Ciril Hitz, USA

Classes Taught
2009 - Bread Basket
2008 - Breakfast Pastries
2007 - Making "Dough" With Bread

Ciril Hitz is an instructor at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. Ciril received his Bachelors of Fine Art degree at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he majored in Industrial Design with a concentration in Ceramics. After completing his studies, he moved back to his native Switzerland where he completed his three-year apprenticeship as a Pastry Chef/Chocolatier. While in Europe, he attended various classes in Switzerland and France to further develop his skills as a pastry chef. He returned to America in 1994 where he worked in various positions in the pastry industry before eventually joining Johnson & Wales in 1997.Ciril has been recognized with numerous awards and accomplishments, both in the industry and as a faculty member at Johnson & Wales. Most recently he competed in the 2004 National Bread and Pastry Team Championship held in Atlantic City where his team won 1st place overall and individually Ciril won the Best Bread Showpiece, Best Bread Degustation, and Best Viennoiserie Degustation. He also had the honor of being chosen to represent the USA as a 2002 Bread Bakers' Guild Team member in the Artistic category and competed at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, Paris, France, where the team took the silver medal. Other awards include a three-time winner of the Grand Prize for Buffet Presentation at the NY Food Show, in addition to the Rising Star award, the Publishing & Research award and the Les Amis d'Escoiffier Chair, all of which are special recognition awards through Johnson & Wales University.

In his spare time Ciril enjoys working in his ceramic studio, where he continues his creative approach with the dough-like characteristics of clay. He sees no division between creating art and food, and loves the challenge of working with the fermentation process within the life cycle of bread.

His work has been featured on the NBC Today Show as well as The Food Network's "The Best Bread in the World," a feature documentary covering the entire Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie competition in Paris, France.