', April/May 2005, pp. 48-53. The school also offers 3-to-5-day, hands-on continuing education courses to both professionals and amateurs. These courses are taught year-round and on a variety of subjects. The school also invites international experts like

Pierre Hermé Pierre Hermé (; born 20 November 1961) is a French pastry chef and chocolatier. He began his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre. Hermé was awarded the title of World's Best Pastry Chef in 2016 by The World's 50 Best Re ...

, Oriole Balaguer and Jean-Pierre Wybauw to teach special courses.

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,

and Jacquy Pfeiffer. 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. Pfeiffer was born and raised in

Marlenheim Marlenheim () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. Twin towns Marlenheim is twinned with Bouillante (Guadeloupe, France). See also * Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following i ...

, a small Alsatian village in France, to a family of bakers.J.S. Marcus
“Sugar, Spice and All Things Nice,”
''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', February 7, 2013. His pursuit of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France commendation is the subject of the 2010 documentary ''

Kings of Pastry ''Kings of Pastry'' is a film by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus that follows a group of world-class French pastry chefs as they compete for France's most prestigious craftsmen award: Meilleur Ouvrier de France, awarded by former French Preside ...

'', directed by

Chris Hegedus Chris Hegedus (born April 23, 1952) is an American documentary filmmaker. She and her husband, filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, founded the company Pennebaker Hegedus Films. Hegedus was nominated for an Academy Award for ''The War Room'', a behind-th ...

and

D.A. Pennebaker Donn Alan Pennebaker (; July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019) was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sc ...

. Pfeiffer co-wrote the 2013 cookbook ''The Art of French Pastry'' with

Martha Rose Shulman Martha Rose Shulman is an American cookbook author, cooking teacher and food columnist for ''The New York Times''. Her father was author Max Shulman. Biography Shulman has been writing healthy eating cookbooks for over 30 years since the 1970s. Sh ...

, which won the 2014 James Beard Book Award for Baking and Dessert.“2014 Book Awards Recap,”
jamesbeard.org, May 2, 2014.

References

External links

French Pastry School website
{{DEFAULTSORT:French Pastry School, The Cooking schools in the United States French pastries For-profit universities and colleges in the United States City Colleges of Chicago 1995 establishments in Illinois Educational institutions established in 1995