Skip to content

4-week chef-led course

Classes start Sep 14 Sign up by Sep 10
Pastry chef finishing a cake
Classes start Sep 14 Sign up by Sep 10

Pastry
Pro Essentials

Build a strong foundation in pastry and baking.

Learn how ingredients, heat, and precise measurements shape your results. Practice yeast breads, laminated doughs, pâte à choux, cookies, custards, frozen desserts, and cakes. Then bring it all together with layer cake assembly, decorating techniques, and chocolate tempering.

Jump to Course Details
  • 4 weeks
  • Chef-led, live online sessions
  • ~4–5 hours / week
  • Certificate of Completion*

Skills this course can help you build

  • Pastry chef-led instincts for precision, timing, and technique.
  • Develop a baker’s precision for measuring and scaling.
  • Understand how flour, sugar, fat, and leaveners actually behave.
  • Guided practice from yeast breads to pâte à choux.
  • Techniques for chocolate types, tempering, and finishing.
  • Earn a Certificate of Completion.*

*Completion of Essentials Courses does not constitute academic credit, nor will they qualify for transfer of academic credit in any academic program or course offered by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts under the terms of the school's licensing or accredited programs.

Four weeks, one foundation

The 4-week curriculum

  1. Week 01: Baking Basics

    • Food Safety and Sanitation
    • Knife Construction, Handling, and Care
    • Classic Knife Cuts
    • Effects of Heat — Coagulation, Caramelization, and Gelatinization
    • Measuring, Scaling, and Baker’s Percentage
    • Flours, Sugars, Fats, and Leaveners
  2. Week 02: Bountiful Breads and Laminated Doughs

    • Creaming, Blending, and Cut-In Methods
    • Yeast Breads — Steps of Bread Making
    • Lamination Methods — Puff Pastry and Viennoiserie
    • Pâte à Choux Methods
  3. Week 03: Cookies, Custards, and Cakes

    • Cookies and Methods
    • Custards — Stirred, Boiled, and Baked
    • Frozen Desserts
    • Egg Foaming and Aeration Methods
    • Cake Mixing Methods
    • Layer Cake Assembly and Decorating Techniques
  4. Week 04: Chocolate Techniques

    • Chocolate — Types, Ingredients, and Tempering

    Quiz and Certificate of Completion

Two dishes of crème brûlée with berries and mint

This Pastry Pro Essentials
Course Starts September 14

Developing a pastry chef’s mindset

The plan to get you thinking more like a pastry chef

  • Weekly live online sessions Recordings available if you can’t attend.
  • Interactive lessons Video demos & explainers.
  • Recipes & charts Downloadable, printable PDFs.
  • Interactive diagrams Learning tools, not just video.
  • Two people browsing dish photos on a phone Knowledge checks Practice as you go.
  • Faculty messaging Ask Escoffier faculty directly.
  • Learn from almost anywhere Mobile-friendly, flexible schedule.
  • Certificate of Completion* Escoffier Pro Essentials credential, earned via final assessment.

*Completion of Essentials Courses does not constitute academic credit, nor will they qualify for transfer of academic credit in any academic program or course offered by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts under the terms of the school's licensing or accredited programs.

Live online sessions with Escoffier faculty

Chef Luke Shaffer, Escoffier chef instructor

Live online sessions with Escoffier faculty

Explore a chef’s approach, live.

Each course includes one weekly live session led by an Escoffier Chef Instructor or faculty member. Sessions are tied to that week’s course content and may include Q&A, demonstration, coaching, or guided technique discussion depending on the topic. Recordings are posted to the course page after the session.

This Pastry Pro Essentials
Course Starts September 14

How the course works

Structured, but on your schedule

  1. Join a class Your course starts on a set date, with a real beginning and end.
  2. Learn each week Work through the week’s lessons whenever it suits you.
  3. Join live online sessions Join the weekly live session or catch the recording if you miss it.
  4. Earn your certificate of completion Finish with a short assessment and earn your Certificate of Completion.*

*Completion of Essentials Courses does not constitute academic credit, nor will they qualify for transfer of academic credit in any academic program or course offered by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts under the terms of the school's licensing or accredited programs.

Your credential

Finish with a Certificate of Completion.

Pass the final assessment and earn a Certificate of Completion* — a shareable mark of the work you put in.

  • Awarded on passing the final assessment
  • Recognizes four weeks of chef-led training
  • Shareable on LinkedIn and your résumé

Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts

Continuing Education

Certificate of Completion

This certifies that

has completed Pastry Pro Essentials, a four-week chef-led course.

Final assessment passed

*Completion of Essentials Courses does not constitute academic credit, nor will they qualify for transfer of academic credit in any academic program or course offered by Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts under the terms of the school's licensing or accredited programs.

Questions about this course

No. Pastry Pro Essentials starts from foundations and is built for beginner-to-intermediate home bakers. You bring the curiosity; your chef brings the method.

This Pastry Pro Essentials
Course Starts September 14

Four weeks from now, you could
bake with confidence.

Reserve Your Seat
Students from ,
Earn a degree or diploma from the largest culinary school brand in the U.S.!*

Find all the resources you need to begin your culinary journey at Escoffier.

Get Started Here
*Based on comparable student population data for Austin and Boulder as currently reported in Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
Arrow