Justin Ward - Chef & Baker

Hey friends, I’ve been importing flour from France and selling it for the last couple of years, but it arrives in 50lb bags and we have to rebag it in smaller “home-made” bags, printing labels on a home printer and all.

But that’s all changed this past week; the flour is now bagged at the flour mill in my own packaging, complete with barcodes and nutritional blocks so that the flour can get into supermarkets. It arrived in Texas this past week, so I’m supper excited.

If you wouldn’t mind liking and following my new Dubon page, that would help me out (right now it has no followers, so prospective clients might think I’m a scam, lol).

This year I added Yule Log classes to my schedule. Students in Lubbock at the Culinary CoOp and at Stephen F Austin State University in Nacogdoches did a great job!

Umm….did I have to saw the word “raw” that many times? Lol

Have you ever heard the story of the first time box cake mix was introduced into grocery stores? I read somewhere that originally box cake mix was made with dehydrated eggs and powdered milk, so all you had to do was add water.

The concept was a flop, and marketing experts decided that the instructions needed to change, so that the consumer had to add eggs.

Sure enough, it worked! It seems that adding eggs to an industrialized product was just enough to give the consumer the feeling of making something “homemade”, even if it was a processed, industrial product.

When you open a pantry door in most homes in France, you might find a can of corn, and definitely dry pasta and concentrated tomato paste, but hardly any canned vegetables or other processed foods.

People shop for fresh fruits and vegetables at least once a week at local street markets. In our little town in the suburbs of Paris, the market sets up on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Besides that we go to the supermarket once a week for juice, milk, dry goods and meat (our local market doesn’t really have a butcher or fromager).

When I am in the USA it can be frustrating, as it’s often hard to find flavorful and diverse varieties of produce. I often say, “just give me a good raw tomato.” You don’t have to peel it, stew it, can or jar it, just let me have it raw. Yet the processed stuff is cheaper than the raw produce itself…..

I’m looking forward to returning to SFA next month!

Classes offered:
French Breads 1 & 2
Croissants 1 & 2
Tarts 1 & 2
French Cakes 1 & 2
Macarons 1 & 2
Mother Sauces
Knife Skills
Choux Pastry
4 course Dining Experiences
and more!

If classes filled up before you were able to book, you'll be happy to know that I have added a few classes to the schedule!

Classes offered:
French Cakes I & II
Croisssants I & II
Macarons I & II
Tarts I & II
French Breads I & II
Knife Skills
Mother Sauces
Puff Pastry
Soufflés
Baking Class for Children
Choux Pastry
French Dining Experience

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Can’t wait! Registration just opened and already there are close to 70 people signed up!