The program is at Clark College in Vancouver WA. Clark is a 2 year technical school/community college. The head chef for the baking program is Ian Titterton, He held executive pastry chef positions throughout the United Kingdom and the United States. He has served as executive chocolatier at Moonstruck Chocolates and lead instructor at the Western Culinary Institute.
I am planning to get my AAS in bakery management. It is a 6 semester program, which I will hopefully be completing by august of 2011. The first 3 semesters you are a normal student, learning, and absorbing everything you can. And the last 3 semesters you are a management student, working with the instructor, and managing the normal students. The program is set up like a real bakery. We have 5 stations which we rotate through every 2 weeks. Everything we make is sold in our store, which also takes orders we receive from the school, and the community.
The stations are Cakes/Chocolates, or known better as Chef's room. Here we work on cakes, crème puffs, éclairs, tarts, chocolates, candies and meringues. Viennoiserie, or laminated dough, we make Danishes, croissants, and turnovers, as well as anything that is made with those sorts of dough. These two stations are probably my favorite. Breads, my most frustrating station, we make different kinds of breads, and lots of them. Store/store back, we sell the goods in the store, and set it up, as well as make brownies, quick breads, cookies, and bars. (In the summer we skip this station, and if something needs made for it, another station will pick it up.) And Early morning is the last station. Here we make pies, doughnuts, muffins, scones, biscuits, and coffee cakes.
We go through the same stations every semester, learning more, and developing our skills. Twice weekly we have theory classes, where chef does demos, and we learn about baking theory. Management students stay at a station for 5 weeks, and they also have the option for a 5 week internship in the community.
The program also has 2 other supplemental classes. Cake decorating, which is just what it sounds like, and pastry arts, which is more detail in pastry work. I will be taking Cake decorating in the fall, and pastry arts in winter.
