Bake Like a Chef

Whipped egg yolks (and egg yolks in general) are at the top of my list of favorite ingredients.  They add such great richness and texture to every dish they're in.  In this episode we cover one of the major ways egg yolks are added to pastries and desserts.  The component with no name (Sabayon) is critical to many pastries and is a great way to add texture, flavor, air, and leavening to many sweet dishes.  In this episode we'll cover methods, common uses, and a quick run down of yolk to sugar ratios.

The second part of this series.   We discuss the basics of getting started with meringues, the methods used, why ratios matter to the process and final product. Later we venture more deeply into coloring, additions (color and fold-ins), meringue methods and how sugar-to-egg-white ratios impact the final product.

Making a meringue is a critical tool in your baking tool set and before too long should become second nature.  This is the first part of a two parter were we discuss the basics of getting started with meringues and considerations that should be made.  In Episode 2 we will venture more deeply into meringue methods and talk about sugar to egg white ratios.

Hello Chef!  We had to take a little hiatus but will be back soon with additional episodes soon as we begin to talk about baking and pastry techniques and components starting with Meringues and Sabayon!  These are foundational and will help you level-up your baking and pastry practices.   Thank you for being a part of our audience and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

How you receive others' work and give feedback can determine how they move forward professional, personally, and how they treat others.  In this episode we walk through the nature of working in the kitchen, how individuals receive feedback, how to give great feedback, and how to capture your work in photos to receive great feedback.  We also introduce the Bake Like a Chef community group dedicated to getting feedback on your progress and sharing your input with others.

https://www.bakelikeachef.com/giving-feedback/

#001 Why would someone create a podcast about baking professionally?  We have two reasons and they are simple.  For one, culinary training is expensive considering how much a majority of individuals make when working professionally. Second, when it comes to professional growth we all learn in different ways.  Variety and repetition are key to growing and perfecting our skills in the kitchen.  This first episode talks about my introduction to baking and my journey working through culinary school and baking professionally.  If you are hoping to become a baker or pastry chef join us on this adventure.  At a minimum it will support you as an additional resource as you grow.

CHALLENGE - I want you to share your story about a time when you knew things would fall apart the next day if you didn't stay and make them right.  Share your stories about when you trusted your instincts and were proven right or you didn't listen to yourself and everything went horribly wrong the next day.  We'll have a link to a 90 second voice recorder to capture your story so that we can share it on a future episode of Bake Like a Chef.

#002 Learning to bake a decent loaf of bread can take new bakers weeks to capture the basics and a lifetime to perfect.  Though nothing can replace working with professional bakers and learning from what they do and how they interpret what they see, in this episode we share information about something happening during the fermentation process that will support you in making better bread.  We'll also walk through the the basic bread making process and share a little about why flour seems to magically turn into a nice crusty and airy loaf of bread.

BONUS - If you are stuck at home and simply don't have as much to do as you did before consider doing what you can to improve your skills. In this bonus we introduce the idea that you could use any free time to learn from the increasing number of videos being produced by great chefs all over the globe.   When you are out of work, though it can feel impossibly stressful, every moment can be turned into opportunity.

#003 There is very little reason to use bad eggs in your baking and pastry work.  Being a great chef means managing quality and cost as you serve your customers what they love. We'll discuss how to find, choose, and test eggs for freshness setting you up for success as you grow your baking and pastry skills.