Starting a pastry school

[hac]

hi guys! been awhile though i just shared a couple of things and demos before. ive been busy lately working in a culinary school as a chef instructor. thing is hot kitchen work is someting im not really used to haha! good part though is that im waiting for the pastry school to finish its build then off i go! im currently making the curriculum for it and was wondering if anyone has any inputs to help me out with a few things. i.e. web based infos, books, ebooks, etc... few of the things id like to get some help with are :

History of pastry arts (a more complete version)

List of famous people (old school)

Equipment list

Terminologies (french terms)

and other things that could give me some more ideas or add up to the curriculum! i would really appreciate the help on this as i really want this to work! its my passion really. and now im in it =)

[Edward J]

Don't go too old school on famous (dead) people. Lots of live ones.

When designing a crriculum, my key focus is practical, then self sufficent.

Lets say a student graduates and lands a job in a "regular" commercial kitchen as pastry guy. Odds are he will have to fight for oven space/time in the p.o.s. convection or garland type oven, fight for fridge space, fight for counter space. Any special equipment or ingredients will be "put on hold". You can and should make your own marzipan, gianduja, candied citrus peel, crystalized ginger, chocoalte decorations, etc. The ex-student who makes these will not only get brownie points from the Chef, but earn his employer bragging rights for "house made".

One thing I think evey pastry student should do in school is design his/her "dream shop". On pape design a dream store: what kind of space is needed, what kind of aproximate rent, what type of equipment, list of items to be sold, how to make the whole thing pay.

Class exta-curricular activiies should include visits to restaurant/bakery equipment suppliers, ingredient suppliers, and visits to local pastry shops in the area. There's nothing like the look on the face when they find out that say, a 2 door upright fridge cost 3 grand, or a mixer upwards of 5 grand.

But that's just me..........

[hac]

thanks for the reply and inputs! we would like to include the old school people for the history but we will include ofcourse a lot of live ones and especially those that everyone can look up to. thanks too for the suggestion of arranging a visitation =) any other inpus or text i could read re: this guys?