Learn The Art Of The Crème Puff

By Melissa Wiley in Food on Oct 9, 2012 5:40PM

Pastry is more than sugary sustenance. It’s confectionery art, and no one knows this better than the French, Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer included.

Not only is Pfeiffer a co-founder of the French Pastry School of Chicago, but he has competed for the ultimate pastry chef credential, the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF), with the cameras rolling all the while for the surprisingly engrossing 2009 documentary Kings of Pastry. So who better to help aspiring pâtissiers master the elusive art of the crème puff?

Excusez-moi, perhaps we should say pâte à choux, because when you say things in French it just sounds so much more recherché. And it’s going to be a fancy pants kind of evening this Thursday at the Driehaus Museum, which will host this first in a series of elegant homages to the French pastry.

Titled “Steeped in Tradition: Kings of Pastry,” the series will also include the forthcoming Luscious World of Caramel as well as Sugar Showpieces. Flora Lazar, producer of Kings of Pastry as well as an accomplished food historian and pastry chef in her own right, will be on hand for all the tutorials, which will provide ample opportunity for tasting as well as perfecting classic patisserie amid the opulence of the museum’s fin de siècle ballroom. Tickets are $60 ($50 for Driehaus Museum members), and the crème starts puffing at 6:30 p.m.

The Driehaus Museum is located at 40 E. Erie St.