In honor of our partnership with Culinard – The Culinary Institute of Virginia College, in this new quarterly series Chef’s Roll will highlight a featured chef or program director from Culinard’s esteemed faculties across the country. Committed to sharing their knowledge, and passion for the culinary arts with each student, the school’s team of faculty and staff not only help graduates develop a taste for success, but the skills required to develop a successful career in the hospitality industry. This month, Chef’s Roll sat down with Chef and Culinary Instructor Barry Brock at Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where he instructs students in Nouvelle French savory and baking culinary techniques, in addition to representing Culinard in culinary competitions.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in culinary arts?
My grandmother is my greatest inspiration. Like many people from her generation in East Tennessee, her culinary skills were learned and honed directly from other family members. At no point during a visit to her house were you going to have something bad to eat. They had a garden and I remember visiting farmer’s markets with her on Saturday mornings. The food that sprang from her fingertips seemed like magic to me. As I got older, I started to watch cooking shows and delighted in learning the science behind it. Shows like Alton Brown’s Good Eats and America’s Test Kitchen who told you the “whys” of cooking were much more informative than a show that featured a recipe and a chef cooking it.
You completed a Culinary Certificate in Baking & Pastry Arts at Culinard. Was there a particular instructor or mentor who stands out in your memory?
My mentor to this day was my Baking & Pastry instructor, Chef Jeanne Mancuso. Everyday Chef Jeanne challenged us to work on our weaknesses and follow our passions. I had never really piped before so my lettering and piping starting out were like an alien language. Each day, Chef Jeanne would have me pipe the alphabet and various cake borders. She allowed me to make mistakes so I could learn from them and use them to strengthen my skills. Chef Jeanne also encouraged me to break out of my comfort zone and focus on being the best I can be in the kitchen, and to never accept mediocrity. She knew exactly when to be hard on a student and when to build them back up. I am forever grateful for the time and commitment she made for me, and the students in my class.
What do you love most about being a culinary instructor at Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College, Baton Rouge?
I love to see the smiles on the students’ faces when I show them a technique or method they have probably heard about before or seen on TV. It’s like you are pulling the curtain back on a magic trick and it makes sense to them at that point. It’s also exciting to see the students replicate the techniques they may never have thought they were capable of doing. Here lately, the students have been really enjoying making pasta dough by hand and seeing the difference in quality between it and packaged, dry pasta. Our introduction to baking also gets this a lot. I always hear a lot of whining about how they “hate” baking. What I find though, is once they learn the proper techniques and taste their first successful creation, they are quick converts to the baking process.
I tell my students all the time, the culinary world is much like the athletic superstars you see, you must have the basics and fundamentals down to muscle memory before you can even think about moving into advanced territory.
What does a typical day look like for you at the school?
I teach the beginning culinary students so a typical day starts with a ServSafe Manager lecture. The other chefs and I work hard to ensure the students are ready for the ServSafe exam. After ServSafe, I cover the culinary topic and lesson for the day along with a demonstration or two before heading into the kitchen. Once in the kitchen, I keep a constant watch on how the students are performing and techniques they are using. It’s hard to describe, but you develop an intuition to knowing when a student is doing something wrong in the kitchen without being near them. I often let the student make a mistake before correcting them, since most people learn better from their errors, including myself. I don’t berate them or make them feel inadequate since our job is teach and support. I enjoy seeing the “A-ha” moment on every student’s face when a technique or skill clicks in their mind. It reminds me I was once where they stood.
Matcha Crawfish Risotto in Maque Choux & Annato Sauce with Parmesan Tuile by Chef Barry Brock.How important is it for you to keep up with what’s going on in the pastry world?
Like anything else, how well your business adapts to current trends typically reflects how well you will do in the future. Culinary schools used to get a bad reputation from being stuck in the past and not adopting and teaching the latest trends. In some ways it is a fair assessment, but in many it is not. With the Internet and social media being what it is today, trends can change in a matter of days or weeks. As a school, we can only adapt so fast since the curriculum is set in advance and each day is planned out to the final minute of the last day. Just one change can throw it off completely unless it is planned for accordingly. But what we focus on instead, is teaching the fundamentals and concepts of baking and pastries and showing how they translate to modern day trends. For example, with cake pops and cupcakes being big a few years ago, you tell the student, you know how to use the creaming method, how to accurately measure batter into pans, and how to pipe on the resulting cake, so with a few adjustments to that process, you have your cupcake or cake pop. I tell my students all the time, the culinary world is much like the athletic superstars you see, you must have the basics and fundamentals down to muscle memory before you can even think about moving into advanced territory.
Who are some of the local culinary members you partner with for events & demos?
On Sunday, May 2 we are partnering with the Slow Food Baton Rouge for their Dinner in the Field event which benefits a “farm to school program” and local elementary school herb gardens. It will feature locally grown foods prepared by Baton Rouge celebrity chefs. It will include a cocktail hour along with a six-course dinner. Our students are excited to meet some of the local chefs they have heard of before, but never had the chance to meet. I also think it is important for students to see how important it is to support their local agriculture sources especially in a state so rich in natural resources. Many Baton Rouge and New Orleans restaurants proudly proclaim they source all of their ingredients from within 90 miles of their location. We also partner with LSU Burden Museum & Botanical Gardens. Every year in the fall they do a Cocktail in the Garden event, which features bartenders from local restaurants who make their signature libation, and our school and students provide the food and food service. We also collaborate with them for Saturday Children events which have included constructing Gingerbread Houses and Valentine’s Day Cookie decorating.
One piece of advice you have for students considering a career as a pastry chef?
My one piece of advice to new pastry chefs is to stage at different restaurants and bakeries than at the one you work. Starting out, I would visit many of the local bakeries and volunteer my time in order to learn their methods and processes. Each place typically does something different or better than the way you might have done it in the past. Staging also helps you work on your weaknesses by working with someone with many more years of experience than you possess who can show you the ins and outs of the process. It is also a great way to meet other pastry chefs in order to bounce new ideas back and forth. Even now, I am working on setting up a stage with a local coffee roaster since I find the various styles of coffee fascinating.
How can graduating culinary arts students gain an advantage in their job search if they are hoping to break into the pastry specialty?
Having that Pastry degree or certification is key. A degree is of the utmost importance because students learn the science behind techniques they will use every day. Anyone can show someone with no baking knowledge how to measure, mix, and bake bread, but they do not know why some days they might need more flour and others, more hydration. A trained patissier will understand how to troubleshoot problems as they arise in the kitchen which to me, is one of the most important skills to possess.
The foodie explosion which has occurred in the past 20 years or so, also means more restaurants are seeking highly trained and skilled labor instead of someone with secondhand baking knowledge. I advise new graduates to visit as many places as they can to try the food they are preparing. If you are impressed with what they are selling, then I tell the students to set up a time to talk with the chefs or arrange a stage to see if they would be a good fit. Most chefs I talk with are excited to get culinary school graduates since they know they usually do not need much maintenance or supervision.
Again, it goes back to the culinary graduate having the knowledge to work around issues and understanding every aspect of the kitchen is a race against time. I am also excited to see Chefs Roll growing in popularity since I believe we need more food-related websites geared towards matching food employers with highly trained employees.
How is the current job market for pastry chefs? What is your prediction for the next five years?
I think in many ways the market for trained pastry chefs is wide open right now. I see more restaurants wanting to get away from the traditional cheesecake or slice of chocolate cake. Restaurant patrons are constantly chasing the next culinary trend, and desserts and breads are starting to garner their attention. There are so many fun and exciting ways to deliver the dessert experience. Desserts are not held back by the kind of protein they use or starch it is paired with like the savory side. I tell my students that with pastries and desserts, the sky is the limit…they can be light and whimsical, rich and decadent, colorful and fun, or all of them put together. Many executive chefs are beginning to realize this and starting to hire classically trained pastry chefs to revamp their dessert menus.
Also, I believe the market is clamoring for fresh ingredient patissiers and bakers. Too often, I still see bakery and dessert items for sale that taste like they came out of box or are filled with chemicals and preservatives. I think diners are much more conscious of the food they splurge for outside of the home and want food that tastes fresh and alive. Our flour situation in this country, to me, has gotten abysmal with only a couple of major players who mass mill grains and push them out the door. But, I am starting to see a few local millers pop up around the country, which is very exciting. I tell my students if they want to start a bakery or dessert business, to grow it organically if capital is an issue. Produce some products and take them to local area farmer’s markets or events and see what kind of reaction and following they get. You typically are not going to get rich selling there, but the point is to get your name and tastes out there for the public to try. I know of many chefs that have started up their business like that, and as they grow too big for the market, space and demand opens up for another to take its place.
Do you have a humbling or humorous anecdote from your culinary career?
One humbling experience for me was hearing something I did not wish to hear related to career changers like myself. I believe it was on Daniel Boulud’s TV show, After Hours, in which he or one of his guests stated that someone wishing to get into the culinary world later in life would never be a great chef. I immediately disagreed with what he had to say and got angry about it. But just as quickly, I understood what he meant and it crushed me inside because I knew it to be true in some ways. What he was trying to convey was that most great chefs have been working in some form of the culinary industry since they were a teenager. They had seen and done it all by the time I was only thinking about attending culinary school. I would be an old man by the time I learned every trick and technique they know. So while it was a humbling thought, it made me want it that much more. I always want to prove people wrong when they say I am unable to do something. But as I tell my students especially the older career changers like me, not every chef knows absolutely everything there is to know about the culinary industry. Find your niche and master it. If it’s coffee, then roast the best coffee in the world that makes people want to order it from you across the country. If it’s pastry, then make the delightful confections that make patrons line around the corner up at 5 a.m. Never accept anyone telling you to give up or that you will never be as good as them.
Learn more about Chef Barry Brock at his Chef’s Roll Profile HERE.
