The Sign of a Great Pastry Chef

I have trained many dough-eyed aspiring chefs in the past 20 years. The elation of buttoning up their embroidered chef coat and standing at their sparkling stainless steel station is quickly tempered when they make their first costly mistake.

There's the shame: Get over it. There's the blame: Don't do it. There's the guilt: No time for it. There's the frustration: Deal with it.

None of these are helpful ingredients. We have customers waiting on us, coworkers needing us and--heaven forbid--a bride counting on us to deliver.

"The sign of a great pastry chef is not doing things right the first time, it's figuring out what to do when the inevitable happens."

The inevitable is the burner was too high, the cream turned to butter, the chocolate seized, the cake sank, the human did what humans do--made a mistake.

Did you know that the chocolate molten lava cake was originally just under-baked? That the Tarte Tatin has all its apples on the top because it fell on the floor, upside down? And that ganache means 'chump' because some fool poured hot cream into chocolate once?

You will learn that mistakes aren't bad things, they're just things that happen. You will push your boundaries and learn of your capabilities. You will ask for help and give people a chance to help you. You will be inventive beyond what you knew you could do. You will put panic and control aside and be ingeniously spontaneous. You will face your fear (omit those useless ingredients!) and you will get through it. You will amaze yourself.

The impromptu avant-garde result might not be a timeless masterpiece, but you will create a legacy.