PROGRAM OF STUDY

SEMESTER 1
Baking Concepts and Ingredients
This course provides students with an essential understanding of foundational
food technology specific to baking and pastry. It offers instruction on
ingredient function, industry applications, terminology, methodologies,
techniques and principals required to support their practical skills. The
theoretical knowledge from this course will be applied in all practical courses
of this program.
Baking Theory will help students to understand the selection process of
bakeshop ingredients and the effect of various techniques on the final product.
This knowledge serves to solve or prevent problems in the pastry kitchen.
Students will also explore the science of nutrition as it relates to baking and
pastry, preparing them to cater to customers with dietary requirements.
Bakeshop Management Theory
This course covers a range of subjects including pastry shop and staff
management; leadership; planning and costing a dessert menu; labour
costing; marketing for special events; and production forecasting. Students will
learn the advantages and challenges of bulk purchasing and storing of dry
goods; best practices for product rotation; and how to green your bakery.
Fermentation
This course focuses on understanding and applying the concept of
fermentation to the making of products using yeast. Apply fermentation and
ingredient function theory to create rich and lean dough, artisan bread,
seasonal favourites and international specialties. Learn to manage gluten and
control fermentation to produce sourdough and pre-ferments. Students will
focus on proper dough development techniques, shaping and scoring. The
student will further explore the lamination process, exploring laminated dough,
enriched dough, and the unique characteristics of each method.
Pastry and Preserves
Explore the variety of advanced pastry techniques while practicing pat
choux, pat sucre, pat sable and pie doughs to design and create a variety
of pies, flans and tarts. Also discover an assortment of classic and modern
French pastries. Additionally, students will learn to prepare a variety of
preserves using local fruit.
Cakes and Cake Decorating
This course focuses on understanding creaming, foaming and blending
techniques for a variety of cakes with an emphasis on preparing simple
sponge cakes, complex filled cakes, tortes, mousse cakes and meringues. A
variety of fillings, icings, glazes and decorative techniques will be introduced
as students produce cakes for retail sale.

SEMESTER 2
Entrepreneurship
This course will cover a wide variety of introductory topics for those interested
in starting or seeking employment in small business. The course will focus on
the entrepreneurial spirit, as well as the benefits and drawbacks of being your
own boss. Start-up skills will be explored as well as defining markets and
targeting customers, as well as the three ways to enter small business by
buying an existing business; franchising opportunities; and from-scratch
operations. The ability to maintain and sustain operations of a small business
will be covered with particular attention to cash management, debt and
financing. Finally, the skills of the small business entrepreneur will be featured
by a detailed construction of the main components of a business plan and the
necessary jack-of-all-trades management style it takes to succeed.
Chocolate, Confection, Decoration
This course will focus on chocolate and confectionery technology, ingredient
function, and the production of chocolates and confections in an artisan
setting. Practice the skill of controlling crystallization of both fat and sugar and
understand the mechanics of emulsions. Students will practice different
techniques of tempering chocolate to produce moulded and hand-formed
chocolates and centres, as well as chocolate decorations. Students will also
discover the science of sugar and heat. Techniques include crystalline and
non-crystalline confections, jellies, caramels, aerated sugar confections and
sugar as decoration.
Individual Desserts
Explore the steps for planning and conducting production for plated desserts,
banquets, VIP events, large functions and retail pastry settings. In this course,
students learn how to design and produce pastry and desserts for a variety of
outlets. Combine skills already acquired to create individual desserts
appropriate for any event or venue.
Savoury Baking
Building on previously taught culinary practices, this course teaches students
to prepare a variety of value-added savoury baked goods for retail sale.
Baking and pastry concepts from other courses in this program are reinforced
throughout the Savoury Baking course.
Capstone Project
Students will design, plan and execute a final capstone project, which includes
menu planning, costing, ordering, marketing, producing, decorating and
packaging a variety of items to be sold at a special event.