Mentor Jenni and student Jasmine.
I am thrilled to be a mentor for a high school student as she works on her North Carolina Senior Exit Project! Jasmine wants to attend Johnson&Wales University with the goal of becoming a pastry chef. She found me online, realized that we lived fairly close to each other, and contacted me a few weeks ago. After asking her and her father a lot of questions (I get requests from folks all the time who aren’t necessarily as invested as I think they should be), I agreed to mentor her. We had our first meeting on Saturday, May 14, 2011 and have set up a tentative meeting schedule of once a month, along with phone and email contacts in between sessions.
Jasmine is committed to her career goal and has already completed (as of today) her Culinary 1 class at her high school. She will be in Culinary 2 for her senior year. I’ve looked over her county’s requirements for both courses, and in my opinion, baking is seriously under-represented. It is my goal as Jasmine’s mentor to teach her the way I have always thought that baking and pastry–all cooking, actually–should be taught: with an emphasis, first and foremost on ingredient function. How ingredients work, and how they interact. Also, mixing methods. How they work, why they work, how to get different results using different methods.
So, while our initial meeting was mostly a planning session, I did indulge in a bit of instruction. Even after having baked cakes in Culinary 1, Jasmine did not know what the creaming method was. Long story short: she does now. 
Here’s a brief rundown of what we discussed:
- How to perform the creaming method
- A bit about gluten–what it is, how it’s formed and what it does
- The importance of salt (are you really surprised that topic came up)?!
I gave Jasmine three cookbooks to read and study in preparation for our next meeting. Not for keepsies, but for reference: Bakewise, Cookwise , both by Shirley Corriher and How to Cook Without a Book, by Pam Anderson. I suggested that she buy the one(s) with which she feels most comfortable. I also gave her–for keeps–my review copy of The Fearless Baker by Emily Luchetti to help her start a cookbook collection.
What to Expect from The Mentoring Sessions
- Photos
- Videos
- Indepth discussion of the session with links to other resources, both on my site and elsewhere
- Jasmine’s reflections/reactions to the sessions
- My reflections on the sessions
I am considering making some of this paid content. Please leave your thoughts on this (or any other thoughts about these mentoring sessions) in the comments below.
Until next time, have a great day!
