Rising interest for NSCC baking course

Chef Larry Bergeron (left) of the Nova Scotia Community College’s boulanger and baking arts program jokes with a student. (Photo: Elizabeth Brown)

Chef Larry Bergeron serves culture, history and religion in a slice of his favourite champagne bread.

Bergeron's boulanger, or baking, program is "the only one in Canada," he says, and it's tucked away at a Dartmouth campus of the Nova Scotia Community College. The chair of the college's hospitality program, Bruce MacNeil, estimates 1,600 students are enrolled at the Akerley campus, with 150 culinary students and 22 are in the boulanger and baking arts program.

A 2009 college survey found that "83 per cent of graduates were employed in their field of study." It also reported that 94 per cent of graduates live and work in Nova Scotia. While few will travel far from Nova Scotia, Bergeron's students learn to bake more than 200 types of bread as well as each one's significance to its country.

It's 11:20 a.m. and Bergeron's students are hustling trays of freshly baked bread to the cafeteria. Students serve the lunch they've prepared for the college community at 11:30 a.m.

While the students work, Bergeron circulates providing tips, a smile or a joke. Even in a hurried state, the mood is jovial and everyone seems to enjoy Bergeron's style. His passion for teaching is illustrated as he pauses for a photo with one of his students.
Bergeron has little time to talk, but says in a reverential whisper, as if he's revealing the secret ingredient, "bread is universal."

Art + science = baking

Bergeron spent 20 years travelling the world and cooking as a military chef for dignitaries, including the Queen Mother and the Governor General. A framed article hanging outside his kitchen documents his travels to the Middle East, Egypt and Germany, where five languages were spoken in one kitchen. He believes food is universal and proves it in his baking.

For Bergeron, baking is more complex than mixing together ingredients. It's a fusion of art and a science.

"Bread is related to religion, race and cultural events," he explains. He describes Israel's bread, challah. It's braided to stretch and break for sharing during Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. He says most cultures bake bread around Christmas and Easter. Focaccia, for example, is linked to religious and Catholic holiday celebrations, according to a website called the Bread Maker.

France has a history in standardizing its national bread's weight, size and price. "The baguette was governed by the government," says Bergeron. Food writer Gary Allen says it has "long been standardized at 250 grams." After Marie Antoinette's remark, "let them eat cake" caused a revolt, standardization seemingly showed the government's prudence in people's health.

Bergeron says more Canadians are developing celiac disease, creating a demand for gluten-free products, but "Halifax is slow to catch on." The ingredients are expensive and getting the "chemistry just right" is difficult. He mentions a Lunenburg-based company called Schoolhouse that, along with Crumbs, sells products at the farmer's market.

At lunch, students choose from dishes such as roast chicken, confit of duck or halibut with fresh bread. One student marvels at her feast - "all this for seven bucks!"

While few are privy to the rich value of the bread perched on their plate, Bergeron's students know the secret.

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