Throughout the academic year, JCCC's pastry students spend Thursday and Friday creating fresh pastries and then sell them from 3:30-6 p.m. Fridays in the college's pastry shop, room 145 of the Office and Classroom Building (OCB).

The choices are all in good taste - cakes, tortes, chocolate candies, tarts, éclairs, mousse, cookies and cream puffs.

"I want to give students the experience of running a pastry shop," said Doug Flick, associate professor, hospitality management, who worked with Lindy Robinson, dean of business, to initiate the pastry certificate program in 2004. The experience means baking, turning the classroom into a full-service pastry shop complete with a refrigerated display case, and hearing the criticism and praise from patrons who sample the pastries.

Flick, pastry chef at the former Ritz Carlton, Kansas City, Mo., said there are not enough trained pastry cooks to meet the industry demand. As a result, hotels, restaurants and other eateries are purchasing premade pastries from wholesale vendors.

"We are trying to upgrade the quality of fresh baked goods in the Kansas City area," Flick said. "JCCC is the only institution in Kansas or Missouri that is training 15 pastry cooks at a time."

Flick says there was a demand from students, as well as from industry, to start the program. Students who complete the 30-hour pastry/baking program will have the skills and training to work as pastry cooks anywhere in the nation.

Flick graduated from the chef's program at the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y. He then worked at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Calif., and served two years as an apprentice under a master pastry chef before his 14-year term with the Ritz Carlton. He has been a JCCC faculty member since 2000.

"Working in pastry arts is very rewarding. Everybody likes sweets," Flick said.

For information about the pastry/baking program, call 913-469-8500, ext. 3250.