In honor of our partnership with the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in this new regular monthly series Chef’s Roll will highlight a featured chef or program director from Escoffier’s esteemed faculties across the country. The school’s supportive chef educators provide hands-on, experiential learning, mentoring and one-on-one coaching to help students acquire essential skills needed to succeed in the workplace. As Pastry Chef Instructor, Executive Chef Ashlea Tobeck brings a wealth of industry experience to her students at the Escoffier campus in Boulder, Colorado.
Executive Chef Ashlea Tobeck’s induction into the Disciples d’Escoffier in March 2016 with Michel Escoffier, great grandson of Chef Auguste Escoffier.Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in culinary arts?
I’ve been interested in food and cooking my entire life. Though my family will tell you that I subjected them to many terrible meals and culinary experiments in my youth, I’ve been cooking since I was a kid. It wasn’t until I was working in special education that I found out how strong my passion was. Cooking with my students every week was the highlight of my job and I spent every possible free moment in the kitchen at home. Once I knew I wanted to pursue a professional pastry career, I simply waited for the stars to align and jumped at the opportunity to attend a professional pastry program.
Is there a particular instructor/mentor from your own educational journey who stands out in your memory?
I’ve had several mentors throughout the process, but the one who stands out the most is Chef Jim Cohen. He was the first chef that I worked for after completing pastry school and he gave me an opportunity that my experience definitely didn’t justify. When his executive chef walked out in the middle of service, he turned around and offered me the job. I was terrified and thrilled at the same time. Through all of the trial and error learning that occurred in his kitchen, Jim guided me through every task and challenged me to become a stronger cook and leader in the kitchen. He was a firm leader and often more strict than I would really have preferred, but I learned more from him than in any other educational setting and I still value his wisdom and opinion today.
Executive Chef Instructor Ashlea Tobeck awarding perfect attendance awards to students.What do you love most about being an educator at Auguste Escoffier?
There are so many aspects of being an educator at AESCA that I love, but my favorite is watching the moments of growth and confidence in the students. When they start the program, they bring a little bit of trepidation into a new tasks, but that moment where they first understand or find success with a new task is the most rewarding part of education. It’s the moment where you witness a student finding their passion and discovering their place in the world. Every chef will tell you that this field is tough and tiring, but they wouldn’t have it any other way; getting to witness that realization in our students is truly spectacular.
Walk us through a typical day at the school:
One of the best things about our program is that there are routines that occur, but there isn’t really a typical day; because of our accelerated curriculum, our students are doing new and different things each day. Our students are on campus for six hours a day, which includes two portions: one classroom portion featuring discussion and introduction of new concepts followed by the laboratory portion of the day where the students are in the kitchen putting those concepts to work. We focus on technique based cooking and independence from recipes so our students complete a daily production sheet that will guide them through the lab during that day and help them to have a solid foundation of technique when they enter the industry. Classroom time varies significantly depending on the topics covered, but often involves group discussions, interactive activities, and time for review and reflection. Laboratory time starts with a line-up where students uniforms and production sheets are inspected for the day.
Each course in the program has a slightly different flow, but after line-up students will view live technique demonstrations from their chef educator and then practice those techniques on their own. At the end of the production time, students participate in sensory analysis, where they taste the products they have made and discuss the success or sometimes lack thereof with their chef educators and classmates. This is a time where students are able to explore the results and discuss the rights and wrongs of the day while receiving feedback from the chefs and their peers. Students finish the day by cleaning the kitchen, which allows for an understanding of the techniques and processes necessary to maintain a safe and functional professional work space. Each day ends with a wrap-up from the chef educator and a preview of the next day’s lessons.
Do you partner with any local culinary organizations for events & demos?
I personally work closely with the American Culinary Federation Colorado Chef’s Association on a variety of events and community activities. I also volunteer with Children’s Hospital of Colorado to teach cooking classes focused on affordable and healthy meal preparation. We work with the Governor’s Mansion Preservation Society to prepare food for events at the CO Governor’s Mansion. We’ve worked with We Don’t Waste to raise money for meals in the Denver area and we partner each year with the Temple Grandin School in Boulder to provide the food for their Town Hall Picnic and 5K Shuffle. Chefs Dustin Brafford, of Komotodo Sushi Burrito, Taylor Creedon, of Tap Fourteen, Chef Daniel Asher, of River and Woods, and Emma Nemecheck, of Sodexo, have worked closely with us at many community events and have been strong employment partners for our students. We also have many other chefs that we have worked with on various events.
How do you like to keep up with what’s going on in the pastry world?
My favorite way to keep up is to go out to eat and I usually order dessert first. It’s so much easier to find the best sweets when you aren’t already full from dinner. I also peruse menus online and check out the latest items that my favorite chefs are making.
Chef Ashlea Tobeck pulls a margherita pizza out of the oven at Pizzeria da Lupo. (Cyrus McCrimmon / The Denver Post).Best piece of advice for students considering a career as a pastry chef?
The advice that I most commonly give to students considering a career in pastry is to look for the beauty in even the most mundane of tasks; embrace the science, as it will expand your capabilities in the kitchen; and buy really comfortable shoes.
Being based in Colorado, what are some of your favorite local ingredients?
I love the ability to challenge myself and cook with what’s available. I enjoy incorporating things like beets and carrots into my pastries and will use local goat cheese whenever possible. Springtime means rhubarb for pastries and the start of the Palisade peach countdown. On the savory side, I look for local lamb and pork whenever possible and do my best to get eggs straight from the farm.
How would you describe your pastry philosophy in five words or less?
Unexpectedly better for your body.
What was the last dish you made at home?
As crazy as it seems for a pastry chef, we are a grain free household so I’m always experimenting with different foods and finding ways to make sweets without grains. For dinner tonight we’re having Thai shrimp tacos with avocado ranch slaw and strawberry rhubarb crumble made with coconut flour crust.
Learn more about Executive Chef Ashlea Tobeck at her Chef’s Roll Profile.
