Stepping into the World of Pastry

With the highest quality of ingredients, best-in-class tools and internationally reputed mentor chefs, students at the School for European Pastry step into a whole new world of baking and pastry

Text: Shraddha Mishra

When you look at a decadent pastry, beautifully crafted, artistically decorated, and baked to absolute perfection, you will surely think, “Wow, I would love to devour this.” But if you find yourself thinking, “Wow, I wish I could make this,” we have just the answer for you. School for European Pastry.

Directed by Chefs Anil Rohira and Vikas Bagul, this is an academy where you step in with passion for baking, and step out with a well-earned ambition to take on an entire world of gourmet pastries. SEP attracts those with a burning desire to express their artistic creativity through creating world-class pastries, whether they come with experience or are looking for a fresh start.

Students at SEP get used to the best since the beginning of their six-month course, which includes 18 modules. They are welcomed to their first ever class with a personalised kit, that has an apron and a knife set. But while they are handed all the tools they might need throughout the duration of this course, they must say goodbye to their own personal gadgets, including mobile phones, while in attendance of their classes from 8 in the morning to 4 in the evening.

SEP takes students on a thorough journey of the profession. The course grants students a diploma from SEP along with a certification from Felchlin, Switzerland. Students who are eligible are also presented with the City & Guilds Level 3 certification. With these highly reputed achievements they are empowered to take on the profession and drive their career in the direction they choose. A course from SEP opens several doors, including 5-star hotel kitchens, central kitchens for retail brands, pâtisseries, chocolate manufacturers, top- tier restaurants, pastry schools and, for those who aspire to be entrepreneurs, their very own brand!

Whether one is a fresher in the field, or has experience with baking, when it comes to learning, all start with the basics. The first few modules are focused on the technical understanding and scientific knowledge base that lay the foundation for the course. Food safety and sanitisation are the very first subjects introduced here. But this learning doesn’t end with the first module; it goes on throughout their course with the students’ cleanliness and hygiene on the work table monitored constantly. Whether they are kneading dough, mixing ingredients or operating blenders or ovens, the students know how to keep it clean and organised.

Baking is a science; each ingredient that goes into a baked good serves a specific function and understanding that is the key. And so, the next module educates students on the science of baking. Following that, students learn the nitty gritties of the profession, with an understanding of menu planning, budgeting and  entrepreneurship.

It is only after these basics are clear that students dive right into creating pastries. Here, students benefit from hands-on experience. Highly skilled chefs from the industry demonstrate the methods of baking cookies, cakes, fermented breads and budding bakers take down notes from their observation. The handouts that students receive provide them with the entire recipe sans the method, which they must write down as per their observation, and experience.

In this module, too, the simpler breads come in first. Students start by creating with only flour, yeast, water and salt. Then come speciality breads like dinner rolls, loafs, pizzas and more. As students progress through these modules, they cover a number of artisanal breads like ciabatta, rye bread, focaccia, sourdough and baguettes. Other desserts and confectionaries that one can expect to master at SEP are meringue, sablée, crumble, apple pie, pecan pie, tarte tatin. SEP also teaches the techniques of chocolate tempering, moulding and making artistic garnishes. As the course advances, students move on to learn miniature pastry like éclair, madeleines, macarons and tarts. After classical cakes, they try their hands at some more creatively advanced celebration cakes. Chocolate, too, graduates to an advanced level with a module covering everything from exquisite truffles to moulded pralines, ganache, gianduja and chocolate showpieces. Ice-creams, sorbets, parfaits and frozen desserts, even sugar confectionary and artistry are all part of what students learn at SEP.

Who gets to eat all of these delicious preparations, we wonder, as we see a freshly baked herbed focaccia come out of the oven. Yes, the students take them home, Chef Anil tells us, adding that there is learning in that too. The students taste, try and test some of their own creations, observing any changes to the pastries over a period of time.

Making pastry for a duration of 40 hours a week, for six months straight, sounds like an absolute party! And the students do have a great time following their passion. But in between the small laughs they share and some light chatters they exchange, one cannot miss the dedication with which each student observes and learns from their mentors, for this is a highly formal platform where they learn not just recipes and methods of making pastry, but also are trained for the professional world.

Disciplined conduct expected here includes arriving not a minute late, keeping mobile phones stored away throughout the duration of the class, attentively taking notes as the mentor chef demonstrates recipes, keeping their work space clean and sanitised, and maintaining order and organisation in the ovens, freezers, pantry and storage area.

Aside from the Diploma in Baking and Pastry, SEP also offers  few short-term courses that aim at specialisation. A 10-day chocolate masterclass taught by expert chefs Anil Rohira and Vikas Bagul, this course enables any chocolate lover to master the techniques and understand how to work with chocolate.

There has been a rising demand for gourmet eggless pastries, and for students aspiring to learn how to work with egg alternatives, SEP offers a special certification course with a duration of six weeks.

The hospitality industry, too, has become a competitive world with a number of passionate chefs and bakers seeking opportunities. Students of SEP have the advantage of being in the mentorship of chefs Anil and Vikas, highly reputed in the industry. The very approachable chefs guide students through multiple interactions over the course of their diploma programme, and even beyond, opening doors of several opportunities in the industry.

Chef Anil Rohira, Export Corporate Executive Pastry Chef at Felchlin, Switzerland, is a lauded chef whose international reputation precedes him. He started his journey into the world of pastry from the Culinary Institure of America and is known today as the best pastry chef, having won multiple awards. His expertise with chocolate tempering and sugar art is exceptional.

Then you have ex-Oberoi Executive Pastry Chef, and the one credited with having reshaped pastry kitchens of reputed hotel chains, Vikas, who demonstrates perfection in his work as well as in his expectations from the students at the academy.

The two co-founders of SEP are not just great teachers but also warm and jovial mentors for their young ones to learn and have a great time in their presence. Students at the school also gain from a community experience with the entire batch coming together for assignments where they cook and bring in breads from their homes and their communities to the class. What is interesting to note is the confluence of cuisines, what with cooking methods and flavouring ingredients flowing from one region to another, food in essence is very similar across borders.

At the end of it all, a grand party it is, when the students of the School of European Pastry graduate. The six-months diploma course ends with a grand ceremony where students lay out a buffet in a grand spread that showcases their potential in the industry, a sweet future ahead.