A Baker's Passion: Cookies Around The World

Ray Moderski brings a lifetime of experience and passion to A Baker's Passion. He is passionate about wonderful pastries and cookies, and especially the miniature pastries of France and Switzerland. Ray has been teaching people to bake for the last ten years. His first pastry teacher, John Clancy, was the Executive Chef for the Time Life Foods of the World project. Ray attended Ecole de Cuisine de La Varenne in Paris for nine months in 1980. He managed the bakery at the Commissary Restaurant in Philadelphia, and later he became the chef-owner of Russell's Restaurant. He was fortunate to be able to work with Madeleine Kamman, who invited him to go to California and work with her at Berringer's School for American Chefs. Consistency is the home baker's greatest challenge. What Ray has done in A Baker's Passion is develop recipes with explicit detail in the instructions, focused on weight measures, and he has applied many tricks that he has learned through the years to help instill confidence in the home baker's skills.