Pastry Codex

08/28/2024

08/28/2024

I was telling someone today this is kind of how it all started about 5 years ago working for an outfit out of New York called Coco social.
Those people were working in teams of fours making macarons and they were bigger groups sometimes exceeding 20 students per class.
Most of the students booked off of Groupon which even I used for a little while early on with the onset of the company first getting started and up and running about 3 years ago.
Groupon is a ripoff artist outfit all you really see on Groupon are like nail Day spa pedicure manicure places. Groupon takes with their flash sales up to a 42% cut of revenues, absurd!
But that's how it's got started with me approaching New York and saying hey look I've got all these other ideas for these other classes and all they wanted to do was just have me host classes on how to make macarons 3 years ago. I knew there was more to it than that, there had to be.
The drivers and the impetus to generate all of those new experiences were out of design and intention of not being able to do anything creatively with Coco social. Once they found out that I had opened up my own company and were in direct competition with them they weren't too happy about it
So you see in life one loss can lead to another opportunity which is much much better.

08/22/2024

It really breaks my heart.
I have always have said that "without a hosting venue, there is no school."

Pastry Codex has been something that I built as an idea, somehow always knowing that I would wind up ultimately teaching. Throughout these last three years, starting out from a ghost kitchen in Gaithersburg, landing at Mrs. Peacock's lounge in the 4 th quarter of 2020, to working at an Incubator Kitchen in Rockville, unsuccessfully partnering with a coffee shop in Silver Spring, to for a little over this last year working out of a bakery in Alexandria,.all I can say it hasn't been easy.

The economy definitely has had a bearing on guest attendance it makes me wonder if I am having difficulty filling slots and seats with bookings, how are they doing? Pastry Codex and taking a class with me has always been a luxury experience, it's not something you have to do, it's something you want to do as a part of personal enrichment and self development.
With everything being as expensive as it is, food, fuel, rents, people are undoubtedly stretched.
Words can't express how gratifying it was for me to have taught hundreds of classes and patrons over these last few years. The look of joy, and satisfaction of people having made things such as Macarons, Croissants, decorating their own blush cake, coming out beautifully really was a positive projection of a personal sense of optimism, and an upbeat intrinsic quality to genuinely loving to teach and help others raise their A game.
This last venue at the bakery has been one of the most challenging that I have worked at and for in a production capacity over the last 3 years. Without having to go into a lot of details, there were demands that personally compromised the quality of my life impossed on me from management at the establishment.
I consider myself to be very well organized, conditioned over the years to have to be so. It's been my reputation and very ability to work that generated that type of work ethic, when something interferes with my ability to do my job, complicates an ordering process from a purveyor, or some how if there is a sentiment of dissatisfaction with production I am forced to re-evaluate matters.

08/20/2024

Europeans go nuts over it, you can make your own staying away from particularly seed (palm kernel oils) bad, bad BAD!

Ingredients

2 cups hazelnuts (240g)

1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/3 cup sweetener of choice (see above for options that work here)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk of choice or 2 tbsp oil, optional

Instructions

Homemade Nutella Recipe: If hazelnuts are not already roasted, preheat the oven to 400 F and bake for 6-8 minutes or just until they begin to brown. Rub them together in a paper towel to get the skins off. It’s okay if a few stubborn skins won’t come off. In a Vitamix or food processor, blend the nuts until they’ve turned to butter. (This could take up to twenty minutes in a food processor.) Then add all other ingredients except milk or oil and blend a long time until it’s smooth like Nutella! If desired, add in the milk or oil.

08/13/2024

Of course I would never condone working off of a sheet like this. Best way is using weighted formulas in grams converted from U.S imperial measurements and working with a base 10 system.

Cups, and measurements such as there are subjective and open to interpretation (rounded vs. leveled) you get the idea.
Stick to the metric system.

08/10/2024

An interesting list. I'm sure there's some establishments on this roster that shouldn't be on there. And I'm sure there are some establishments, globally that should have been on the list.

Not sure how they determined those shops, but who knows?

08/06/2024

It appears some reviews are now vetted as compendium or composites with Google AI reviews.
This can work for you but it can also work against you if you have too many mixed reviews, with let's say Google stating for example " some people have commented about the quality of this whereas other people have said this" or some people have commented about the quality of the beverages and other people that been said to say that they're not as good as they should be"

Reviews do matter, but they really have to be custom tailored to a response in a sincere and genuine response to a client's concern or inversely addressing a positive comment.

I was reading standard template responses from one operation that I had been partnered with from a while back and they're all scripted it's like a copy and pasted type ordeal not even being pertinent to the concerns at hand. That shows at least to me that an operation really doesn't care about its guests, a business doesn't care about what other people have got to say about let's say cleanliness or customer service the price of food or for that matter the quality of food.

I've also seen reviews where the proprietor is basically trying to bribe the client into patch fixing a matter after the fact, to an offer of deference and subjugation. The customer is not always right 100% of the time but usually they are.

You should aspire for a standard of customer service that exceeds 100%, that should be your objective if for whatever reason you can't level up to that you shouldn't probably even be in business in other words you're running your operation compromising the integrity of your business by short-changing your guests with let's say the quality of ingredients being sub standard.

In addition I've seen proprietors very personably almost two personably ( at the level of unprofessionalism) comment on in response to let's say some type of a positive comment.Accept it for what it is and respond to it professionally, that's my take, don't start using jargon or short order terminology that can discredit you as a person or your business operation.

08/06/2024

Fairly significant.
A Chef should be treated with a certain level of respect, remember he is like an orchestra conductor.
Can an operation run without one?,
It could, but things can go whirly, with kids that rather be on social media or chatting up a storm.
A Chef creates parameters, structure, disciplines and navigates the ship. A Chef also fosters loyalty, and is a good politician getting people to follow their lead.

There is an expression though, "no one person is an Island" in other words what that means is you can do your job the way you know how you're the best at your abilities but if everyone else around you is not leveling up and meeting your efforts then it is if everyone's not their job.
Management has to be siding with and supporting the Chef 100%, if that's not the case and if you have somebody that says oh I'm watching that guy I'm watching him on the camera I'm I'm watching it very carefully but it doesn't do anything about that key individual that just doesn't care or doesn't really have any ability to be able to be a team player and chime in with other people for responsibilities, you will have an inefficient operation affecting morale.

A Chef is concerned about reviews because you have to be. There's another expression that goes you're only as good as your last eclair, constantly striving to outdo and better your last performance. Mistakes can be made we are only human, but they should be an exception and not a rule
If management disregards their stuff especially their Chef, over manages them,micro manages them, I can assuredly guarantee you are going to be without a conductor after a while.

Bottom line take away, treat your Chef with a level of respect, appreciate & value them, they can make you and they can also break you.

As an owner of a company don't get stuck in a situation where you have to wind up doing everything yourself because your staff has abandoned you.
They may not need you as much as you need them.

08/05/2024

Brand new!

I have never done these before, but they really came out very nicely. London Fog Macarons.
The flavor profile is built around creating a "mash' we Earl Grey steeped in a light honey sugar syrup overnight, a splash of vanilla and a touch of orange oil. Rather lovely to be honest.

08/05/2024

Yea, okay they take 2 days to be able to make.
Why would you want to learn how to make your own croissants with me?
A) there's not too many good bakeries in the area that know how to make them and you want to make a better quality product.

B) the sights The sounds the smells of freshly baked croissants coming right out of the oven on a Sunday morning, fancy that?

You want a boyfriend/hubby girlfriend/ wifey fun activity to be able to do at the house, together.

You're running a practice dry run for a spot on a cooking show...LOL

Whatever the reason is the aromas of these Little Gems coming out of the oven is rather intoxicating,
Check it out yourself.

08/04/2024

It's nice to know I can do something right, and really be appreciated. I guess that's why entrepreneurs wind up going independent and working for themselves because to be honest they really can't work for anybody else let's be honest.
Something happened earlier at work that really convinced me that I need to really move on and terminate my current partnership with the hosting venue.
They only miss you when you're gone, and by then it's too late.

# vegan Macarons

07/25/2024

Two new desserts.
A honey Almond bun cake & a cookies and cream Oreo Tres leches cake.
Sometimes, right out of gates these things become successful and entrenched in regular operations.
The honey almond bundt cake is unbelievable.
Exclusively at Bread and Water Bakery.