February 12, 2014 - 7:45am
artisan bread class
Hello all, I am new to this community. Have read in this forum many good reviews classes conducted by these:
1. SFBI
2. Carl Shavitz
3. King Arthur Flour
Wonder if anyone has attended more than one or made a comparison? I am keen not just to learn the technique involved in artisan baking, but also on how to go about production in a not-so-small scale. I hope to open a bakery selling different kinds of sandwiches. Which course will I be able to benefit most from?
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is more production oriented that the other two but you have to pick their classes carefully. Their weekend classes are mostly for home bakers while their weeklong classes can attract production staff.
I have also looked into classes. I have not found any reviews, but one thing you might want to look into is Sur La Table while I doubt the classes are on the same league as the others you listed, they are very inexpensive and should be pretty close by. At least one that was offered in January had King Arthur in the title, don't know whether they follow a script from KA. It is only 4 hours, but you might pick something up.
I went to the SFBI Systematic Approach 5 day course, which is the first course to attend. I am going to the sourdough week in July. The students ranged from someone who had never baked a loaf of bread, to a pastry chef at Tartine-and all of us learned a lot. The faculty there was so great, very patient, very positive! I am sure KA courses are great also, The SFBI course is geared to large production. We mixed, proofed, shaped, etc about 20 loafs a day each. Loaded them in 160 baguette ovens. Poolish, Pate, Intensive mix, etc all were covered.
thanks for your inputs guys! I am getting closer to booking a course and looks like SFBI is the more production based one that I should head to. I have so far tried making bread from direct and sponge/dough method. Never tried sourdough, but would like to. Is there any links of such for complete novice, like a 101 to sourdough?
The King Arthur classes look really attractive to me but, it is basically on the other side of the country. SFBI seems to be more professional bakery oriented. I consider myself to be a novice bread maker so, I want to find a class that is right for a home bread baker with limited prior experience. I should note that I currently bake common things like cakes, brownies, lemon bars, corn bread, pan cakes, and simple yeast breads.
Other than Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma, are there any good schools or classes in the SouthWest (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Texas)?