✽ Mandy ✽
The class that morning felt like it was made for me. Not the lecture part, but the moment Chef Alton rolled out two stainless steel tables covered in pastry tools and told us to touch everything.
“Today is practical,” he said. “You learn tools by using them,” I stood with Nico on my left and Lilly on my right, apron tied, hair clipped back. The tables held whisks, offset spatulas, bench scrapers, ring molds, piping bags and tips, a turntable, palette knives, microplanes, pastry brushes, cutters, rolling pins, and a set of tiny tweezers that made Nico grin. Chef Alton walked us through the basics. Grip and balance. Pressure and control. He had us smooth buttercream with an offset spatula, scrape counters clean in one pull, and pipe the same swirl over and over until our wrists s
