The Kobe Sweets Consortium (KSC) was inaugurated in June, 2008 with a mission of “Producing a number of the Challenged to play an active part in the pastry industry”. Hosted by Prop Station, Nisshin Seihun Group Inc (the largest milling industry in Japan) and Nitto Shokai Co., Ltd (a confectionary wholesaler with over 60 years of history), the KSC has been provided tremendous support from a vast majority of companies and governments.
The Challenged Program of the KSC invites first-class-pastry chefs and bakers as instructors and provides opportunities to the Challenged to learn the professional recipes and techniques. The program is attended by mental or psychiatric challenged who enjoy pastry making, and those individuals with future aspirations of perhaps starting their own confectionery business by becoming pastry chefs with interested in production, distribution, as well as other confectionery related fields. And also by those who want to develop confectionery skills in order to improve productivity and revenue at already existing pastry industries. Some of the students who completed the program have already gone on to produce their own sweets in vocational training centers for people with mental and psychiatric disabilities sponsored by social welfare organizations or the local governments.
As for the Kobe Sweets Consortium in Tokyo, the Challenged Program Vol. 3 will be starting in May 2010 at Nisshin Seihun Koami-cho Factroy Processing Center in Nipponbashi, Tokyo. The instructors will be Master Junji Yagi, the technical director at Morozoff, Ltd, Master Noriyuki Nagai of a French pastry shop, “Noliette”, Master Takaaki Nishikawa of “Kobe Boulamgerie Comme Chinois”, and Master Takahiko Nozawa of a Viennese sweets shop, “Konditorei Neues”. Additionally, Master Fuyuko Kondo and Master Tadashi Shiraiwa will be joining the program as new instructors. Master Kondo is a pioneer for female pastry chefs in Japan and runs a French pastry shop, “La Chouette”. Master Shiraiwa is the owner of “Chocolatier La Pierre Blanche”, one of the best confectionary shops in Kobe.
The Kobe Sweets Consortium has worked toward the realization of “a Universal Society (a society of coexistence and mutual support) where all people can exert their full potentials, regardless of age, gender, or disability” by producing challenged pastry chefs through the training provided in these courses. We appreciate your great continued support for the program.
