Cooking For Engineers

[IndyRob]

In my own personal history I've always associated the word Pastry with some some sort of wonderfully flakey or otherwise delicate confection (although sometimes savory such as a Maltese pastizzi, or a Greek spanakopita). Yet, on The Food Network, they have 'pastry challenges' that are all about cakes. Or all about sugar, or chocolate sculptures.

Okay, so I'm more and more inclined to write off anything ever heard on The Food Network, but I also hear Top Chef contestants confronted with a wedding cake challenge complaining that they're not pastry chefs.

Is Duff Goldman a pastry chef? I like him. I think he does cool stuff, but is it pastry? I just don't view cake as pastry.

I'm just wondering if others make the same distinction as I do.

[Michael Chu]

I think of the word "pastry" as a sweet flaky thing that I'd eat for dessert. BUT, I think of the role of "pasty" as in the station or adjective of a chef position as encompassing all dessert making - usually involving an oven, but not always.