Q&A with Baking and Pastry Arts Instructor
Author Annie B. Milostan ’25 is a Baking and Pastry Arts major.
Chef Richard Coppedge Jr. has been teaching at the Culinary Institute of America for roughly 33 years. He started teaching baking and pastry for culinary students, then he developed the specialty breads course and taught that class for a little over three years. After those three years, he moved to Nutritional Baking which is now the Advanced Baking Principles class. I had the pleasure of taking Chef Coppedge’s Advanced Baking Principles class this semester and it was truly amazing to be able to learn all these modifications and methods as well as seeing how modifications change our products. I had the honor to sit down and interview him. Here’s what he had to say.
How long have you been a Certified Master Baker (CMB)?
Roughly 25 years and I’ve never had to renew it thankfully because if I did, I would need to practice some!
What is your favorite part about teaching Advanced Baking Principles?
I think showing the students that there are opportunities to adjust and create recipes for those people out there who normally can’t eat what we make.
What do you hope students get out of this class?
Taking the basic knowledge that they have learned from their time here, they can then create something dietarily different, whether it be because of religious beliefs, the day of the week, allergies, or just because they prefer it.
What would you like to say to perspective students looking to come here to CIA?
If you’re going to pursue this business you need to know it’s about hard work, there’s not a lot of glory. But there’s so many different fields you can enter nowadays so you’re not limited to just the kitchen. Take care of your body and your mind!
Chef Coppedge is truly an amazing chef and being able to learn from him and have him push us when it came to our final project helped me and showed me all the possibilities that there are within baking and pastry!
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