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What flavor was it? It could've been a curd.

If not, I third the pastry cream. I've never heard of making it in a microwave though, and I have to say, that terrifies me.

Sucree is not supposed to be flaky, so you don't need to cut in the butter (which is what you're doing when you pulse very cold butter into flour in a food processor).
Sucree is not really even a shortbread- that's the sable- it's just a "short" pastry due to the high amount of fat which shortens the gluten structure, making it crumbly and not tough. The addition of eggs (aka MORE fat than brisee) allows to you work it more (aka cream it, as described below)
You can make sucree using the creaming method- so the butter would be room temp and it's beat with the sugar first. Then you would add eggs, then dry ingredients. The best way to do this would be a mixer if you're anti-hand, but I suppose you can use a food processor, although I don't think that can really cream it...but it would at least incorporate it and I'm sure the end result would be perfectly fine.
I know you can also do it by the cut-in butter method, although I never have- but you should pulse in the butter until it's VERY SMALL, not "pea-size" or whatever as for brisee. Then I'd add in the sugar and then the eggs to combine. In this case you'd want the butter cold.
However you do it, the key to any of these doughs is to work them as LITTLE as possible. They are supposed to look too dry when you're finished, then they NEED to chill for a while- this will further hydrate them and also allow the gluten to rest so that your crust doesn't shrink.

Yeah, cause in professional kitchens a lot of stuff gets prepared way before it gets baked. So essentially things are already "made," they just need to get "baked off."

uhhh, yeah. season everything is what i was taught. not overly so; the point is not for it to be salty, but to bring out the flavor. people are nuts about salt...it's NOT bad for you in moderation, geez.

wait, isn't a bear claw just a danish shaped that way? like, other danishes of the same filling would taste the same?
i dunno, i learned the bear claw just as one of the traditional danish shapes when learning how to make danishes; i never thought they were their own special thing.
that being said, i'd expect anyplace in grand central to be the last place to find anything not generic...i feel like an old school french bakery would be much more likely
or, you know, if you were in my house last week :-)

Oh, I was gonna say hot cross buns.
Also, I've made the bread with eggs braided in before...and I'm not sure if it's authentic (and yes, I'm Italian), but I've just used a Challah base recipe and flavored it with lemon zest (or whatever you want).

At home, somewhere between 9-10. At work, family meal is around 4:30, before dinner service. At school- over in a week, thank god- family meal is 8:30.
I don't really eat full meals all that often though haha.

I have never heard of fry sauce; sounds horrible to me.

@foodosaurus and @biminitwst- I watched Goodfellas AND Sideways in my food and film class...I totally say they count!

I'm usually very opinionated on food things like this, but this is one that I've just never had many feelings about. I don't have any childhood attachments to either way, and I just don't care as long as the sandwich is yummy!

Well, I'm in pastry, but:

You truly CAN go into the business without it, you just need to be motivated and persistent and seek out chefs who will take you on and train you. I definitely don't think they all look for culinary school. The place I work at is fairly well known and has recently hired a few people with no school/experience.
That being said, if he doesn't already know at least the basics (I'm talking knife skills, basic techniques/terminology) it might be difficult to find jobs. Places hire by having you come for a "trail," where you work for a day or two for free, to see how you work.
In my experience the age range is HUGE in culinary school, but definitely tons of young people starting at right out of high school. My class goes from 19-42. I'm 23 and there are many around that. And for most schools you absolutely need no skills, just a passion for it and hopefully some kind of knack.
I know the CIA requires at least 6 months of experience before starting, which can definitely be a good thing to mention to potential internships to help them understand his motivation for wanting to try out kitchen work before school. And who knows, that could lead to a job without school or enough skills/something to put on the resume to try to find a job.

School is definitely good, though, if you want to learn everything thoroughly from the beginning and truly understand what's going on in the oven/pot. I guess that depends on the school/intensity of the program as well. You will also learn certain things in school, classic stuff, that you might not learn in the real world but are good to know as a foundation to build off of. And sure, school will help in getting internships/jobs.
Most are quite expensive though, and it's true that you will come out making $10 bucks an hour (ish).

My mother WOULD NOT let me have one...she was always like, "You can use the real oven, and bake real cakes!" but I was SO mad at her for this. In retrospect, go mom!, but as a 6 year old I felt oh so deprived.