Join FAPC for the All You Knead to Know Workshop
Monday, April 25, 2022
Media Contact: Kirsten Hollansworth | Communications Graduate Student | 405-744-0442 | kirsten.hollansworth@okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University’s Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center is set to host All You Knead to Know, an artisan and grain workshop, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 17 at FAPC.
Andrea Graves, business planning and marketing specialist, said participants will learn about the flour making process — from in the field, to milling, to tasting it in a fresh slice of bread.
“Participants will gain knowledge through presentations from the Oklahoma Wheat Commission; Renee Albers-Nelson, FAPC baking and milling specialist; and Patricia Rayas-Duarte, FAPC cereal chemist,” Graves said. “There will also be some hands-on activities in the afternoon where we will get to play with dough and flour — it will be a lot of fun.”
For a lot of people, how to bake a loaf of bread at home is still a mystery, let alone knowing how the grain was produced that supplied the flour. Anyone from a chef to a farmer — as well as bakers in small and large bakeries — will find interest in this specialized workshop.
Baked goods made from grain have been a global staple for several millenniums. It has provided calories and protein to generations of people when other foods were not available. Baking is an art and a food science that allows many components to work together.
The workshop will feature guest speaker Richard Charpentier, a certified master baker who spent the last 34 years working in the bakery industry for retail bakeries and even large CPG Brands, where he held and led research and development groups.
Charpentier is a classically trained French baker. He holds a degree in baking science from Kansas State University with a minor in cereal chemistry as well as a degree in sales and marketing from Lycee Guy Debeyre in France.
“It's not quite clear which came first, the beer or the bread, but there would be no bread without beer,” Charpentier said. “It was not until 1857 and the work of French scientist, Pasteur, that the fermentation process was understood. Until then, we knew little about yeasts and fermentation.”
Mixing and fermenting different whole grains to create delicious breads with nutrition to provide proper energy from grains naturally, Charpentier said.
For more information and registration, contact workshop coordinator Karen Smith at 405-744-6277.
FAPC, a part of OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, helps to discover, develop and deliver technical and business information that will stimulate and support the growth of value-added food and agricultural products and processing in Oklahoma.