What have I learned about teaching?(Or do I want to go back to school?)
I recently finished teaching a series of classes at the Kendall College on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. My friend Wook Kang is the program chair there and he offered me some classes as an adjunct instructor. I had taught the last 25 years at both Le Cordon Bleu here in Chicago and online at Escoffier School of Culinary Arts. I had never taught on a course by course basis. I thought that might be interesting. I just come in to teach a few classes throughout the year. It sounded like a very fun thing to do. Having taught online for the past 6 years, I wondered how my in-person teaching skills had fared. Did I still have the same verve I did years ago when I taught baking at Le Cordon Bleu?
I was pretty rusty when I showed up at Kendall in July. I felt so weird going into a classroom with 14 culinary students. They showed me the room I would be in. It was very small. There was a demo table, two long tables with chairs for 14 students. On the demo table I saw a wireless keyboard and a TV remote. There was a very large TV on the wall. This TV was connected to the internet and could be used for presentations. This was one of the biggest changes I experienced since I had last taught in a classroom in 2015. Le Cordon Bleu had no internet access for the classrooms. If I wanted to show content, I had to show it on an old tube TV that was not connected to the internet. In the new classroom, I found that I could set up some tabs on the browser using Google Chrome. I had access to all my pictures through Google Photos. This would be similar to what I would do when I taught online. This was going to be fun.
We were all masked and observing Covid-19 protocols of course. Even though the classroom was pretty cramped with 14 students, it was cozy and easy to communicate. There’s a dry erase board and a demo table. On the table there’s an induction burner and a Hobart mixer.There is some storage of tools and food items in a speed rack but in general, space is very limited.
The class I’m teaching, baking for culinary students, is configured to alternate a day of classroom time with a day of kitchen time. The faculty has determined that some of the skills can be learned from lecture and some from hands-on experience. We started with a discussion of custards. Custards are one of those things that I feel are fundamental to learning baking. If you can work well with eggs and dairy, you can do almost anything in the pastry kitchen. When I was in culinary school, I was given the choice to go into a cake decorating class or a custards class as my last few credits. I have been so happy I chose the custards over cake decorating. It has served me well throughout my career. I love talking about how eggs, sugar and dairy come together to thicken and transform into custards. I demonstrate creme caramel, creme brûlée and creme anglaise. The students at Kendall tend to be very attentive and ask good questions. I’m feeling pretty confident with my first foray back into the live in-person classroom.
When I was teaching at Le Cordon Bleu back in 2015, I found I was second guessing myself. I got nitpicky criticism from my superiors. I didn’t feel like I was doing a good job for the students. It didn’t help that the students themselves seemed completely disengaged from learning. I often wondered why the students were there if they didn’t want to be. The program had become very expensive and it seemed ludicrous for them to continue if they didn’t want to go into cooking as a professional career. The students at Kendall seem to be focused for the most part and want to enter the food service industry.
I talked with many students over the summer and into the fall of 2021 about their interests in the field and found they had a good idea of where they wanted to go. Many of them talked about working in restaurants while they were in school. I encourage this. Working in the field you are studying will enhance your learning on both fronts. My experience is my experience alone but I feel I can point them in the right direction after teaching for many years in the field. I get a lot of support from my friends, Chef Kang and Leigh Uhlir. I loved working with both of them back at Le Cordon Bleu.
As I enter my next year teaching at Kendall, I wanted to reflect on my experiences there. I continue to learn so much from students. They work very hard to learn their craft and through their experience, I hone my teaching style. I’m looking forward to my next class teaching our culinary students baking. What do you want to learn about baking in the new year? Put your mind to it and ask lots of questions of those who can help you. They want to help. They want to answer your questions. I also want to help you achieve your baking and cooking goals.
Happy baking!
Chef Tom Beckman
