Professor Dieter Schorner at 75 Being a teacher is like being a farmer. All of your land is not the same. After you sow the seeds, some areas need more care than others. It’s the same with students. Not all are alike. Sometimes you need to give one more care. But often the toughest ground yields the sweetest fruit.—Dieter Schorner
chefs at the Apple Pie Bakery Café on the Hyde Park campus in 2000. And just recently, he traveled across the globe to spend a few months teaching at our new campus in Singapore. What keeps a man of 75 so vibrant, youthful, and engaged? According to Chef Schorner, it’s “discovering the talent in young people and inspiring them to grow and flourish.” The legacy of a man like Chef Schorner is not yet fully known. Like the farmer who sends his harvest out into the world to nourish others, so Chef Schorner sends his students out to do the same. Only time will tell how they each go on to change the world of food. But Chef Schorner has infinite faith that they will do just that.
When the phone rings on Sunday mornings at Dieter Schorner’s house, he knows he’ll hear the voice of a 12-year-old boy on the other end of the line. Passionate about baking, the youngster was looking at the CIA faculty listing on the Internet when he came across Chef Schorner’s name. Then and there, he decided he needed Chef Schorner as his mentor. With his mother’s help, he tracked Chef down and they have been speaking most Sundays for the past six months. Chef Schorner guides the young man through the conundrums of cupcake filling and icing application. He is, once again, being called upon to serve as inspiration and mentor—and he loves it. That young boy doesn’t really understand that he is being mentored by one of the most recognized pastry chefs in America. He doesn’t know that the man who talks to him on Sundays redefined the role of the pastry chef in restaurant and hotel kitchens; owned the ultra-successful, Patisserie-Café Didier in Washington, DC; and was the esteemed pastry chef at such distinguished New York City restaurants as Le Cirque, Le Chantilly, La Côte Basque, and L’Etoile. He doesn’t realize that Chef Schorner’s list of kudos and accolades include Time magazine naming him the Best Pastry Chef in the United States and Food & Wine magazine listing him among America’s Best Chefs—both in 1988. He probably isn’t aware that Gourmet magazine declared Chef Schorner “one of the indisputable grand masters of his métier.” And that, in 2008, he was inducted into the Pastry Art & Design magazine Hall of Fame—solidifying his place as a baking and pastry legend. He may not know these things, but Chef Schorner’s students at the CIA certainly do. Since 1999, to the great good fortune of CIA students, Chef Schorner has turned his considerable talent and focus on teaching at the college. He has taught every conceivable baking and pastry course, and is currently teaching Basic and Classical Cakes. Always up for a challenge, he was one of the opening
mise en place no.62, December 2012
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