Chef Pfeiffer demos sugar work at George Brown

April 4, 2011, Toronto – Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, a star of the
documentary Kings of Pastry and co-founder
and dean of The French Pastry School in Chicago, entertained a packed room at
George Brown College for a special sugar decoration and sculpture demo last
Friday.

Chef Pfeiffer, a wryly witty character, led the audience
through cooking sugar, pulling and spinning sugar and making flowers and other
decorations. Bakers Journal picked up a few pointers for bakers interested in
sugar work:

1.       
For decorative work, Chef Pfeiffer recommends
using a type of sugar called isomalt, originally developed for diabetics, as it
does not crystallize.

2.      
Use smooth gloves, not ribbed when working with
sugar or you’ll end up with marks in your work.

3.      
When it comes to food colouring, water based
works based for sugar while oil based is good for chocolate.  

4.      
For cooking sugar, boil one time to 165 C

5.      
Use silicone molds to cast. You can use
inexpensive molds; candle making molds work well.

6.      
Be patient when cooling sugar. It may take all
night. Sugar work in general is the “anti-production”, he says. Not about being
fast.

7.      
A good sugar flower starts with a good bud.

8.      
Buy a silk flower and deconstruct it to figure
out how to make different flowers.

9.      
He likes to use an odd number of petals.

10.  
He studied glass blowing and transferred those
techniques to sugar work.

Tickets for the event sold for $20 with proceeds going to
baking and pastry scholarships for students of the George Brown Chef School.

Chef Pfeiffer has built a world renowned French pastry
school alongside co-found Sébastien Canonne. Some of Chef Pfeiffer’s
notable achievements include working for such prestigious clients as the Sultan
of Brunei and holding multiple top pastry chef titles and competitive medals
for pastry, chocolate and sugar work.