Michael Schneider's Page

It's been awhile since I wrote anything on this site and I miss communicating with the professionals in the pastry field. In fact, since giving up my position as editor of Pastry Art & Design - now titled Dessert Professional - I haven't written much of anything anywhere.

So without further adieu, I will jump right in.

This past event in Phoenix was really very gratifying. Partly because everyone felt that with the economy as bad as it was it would be the final National Pastry Team Champio… Continue

Each day seems to be filled with one bit of bad economic news after the other. No sooner do the banks declare good profits then analysts tear them down for shady although legal accounting practices. Unemployment is up and we have a hard time feeling as if this will ever end. BUT - it will end! And when it does we will need to assess the damage and hopefully not have too deep a hole to crawl out of.

For the past 10 years we have been presenting the National and World Pastry Team Championships. F… Continue

I received a phone call today from someone very close to me asking me if we were going to have an event this year in Phoenix. She wanted to know if the National Pastry Team Championship and the World Pastry Forum was cancelled.

Wow. Where did that come from? Not once did I ever consider cancelling these events.

Sure, the economy has created major fear in everyone I know - including myself. We are all wondering when this will reverse itself. Where is the floor?

But, I can also tell you from ex… Continue

Here I am thinking about the various subjects that the instructors at the World Pastry Forum will be teaching and it dawned on me that this website would be a very good place to get feedback and opinions on future topics.

I have to admit that when this site went up I thought we would be inundated with forums and blogs. After all, this is a site dedicated to pastry and, relatively speaking, isn't censored (language, shilling for companies, or pure venom would be exceptions to that philosophy).… Continue

A few months ago I had the pleasure of being invited to Felchlin's 100th anniversary in Schwyz, Switzerland. To digress just a moment, I can tell you that there aren't too many places on this planet more beautiful than looking at Lac Luzerne and the Alps behind it. And this was the warm time of the year.

Anyway, one of our activities - "our" being many press and distributors of Felchlin from around the world -was to spend a good part of the day on a genuine Swiss farm. I say genuine because as… Continue