Pate Choux: The Next Class
Pate Choux. Its versatility is practically unmatched. A double-cooked dough, choux looks easy on paper but can be confounding upon attempt. Whether for savoury or sweet use, choux is the work-horse of the
dough world. It's the lumber jack, the invisible plain Jane of grade-school, the nerdy kid who became the computer genius. The wolf in sheep's clothing.
Pate choux can carry the weight of salty dry cheese and become an elegant gougere, puff so high its airy center can hide a clown-car's amount of whipped cream or custard, be poached to become a rich gnocchi, and fried in any shape to become a beloved doughnut or churro.
My own trajectory with this intriguing dough is a quizzical one. Having read about it and studied photos of its process for many years, I was forced to make it weekly in the most pressurized kitchen of my career. Devoid of a fancy convection oven our neatly lined up mounds of golden dough always fell tragically mid bake.
After tiring of my pastry chef's weekly tirade I took the sad tail between my legs and sought the advice of a master patissierre. The trick I learned shot me into pate choux fame.
When The French Laundry Cookbook was in full scale production Thomas leaned into my ear and said, "Make sure the gougeres you give to Deborah [Deborah Jones, our photographer] are the ones you've baked."
Learn pate choux tricks, get hands-on instruction with piping, taste your results, understand the whys and the hows of this multi-faceted dough, take home a recipe.
Sunday June 11, 2006
Berkeley, CA 1-3:30 pm
$68
You may remit payment through the PayPal link or email me if you'd like to send a check.
Come one, come all, come hungry to learn.
Choux a la creme were part of my patisserie diet while I was growing up in France.
Checked you blog after seeing it featured on Typepad.
I did a couple of collaborations with a pastry chef and friend of mine, Glenn Schwabik based like me in New Jersey for my blog 'Serge the Concierge'.
Have a good day
SERGE
Biz:
http://www.njconcierges.com
Blog:
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com
Posted by: Serge Lescouarnec | 30 May 2006 at 06:26 PM
Hi Shuna, Great to see you on the featured blogs of Typepad.!!They picked out one of the best.
Posted by: deccanheffalump | 30 May 2006 at 07:03 PM
I just really like the phrase, "Come hungry."
Posted by: beastmomma | 30 May 2006 at 09:46 PM
Dag, Shuna, another class I hate to miss. I hope that someday you do some east coast classes.
Posted by: Julie | 31 May 2006 at 06:48 PM
Just stumbled across this site. Great! Is the choux class still open and where will it be?
Posted by: john l | 09 June 2006 at 06:48 PM
John--
The class is still open, as of Friday June 9, 11 am.
I am unable to advertise the exact location on the internet as this is not a walk-in sort of situation.
Glad you also emailed me directly too--
Posted by: shuna fish lydon | 09 June 2006 at 07:21 PM
Thank you, Shuna, for teaching me how pate choux works and how to pipe correctly with a pastry bag!! Now I can make eclairs and not have anyone laugh about the shape of the puffed dough.
Posted by: Meredith | 12 June 2006 at 12:54 AM
Hi ! Your site is very interesting. Thank you.
Posted by: Damn | 13 June 2006 at 07:45 AM
Shuna. Since I couldn't make your pate choux class (I would have, but I live on the East Coast), can you share your particular trick that helped you so much? I used to make it frequently, and had decent success, but I need a reason to get back to it. Love your blog and try to read it everyday.
Bill
Posted by: Bill | 18 June 2006 at 03:55 AM
No wonder this is a featured blog! - Great info, many thanks, Shareen
Posted by: Male Female Pheromones | 04 January 2007 at 05:29 PM
beautifull ...
It's funny because in France, chou is like noodles in Italia : everybody can do it :)
But we need a teacher for macaron , and we love cooking lesson .
Posted by: virgulle | 19 February 2007 at 07:03 PM