2012 World Pastry Forum

Wow! I just returned from Phoenix and I thought it was 118 degrees there. That's nothing compared to 100 degrees in New York City. OK - that's another story for another time.

The event went extremely well and my sincerest congratulation to Team Wressell. Donald Wressell, Scott Green and Josh Johnson outdid themselves. Not since Jean Philippe Maury, Jean Claude Cannestrier and Laurant Branlard put the MOF reputation on the line has any team entered with more pressure to win. And this team had 2 rookies!!!

But every team performed admirably. Team Gallego was a first time team and the ladies were awesone. I really hope they return in 2013 as they will be a force to be reckoned with. Likewise to Team Padua and Team Gonzalez. In fact, Meegan Lancaster was so keyed up she told me she can't wait to return. That's the spirit that eventually wins these things.

On to the new news.

Many of you are fans of the Championships and would like to attend the Forum but for one reason or another cannot or do not. Maybe it's the cost. It's expensive to fly, stay and take the classes. It is a fantastic experience and the overwhelming majority of those that do increase their knowledge, friendships, contacts and feel rejuvenated, using it in many cases as a vacation. But so many more around the world cannot make the financial or time commitment. Well, we have come up with the next best thing.

Beginning next year we are going to film each class and edit them down to one-hour each. That means 10 hours of demo classes taught by instructors like En Ming Hsu (world champion), Rudy Van Veen (international star from the Netherlands), Keegan Gerhard (Food Network celeb), David Funaro (Godiva chocolatier), Kanjiro Mochizuki (world champion), Stephane Glacier (MOF world champion), Chris Hanmer (world champion), Colette Peters (Queen of cake decorators), and others. Most of them are already set for next year and we expect all of them to be onboard plus two more not yet set.

We are planning to have our program ready within the next couple of weeks. No more waiting until January and no moe discounting the rates because we are so late. If cost is an issue we will make these classes available to you through our website. If not then you should come out, meet everyone, watch the World Championship (USA, France, Japan, China, the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil, Denmark, Mexico and India figure to be the 10 teams and most all are already confirmed).

We also introduced the coolest evening hands on class to go along with our daytime hands on classes. Next year our daytime hands on classes will be Hands on Showpiece taught by the two best at their craft. Ewald Notter will teach sugar showpiece and Vincent Pilon chocolate. Then we have Hands on Cake and who better than Marina Sousa (her class this year was awesome) and Toba Garrett (Queen of string). East and West coast top pros. And finally Hands on Chocolate Bonbons. Fabian Rimann of Switzerland was so incredible this year that he wants to come back and teach the class all by himself. He is a dynamo and combines a lot of fun with tremendous technique.

And that evening Hands on class I was starting to tell you about is Bakery Boot Camp. You had to see this to believe it. Biagio Settepani and Robert Ellinger decked out in full Desert Storm military uniform took 27 pastry/bakery people and put them through their paces. It will feature everything you could ever want to kow about opening your own business (permits, through to menu development and costing) to the actual baking. And did they bake. 8 banquest tables of every sweet and savory thing you could imagine. Photos will follow shortly. Comments like "This has changed my life" were heard from more than one person. And here's the best thing of all. The first 20 people that sign up for each hands on class or the demo class at full rate will receive Bakery Boot Camp for free!!! We will be charging $1,000 for the Boot Camp if it is taken alone but it's free if you take another class at full rate. But only 20 from each hands on class or the demo class.

I have been told I don't write enough on my site. That's going to change. This year I have a new staff of people that are real go getters and very professional. One of their jobs is to keep me communicating to everyone out there. And I assure you I will follow their instructions.

Keep an eye out for our website to feature this past event and to focus on next year. In the meantime, if you are interested in signing up to make sure you lock in one of the spots, send me a fax at 212-967-4184 or contact me at chocomag@aol.com. We signed up a number of students in Phoenix before we left to come home. Once things are set we will switch the contact info but for now this will suffice.

Take care,

Michael