Its been a while since I entered a classroom. a baking demo classroom to be precise. Aside from collecting cookbooks I love attending baking classes. Yup I admit it, I dream of going to pastry school and having my own bakery some day.
For now I keep myself up-to-date with the latest happening in the culinary industry by attending some lifestyle classes/baking demos. In the past my go-to school is at Heny Sison, she is this popular Filipina cake decorator that teaches wanna be pastry chefs and she owns her own school. unfortunately most of the great classes I wish to take are weekday classes and since her courses are a bit pricey, I really have to chose wisely. For whatever reason last month I checked out the class schedule for Castle of Baking and Confectionery Arts, lucky me the classes are on sale up to 50% off. Double lucky because I found one class that I really wanted to learn more about is part of the sale and it falls on Sunday! Yehey! I quickly grabbed the opportunity and reserved a seat.
The class was taught by Chef Paredes, the niece of Chef Annie who is the owner of the said establishment and the teacher before. Being the first time student here, I can honestly say that if I paid the full price for the said class I would be pissed and say that its not that worth it. However, having paid half the price because of the sale I can say its acceptable, not great, not ok but acceptable. Don't get me wrong the teacher is great she talks like she really knows what she is teaching and I love that part. What I didn't like is that the other employees like the guard for example. I came in way early since my dad just drop me off on his way to law school, the guard didn't guide me as to where I should register or what time the classes would begin and where the classes will be held. I almost came in late since the guard didn't call our attention when it was time to go and pay for our class since it would start in a few minutes. I also didn't like that their recipe handout has lots do's and don't but they didn't bother to write the instructions in each recipe. I mean they had this general recipe and just list of ingredients per item that we would be using. its kind of confusing and harder to concentrate because most of the time I was busy writing what our instructor was saying. Even my seat mates got confused and ask lots of question and she didn't even bother jotting down anything!!
One of the highlight of my day was while the brownies and cake were baking, the professor told us to go down and check out the store and replenish our supplies at home if we wished too. Its actually a great marketing poly specially for people like me who is always low on supplies. I used to purchased all my baking ingredients here since its far away from my house and I had a bad experience of having purchased a rancid walnuts I never went back there again.
Its like being in the candy store and you don't know which to pick up next! Luckily I didn't have a car with me and that they do not accept credit card purchases because I'm sure I would have burned a huge whole in my pocket. The place is crammed with people and the employees are a bit sparse maybe because its Sunday, but they are hard to find. When I was able to find help, I'm very happy that "kuya" (aka mr.) was very accommodating. "Kuya" is a Filipino word we often use to call the attention of someone who is older than you. As a sign of respect, we call them "kuya" for men and "Ate" for women.
Another thing I love about this place is that the shelves are organized and labelled so I guess if I get to frequently visit here. I would remember where specific item is spaced. They have a lot of different baking materials that I don't often see, for those I would be willing to comeback and spurge. I just have to make my list so my trip would be worth the effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment