Z Bakery Goes To Paris: First Week at E.B.P.

I cannot remember when Big Chimney closed but it was a big deal for me. Good bread from a local small business was no longer available.
By closing his business, Matt Rapposelli opened a new door in my life and I thank him for that. Having said that I would not have pushed the door wide open without the help of my husband, Bruce, who bought me, on the one hand a top of the line Zojirushi bread machine and on the other hand the book Rustic European Breads from Your Bread Machine by Linda West Eckhardt and Diana Collingwood Butts. I got hooked and started making french baguettes out of my home. Time past......Bruce, again, bought me a top of the line Kitchen Aid mixer. I stopped using the bread machine and continued making French baguettes. In May 2010, I started selling my breads in Athens, Ohio. Wanting to learn more on bread making, I studied two weeks at the The San Francisco Baking Institute (SFBI) in December 2010. I learned about baguette making and artisan breads using preferments.

On January 22nd, 2012, I left for Paris to attend the Ecole de Boulangerie and Pâtisserie de Paris (EBP) getting the Certificat d'Aptitude Professionnelle (CAP) of Boulangerie. My husband, Bruce and my daughter, Zoé remain in Athens until mid June. They will then join me when school is over. We will get back to Athens August 18th. I am fortunate to be able to stay in our Paris appartment located in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.

Classes run from Monday January 30th until May 11th. The national exam is sometime end of May beginning of June (more on that topic later).

Rue des Pirogues de Bercy in the 12th arrondissement, EBP

I arrived at the EBP on Monday January 30th at 8:15am. Classes only started at 9:30am - oops, I guess I was eager to start!!!

There are 36 adults taking the class, all ages ..... I am not the youngest and I am not the oldest!!! We are divided in 3 groups for hands on sessions otherwise we are together. My group of 12 meets from 1:30pm until 8:30pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, we all meet for classes on Professional Technical Know How and Prevention, Health and Environment from 8:30am to 5:30pm with a lunch break. On Friday afternoon from 13:30pm to 5:30pm, we learn about taking over an existing bakery business. Every other Friday, we have classes from 8:30am to 12:30pm on the Legal aspect of the business. Of course, the focus is on French laws and market but it will definitely help me in the future.
We spent Monday January 30th with a presentation of the school and the staff and doing exercises where we calculated how much ingredients were needed for a given order of bread (pains, baguettes, batards and régionaux).
In my group, there are 3 women (Fabienne, Pascale and me) and 9 men (Frédéric, Max, Luis, Eric, David, Laurent, Gaël, Ibrahim, Jamel. Our instructor is Olivier.

Bâtards and Regional shapes with Intensified
Dough - Direct

Bâtards with Intensified Dough - Direct

On Tuesday, January 31st, the focus of the hands on session was shaping "ordinary bread" in bâtard and regional shapes such as Tabatière, Pain d'Aix, Fendu Court, Fendu Long and Auvergnat. We only use flour, water, yeast and salt. Batches for 13 people (instructor included) are prepared in big mixers by a couple of us. We all take turn. The batches are then divided by 13 and we shape breads according to the final list of breads we have to make. We stand on our feet for 8 hours with only a 10mn break. Needless to say that we are dead by the end of the day.

Not my group but it gives a good idea of the lab

We have our own "station". I was the last one to get to the lab on Tuesday, I therefore got the one closest to the ovens. I am hot but I am also close to the fridges and weighing station so it has it's advantages as well.

On Wednesday, February 1st, the focus was still the same, shaping "ordinary bread" but we added the pains shape. We have to be able to shape regularly different breads but all breads of a given shape must be the same length and volume. We load our own breads in the ovens (something I never got to do at the SFBI). We have our own oven space. The oven in the lab has 12 slots. It is huge and most probably outrageously expensive. We baked three different loads that day.
At the end of the day when, we all get to clean the whole lab using a water hose, brooms and brushes. Everything gets cleaned - floor, stations, equipment. We will be judged on that as well for the exam.