My story is one you’ve probably heard before. Young Jewish woman is pre-med in college, ends up in law school after a chemistry accident. After a few years of glamorous environmental law, she was off to Geneva and finds herself at the UN listening to terrorists discuss human rights. How to top that? Pastry school in Paris was the obvious choice. A catering business in Geneva, taught a few cooking classes in French and then came back and started a cooking school in the D.C. area. Oh yeah, had four kids at some point. Now I travel the country teaching kosher cooking and baking and proving that Kosher food can be beautiful, elegant and delicious. Along the way, I set out to start a kosher baking revolution. Join me.
Short Bio
Paula Shoyer is a pastry chef who owns and operates Paula’s Parisian Pastries Cooking School in the Washington, D.C. area where she teaches classes in French pastry and Jewish cooking both locally and around the country. She is the author of The Kosher Baker: 160 dairy-free desserts from traditional to trendy (Brandeis University Press, August 2010) She is the editor of two Kosher cookbooks: Kosher by Design Entertains and Kosher by Design Kids in the Kitchen. She received her pastry diploma from the Ritz Escoffier Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise in Paris, France in 1996.
Long Bio
Paula Shoyer is a pastry chef who owns and operates Paula’s Parisian Pastries Cooking School in the Washington, D.C. area where she teaches classes in French pastry and Jewish cooking both locally and around the country. She is the author of The Kosher Baker: 160 dairy-free desserts from traditional to trendy (Brandeis University Press, August 2010) She is the editor of two Kosher cookbooks: Kosher by Design Entertains and Kosher by Design Kids in the Kitchen. She received her pastry diploma from the Ritz Escoffier Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise in Paris, France in 1996.
Paula is a former attorney and speechwriter who took advantage of living in Europe and enrolled in a pastry course in Paris for fun. After being asked to bake for friends, she ended up operating a dessert catering business in Geneva, Switzerland for two years. While in Geneva, she was asked to teach a few classes for local Jewish organizations – in French. When she returned stateside, she began teaching classes in French pastry and Jewish cooking and baking to adults and kids, both in the Washington, D.C. area and then beyond. She is known for her custom classes where groups choose the menu they want to learn and all students go home with desserts they have baked.
Paula has been a guest on the NBC Washington TV show “Quick Bites”, several radio shows around the United States. Paula's cooking classes have been featured in the internet newsletter, Daily Candy, Washington edition, and in the Washington Post Express She also has experience teaching cooking to special needs kids and adults, which was profiled in the Massachusetts Jewish Ledger.