Explanation
I have heard from the board owner that a few members have had a few unkind things to say about some of the postings that I have placed here. Thinking about this I kind of thought that those that people deserve an explanation.
I don’t normally talk about this but it is nothing that I am ashamed of its just personal but here goesI was forced to leave the baking industry due a really serous illnessA few years back I was diagnosed with colon rectal cancer. This was not a polyp but full blown stage 3 cancer.
Well I was not about to let this stop me being a tough old some bitch I fought this with all I had The result is I’m still here my even though the last blood tests were not great.Well the drugs that I took to fight the cancer 4 years ago were relatively new on the market and there side effects were known but did not really have any long term studies done yet.
The drug combined with the borderline diabetes I also have cause a neurologic condition which make my feet feel like their in cement buckets making being on my feet for any length of time impossible. It also has the same effect on my hands which are num most of the time. If you notice most of the typos are a missed the key I am trying to press and hit the key ether next or underneath. I also had a small stroke during the chemo-rad treatments
Sympathy I don’t want like I said I’m a tough old some bitch and 4 years after the diagnoses I’m still here with the five year survival point just around the corner. I since all this happened I have been trying to pass all that have learned to others that, like myself love to bake.
I have already done this with my 20 something year old son who is presently employed at Peter Kelly’s latest 4 star restaurant in Yonkers as the pastry chef.
With all this extra time on my hands I needed to something to keep myself from going crazy. I started a small consulting company setting up and designing of computer systems for bakeries. I expanded that to other markets and a small retail computer service business, also consulting on some new projects for product development that because on contracts a cannot talk about
Without a professional kitchen at my command and thinking about my early days when baking I started doing research on ways the home baker could get the same results from a home kitchen using professional formulas that have been reduced to amounts that can be handled in a home kitchen. And modified methods and equipment that can be found or made with easily located materials ( all though some things specific to recipe or two that you just can’t do without (like making chicken soup without chicken you just can’t do it) A book is in the works but I don’t know if I have to time to finish it.
So that’s it, If i offend it is not my intention to do so, if I talk as though time is short it’s because it is. If I post something that you don’t understand, ill explain it all can call me on Skype or email or phone.
I offer My experience here to expand the already large base of information from all the other bakers here And if you do not want my help feel free to ignore me I don’t offend easily.
With so few young people going into the baking industry (they all want jobs behind a desk with nice clean hands) soon the only way you will ever get to taste something other than wonder bread and ho ho’s will be to make it yourself.
How would you even know about it if you never saw, smelled or touched it (children born today will never see touch or listen to a 33 rpm record) and while there are many good books there. Most of them (that I have read) seem to hold back a little something or not explain with adequate detail so the home baker never really has a chance to make something as good as the author can.
So that’s all folks I just want to help and pass on what I have so it does not get lost and the generations to come don’t end off living off of wonder bread.
Ps: if any one reading this does not know where the expression “that’s all folks” came from ask your parents better still if you’re lucky enough your grandparents to explain it to you am sure they will happy to!
PPs: this was copied and paste from microsoft word and it would seem that all the formating was lost. i formated it.