Last night, ICE students took part in a very special demo with ICE Pastry & Baking Arts Chef Instructor and sugar expert Kathryn Gordon who assembled a sugar showpiece from scratch.

Working only with sugar, she created a fun, seasonal showpiece featuring classic sugar techniques. She demonstrated how to pour and cast sugar and how to aerate it so that it can be blown into round shapes or pulled into ribbons or petals. She also used pastillage, an opaque sugar dough, to make snowflakes. The completely edible showpiece featured a variety of textures and colors to be a true aesthetic masterpiece. More…

Yesterday, Stephane Treand, a world champion pastry artist wrapped up a special class at the Institute of Culinary Education to teach pastry professionals about working with different forms of sugar to create elaborate showpieces. The class worked with both poured sugar and pastillage to create bright, colorful pieces with intricate details. Treand’s specialty involves using an airbrush to create detailed faces on sugar and chocolate. His work with these sweet materials won him the gold medal at the National Pastry Team Championship in 2007 and the World Pastry Championship in 2008. He was awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (M.O.F.) in 2004. He was also named one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in 2007 and 2008 by Pastry Art & Design.

From Monday through Wednesday, ICE’s pastry kitchens were Treand’s workshop as he helped professional-level students in a Center for Advanced Pastry Studies (CAPS@ICE) class learn how to make and decorate elaborate chocolate showpieces. More…