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A team of professionals with more than a quarter century working with adults with disabilities (AWD) has joined with some of the country’s leading baking experts to launch Piece of Cake Bakers (PieceOfCakeBakers.com) to train and empower AWD for meaningful careers in the baking industry.
Using a unique color-coded training program — which takes recipes and breaks them down into easily understood and followed color codes — the Piece of Cake Bakers team is headed by Robin Matusow, M.ED, a former member of the White House Disability Task Force.
Having worked in public and private disability consultation specializing in program development using community partnerships, Matusow was instrumental in the formation of Miami-Dade County Public School’s highly successful JRE Lee Baking Arts Program.
“This is the perfect time for our team to enter the public/private sectors with a proven ‘recipe’ for success in training adults with disabilities,” Matusow said.
Although many adult students with disabilities are eligible and approved for training and employment services, appropriate, industry-level training options are extremely limited. As a result, many adults with disabilities who want to pursue employment in the baking field cannot.
“Our team is looking to expand those opportunities for adults with disabilities by joining with public school systems, large bakery chains and private baking companies around the country to set up those training programs,” Matusow said. “Those organizations then can provide/have a steady flow of industry-level trained, highly employable individuals and the adults with disabilities get to become contributing members of society. It’s a win-win for everyone!”
The rest of the Piece of Cake Bakers team reads like a “Who’s Who” of the baking world.
They include pastry chef Pedro Diaz, world-renown cake decorator Norah de la Pava, and her famous son, chocolatier Pablo de la Pava.
The key to the Piece of Cake Bakers program is the color-coding system designed by Diaz, a third-generation baker, veteran Publix Bakery training manager and currently a technical baking counselor for global food supplier Rich Foods.
In the baking industry, Diaz’s system is known as “Pedro in Your Pocket.”
For more information on Piece of Cake Bakers and its industry-level training program, contact Matusow via email at robin@pieceofcakebakers.com or via phone, 305-332-9540.
