NEW YORK, January 13, 2006—From January 9 through 11, pastry chefs from top New York restaurants studied advanced buffet presentations at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE®), under the expert guidance of Olivier Bajard, a meilleur ouvrier de France (MOF) and world champion in pastry, chocolate, confectionery, and ice cream.

The three-day course, the first under the auspices of ICE®’s Center for Advanced Pastry Studies, focused on techniques, recipes, decoration, and savoir-faire essential to the creation of innovative buffet desserts. Bajard shared some of his rule-breaking techniques, which produced five cakes that emphasized seasonality and flavor development. Each cake featured a minimum of four components, such as cake, sable, mousse, and ganache layers.

The group of 12 students included Jean-Georges’ corporate pastry chef Joe Murphy, 11 Madison Park’s pastry chef Nicole Kaplan, Chris Broberg, Café Gray’s executive pastry chef, Dos Caminos’ pastry chef Hugo Reyes, Essex House’s pastry chef Wendy Israel, Tavern on the Green’s executive pastry chef Jasmina Boijic, Hotel Hershey’s (Pennsylvania) executive pastry chef Andrew Logan, Jacques Pastries’ (Boston) pastry cook Rebecca De Angelis, Ritz-Carlton’s (Boston) pastry cook Susan Lagalle, and personal chef Andrew Makrides.

Bajard discussed how to conceptualize a dessert and combine ingredients so that each flavor comes through in the final cake in perfect balance. He also stressed the importance of proper ingredient selection and manipulation.

“ Our students were delighted with the high level of skills that Olivier exhibited, and the extensive information he shared with them,” said ICE® Master Chef-Instructor and CAPS program coordinator Michelle Tampakis. “This is precisely the level of intensity that we want to be able to offer industry professionals in the New York metropolitan area.”

Bajard was the manager of the French team for the World Pastry Team Championships, and is a frequent judge in international competitions. He teaches around the world and through his own international school of pastry. ICE® is New York City’s largest and most active center for culinary education, and offers highly regarded 6- to 11-month career training programs in culinary arts, pastry and baking and culinary management. CAPS @ ICE® is the only program of its type in the Northeast. Co-sponsors include Pastry Arts & Design and Dairyland/Chef’s Warehouse.