Fire! and how Silpats saved my life (sort of).

No, seriously, there was a fire.
But let me back up a little (now that I have your attention).
After what I would call an epic Thanksgiving I expected to find myself "baked-out." Not at all, so I was excited to fly to Pullman to visit my family and bake for them! Of course, given that its small town Washington State a lot of ingredients are surprisingly hard to come by. I guess I've been spoiled living in New York and LA, but I didn't realize just how much... I mean, having to drive across state lines to get decent butter (84% fat or more) seemed a bit silly, but, not one store in Pullman stocked it. Egg white powder was another such ingredient, though to be honest, I wasn't too hopeful on that front. Because of the extra effort involved in ingredient foraging and the less than desirable weather I didn't really think I would be baking much. And the first few days this was true, I ended up making bon-bons (flavors: orange-ginger, burnt caramel and black sea-salt, and nutella), having to buy less than amazing chocolate which proved exceptionally difficult to temper, now I know right?
The weather had eased up a bit, and in need of something to do, I casually asked my Mom and Sister if they wanted anything. Apparently, they did. Chocolate croissants, lemon tarts, and macaroons. Not too bad. Then Natalie suggests that since I won't be here on her birthday, I should make her a 16th birthday cake. I thought she was kidding. Nope. Well, I suppose, it's the least I can do! Did I mention this was two days ago? Maybe I was a bit overambitious (hardly possible)...

Started out easily enough! Mini lemon tarts. Press in shell, baked lemon curd. done. And tasted great!

Next, I taught Natalie how to make macaroons (Grapefruit-Vanilla Bean). She had tried to make them before, but like many home bakers found the task much more difficult than expected. Macaroons are generally one of those "not-at-home" baked goods. With good reason. They're pretty tough to get perfect! Deceptively simple there are several things that can go wrong and several factors to account for, mostly, how old your eggs are (important to have older egg whites for a more stable meringue). But with a little help, and a few sheet trays worth of piping practice, they ended up coming our beautifully!

The Birthday Cake. Shouldn't have been so hard! But due to a little mis-reading on my assistant's part, and mostly, my not double checking, we ended up re-doing the cake three times. Third time is the charm apparently! It was a simple scaling issue (usually is), but it was enough to throw the recipe. To be honest, I'm glad we figured it out! I was using a recipe from a blog I follow, and felt pretty ridiculous when I couldn't replicate the simple recipe myself! I'm supposed to be a trained professional right? So when the problem was pinpointed, I was mostly relieved. The rest of the decorating wasn't easy (makeshift turntable and tools), but not too terrible, and I, but most importantly Natalie, was very happy with the results!

Now, the croissants. By Alex's suggestion, I decided to try Tartine's recipe since they receive a fair bit of praise and have a completely different technique than my usual french variety (which I think are great!). While the ingredients are essentially the same (Tartine has the addition of milk), the process is very different. Essentially, in Tartine's you make the dough portion and treat it like a bread dough, fermenting, kneading, etc. In the FCI variety, you mix the dough, let it chill and go right into layering the butter. Tartine's process takes a bit longer, but if it results in a better product, I'm more than willing to add it to my "pastry-arsenal." Down-side, the dough was a bit more glutenous and hard to stretch, but other than that this recipe is easily superior. The result? the same buttery-goodness a croissant should have with the addition of more flakyness and depth of flavor. The extra fermentation allows for a stronger flavor that has a mild sour-note finish. Which I think is great! Maybe not everyone would agree, maybe I'll have to blind test them on a few people.
But that was NOT the exciting part. While baking Natalie and I noticed the oven steaming a bit. I thought, hmm, maybe there's a lot of moisture in these...But then the steam turned into more of a smoke and started filling the kitchen. I opened the oven door and a billow of smoke engulfed the kitchen, and then was gone. We frantically opened all the windows in attempt to avoid the ever obnoxious smoke alarm (success!). Very strange. A few minutes later, we look at the oven. And the entire bottom half is on fire. ON FIRE! And I'm not talking about a little flame, I mean like fire-place fire. Needless to say, we were a bit freaked out. I know what to do if there's a grease fire, but oven fire? If I open the door will the increased oxygen cause it to "blow up?" Does it matter that its a gas stove (turned off long ago of course)? My Mom had come out at this point, and despite all of us being quite unsure what to do, she grabbed baking soda (smart), opened the oven a bit and doused the fire. It was out! Relief...
Of course this was the result:

Lovely right? The great part though, was since the croissants were on a sheet tray, they weren't consumed in the fire, in fact by the time this was over, they were done! Granted, a bit dark on the bottom, but honestly, not bad at all! What was really lucky we realized was that they were not on parchment. The edges of the silpat had been discolored by direct flame contact, but not burnt-and fully re-usable! Hows that for product testing? But had it been parchment it would have easily caught on fire, fueling the fire (and engulfing the croissants-nooo!). Had it gotten to the top part of the stove it may have done significantly more damage (the oven is fine, after a good cleaning!). So I say it saved my life, probably not, but it did make it a lot easier. So, thank you silpat!

Easily, one of the most exciting two days of baking I've had.

Thinking About the "Next Step."

The French Laundry

It is both exhilarating and entirely frightening thinking about what to do next...Or rather, in January. I have so many options, none of which are necessarily better than the others. I fluctuate between feeling very confident that if I want to eventually work for, say Thomas Keller, I could, and feeling like maybe this is all in my head. I have fearful moments where I think, maybe I'm actually pretty average (professionally speaking). Then I'm flipping through The French Laundry Cookbook (one of my biggest weaknesses-impulse cookbook purchases) and reading the desserts, and thinking, this isn't so bad. I could SO do this! I think, I should. While cooking through an entire book is quite daunting, after all, it did take 6 months to get through the FCI book...I think I can handle the 18 recipes in French Laundry. I know Thomas Keller is many people's "Chef-Idol," so it doesn't feel particularly unique to say he's one of my favorites, but truth be told, I'm slightly obsessed with working with him. And thats not so out of reach, the current pastry chef there got hired only a few years out of the CIA, and is quite young. The question is more, am I willing to spend the next several years working hard, long hours for little pay, or even for free at first? I also have a strong inclination to work (and open my own) specialty confections store-specifically, chocolates. Obviously, chocolate work holds a special place for me, and with my internship and the Chocolate Show on my resume, I'm well on my way to getting a job. It's what I'm best at, and I love it. Chocolate work for me is strangely cathartic, and I'm lucky to find it so easy. So should I just immediately specialize in what I love? I'm actually inclined to say no. I feel like I still have so much to learn, and unfortunately, the place to learn it is probably in a restaurant. And who knows! Maybe I won't completely hate it, maybe my competitive nature will serve me well. Then in the back of my mind I think, I sort of want to still go to grad school! Or intern abroad? I think I'll be happy wherever I end up, I'm not one to dedicate my energy to something I can't stand unless absolutely necessary. I just need to get over this fear of failure ridiculousness.

I couldn't resist...a few quick bonbons!

I know, I'm supposed to be relaxing, not baking. But, I couldn't help myself. After arriving in LA I went on a search for bonbon molds, which turns out are expensive ($60 a tray?!?!) and difficult to find. After eventually giving in and ordering online I happened to wander by Le Cordon Bleu (another cooking school) and noticed they had a small supply store, and of course, they had bonbon molds! Oh well... I ended up talking to the woman there and she pointed out silicon molds and when I said I was hesitant to try them because of how flexible they are (aka difficult to scrape clean) she said a pastry chef at the school had just started to use them, and really liked them. Granted, she said, its more difficult, but if you can get it right the results are beautiful. Not to mention, the average silicon chocolate mold is around $15, MUCH cheaper! So, I bought one and headed to whole foods to pick up a few valrhona bars. I decided on making a classic dark chocolate bonbon with a dark chocolate ganache, so no sugar added. I also wanted to test my at home tempering skills, slightly afraid outside of a professional kitchen my skills would dissipate. I opted against trying to find a recipe for the ganache and just did it by eye, adding a bit more cream than I normally would since there was no sugar/extra flavor, and if done well results in that "melt in your mouth" texture.

Filling the molds was slightly harder than filling the standard polycarbonate variety, but not significantly, so I was optimistic. The ganache turned out wonderfully, smooth and the perfect texture, crystalizing within minutes (the sign of a great ganache), AND my first out of school tempering attempt was a great success!

Now, covering and finishing bonbon's is the most difficult part, and with silicone it was even harder. Because the molds move, it makes it really hard to get a clean scrape on the bottom. So while that aspect wasn't perfect they un-molded almost immediately, and had a great shine. Normally, bonbons would take several hours, these took 45 minutes from start to finish, and they could have gone faster if I needed. And while it may take some practice, I can see the benefit to silicone. But for now, I think I'll stick with my trusty polycarbonate, the benefit of which is a true showing of your chocolate skills. Unlike silicone, if you incorrectly temper, they won't release.

Now that FCI isn't paying for all my supplies/ingredients when I was left with extra ganache, instead of throwing in the compost bin I rolled a few quick truffles, trying to use up every last ounce of my chocolate!

I seriously cannot get enough of making chocolates, I absolutely love it. Perhaps I should work at a chocolatier...

Eleven Madison Park & The Chocolate Dress

A few loose ends...
After graduation this Thursday it was a blur of packing/shipping as well as final meals as I prepared for the move back to the west (best!) coast. Now I'm here and anxiously awaiting all my boxes in hopes that they were not somehow lost somewhere in the middle of the country...I have to say, I do miss New York, but you cannot beat the weather here, 74 and sunny today! And its strange to think I'm done already, the 6 months flew by, but didn't, and now just feels surreal. In the past year and a half my entire life has been dramatically shifted, from going abroad to a career change. I have to say, I couldn't be happier with my choice! And I know I've gained the privilege that few have, the ability to honestly say I love what I do. I couldn't ask for more. And I can't wait to continue my education practically over the next several months, and just see where that takes me! No future plans as of the moment, and to tell you the truth, its a pretty great feeling to have an entirely "open road" ahead!

The front of our model.

The completed dress from the back


Eleven Madison Park.
We arrived a bit early, we had driven into the city and inexplicably found a parking space right outside. We went to the bar and I had one of the better cocktails I've had in a while, though not better than, definitely comparable to a Death & Co. standard. Whiskey and Sake. This was at seven. We were seated in the oversized dining hall. It's gorgeous, and I had forgotten what "traditional" fine dining was like, huge white tables, vaulted ceilings and acoustic manipulation so there's a constant low murmur, yet you can't hear what people three feet away are saying...Impressive, mostly because it was elegant without being cliche or gaudy. Warm reds and oranges with oversized flower vases were the primary decorative motifs. I loved the simplicity and warmness it created, I was concerned it would feel "stuffy." Not in the least.
Our first amuse bouche, to be followed by three more before our tasting (which is only four courses) even started. Beet marshmellows and goat cheese pops. There was also a bread course, as well as brioche with truffles, soup, himachi, and scallops. The dinner overall was phenomenal, including the best foie gras or lobster I've ever had. Of course I was mainly interested in dessert, which of course came with its own amuse bouche.

Chocolate.
After the meal was over we were more than satisfied and the wine was making us both a little sleepy. As we prepared to pay and leave the manager approached us and asked if we wanted a kitchen tour! Well, of course! They brought us in, showing us an immaculate kitchen way larger than I ever would have anticipated any restaurant kitchen to be. Then, the pastry sous chef made us a special dessert using liquid nitrogen. We followed him back towards the dining room, and I was ecstatic to have gotten the opportunity to tour the kitchen, but it wasn't over yet!

After the tour, we were brought to a lounge and given even more desserts, a petit four plate and complimentary cognac we could drink at our leisure. Of course, at this point it was approaching 11:00pm, and fading fast. The manager brought us one final farewell gift of the house granola (amazing by the way!). It was truly an amazing meal, and easily the best overall dining experience I've ever had (or could hope to have)! It was definitely, the perfect graduation dinner.

The End.

I can now, officially say I'm a pastry chef!!

My final showpiece. Grand Marnier Bon-bons, vanilla crescent cookies, and dark chocolate brandy cake. It's funny how much work goes into something that looks so simple! The last day was not bad, I got everything done I wanted to, with time to spare. Though, not without anxiety. Even though I was right on schedule the tension in the room was so thick, it was hard not to feel pressured! After we finished everything, we placed our showpiece in the judging room, displaying our pastries and left for the guest judges to grade us! And then the waiting began. We had all heard that the judges are impossible, so going into it, we were ready to hear all about how awful our products were. Especially since most of the judges are well known names in the industry (such as the executive chef from Gramercy Tavern, or Quattro Trump Towers-my judge). So I felt extremely relieved I felt when he was perfectly nice! And actually complimentary! Apparently everything I made he loved/was impressed by! He even asked me what I did in a few cases, wanting to know how I got specific textures. Quite the compliment. Ending with an invitation to come trail at his restaurant! Yep. A potential job offer. I didn't expect that!! Of course, I'm moving bak to LA, but I can contact him should I move back to NYC (here's to networking!). Although I felt more physically exhausted than I have in a long time, it was a great feeling being done! And tomorrow is graduation (though, its a very short, generally unexciting ceremony), and my Dad is coming!!! I absolutely can't wait! Now, onto sleep and NOT getting up at 6am.

The Home Stretch!

Tomorrow, at 11:30am, I will officially be done! The practical final, which started Friday after the written exam is due no later than 11:30am. We have to present the four items we drew (from the whole semester) on a showpiece. Everyone is more stressed than they have ever been, and for once people may actually not be able to finish (or present items). I'm right on schedule. Not without mishaps, of course. Day 1, I decided to make my grand marnier bon-bons since they can sit around for a while as well as start my showpiece and make some doughs to freeze. Throughout the program I've become excellent at tempering chocolate. I'd say its one of my best talents, and while many students still need to reference temperature charts, I've abandoned my thermometer altogether. I can now tell the state of the chocolate by feel, consistency, and sight. I love chocolate! So I thought bon-bons would be easy! And the chocolate part was. The ganach on the other hand...It's a recipe we hadn't done (there are a bunch of fillings and we chose only a few during the unit). First, we didn't have grand marnier, so I had to use orange liquore (gross), and no stabilizer (usually glucose). I have yet to break an emulsion when making a ganach, and feel confident with my ability. But this recipe was terrible! The high liquid:chocolate ratio resulted in it taking absolutely forever to set up (it never really got that thick...) and when I went to finish my bon-bons the filling kept coming out! Essentially, I had to re-do them. They take a bit of time, and I was worried it would happen again. So (against the rules, shhh) I decided to use a recipe from one of my favorite confections book, ironically, from CIA (Culinary Institute of America). It had a very, very low cream to chocolate ratio, which makes a phenomenal ganach, but is also the most difficult to execute. Plus, magically, the Grand Marnier appeared! It was a beautiful result, smooth, velvety, and THICK. Ideal, and tasted wonderful. I'm SO glad I switched them out! Some of those recipes are pretty bad, trying to employ different techniques, and while the core ones are great, these extended ones could use some work. So, bon-bons done. The rest of Monday/Today went fine generally, got everything done that I wanted to. The only other incident was this afternoon. Let me preface with, the organization required to store 21 student's final pieces is pretty ridiculous. While trying to grab a board from the speed rack one of my fellow students dropped the sheet my pastillage were resting on. Normally, pastillage is super delicate and breaks on you with the slightest touch, and takes several days to dry. But, its easy to cut/color and relatively quick to make. I heard a huge crash, and my heart sunk. There was no way I could re-make these! I would have to completely rethink my showpiece! But by some miracle, they were fine, and the only thing that was ruined I had a duplicate of. Thank goodness. I cannot describe the level of relief I felt at that moment! So, aside from minor details (my crescent cookies are a little large, and my chocolate brandy cake is a bit short), but really...I'm going to finish, which is an accomplishment alone!
And then there's the chocolate show...ALMOST done, its being assembled tomorrow for the show opening! I'm glad I did it, but it didn't help my anxiety and fatigue level for sure (I promise pictures soon!)
Though I have to admit, I'm getting a little sad thinking about leaving. I absolutely love living in New York. It has been amazing, and I've made very close friendships, which will be the hardest to leave! I feel quite fortunate to have made such close friends here, in such a short amount of time. I don't think I got this close to people I spent four years with in College (aside, of course, from Alex). And I will truly miss them! I guess that just means I need to move back eventually :)


So, on to judging!!

OK, I have to admit. I actually enjoyed the wedding cake project. From the start of the program I've been not particularly looking forward to making this. And still, I don't particularly enjoy making the actual cake (in this case, genoise which is a pain to make, and and doesn't taste that great!). But I do enjoy decorating. It's really relaxing, and actually, although I wouldn't consider working professionally as a cake decorator, I wouldn't mind doing side projects!


Cutting and filling the cake

crumb coating

covering

building!

Menu Project Day 2

A bit delayed...
Thursday I (along with half the class) finished up our menu items to present to the judges. I felt like I was the only one for those two days running around the kitchen. Everyone (or mostly everyone) else seemed to be having an easy time. Granted I had 9 components (most people had 4-5), and hadn't really anticipated I would need as much time as I did! Luckily I did manage to finish and felt pretty good about my results. Though, extremely nervous. This was the first project I felt really strongly about, and put a lot into. I was worried they wouldn't like it, and although I know judging based on taste is a bit subjective, if they were to dislike it, I would be admittedly upset! Today in class students were discussing their grades and how they were happy about the menu aspect (class avg. in mid 90's) but quite upset about the tasting grade (avg. mid 80's). I hadn't checked my grades, so I was really nervous. A grade in the 80's generally means it was fine, but not great. For the menu portion I ended up with a perfect score, which was great, but obviously I was far more concerned about the tasting! But, the nerves were for no reason, I got a 98, nearly perfect, and far above average! I was ecstatic! It felt so good to have those hours where I obsessed over all the small details pay off! And a much needed boost to get through the next week and a half.

Tri-layer brownie (with goat cheese-honey, and ganach layer), stout and pretzel ice-cream, and spicy caramel corn.

Meyer lemon and black pepper bombe glacee with swedish rye cookie, valrhona dark chocolate mousse with olive oil cake and fleur de sel, and campari-orange gelee with vanilla sugar.

And by request! The brownie recipe.
Brownie (for 24 in 13x9 pan):
4oz (1 cup) toasted walnuts, chopped and tossed in flour
5 oz (1 1/4 cup) cake flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
170 g butter-cubbed
15.75 oz (2.25 cups) sugar
4 large eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla paste

Adjust oven rack to middle-preheat to 325. Line pan with foil, spray with pam.
Whisk to combine flour, salt and bp.
Melt chocolate and butter over bain marie, remove from hear and whisk in sugar/eggs until smooth.
Fold in flour/walnuts and transfer to prepared pan. Bake 30-35 min.
allow to cool completely

Goat Cheese Layer:
2 cups heavy cream
Zest from 2 lemons
4 oz fresh goat cheese
4 Tbsp honey

Mix zest, cheese, and honey over a double broiler until combined, cool.
Whisk heavy cream, and mix 1/4 into the cooled cheese mixture to lighten. Gently fold the remaining whipped cream and spread the mixture on the brownie base, allow to set up the fridge.

Ganach: 7oz dark (64-72%) chocolate and 3/4 cup Heavy Cream
Chop chocolate and place in a metal bowl.
Bring the cream to a boil and pour over chocolate bits-be sure to cover all pieces. Let sit for a few minutes to ensure all chocolate melts. starting in the center, using a whisky slowly begin to mix the ganach (being careful not to incorporate too much air, once it begins to come together (this usually takes a few minutes) start to work outward in a circle, until you get a smooth ganach. Cover the brownie and allow to set up.

Cut and serve at room temp.

Enjoy!

Menu Project Day 1

8am: we arrive, and begin to set up. It smells a bit funny in class, the heater is on. At first, this was good. Considering we normally spend the class shivering. But then, it got REALLY hot. With several ovens running and the heater the room quickly jumped from pleasant to sweltering. If the heat wasn't enough, slowing us down and making us feel a bit nauseous, I manage to burn myself within the first hour on a bowl someone left on a pilot light. On my thumb. This isn's a good start. Then, the freezers broke down, hopefully we were able to get our ice-creams down stairs to a better freezer before it was too late (we'll see tomorrow). I managed to get most of what I wanted done, but not get ahead (I had really hoped to do so). But I was lucky, my partner, not so much. Due to the heat she ended up fainting (having thermo-regulation issues) and had to go home. The Chef of course was unconcerned. "You guys keep complaining about the temperature, you're never happy, and I'm done with it." Ummm, it's clearly a heath hazard! Oh well, what did we really expect from him anyway? Tomorrow we have about two and a half hours to finish, and 30 minutes to plate. I have absolutely NO idea how I'm going to get everything done, I just hope it comes together! Though it's hard to be motivated when the Chef clearly doesn't really care about the class. 10 days and counting! From now on, "we'll be running!"

The plague!

It's official, I'm sick. I have a head cold, started as a sore throat and progressed into a full on cold. Something has been going around school, and I was hoping to avoid it, but with my current stress level, I'm not surprised! I have no idea how I'm supposed to get through the next 2.5 weeks feeling as lethargic as I do. On the plus side, I'm in a sort of euphoric daze which at the very least leaves me feeling happy, if not slightly unconcerned. Of course, that doesn't exactly translate to productivity. I think this may be my body's way of forcing me to slow down. Touche. Unfortunately no amount of sleep, hydration, vitamin C and sudafed seems to be helping all that much!
Here's to hoping for a sudden recovery!
We also drew our lottery for the final. For the practical portion of our final exam, we have to produce whatever we drew and display it on the final showpiece (theme: favorite city). I'm happy with mine, I do have to make strudel, bu other than that my cake, con-cons and petit fours are all pretty easy! Quite a relief!

And then there were 13.

13.
13 days of class left. 13 days until I regain my sanity, ability to formulate coherent thoughts and not fall asleep on the subway in the middle of the day. 13 days to execute my dessert menu, make a wedding cake, and construct a final showpiece to display my practical final exam pastries. And of course, take a couple of exams! I am excited though, believe it or not. This doesn't have to be so stressful, I don't need to obsess about my platting or wedding cake design, I don't have to be spending every day after class working on the chocolate showpiece. But I am, because despite the stress, sleeplessness, potential malnutrition (popchips and an apple count for dinner right???) and generally being "out of it," I absolutely love every second of it. I spent 5 hours last night (Friday night!) working on recipes and plating. And yes, maybe it's borderline OCD, but I'm pretty sure all great pastry chefs are a tad compulsive, you kind of need to be. And because I wanted to do something unique, I've had to develop my own recipes for a few items. I've never learned so much! I think I now know more about mousse than could ever be necessary. For instance, the percentage of chocolate you use will greatly affect what method you use for your mousse (there are MANY by the way) since the cocoa butter crystallization is the primary stabilizing agent in the mousse. I think recipe development has to be one of the best mechanisms for learning, you absolutely have to understand the science behind each ingredient. It's hard, and effective, and I'm surprised not utilized as a teaching method more often. Luckily for me, the science is what really interests me, so spending hours researching is enjoyable, exhausting, but enjoyable.

Plated desserts from Friday:

Fig-chocolate chiboust, dried fruit compote, choc almond sable, milk gelato, port reduction

coconut sable, coconut chiboust, cherry compote, chocolate sherbet

Warm Pecan Cake with Pistachio Ice Cream and Flambeed Banana

chocolate cake with pistachio ice cream

Souffles!

I've never really understood what the big deal with the soufflé is...granted, they're easy to mess up and hard to do well. But I've always preferred a mousse or even brownie to a chocolate souffle. Seems like a lot of fuss for the dessert! Over the past few days we've been perfecting our soufflé-ing skills, and while I still absolutely love savory souffles, I'm still not completely sold on the sweet ones. Though they are admittedly fun to make, even if eating them is slightly less thrilling. And you know that rule about making noise or moving too much around a baking souffle? So not true, in fact if you open the oven a few times during baking, it'll be fine! That is of course, provided you've made a good meringue!

The chocolate soufflé

Béchamel soufflé with gruyere and black truffle (so good!)

Another application-souffled pancakes! lemon, served with lemon yogurt ice-cream and a blueberry compote.

Our menu project were turned in today! Such a relief. Now, just to produce 2 of them upon chef's request next week! Next up: wedding cake design. I think I can do this...

Deep Fry Day

Strawberry Strudel with Port-Wine Balsamic Reduction.
Not deep fried, we did these Friday. I think I liked the Reduction more. I've never really been a fan of breaded desserts, makes the filling "mushy" and I'd rather just have a homemade strawberry "pop-tart" which is amazing (more cookie like).

Apple Fritters! They were good, though again, I liked the apples with all the spices more without the batter. The pecans were coated with a bourbon caramel sauce, that was pretty great.

Brioche Beignets! The one exception to fried desserts (aka, one I like). One of my favorite desserts are the beignets with a creme anglaise from LAMILL, and these were just as good! they're pretty easy, and could be filled, but I like them plain with powdered sugar. Like a mini donut, but better.
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Tropical fruit fritters. This, I didn't like. The fruit was too acidic and just tasted strange fried. BUT as an accompaniment the chef asked us to make a coconut creme anglaise instead of the coconut foam it calls for since the foam doesn't usually work. So we did, but I also decided to make the foam anyway, using lecithin to stabilize. I always get excited when I get to use hydrocolloids, and it ended up working! I have a foam on my menu, so I felt it necessary to practice.

Tomorrow starts day 1 of 2 of souffles! I've made before, but I have a feeling it wasn't exactly perfect...plus we get to make a savory version, which is always a welcome break!

Pate a Bric?

It's alright if you don't know what pate a bric is. I certainly didn't, and neither did most of our class. Essentially, its phyllo dough, only thicker and made with oil instead of butter. We used it to make beggars purses and fried spring rolls, but to be honest, I didn't like it at all...too doughy and quite bland.

Mango beggars purse with sake-lime sabayon and lychee sorbet.
While the beggars purse was, alright...the sorbet was phenomenal, as all sorbets should be; it tasted like concentrated lychee. I could eat way too much of that quite easily.

Asian pear spring rolls with champagne vinegar gastrique and creme fraiche ice-cream. Again, alright. Frying the pears softened them, and took away the great flambe flavor we previously gave them.

Speaking of plated desserts...the menu project is due next week! Though, we don't actually make it until the next week since we have to get orders in. But I have been analyzing each dessert far too much, and think I'm FINALLY done changing things...
So, unless I can't control my need to tweak things, here it is!


amuse buche
iced tea orb, honey, ginger.

guiness and pretzel ice cream.
%85 valrhona truffle brownie, caramel corn.

bourbon 3-ways.
brioche beignet, bacon infused bourbon-maple creme anglaise. bourbon ice-milk. coconut- bourbon dark chocolate truffle.

mousse cone.
olive oil & sea salt. meyer lemon & black pepper bombe. vanilla-campari gelee.

ginger-apple trifle.
pomelo curd, caramel-apple granola, ginger sorbet.

fuyu persimmon “cobbler.”
tahitian vanilla-kumquat jam,cinnamon foam.

fernet infused fig upside-down cake.
Lillet sorbet, lilac, honeycomb.

pear.
sous-vide poached pear, hazelnut financier, carbonated pear consomme, chamomile sorbet.

hong kong milk tea panna cotta.
sesame bark, yuzu jelly, shisho reduction, tapioca pearls.

Sugar Showpieces!

Andy Warhol Cake Stand

Halloween Showpiece

Since Chef. Tom was out of the class (and will be the rest of the week), today, was a good day. We worked in teams for the past two days constructing showpieces out of sugar. With Chef Chris and Jae in the kitchen the vibe in the classroom was instantly transformed. Everyone was happy, and relaxed. We were able to work (creating according to Chef. Chris-some of the best student showpieces he's seen). It was truly, a great day. And we all need it! Right now, we have this huge menu project (due Wed) to finish, as well as beginning to design our final showpiece/prep for the exam, and design our wedding cakes. Needless to say, we won't be bored! Tomorrow we start our last section, plated desserts 3. Then the last three weeks are finals/wedding cakes! I can't believe we're almost done-excited-but sort of in disbelief!

Blown Sugar

Blowing sugar. Significantly more difficult than expected. Sugar work in general has proved to be a challenge for me (with the obvious exception of pouring sugar). We spent the better part of the morning trying to blow sugar vases. Essentially, you need to have the right consistency of sugar (temperature) as well as thickness, and try to cool the sugar as you blow (or rather, pump air into), or it collapses, pops, or generally doesn't work. But once you get the hang of it, it gets easier, though even after several hours I don't feel particularly confident! Tomorrow we start showpiece one of two. Tomorrow's theme is halloween, and luckily, we're working in teams so its a bit more low key than usual!

Today, also marks exactly one month from graduation!!! And as we get closer to finishing, we're finding time spent outside of class being more and more occupied. A group of us (as well as a few from the night class) are participating in the New York Chocolate Show. While not giving too much away, the ten of us are creating a life-size piece of "haute couture" chocolate. I'm really excited for this! We get to work alongside some of the nation's top chocolatiers! AND our names appear on the piece! The show is on graduation day, so we'll be running between that and school, and to be honest, I'm more excited about the show! I never thought I would be able to blend my interests in baking and fashion...We'll be working in the afternoons over the next three and a half weeks to get it finished, seems like enough time, but we'll see!

Pulling Sugar Ribbons

More sugar today! It was fine, and admittedly, its pretty interesting. Although the process isn't much fun. Our chef was lecturing about how only a small percentage of pastry chefs can work with sugar, its a very rare skill and about as advanced as it gets. No kidding! It's really hard to do well, not to mention dangerous!Third degree burns are a real threat, and about half the class has ridiculous blisters from today. Luckily, I haven't gotten one yet! But, we have three more days left in the unit, so we'll see!

Poured Sugar

We spent all day cooking sugar. To pour. To make sugar owls. It was a bit of a slow day. I do admit sugar work can be super interesting. But, I don't have a particular interest in it at the moment!

We also talked a bit more about our menu projects. As I continue to think about my project, which is an actual business proposal for my future business, I've been a bit "forced" to think about my future in the industry. Although I'm really excited to start working, I had a moment of panic. And this impulse to go back to the "science route." The unpredictability of this industry is both exciting and frightening all at the same time. I love what I do, but the realization I may not have a secure job for several years, or that the business I may open could completely fail does concern me! For example, to get a job (unless you plan on working minimum wage) you need at least a year experience, which you usually get from interning-unpaid. The ideal in the restaurant world is to "get in" with a highly acclaimed chef (think Michelin Stars), then from there use connections to get other jobs. It all sounds so....unreliable. And it is. I'm trying to accept this, and generally, I'm OK with it, there are so many areas of the industry that I would be happy working in, and I know I'll be fine. I just have to deal with the occasional moment of panic!

Soups & Sous-Vide

In the morning each kitchen was assigned a soup plate to make and plate for the class before lunch. Soups are really basic, usually just an infusion. So although it wasn't complicated I was excited to try something I hadn't yet!

Tropical Fruit Salad with Pineapple-Cilantro Syrup, Lime Sorbet, and Pineapple Chip

Summer Fruit Salad with Strawberry broth and Orange-Champagne Granita

Autumn Fruit Soup with Almond Custard Cubes and Quince Sorbet

Exotic Spiced Fruit Soup with Ginger-Lemongrass Ice Cream and Sesame seed Wafer
This is the one my kitchen worked on. Naturally I volunteered to make the ice-cream. As I was making the infusion I felt like the ratio of ginger to lemongrass wasn't great. The lemongrass was there, but the ginger was lost (not OK). I personally feel that in dessert applications (and most any) that if you add ginger, it should be obvious, it has such an incredible spicy flavor, why wouldn't you want to showcase it? Then again, I absolutely LOVE ginger. So while it was making I juiced some ginger and after the creme anglais cooled, added it until I was satisfied. It ended being about 4x the original amount. I was worried my fellow classmates would find it too spicy, though it was nicely mellowed by the lemongrass. I was wrong, everyone loved it! I got rave reviews, and the entire hotel pan full disappeared as we tasted. I was pretty proud. It's one thing to replicate a recipe successfully, but I always aim to make it as good as I possibly can. I liked it so much, I'm thinking of using it (or its sorbet equivalent) in my menu project.

The second half of the day was a sous-vide demo! Sous-vide is essentially "under vacuum." Although after food is vacuum sealed, it is often slow cooked in an immersion circulator the processes are not the same thing. Generally sous-vide and low temperature cooking are used together to attain better texture for meats. Basically, when you cook steak you want to break down collagen fibers, but not muscle fibers. In order to attain proper temperature, the outside is often over-cooked and many meats will become tough and dry. Sous-vide allows to reach to break down collagen (breakdown depends on time and temperature) while leaving muscle fibers (breakdown only related to temperature), by keeping it at a low temperature for a long time. Although, searing the meat is also often used after to get that desired brown crust. But it has many more applications, from infusions to flash pickling and creating multi-layered tarinnes. Though it was a brief demo, I'm glad we got an introduction!

Afternoon of Desserts

Today was the the last day of plated desserts 2 (3 next week), and instead of an exam we were to plate for actual customers. Students invited friends, family, or co-workers to come in and taste our desserts. It was meant to be a close approximation to running a kitchen, and we served in the Italian dining room using the staff from the restaurant to serve for us. The menu wasn't all that exciting, but it was much better than an exam! And it all went smoothly, above are the final pates for the day! All of which are things we've done before.
Below: a few sabayon plates from last week-with fresh fruit and french toast.



Tomorrow we are doing fruit soups and consommes as well as sous vide! I was a bit concerned we wouldn't get to do this since the afternoon of desserts replaces it on our schedule, but they worked it in anyway! And I can't wait!