A Morning of Macaroning at Academy of Pastry Arts, Malaysia

The Academy of Pastry Arts, Malaysia is the latest institute opened to learn the art of baking and pastries making. It's conveniently located at Wisma Thrifty along Jalan Barat, Petaling Jaya. Located right above Giant Supermarket, it's really easy to find. I was invited to experience a lesson on making macarons by Jade Wong of Mustard Tree Communications via FatBoyBakes. Thank you for the invite!





As I walked in, I'm pretty amazed with the sheer size of the academy, well that's even before we toured the entire floor space where there were separate rooms for bread making, sugar works, storage and so forth.

We were introduced to the team of the academy with Hanne Landgraf (Customer Relations Executive), Lejeune Guillame (Director of Pastry Arts), Matthias Schuebel (Consultant, 1996 Pastry Olympic Gold Medal winner) and Chef Tan Wei Loon (Pastry Chef Assistant).

Chef Guillaume Lejuene is the Director of Pastry Studies for Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia. A graduate in pastry arts (BTM en Patissier) and CAP Pâtissier- Chocolatier- Glacier- Traiteur.

Chef Lejuene has been trained under some great pastry chefs ( M.O.F) of France.

He is a certified Pastry Lecturer and a Hand on Trainer. He heads all the Pastry operation of the Academy through Continuing Education Classes, coordination with the Visiting Guest pastry chefs and operations of chocolate lounge and studio.

Chef Matthias Schuebel is a Pastry Olympic Gold Medallist chef who holds a Master Degree in Pastry and Confectionary and is well known by pastry professional throughout the region.

He has worked with some of the prestigious establishments like The Furama Hotel Hong kong, The Ritz Carlton Millenia Singapore, The Peninsula Bangkok, and The Aldon in Berlin, The Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur and the World Famous Medinat Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai.

He currently own a chocolate production House as Director and pastry chef in Malaysia , written couple of E books .He Specializes in chocolate, sugar and all kind of Petit fours.

Chef Matthias is the Guest Pastry chef for the Continuing Education Section.

We got on to our lesson where Chef Guillaume started off with making the raspberries fillings for the macaron first as it needed chilling before being whipped and piped onto the macarons. Then it was our turn for some hands on. Aly, Michael (Lil Chef - our bonus of the day according to FBB :p), Lyrical Lemongrass and FBB were in one team. I was in another team with the journalist & photographer from Nanyang Siang Pau, Jade and her colleague. Thank goodness for having Chef Matthias around for he showed us the proper way of folding and mixing.

Next, Chef Guillaume and Chef Tan showed us how to prepare the macaron. The ingredients were simple so was the method but the hardest part is the macaroning bit where we have to beat out all the air. Chef Guillaume made it look so easy! With the sugar and powdered almond in the meringue, the mixture got sticky and I have to gave up to pass the batter to someone else to continue the beating which Chef Guillaume mentioned the action is called macaroning!

Next challenge was to pipe the batter into perfect sized circles. Not easy too!!! We have lots of laughs here actually as we need to make sure we have a pair of macarons in about the same size to pair up. The terms of boyfriend and girlfriend were used here hehehe



Then, we practiced piping on the fillings onto the macaron before capping with its partner. We were taught how to jazz the simple macarons up with gold papers and gold-dusted hazelnuts.



After the fun filled session, we got on to what else but feasting! The academy have prepared loads of goodies for us to try and I tell ya everything was so yummy that all of us packed some back home!





At the moment, Academy of Pastry Arts runs 3 full time classes on baking and pastries and there will be more coming in the near future. On top of these, there are of course also continuing education series where short courses on specific bakings and pastries like sugar arts, artisanal breads, chocolates... are taught. I've uploaded the September - November course schedule here, do download it to check the dates and courses available.

Oh yeah, on Saturday 4th September (that's tomorrow!!!), 11am – 5pm the Academy will be open to everyone, who wants to explore further studies/short courses at the Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia. You can meet the Chefs/Teachers as well as get the most recent information and counseling on classes and programs. There will be tours around the facilities and demonstration by the Chefs. Be there at 12.15pm on macaron demo and 3.00pm for financier.

Do bring along your friends and family to this open house, the more the merrier!

Don't forget to check out Aly and FBB experiences too.

For more info, please contact:

Academy of Pastry Arts Malaysia
Lot 2-A,2nd Floor,Wisma Thrifty
No 19 Jalan Barat, 46200
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7960 3846
Fax: 03-7960 3848
Email: info@academyofpastryartsmalaysia.com
Web: www.academyofpastryartsmalaysia.com