Amy Green

"My Most Exciting Food Experience"
Feeding My Soul: Culinary School, Gluten-Free and Sugar-Free  

The last 5 months of Culinary School – without gluten or white sugar – have been unparalleled.

Exciting? Maybe not.
Rewarding.  Definitely.

Yes, there have been moments of excitement.  Meeting Ewald Notter, Joel Salatin, Sharon Van Meter, and Bronwen Weber.  Building and decorating a 4 tier birthday cake live on stage for Shakespeare’s 446th birthday.  Extraordinary moments in time, but not enough to feed my soul.

Daily Rigors

Before arriving to class, I’ve counted the parts of my uniform at least twice to make sure I have all 7 pieces and double checked my knife kit and chef tool box.  Proper uniform and tools are mandatory.  Arriving at least fifteen minutes early ensures I’ll be on time. If I’m even one minute late, Chef can decide not to let me in class. Each moment in the kitchen I’m being evaluated by my peers or my Chef instructors as they make judgments about my developing technique, or lack thereof.

Combined with not being able to eat any wheat or white sugar and most days my stomach is in knots. 

There is something deep inside me,though, that wants more than anything to bring joy to others through delicious gluten-free, sugar-free food.  Failure isn’t an option.

An Uncanny Love Affair

The biggest reward has surprisingly come through an entire class of gluten and sugar filled treats – Fundamentals of Baking.  I didn’t eat one treat.  Not even a bite. 

On our first day in the kitchen, we baked bread.   Baguettes, bagels, grissini, knot rolls, and whole wheat batards.  Instead of tasting loaves hot out of the oven, I pulled them apart, squeezed the center,  sliced the loaves, smelled the rich aromas, compared crusts and weights.  I asked other students to describe the taste and when Chef gave her critique of our products I wrote down every word she said.

After class, holding back tears, I asked Chef if she thought I could actually learn how to bake without tasting.  She said yes, and explained what I’d need to do.  I wasn’t sure she believed what she said but I had to hold on to something. 

And so it went for quick breads, cakes, frostings, cookies, pies and pie crust, puff pastry, pate au choux, croissants, and danish.

As the days went by, the knots in stomach loosened a bit as Chef taught me how to use my senses of smell, sight, touch, and sound in the kitchen.  My ears have learned to listen for the sound of meringue in the mixer and the crackle of a perfectly baked croissant being pulled apart.  My hands understand the difference between flaky and mealy pie dough.  Instead of eating a plate of sweets at the end of class, I’ve internalized the scent of orange and cardamom, raspberry and almond paste, and the light scent of vanilla in an Italian buttercream.

Somewhere along the way, I’ve fallen in love with the whirl of the mixer, the hum of the convection ovens, and the delight of yeast bread fully risen, ready to go in the oven.  A kind of magic happens each time seemingly unrelated ingredients are mixed together, placed in the oven, and transform into edible bliss. Whether  the result is a pecan pie, a tray of cream puffs, or old-fashioned bread pudding makes no difference.

The art and craft of baking is beginning to make sense.  The life of the pastry shop feeds my soul.

Amy Green authors Simply Sugar & Gluten-Free, a blog aimed at making sugar-free, gluten-free food healthier and simple.