Pastry Arts Faculty to Help With National Bread-Bakers Event

Two Pennsylvania College of Technology faculty will help lead the Bread Bakers Guild of America's "Camp Bread," a hands-on conference for professional and home bakers, educators, and those in related fields.

Chefs Monica J. Lanczak, instructor of hospitality management/culinary arts, and Charles R. Niedermyer, instructor of baking and pastry arts/culinary arts, are set to travel in late May to the San Francisco Baking Institute, where Lanczak will serve as assistant director of education.

She will be the point person for all class needs of the conference, during which participants spend a full day in lecture classes, a full day in hands-on workshops, and a full day of either observing the Break Bakers Guild Team USA 2008 finals or touring California bakeries and mills.

Those selected to join Team USA will compete at the Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie in Paris in 2008, one of the world's most prestigious bread competitions.

Niedermyer will be a teaching assistant in three all-day labs, working with past members of the team, all well-known in artisan baking. He will join a corps of instructors from around the country, as well as France and Ireland.

Before joining Penn College's faculty in 2005, Niedermyer spent nine years in the industry, working for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.'s Tysons Corner (Virginia) and Amelia Island (Florida) locations, The River Club in Jacksonville, Fla., Gamble Mill Restaurant in Bellefonte, and The Pennsylvania State University bakery. He is a Penn College graduate.

Lanczak, who has taught at Penn College for 12 years, spent 16 years training and working nationally as a pastry chef. Her last professional chef position was executive pastry chef for the Stouffer Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas. She earned a bachelor's degree from Carlow College.

For more information about the academic programs offered by the School of Hospitality at Penn College, call (570) 327-4505, e-mail or visit online .