Learning French Pastry in the City of Light
An English-speaking cooking school in the heart of Paris? Mais oui!
I’m probably not the only home cook that’s a little pastry curious: Fascinated by the process and the results of a perfect puff pastry but thoroughly apprehensive at the thought of making it (all those episodes of British Baking notwithstanding). Bravo to those who march gallantly into their kitchens and pull it off, but rough puff is about as adventurous as I get.
Are you like me? Do you stand at pâtisserie windows, marveling at the beauty, the range, the consistency of what’s inside? Do you ever wonder how it’s all done? Or are you simply in Paris looking to make a more meaningful, less touristy memory? Then I think La Cuisine Paris (80 Quai de l'Hôtel de ville, 75004 Paris France), an English-speaking pastry school started by Jane Bertch, is for you.
Meet Jane Bertch
A little backstory: Meeting blindly in Paris several winters ago through a mutual acquaintance, Jane and I — the owner of La Cuisine Paris — became instant friends. Both Chicago natives, our similar work ethic, and not-so-secret desire to flee the Midwest gave us plenty of common ground.
As we walked the 4th Arrondissement, the Paris “Marais,” and chatted that afternoon, I learned how Jane pulled off the seemingly impossible: moving to Paris on a job transfer in the banking industry with un peu knowledge of the language, then leaving that job in 2009 to start an English-speaking cooking school (staffed by Parisian chefs). I’ll leave the more salient details to her must-read book The French Ingredient, but the sheer audacity of her story was more than a little awe-inspiring.
Jane showed me all around the 4th Arrondissement that winter afternoon, past art schools, streets featured in “Emily in Paris,” and around City Hall, also known as l’Hôtel de Ville. We spoke of life in the Midwest … and Paris.
At the end of our visit, I took a tour of her shop and its three kitchens … then bid goodbye with a promise to one day take a class. I was thrilled to have met her.
If you’re planning a trip to Paris, I encourage you to take a look at Jane’s website and its offering of cooking, pastry and baking classes, and market and restaurant tours. There are morning and afternoon classes, each no more than four hours long, allowing one to take two a day, or simply have half the day free.
Fast forward to May 2023
Rounding the corner of the glorious Hôtel de Ville one early May morning years later, I walked south along the quai with coffee in hand, past waiters quietly setting up their tables, bouquinistes, and a few early joggers.
Across the Seine, the buildings of Île Saint-Louis silently glowed in the morning light. (How easy it is to become a flâneur when such incredible beauty is everywhere). In no time I had arrived at number 80 Quai de l'Hôtel de ville.
Jane knew we were in Paris for a few days ahead of a shopping trip in the south of France, and had signed me up for “Le Croissant and Breakfast Pastries” in the morning and “Technical Tartes” for that afternoon. I opened the door shortly before 8am, knowing I was going to work.
The lobby was mostly full of Americans, all enthusiastic to start. Something about being on vacation, the spring morning, and knowing our class would be in English helped set a tone of mutual ease and chattiness. Where were we all visiting from? How had we heard of La Cuisine?
I learned that three different classes were being taught that morning, each in one of the three separate kitchens. “Le Croissant” was being taught downstairs, so down my classmates and I went, where chef Mathieu Teissier introduced himself and got right to it.
“Le Croissant” was taught in three sections: Making the yeasted dough, then making the puff pastry, and finally using the puff to create croissants and other pastries!
Chef Mathieu was a pro and an excellent teacher, having graduated from the famed Le Ferrandi. This was the case for most of the chefs at La Cuisine: All had professional chops and were working in their field within Paris! Not a bad way for a lowly home cook to learn pastry.
What followed was three hours of full-contact baking. Each of us (about six or seven) took a place around an enormous stone-topped island to measure, mix, blend, knead, and roll out pastry after the chef’s demonstration.
You can see from the image above just how many pastries we all made that morning! By the end of class, we had created pain aux chocolat, kouign-amann, cinnamon rolls, and other treats along with classic croissants. When the noon break came, everyone agreed they needed it. We were all exhausted.
The afternoon class, “Technical Tartes,” was taught by a different chef and consisted of lemon curd, chocolate, salted caramel, and fruit tarts.
Unfortunately, my phone died sometime around lunch, so I have no pictures from the afternoon class.
By the end of the day we were spent, but we all left with take-home recipes and bags of the sweets we’d made that day.
Was I a pastry chef now? Hardly. But I left with something even better: a deeper appreciation for the craft, the confidence to try it at home, and the kind of memory that stays with you long after the pastries are gone!
My hot take on La Cuisine? If you’re in Paris and like to bake, it’s a must. Where else can you learn the proper way to make pastry? I feel the classes are as much a part of the cultural patrimony of the City of Lights as any painting in the Louvre.
La Cuisine Paris is in the middle of Paris. Just a wonderful place to start a stroll down the Seine right after class!
Resources
Planning a trip to Paris? Make your experience even richer by booking a pastry or cooking class at La Cuisine Paris.
If you love French pastry but have never dared to make it yourself, why not learn from the best? Check out La Cuisine Paris' class schedule and find the perfect one for you.
Curious about how an American built a world-class cooking school in Paris? The French Ingredient by Jane Bertch is a must-read. Get your copy here.