The Game Changer

It has occurred to me that my blog posts are rather random and non-sequitur.  No one wants to read some crappy blog where you can’t learn anything useful.  Conversely, if no one reading the posts is learning anything then I’m not really learning a whole lot either.  So I’ve decided to get more organized for the sake of the reader and for myself; if you’re reading this because you also want to learn something useful or, like me, to be taken more seriously in the culinary world without accumulating crippling debt in the process, read on.

We live in an almost entirely pictorial world; any form of advertising, promotion, tutorial or even news articles will rely almost solely on the images contained there-in. Life really has become a bit of a picture book – the average person will spend more than an hour or two just looking at pictures on any number of social media sites. How many times have you stopped reading or looking at something for lack of pictures?

Now, on the other hand, the work-a-day world relies on the written word.

Where did you graduate from?

Where did you work before?

What are the names and numbers of your references?

Etc.

So how do you cheat a system that only wants a diploma or lots of experience in order for your work and skill set to be worth more than the paper it’s printed on?  Photographs–they are the best index of what you can do.

Very rarely do you find a job that wants to see what you have done.  You can fake your resume just as easily as you can fake the images of the work you’ve done, so why isn’t it just standard practice to have that as part of your resume?  For some it is, but for the new and inexperienced person who has very little “on paper experience” it should be very important to have a fully functioning photo portfolio. High quality, well lit images of what you can do.

So with that stated, here is how this little at-home course will go and what it will encompass:

Types of courses:

Breads: 2 week blitz course on basic breads, artisan breads and quick breads.

Cookies: 2 week course on shaped, cut, rolled and other cookies from around the world.

Cakes: 4 weeks going over numerous types of cakes as well as piping techniques and internal structure for multi-tiered cakes.

Pastries and Tarts: 6 week course working mainly on french pastries and petite tarts.

I will go over each course in detail as well as each type of baked good made for each, and at the end of the course I will summarize: The amount of time spent on the course as a whole, the amount of money spent to acquire all the ingredients, and the results and notes on each recipe (e.g. cautions and troubleshooting).

In conjunction with this program I will be blogging, as you can tell, on a regular basis in order to ensure I keep to the laid out schedule.  I will be photographing the end products of each recipe regardless of whether I am successful or not.  Those photos will be used on the blog as well as on Instagram. (@making.some.dough)

Overall goal:  My overall goal is to be taken seriously in the culinary field despite my “inexperience.” It would be my ideal result to get a job as a baker, pastry chef, dessert chef or potentially get into an internship program either in the states or abroad.

So, here we go! Hopefully we both learn something and nothing catches on fire!