Knowledge Base > Char Nolan & Dan Marek - The Chef Instructor's Playbook
Char Nolan & Dan Marek - The Chef Instructor's Playbook
This event was on
Tuesday, January 13, 2026 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern
Chefs Dan Marek and Char Nolan are set to share their experiences as community and food educators in the culinary arena in this event that is designed to educate aspiring instructors… Read More.
Question:
In baking and pastry making, is it important to have a general understanding of the role of ingredients, especially the primary ones of flour, eggs, sugar, butter or fat, and liquids in regards to ratios?
— ly brod
Answer:
I think that, um, you know, baking is one of those things that I consider an exact science. You need to have precise measurements of all of your ingredients to be able to make sure that the, the final dish comes out the way it should. And cooking something like doing a saute or a stir fryer, let the rules are much more loose. You can go outside the lines and color outside the lines as much as you want to, and by the end, you're probably still going to have a great dish. But if you're adding too much fat or too much butter, or too much baking powder or something to a dish, uh, or a baking dish, it's going to dramatically, um, change the, the outcome of that dish. So, uh, especially on baking and pastry, make sure that you're really following the, uh, the recipe on those to be able to get the, the best quality final, uh, recipe. Mm-hmm. Anything to add to that shi? Just that if you, you're using sunflower butter as your nut butter for an ingredient, do not be freaked out when your cookies or your banana bread turn Hulk green.