OXNARD : Pastry Makers Sweeten Trip of Japanese Cooks

After trimming a white layer cake with borders of matching white frosting, Oxnard College student Mike Lodi announced to his audience of Japanese visitors that he would now add a scroll-like design.

But suddenly the Japanese tour guide who was translating Lodi’s presentation Tuesday at Oxnard College stopped talking.

Grabbing his Japanese-English dictionary, the guide hurriedly opened to the section listing English words and searched for an unfamiliar term: “scroll.” He found it and then promptly continued his narration.

Despite such language barriers, the Oxnard College students who gave the pastry-making demonstration said they believe their Japanese audience followed most of what they were doing.

“They may not understand your words,” said Coral Elandt, a student in the college’s Hotel and Restaurant Management program. “But when you show them something with your hands, they understand.”

Indeed, the Japanese students who were in the audience are not new to baking.

They are all cooking-school majors at Kokusai Business College outside Tokyo, part of a group of 200 Kokusai students who have been visiting the Oxnard area since Friday. Kokusai is a sister school of Oxnard College.

But some of the Kokusai students said they are unfamiliar with American-style culinary arts.

Kouichi Koyama said he had never before seen “a square cake” such as the rectangular pan cake that Lodi decorated. In Japan, he said, cakes are usually round.

And Yuiko Usui, 17, said she noticed that Americans make French-style pastries with more sugar and less salt than the Japanese.

“Jet lag,” said Yuiko, explaining why some of her classmates had let their heads droop to their chests and others had slouched low in their seats. It was, after all, 2:30 a.m. Tokyo time, even though it was 10:30 a.m. in Oxnard.