Fresh Banter with Claire Clark, Pastry Chef, Author , Pastry Consultant, Business Owner

Fresh Banter with Claire Clark MBE , consultant pastry chef, the only woman in the UK to be awarded an MOGB ( more of that in the episode).Claire and fellow pastry chef, Sarah Crouchman, partner in Pretty Sweet a high-end Patisserie catering service producing pastry treats for hotels, events like Chelsea Flower Show, Wimbledon and desserts for The Brit Awards. In the week we record this they are making 1100 Yule logs and hand decorating 350 Christmas cakes that they have baked as well as hundreds of small, individual desserts …. all with an incredible finish and eye for detail. Claire has worked at the Ritz, intercontinental, Claridges, Buckingham Palace and in California with Thomas Keller for 5 years at the French Laundry.She has worked alongside some of the best known chefs and pastry chefs in the UK, and has loved the opportunity to learn from them all.We talk about what her current day entails , about running a business as well as creating new products and working out the schedules, timings etc for all of that day’s productionWe talk about being organised, methodical, practical and if that is why pastry attracts a lot of female chefs rather than the main kitchen where things are very urgent and very much here and nowClaire reveals she is a Marmite lover She talks about travelling to California to work with Thomas Keller at the French Laundry, as someone who is very close to her own family and had never missed a Christmas with them , and how it surprised her she did that, stayed 5 years and loved it.We talk too about the challenges facing the industry , about the shortage of skilled pastry chefs and how we can encourage more people into these jobsFor all that Great British Bake Off is a huge hit, there are still not the numbers of people we need wanting to learn these skills and work their way up, the way that Claire did … Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.