Today was a day of tears: tears of stress, tears of nervous anticipation, tears of worry and unalloyed terror and finally...tears of relief.
Yes, it's official - I passed both of my practical exams although the Patisserie one was a very near thing. It wasn't anywhere near what I would have called even a good effort in terms of technique, having done every single element better previously (and actually, same for the Cuisine final) - but it was done and it was enough to get me through. I heard someone who is progressing through the levels tell someone else that now they are nervous - well, I can't help the tears which came with the relief of finally knowing, one way or the other.
The rundown
Friday's Patisserie was a nightmare. It started with a dream during the night in which I was already in my exams, but then I woke up and I actually had to do it. Who knows how long the dream lasted, but I was working on my sable biscuits in it - and in that odd, dreamlike way that time passes, it seemed like it had been going for days.
It was time to get equipment and things ready for the exam room - my bag had been packed the night before and all extraneous knives had been removed from my knife kit. Eventually found the bread knife and the cleaver I had removed for the Cuisine final - in a box with odds and ends when I tidied up my room. See, it might look more tidy with things put away, but then I can't get my hands on things so tidy is not the same as organized.
The first 3 hours of my exam were great - the brioche was done on time and proving in the prover (although I had initially written down the wrong time, I had written the start time so it was easy to fix) and the sable dough was done. The bain maries were set up for the chocolates, my lemons zested, juiced and on the stove, ready to start reducing when we were allowed to turn on the heat and the raspberries with the sugar on another burner, ready to go for the jelly. They have a rule that in the 1st hour, you may not turn on your stoves.
Turned the stove on as soon as I was allowed to so that things could do what they needed to do. I set up my tray for the truffles (paper, wire rack) and baking trays for the jaconde biscuit (the cake sponge for my dessert) and tuiles. The brioche was chilling in the fridge so I tempered the chocolate and checked on the lemon juice and raspberries, both merrily heating but not boiling away - perfect, right?
In which the cascade starts
Somewhere in the 4th hour, things started to go wrong. I was all of a sudden starting to get a little behind and I'm not sure why. The melted butter for my sponge had disappeared off my stove when I wasn't looking and I thought I had messed up the sponge (no, it turned out ok) but it was time to make the mousse. The jelly was already setting in the blast chiller and the chocolate twirls were in the fridge but all of a sudden - my lemon juice and zest for the mousse were no longer on my stove. There was no chance of sabotage because everyone was making different desserts and I wouldn't have taken the pots to the washup because I needed them - but where was the lemon juice? The chef went to investigate but all of a sudden my timing was off. The sugar couldn't get started because the mousse had to set while I did the sugar and my truffles hadn't been capped - already a problem because it was so cold in the Patisserie that the chocolate was too cold when I flooded the mould and the shells were very thick - I knew they weren't going to score high...what do you do when you know that things aren't going well and you can't fix it? You keep on going and hope that somehow it works out. Had to keep going but there were a few moments when it would have been nice to curl up in a little ball under my station and just wait to wake up so that I could do my exam for real. Except this was real and it was starting to feel horrible.
Towards the end, I knew I wasn't going to get the biscuits done in time because I didn't have enough time to chill them down as much as I needed to - a lightning decision to salvage what was possible - take them out early (delineations of the colors got lost, lost a bunch of points for technique and presentation) and presented them less than half baked because I was already 5 minutes over (automatic 10% deduction) and didn't want to get disqualified by going over the maximum time. There is a certain agonizing pain that comes with presenting something you know is sub-par but there was nothing to be done except hope for the best and hope it was enough.
Debrief
Waiting for the results was absolutely excruciating. On the one hand, not knowing means that there's always a glimmer of hope - you haven't failed until they tell you that you did. On the other hand, waiting to know one way or the other leaves you unable to think of anything else. Despite everything I could do to keep my mind off it (tons of laundry, packing and re-packing, multiple ballet classes in the same day, going out with friends) somehow it always came back to the nauseating finale of the Patisserie. I knew the Cuisine exam wasn't as good as the mock exam but the Patisserie - it was touch and go as to whether I had passed. Failure meant no Patisserie Diplome, no Grand Diplome (and trust me, it's a big piece of paper) and could almost seem to be a waste of having returned to London to finish the last month of classes. Of course there's a bright side (seeing the new school, using the new equipment, being back in London) but the silver lining was hard to see under the doom and gloom of a possible failure.
So - how did it all go?
Cuisine:
Chef EB told me I should go to France for 5 years and eat out at restaurants more. Yes, chef! I think he told a lot of people that they should go to France and eat there more, though - at least 5 other people in my group were told the same thing. Oddly enough, the dishes were better during the mock exam although the timing was definitely better for this one. Managed to have a respectable plate although the detailed comments weren't available due to a computer glitch. Good - I don't need to know about my hollandaise or my tartlet which I know could have been better. I'm sure they would have said the turning could have been better, some veggies overcooked (turnips again?), some veggies undercooked (carrots?) and who knows for the rest of it?
"Congratulations - you passed." Even though I had felt quite confident about the Cuisine final, I didn't realize how tightly I'd been strung while waiting to hear those words until the tears started. The release of some of the tension was almost unbearable, especially as Patisserie debrief was next and the tension ratcheted back up almost immediately, even worse than before. I exited the debriefing room for a hug from classmates who were going through the same thing. Some concern from the others as they saw my tears - "What happened? Did you pass?" A sigh of relief as I nodded, then congratulations all around as we said them to each other as each person exited a debriefing room (the Cuisine and Patisserie debriefs were in adjacent rooms - I am guessing it's because a few of us had to go to both rooms).
Patisserie:
Chef CB's comment about my tuiles - "cremated". Well, that's about right - I'm not sure what happened - the temperature in the oven at home must be a little different from the one at school - hard go gauge, I didn't use the oven thermometer at home. Also - a tuile and the backup broke during plating so marks were deducted for the plates not being identical, although since all the elements on the plate were present, I got credit for that and the portfolio.
And then the compulsory items...brioche - a bit tasteless (needed more salt) and the head was crooked. Otherwise, ok.
Truffles - white chocolate went out of temper (again!) and the shells were too thick, the caps uneven, but the ganache had a good texture, technique was fine and tasted very nice (yes, the extra 5 drops of Framboise helped, I think).
Sable biscuis - were not cooked, not chilled enough before cutting, etc. etc. No points for taste because it wasn't cooked so they wouldn't have tasted the biscuits. Evil petit fours - I saw some on a menu the other night and ended up pushing it away with a shudder, unable to think about the ones I had presented on the cakeboard.
Coulis needed more sugar, the glacage was a bit too runny, mousse was nice, jelly was too jelled and at the bottom of the mousse instead of in the middle and the sponge needed more syrup (which also had Framboise in it. I soaked the sponge well, but maybe I should have done the sides too...) Messy plate, messy sauces...it could have been so much better. The white chocolate twirl was way too thick - I probably should have used the small teeth on the comb but was too nervous I'd melt through them while plating - my fingers tend to run hot which sucks when working with dough or sugar or chocolate.
Then the sugar...oh dear - let's just say it was not good - but I'm glad I managed to get it done at all and it was still standing when it got downstairs - a relief since the sugar kind of got overcooked at the initial stages. I don't have a photo of it (for my reference only) but let's just say that it fell far short of what I had hoped to produce.
"Despite all that, you passed." More tears, a hug and a kiss before heading downstairs to clean out my locker. What a relief to know that it hadn't all been in vain and although the day produced a crappy performance, it was enough to get me through to the end.
Nor was I the only one to cry from the sheer relief of knowing finally - and knowing that we had done it. There was more than one person who was still upset about the performance we had handed in on the exam days and we compared notes in terms of what we had been told - quite a few of us were told our dishes didn't taste so nice (hence the the suggestions that we live in France and eat out more), as well as other problematic areas of our techniques and things.
I do want to re-do and try out some of the suggestions the chefs made - I'm sure I can do better than I did. Now just to figure out a way to do it...some things are easier to try at home than others and although my sugar pretty much sucked, I am so glad I don't have to do it again.
So until next time, may you find that the effort you put in is worth the final result.
Showing posts with label chocolate decorations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate decorations. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
#89 - Death by tuiles...
I keep thinking it's Friday night but it's not. My lattice stencil arrived yesterday and I picked it up from a friend today so that I could have a practice run at my plating with all the decorations. Yech - another try tomorrow...it's a pain because I don't feel like I have a natural talent for putting the shapes and things together. Nothing came out quite the way I imagined or hoped except for the white chocolate twirls. I had to make my own blackberry puree so I had to guess a bit. It turned my tuile mix purple instead of a dark pink or deep red. I know part of it is the the tuile batter but still...lavender? And the pretty tuiles broke because I overcooked them so I had to use the crappy one for the plating.
Had to be kind of ruthless with the chocolate twirls. Hopefully I'll get the same shape or be able to snap it around the same place during the exam - it's hard to get the angles exactly right and depending on the acetate you get, sometimes it's easier than others to get the twirls to be around the same circumference/curve as what you're aiming for. Got lucky today with the twirl, but still ended up breaking the long twirls into a better height to go on the plate.
Have been having trouble coming up with a design on the plate where I would have enough sauce and still have something that looks clean and interesting. This still isn't quite what I was looking for, but it's an improvement over what happened during the exam skills class with our plated dessert earlier in the week. I've been lucky enough to get some suggestions from friends who did this exam two terms ago. They had a couple of ideas which I think I can try tomorrow so that I can put photos in the portfolio. At this point if it takes too much time, I'm not doing it for the exam (except for piping the poppyseed tuile and even that has me whining that it sucks when the batter is melting).
Then it was time for dinner. I was really craving the goat's cheese and the baby beets I bought last night. Also the mac 'n cheese. And I bought some chicken today - baked it wrapped in Serrano ham. It sounded good in theory but not good in practice. The bottom part of the chicken / ham roll kind got steamed / boiled so it wasn't crispy like I had thought it would. Super classy dinner, non? I think the best part of dinner was the salad though - the chicken was boring and the mac 'n cheese stopped being nice right around when the breadcrumbs started to go a bit soggy.
Have been having trouble coming up with a design on the plate where I would have enough sauce and still have something that looks clean and interesting. This still isn't quite what I was looking for, but it's an improvement over what happened during the exam skills class with our plated dessert earlier in the week. I've been lucky enough to get some suggestions from friends who did this exam two terms ago. They had a couple of ideas which I think I can try tomorrow so that I can put photos in the portfolio. At this point if it takes too much time, I'm not doing it for the exam (except for piping the poppyseed tuile and even that has me whining that it sucks when the batter is melting).The Anglaise came out this time but the coulis is still really thick even though I didn't boil the sugar as hot as the other day. The coulis gets this weird skin on top - I think blackberries must have some kind of pectin because the coulis looked like it might set if I left it to its own devices for a while. In any case, the Anglaise wasn't as runny today and the coulis not as lumpy so I think I've fixed my technical difficulties. Hopefully there will be time to do them again tomorrow - just in case, and also to try out the suggested platings with the sauces. We've got a few ideas on the go so hopefully one of them will look good. I don't want to try anything fancy because I know my hands will be shaking by the time I get to plating the dessert and wobbly hands don't do good piping or other fine, delicate work.
JB has been a very good sport and tasted each of the components I made today - a bit of a feat given he was trying to eat dinner and go out while I was plying him with the Anglaise (he wanted to know what it was. I could only explain it by saying it's kind of like a custard), the coulis and tuile. He declined the white chocolate - probably just as well, I need the twirls after all so that I can try a couple of more alternative platings.
Dinner
Then it was time for dinner. I was really craving the goat's cheese and the baby beets I bought last night. Also the mac 'n cheese. And I bought some chicken today - baked it wrapped in Serrano ham. It sounded good in theory but not good in practice. The bottom part of the chicken / ham roll kind got steamed / boiled so it wasn't crispy like I had thought it would. Super classy dinner, non? I think the best part of dinner was the salad though - the chicken was boring and the mac 'n cheese stopped being nice right around when the breadcrumbs started to go a bit soggy.
Tempering is really taking it out of me. Somehow managed to get the white chocolate twirls done but my hand has started to peel. Have decided that I will not cook again before finals after I've turned in my portfolio (well, except to cook dinner or something). I want to rest everything as much as possible for the big days.
Anyway, it's time to go to sleep. I've been sitting here trying to formulate a sentence for quite a while now and am afraid I have said something silly further up. Thank goodness for artistic friends who can make a judgment call as to whether something is pretty or not. Or clean looking or not. So until next time, may the suggestions you get from your friends be as good and useful as the ones I have received from mine.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
#86 - Finals Practice Day 2 - Free Interpretation Plated Dessert
Well, it's Day 2 of the finals practice runs and there is some recipe rewriting to be done. It seems everyone else is finished with their portfolio but I was stuck in a quandary of where to start. I think it's one of those things that was so overwhelming that only the impetus of knowing I had to execute today made me rewrite today's recipes on my computer rather than having scraps of recipes and various different versions in my notebooks (sometimes starting from the back).
Compulsory Elements
Certain elements are required but we get to choose between options for those elements. However, other requirements (i.e. the dessert has to be at least 50% encased in something) do mean that our desserts are going to have certain things in common. I think a lot of people are encasing in oval or round cylinders, although I saw a lovely elliptical one with pointy ends (ladies - think Marquis cut). They all have to have a jelly in the middle (you can see it in the cross section after it got destroyed in the tasting). It has to have a glacage that's a different flavor from the jelly in the middle of the mousse/bavarois/chibouste (basically the filling has to have some sort of whipped cream mixture component). We all have to have tuiles, although my poppyseeds got somewhat lost and a tempered chocolate decoration and a couple of sauces, one of which I managed to get completely lumpy. It's not supposed to be.
I had done components of the dessert, but not all of them together so today was an interesting run through. It's amazing how much you forget in a short period of time so thank goodness I wrote my notes with a view to what I might need to know a few years from now. They don't need to be as detailed when you do it for so many days on end but it's inconvenient when your brain prunes various neurons which encode the information you deem vital but they think are superfluous. I suppose knowing what the joconde biscuit ought to look like isn't a survival imperative, but it is if you want to pass Patisserie!
The last 3 hours of our final
Anyway - so it kind of seemed like things were on track and then it kind of felt like they weren't. For instance, I didn't make back ups of my piped chocolate decorations so when I knocked one over, that kind of sucked. Luckily I had enough time and I still had chocolate in my bowls, so I quickly warmed up the chocolate and piped it again.
We were meant to keep track of how long it took to do what, but other than things like baking times, I didn't do a very good job of it at all. I wrote the times of a couple of things, then got lost in just making stuff. There was a little bit of "and then what?" going on, but I think I'm just going to do a big checklist on the day so that I can cross things off my list as I do them.
Chef GB didn't like the decorations because he said they were too fussy (below left) and the hearts were too old fashioned (he didn't say that to the other person who had hearts on her plate - what's up with that?). Something was wrong with my coulis so it messed up his plating (below centre). I'm still fighting with knowing that my plating is not pretty and since I don't have a Kitchen Aid at home (nor the right puree) I don't intend to try this again before the exam. Perhaps you can weigh in with your preferences or any suggestions you may have:
It was so hot in the kitchen that I came home with a migraine for the second day in a row. I'm not sure how we ever made it in the kitchens at the old school. I heard a couple of girls in the locker room complaining about the heat and thought, "They have no idea." Our kitchens are air conditiioned! Made it to the osteo who put me to rights (to the accompaniment of cracks and winces) and finally it's to bed and getting ready for tomorrow. I'm still waiting to hear whether I have to take the theory exams again (please no! I already took them and I don't have my notes anymore) - the trouble is the first theory exam is tomorrow so if I find out that I do have to take the exam, it will be with just a couple of hours' notice. It almost seems premature - perhaps they ought to wait until 5 minutes before the exam.
On the other hand, if they let me know earlier, maybe I can take a dance class in the afternoon to make up for eating the white chocolate after I piped a message to V...because after dinner, just for fun and to make up for that bleeding raspberry white chocolate mousse from last Sunday, I decided to have a little piping practice...
Tomorrow is another day and as always, there's a ton of stuff to be done. It's getting close to my bed time so I will say good night for now. And until next time, may your dreams be sweet but not filled with white chocolate mousse.
Monday, February 13, 2012
#75 - Preparations for finals (again)
So handy...I have evidence of having assisted in putting together a bookshelf. The assistance was mainly of the moral support variety although I did hold some of the pieces together while putting them together...as you can see. It looks so simple, but somehow it always takes longer to put furniture together. Such was the case here.
Then I got spoiled - friends made me lunch. It's something that you always appreciate and I agree with others that somehow it always tastes better when someone else cooks. It must be the TLC because I have had meals at restaurants that I hated, but on the whole, food made by friends (or family) just tastes better. Sometimes people apologize for something being "really simple" but I don't think they realize that what we cook isn't necessarily something we want to eat. I think even Jamie Oliver says in his shows that what he cooks at home wasn't what he made when he worked in restaurants. I'm not sure anyone could possibly eat those quantities of butter, cream, sugar, white flour, etc. etc. on any kind of frequent basis and be able to adhere to any kind of healthy eating plan.Another High Tea
Went to High Tea again over the weekend - one of the girls organized it and I went - for research purposes, of course. An observation was made the other day that I seem to love High Tea. Well, kind of - I like the little sandwiches. Generally the sweets aren't my thing, although the past year has been more of an exercise of tasting. There was a certain amount of critiquing based on what I am hoping to turn out for the exams. Not these...these weren't shiny and the white chocolate was pretty thick on the shell. I didn't taste the filling that much because I didn't like them, so couldn't tell you what they were.
The chocolate centrepiece was quite pretty - someone saw me taking a photo and when I told her I thought it was chocolate, she touched it. Apparently it was. Anyway - I liked the bending of the sculpture and the twigs they made out of it. The rose isn't as pretty as the one Chef NH does in Patisserie, but it was still pretty. I couldn't tell if it was marzipan or something else.Exam Prep
Got my emails from LCB - I got the finals papers and plane tickets are booked - after several emails.
How do you make sables again?
Have started preparations for exams. I don't have all my equipment here so the practice is limited - that, and the fact that once again, I am London bound in the not-too-distant future. The only thing is, I seem to have forgotten how to cook. Oh dear...
I haven't figured out why these cracked - maybe I should have turned on the fan in the oven. Something to do for next time. Also - the scales must be off a bit - the weight of salt looked like a lot and the biscuits actually tasted quite salty. Amazing when you consider that it's only 2g compared to the 100g of sugar.They are still nice and crunchy - but a bit on the salty side. Panic has started to set in as it appears that things I thought I had worked out are now having problems. They're not kidding - you need to do this several times to get it down. Oh well - if we haven't gotten things worked out, hopefully I'll find out during the skills tests in 3 weeks.
So until next time - happy Valentine's Day for those of you who celebrate / observe it. And happy Un-Valentine's Day for those of you who refuse to put pressure on yourselves and your significant others by letting Hallmark and commercial hype dictate when you should be loving to each other. After all - a just-because present is better than one that is given because an occasion dictates it.
Friday, December 16, 2011
#67 - (Not) Graduation and variations on a theme
The variations are not on a theme by Paganini. It's more a theme by Le Cordon Bleu London - that is to say, hygiene. Kind of. Sort of. What can I say, it's more laundry. But as usual, I've begun in the middle so must loop back to the beginning.
Good bye Dinner
On Thursday night I had dinner with a friend of one of my brothers (they of the walk in the countryside and trip on canal boat fame) - she and her partner took me to a lovely restaurant called Alba near the Barbican - really good Italian food - definitely comfort food. I took a photo of the dessert as research. As delicious as my vegetable soup and slow cooked lamb were, they weren't something I might put in an exam. Probably not the pear either, but it was good for taste, texture and potential ideas (the marscapone cream was really good - definitely on the list for a future dessert). The Alba is a family owned and operated establishment and my hostess had been going there for years. I must say that I will definitely go back - what's not to like? Small but thoughtful menu with something available for the carnivore, the vegetarian and the pescatarian (they're the ones who eat fish but not meat, right?). I was tempted to get the set menu which had a truffle dish on it, but couldn't go past the lamb.
Graduation Lunch
As of Friday, 16 December 2011, the term has officially ended for my fellows in Superior Cuisine and Patisserie - they are now chefs, some of them entitled to wear the toque at least for the last few minutes of the graduation ceremony. Today was graduation day for most of those who began this long quest to learn how to cook, improve technique and to share our love of all things food. The party was at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. Much better food than what I remember being served when we had our graduation from Basic. This is the final graduating batch of Superior students from 114 Marylebone Lane. From next year, students will be taking classes in Bloomsbury Square.
It was nice to see everyone dressed up and out of their school uniforms. It appears that people dress up more for the Superior Graduation - not that I remember much from when I was in Basic (and I wasn't here for the Intermediate one) but I have to admit people cleaned up very well.
Everyone had put their best shod foot forward and you could feel the palpable air of relief, excitement and (possibly it's my imagination, but who knows?) the need to catch up on just a little more sleep after the marathon Patisserie exam a couple of days ago. Some of people said that a few problems had occurred in one of the exams and sometimes it was little but important things which just went wrong on the day. I think it's always frustrating when you have an element which normally is not a trouble maker all of a sudden causing problems on the day because it tends to throw you off your stride.
The Dorchester was very pretty - a little OTT perhaps, but then again, this was a big occasion for everyone - a culmination of a lot of work and in many cases, some blood, lots of sweat and a lot of tears. Possibly also some grumpy moments, loss of sleep and monumental self control when something didn't go right in class and continued not to go right. Yes, it is personal experience talking...
Having had so much time in class, I have to say I cast an eye over our lunch as though we were having it presented to us for tasting and judgment. Maybe not Iron Chef - but definitely consideration on a couple of levels: the first being, could I do this? (Sometimes yes, sometimes maybe...) - and the second one being, what might the chefs say if this was a dish that we were presenting to them.
So I do not have a 3 Michelin star palate - even after al this time and the incredible ingredients we used in class, I still do not like foie gras (although today I hated it less than usual). The toasted brioche was a nice touch although I observed a demonstration of someone's objection to it which is that you get this large slab of foie gras but only a little bit of bread and salad.
The menu said cannon of lamb. I thought the cannon was part of the leg but this looked more like a steak-ish type of cut. Also, it didn't taste particularly lamb-y, but maybe the tastebuds were confused by the foie gras and a piece of the toasted brioche (yummy, by the way) which had preceded it. Again, left the sweetbreads behind. I think they are considered a delicacy nowadays - certainly they seem to be trendy at the moment, both as part of the head-to-tail philosophy of using every part of the animal and as part of the offal-is-trendy-because-it-sounds-kind-of-weird-and-no-one-knows-what-it-is.
Dessert was a mocha and something-or-other parfait, macadamia nut brittle, coconut ice cream (milk ice cream?) and sauce. This one got particular scrutiny as there were several patisserie students at my table from all the levels as well as our head Patisserie chef. The students looked at it from the view of a plated dessert and Chef JW looked at it, comparing it to what had been served during the tasting (when they chose the menu) as well as technical points. The only really technical point is that a parfait is frozen, which these weren't. I thought the mousse might have been a tad heavy on the gelatine, but that might just have been me.
There was some discussion as to how well the chocolate was tempered, some people at the table having had rather recent and harrowing experience with uncooperative chocolate. Split verdict - I thought it was fine, someone else thought not and Chef JW did not weigh in with her opinion. She did observe that there are two LCB graduates who worked in the pastry team of the Dorchester and at least one of them had worked on these desserts. In any event, it tasted good and was quite pretty. They stuck the tuile and chocolate in the dome though, so I'm not sure what Chef GB thought of that - he told us particularly not to do that to our plated desserts.
I also found out one of the girls who just completed Basic Patisserie has been reading this blog - rather a compliment. I asked her how she had found it and she said it was because she had been searching for photos of the dishes we had been making in class.
Chefs!
Anyway - they made it and have the medals, papers (lots of papers) and the hats to show it.
Good bye Dinner
On Thursday night I had dinner with a friend of one of my brothers (they of the walk in the countryside and trip on canal boat fame) - she and her partner took me to a lovely restaurant called Alba near the Barbican - really good Italian food - definitely comfort food. I took a photo of the dessert as research. As delicious as my vegetable soup and slow cooked lamb were, they weren't something I might put in an exam. Probably not the pear either, but it was good for taste, texture and potential ideas (the marscapone cream was really good - definitely on the list for a future dessert). The Alba is a family owned and operated establishment and my hostess had been going there for years. I must say that I will definitely go back - what's not to like? Small but thoughtful menu with something available for the carnivore, the vegetarian and the pescatarian (they're the ones who eat fish but not meat, right?). I was tempted to get the set menu which had a truffle dish on it, but couldn't go past the lamb.Graduation Lunch
As of Friday, 16 December 2011, the term has officially ended for my fellows in Superior Cuisine and Patisserie - they are now chefs, some of them entitled to wear the toque at least for the last few minutes of the graduation ceremony. Today was graduation day for most of those who began this long quest to learn how to cook, improve technique and to share our love of all things food. The party was at the Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane. Much better food than what I remember being served when we had our graduation from Basic. This is the final graduating batch of Superior students from 114 Marylebone Lane. From next year, students will be taking classes in Bloomsbury Square.
It was nice to see everyone dressed up and out of their school uniforms. It appears that people dress up more for the Superior Graduation - not that I remember much from when I was in Basic (and I wasn't here for the Intermediate one) but I have to admit people cleaned up very well.
Everyone had put their best shod foot forward and you could feel the palpable air of relief, excitement and (possibly it's my imagination, but who knows?) the need to catch up on just a little more sleep after the marathon Patisserie exam a couple of days ago. Some of people said that a few problems had occurred in one of the exams and sometimes it was little but important things which just went wrong on the day. I think it's always frustrating when you have an element which normally is not a trouble maker all of a sudden causing problems on the day because it tends to throw you off your stride.
The Dorchester was very pretty - a little OTT perhaps, but then again, this was a big occasion for everyone - a culmination of a lot of work and in many cases, some blood, lots of sweat and a lot of tears. Possibly also some grumpy moments, loss of sleep and monumental self control when something didn't go right in class and continued not to go right. Yes, it is personal experience talking...Having had so much time in class, I have to say I cast an eye over our lunch as though we were having it presented to us for tasting and judgment. Maybe not Iron Chef - but definitely consideration on a couple of levels: the first being, could I do this? (Sometimes yes, sometimes maybe...) - and the second one being, what might the chefs say if this was a dish that we were presenting to them.
So I do not have a 3 Michelin star palate - even after al this time and the incredible ingredients we used in class, I still do not like foie gras (although today I hated it less than usual). The toasted brioche was a nice touch although I observed a demonstration of someone's objection to it which is that you get this large slab of foie gras but only a little bit of bread and salad.
The menu said cannon of lamb. I thought the cannon was part of the leg but this looked more like a steak-ish type of cut. Also, it didn't taste particularly lamb-y, but maybe the tastebuds were confused by the foie gras and a piece of the toasted brioche (yummy, by the way) which had preceded it. Again, left the sweetbreads behind. I think they are considered a delicacy nowadays - certainly they seem to be trendy at the moment, both as part of the head-to-tail philosophy of using every part of the animal and as part of the offal-is-trendy-because-it-sounds-kind-of-weird-and-no-one-knows-what-it-is.
Dessert was a mocha and something-or-other parfait, macadamia nut brittle, coconut ice cream (milk ice cream?) and sauce. This one got particular scrutiny as there were several patisserie students at my table from all the levels as well as our head Patisserie chef. The students looked at it from the view of a plated dessert and Chef JW looked at it, comparing it to what had been served during the tasting (when they chose the menu) as well as technical points. The only really technical point is that a parfait is frozen, which these weren't. I thought the mousse might have been a tad heavy on the gelatine, but that might just have been me.
There was some discussion as to how well the chocolate was tempered, some people at the table having had rather recent and harrowing experience with uncooperative chocolate. Split verdict - I thought it was fine, someone else thought not and Chef JW did not weigh in with her opinion. She did observe that there are two LCB graduates who worked in the pastry team of the Dorchester and at least one of them had worked on these desserts. In any event, it tasted good and was quite pretty. They stuck the tuile and chocolate in the dome though, so I'm not sure what Chef GB thought of that - he told us particularly not to do that to our plated desserts.I also found out one of the girls who just completed Basic Patisserie has been reading this blog - rather a compliment. I asked her how she had found it and she said it was because she had been searching for photos of the dishes we had been making in class.
Chefs!
Anyway - they made it and have the medals, papers (lots of papers) and the hats to show it.
Well done chefs!
As for my graduation, hopefully I will be able to time my finals with the next batch of graduating Superior students. This was supposed to be a year of food, but it's turning out to be a bit longer. It's been more of a year of building character - in which food played a large role. I will know more once I hear back from the Academic committe but for now, there will be photos of practice sessions (once my hand is back in shape), possibly some bitching and moaning and now I have a great excuse to eat a lot of things at a lot of places. After all, it's a chance to collect ideas for finals without trying to get too clever. It wasn't far to find a very large silver lining (a break to reorganize, get warm at home for the holidays with family and friends and a chance to see the new school).
So until next time, happy holidays - may your year end as positively as mine bids to do.
Friday, November 4, 2011
#50 - Plated desserts, fish, lamb and a looming mystery
This week has gone by in a flash. One minute it was too early on a Monday morning and the next moment the week is ending with the Mystery Basket looming over us.
Starting at the middle
Because you already know the beginning. We did our identical plated desserts - was it only yesterday? According to my camera, yes, it was. We had another class to practice tuiles and chocolate (worth quite a points in the final exam as they count towards technique, presentation, balance, taste and, possibly, texture). This was then used to decorate our ricotta bavarois (kind of like a mousse, but a mousse is not necessarily a bavarois - analgous to how a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square in geometry - fancy schmancy technical terms you know, so that we sound really cool when we talk shop).
Plated desserts
I was of two minds about a piped chocolate decoration which I eventually left off because I thought it was too heavy (above). Chef NH made a suggestion that I trim them (hence the 2-toned chocolate lattice triangles - right) but that was after he marked the ones I presented. I admit it looks a bit more impressive but whether or not I can work quickly enough to pull it off on exam day remains to be seen. It will require some practice sessions to get the timing/texture and piping down so that I can get it all done in 5 minutes - especially if it's a warm day like yesterday so that it takes so much longer to do chocolate and there's much less time to get the tuiles done. The raspberry coulis is a bit of a disaster but all in all it was a good learning and experimental day.
Cuisine - Who knew Mustard is salty?
I apologized to Chef JB about the sauce before he took a taste. Sad - the dish started out so well (good fish, good lentils...) and then the sauce, which made him make a face. He told me how to fix it (basically start over and do things to it - like bringing back a split Hollandaise). Too late for this dish, but possibly useful in the future. (Not a bad day, according to Chef JB.) In the meantime, no, I haven't tasted the dish. We confited (is that how I say it in English?) in duck fat. There was double cream in the sauce (which I tasted and didn't like - very mustard-y). I liked the lentils (had to check the cooking point and the seasoning) which were quite easy to make.
Then this afternoon: lamb a couple of different ways and split pea puree. The pea puree doesn't sound very appetising, but I found it surprisingly yummy - especially the bacon-y goodness which came through after I added quite a bit of salt to the dish. The things that tasted so salty to me were ok for seasoning. It might have tasted ok but the cooking was a bit unfortunate for this one.
Starting at the middle
 |
| Leaning Towers of Ricotta... |
Because you already know the beginning. We did our identical plated desserts - was it only yesterday? According to my camera, yes, it was. We had another class to practice tuiles and chocolate (worth quite a points in the final exam as they count towards technique, presentation, balance, taste and, possibly, texture). This was then used to decorate our ricotta bavarois (kind of like a mousse, but a mousse is not necessarily a bavarois - analgous to how a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square in geometry - fancy schmancy technical terms you know, so that we sound really cool when we talk shop).
Plated desserts
 |
| Leaning Towers of Ricotta with 2-tone chocolate latticework |
Cuisine - Who knew Mustard is salty?
Then it was on to Cuisine and today. 2 practicals sandwiching a demo - all I can say is, it might be 14C outside, but it's still pretty tropical inside. The first class was a seabass confit this morning. It seemed under control until I had to add mustard to the sauce - after which, the sauce tasted terrible. Why? Because it was too salty. Hands up everyone who knew mustard is inherently salty...
I apologized to Chef JB about the sauce before he took a taste. Sad - the dish started out so well (good fish, good lentils...) and then the sauce, which made him make a face. He told me how to fix it (basically start over and do things to it - like bringing back a split Hollandaise). Too late for this dish, but possibly useful in the future. (Not a bad day, according to Chef JB.) In the meantime, no, I haven't tasted the dish. We confited (is that how I say it in English?) in duck fat. There was double cream in the sauce (which I tasted and didn't like - very mustard-y). I liked the lentils (had to check the cooking point and the seasoning) which were quite easy to make.Hit and miss lamb
Then this afternoon: lamb a couple of different ways and split pea puree. The pea puree doesn't sound very appetising, but I found it surprisingly yummy - especially the bacon-y goodness which came through after I added quite a bit of salt to the dish. The things that tasted so salty to me were ok for seasoning. It might have tasted ok but the cooking was a bit unfortunate for this one.Comments: The fondant potato could have used a little more cooking (but Chef, my potato fell apart!)
- The petit fillet of the lamb is blue - so that's not good and needs work. (Yup.)
- The fillet is cooked med/med-well. A bit unevenly cooked as well. (Yup...)
- The confit lamb needed more time. (If only class were longer, Chef.)
- The pea puree was good. (Yes Chef - because you made the puree for us. I just added more salt.)
- The presentation is...ok. (Yes Chef - I'll work on the whole making it pretty.)
- The sauce is good - tastes like red wine sauce. (Hmmm, good to know you didn't see me almost burn it away and have to revive it so many times.)
Looming Mystery
Tomorrow is our mystery basket. We each get a basket of supplies and have our usual class time in which to come up with something. Everything goes except that some things don't go together (i.e. pasta and pastry), it has to taste good and it has to be pretty. Oh, and whatever technique we use has to be done properly.
Surreal life
Wish us luck - this is probably the most like a TV cooking show scenario (except for the countdown during exams). Odd - as much as it sucks to mess up a dish, this is still the most fun I've had on a daily basis in quite a while. I'm living in my own little fantasy world of personal interactive cooking show (we get to taste! Almost every day!) and we get to learn - plus we get pictures and we get to take the food home. I can't imagine when school will ever be so much fun again, seeing as how I can't seem to stay away from classrooms. For the moment, my life is a little bit of a combination of Bridget Jones (from Diary days, not the sequels) + Iron Chef/Master Chef/Top Chef [insert name of your preferred cooking show here] + Ally McBeal / Legally Blonde [although the Ally McBeal / Legally Blonde references are not mine). Must admit I had to check my hair color a couple of times after I spent an entire week thinking it was a day later than it actually was and again today when I couldn't find my camera which was in my bag because it wasn't in the right place. (Everything might have its time and to everything a season, but when they have their time and place, it gets very confusing when they switch around. What's wrong with organized chaos? I never lose things more often than after I tidy up.)
So until next time - would you be able to make a dish (or a meal) based on a list of ingredients? Happy thinking / planning / dreaming!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
#49 - In which things might be coming together. Or not...
First things first - of course I got the details wrong when I described yesterday's altercation between a guy in our group and some other guy in some other group. A prime example of how things get garbled in the retelling...
Secondly, I forgot when I wrote the last post that I had actually had a practical since the post before that. So in order to rectify that oversight...
The aftermath
Last Friday we had a practical for cuisine. It was after our student event so everyone was pretty brain dead (some more than others, in direct proportion to the amount of partying engaged in after the student event on Thursday night).
We had been instructed to work in pairs while our chef tried to organize a porter. It appears that the class before us (who had had their mock final exam that afternoon) had finished a little late. They had used a lot of pots and pans (someone told me that she when she sat down and planned the 4 hours, she needed 7 pots and pans on the stove at once). There was no porter so we wondered for a little while if there would be 9 of us piling into the various sinks to wash our pots and pans.
Anyway, we did what amounted to a gazpacho with a marscapone cream, then roasted (?) turbot with mashed potatoes and some veggies. The marscapone didn't taste very nice on its own even after we added all the herbs, more salt, more pepper, then more salt and more pepper. Then more salt and more pepper, plus a bit more tobasco. Did I mention salt and pepper? My partner EA and I had considered sneaking in a little lemon juice but it wasn't on the recipe so we didn't.
When Chef FJ tasted our dishes he said the cream was tasteless. I asked him what we could have done since adding salt and pepper didn't seem to make a difference. His answer: more seasonin (i.e. salt and pepper). Perhaps we should have put the lemon juice in anyway...
Then the fish - yummy fish. Yummy mashed potatoes. According to chef, undercooked vegetables, even though they were more cooked than his were in demo. Go figure - shows how much things can change in just a few short hours! So the dishes:
Patisserie - so more laundry (but first - dessert)
In the last post I promised photos. So the first one here (right) is a shot of all the things we prepared yesterday, except for the things which needed to be frozen/chilled (i.e. the mousses).
Then my presentation plates from today: a bitter chocolate mousse with Amaretto cream and a Mirabelle Bourdaloue Tarte with Mirabelle Cream Chibouste. Today's session started quite warm but the a/c finally kicked in, which made the chocolate tempering go so much more quickly. I had a few problems because this time the chocolate was too thin so the pieces kept breaking while I was trying to peel the acetate off. However, have managed to try a few different things and may finally have the chocolate cup thing down.
First - the yummy dessert
The bitter chocolate mousse (with a vanilla brulee in the middle) with the chocolate chalice came out pretty well - a pleasant surprise because the chocolate went on a little crooked yesterday when I was bending the acetate strip around the mousse. We had to decorate the plate somehow (ok, piping decorations will come later) and make it look pretty. I haven't quite gotten the height of the thing or the lid / base thickness down yet, so will have to work on making those twirls stand up straight. For the moment I'm just glad they came out ok - there were several doubtful moments. Hopefully today consolidated a few things so that I can do this quickly tomorrow for our ricotta mousse.
So much work to do and so little time in which to do it! I have a lots of things which need to be improved. Among them is creativity. It's a lot more difficult if you don't have a clear idea in your head about the decorations and you just hope that the thing you are trying to do works out. Of course when that doesn't happen, you do spend a lot of time trying to keep your temper. I can see why the chefs tell us to have everything planned out as much as possible before the exam. I couldn't even think straight today and we only had to make things for one session.
Second - the not yummy (or, Who Likes This Dessert Anyway?) dessert
I'm not a huge fan of almond cream or chibouste cream, so our Mirabelle tart (Mirabelles are a kind of little, yellow plum) didn't inspire me much. In fact, probably my favorite part of the dessert was the fruit compote-y thing and the tuiles. The tuiles are very more-ish - but then again, it's just butter, sugar, flour and egg whites, mixed up then baked golden. You get this crispy light thing. Of course the crispy lightness sucks when you are trying to bend it and it snaps. Or you are trying to place it on the plate and it snaps. Or you looked at it slightly sideways and it snapped. I'm not sure many of these ones made it home.
Bed time - but not yet...
Would love to crawl into bed but my laundry is still going. 2 days with chocolate means I have a lot of washing to do. More chocolate tomorrow but I don't want to go to class with a dirty uniform. It looks messy and disorganized and I need help getting organized, not the other way around.
Late start tomorrow, so I will be able to have coffee and hopefully update my portfolio for Cuisine and Patisserie. The Cuisine one is relatively straightforward - write a few recipes, do a bit of research and price out the cost of each dish. I'm not sure photos are even necessary. The Patisserie one is the one that is a bit of a pain (photos, diagrams, lots of lists, many components) and I have had to rethink my designs. This will affect which recipe I use as well as quantities and thought about building the dessert itself. More later, but the washing machine is getting near spin cycle so I am off to have a hot shower, then crawl into my bed with soft cotton sheets.
Too soon for nightmares about finals
Woke up this morning, cursing in my head. I had dreamt that I had presented my plated desserts at the Patisserie final, then turned back around to my station only to find a component staring back at me. I suppose it's a bit of leftover issues from the Cuisine final where I had forgotten to put mint into the sauce at the end.
So until next time, may you have sweet dreams.
Secondly, I forgot when I wrote the last post that I had actually had a practical since the post before that. So in order to rectify that oversight...
The aftermath
Last Friday we had a practical for cuisine. It was after our student event so everyone was pretty brain dead (some more than others, in direct proportion to the amount of partying engaged in after the student event on Thursday night).
We had been instructed to work in pairs while our chef tried to organize a porter. It appears that the class before us (who had had their mock final exam that afternoon) had finished a little late. They had used a lot of pots and pans (someone told me that she when she sat down and planned the 4 hours, she needed 7 pots and pans on the stove at once). There was no porter so we wondered for a little while if there would be 9 of us piling into the various sinks to wash our pots and pans.
Anyway, we did what amounted to a gazpacho with a marscapone cream, then roasted (?) turbot with mashed potatoes and some veggies. The marscapone didn't taste very nice on its own even after we added all the herbs, more salt, more pepper, then more salt and more pepper. Then more salt and more pepper, plus a bit more tobasco. Did I mention salt and pepper? My partner EA and I had considered sneaking in a little lemon juice but it wasn't on the recipe so we didn't.
When Chef FJ tasted our dishes he said the cream was tasteless. I asked him what we could have done since adding salt and pepper didn't seem to make a difference. His answer: more seasonin (i.e. salt and pepper). Perhaps we should have put the lemon juice in anyway...Then the fish - yummy fish. Yummy mashed potatoes. According to chef, undercooked vegetables, even though they were more cooked than his were in demo. Go figure - shows how much things can change in just a few short hours! So the dishes:
Patisserie - so more laundry (but first - dessert)
In the last post I promised photos. So the first one here (right) is a shot of all the things we prepared yesterday, except for the things which needed to be frozen/chilled (i.e. the mousses).Then my presentation plates from today: a bitter chocolate mousse with Amaretto cream and a Mirabelle Bourdaloue Tarte with Mirabelle Cream Chibouste. Today's session started quite warm but the a/c finally kicked in, which made the chocolate tempering go so much more quickly. I had a few problems because this time the chocolate was too thin so the pieces kept breaking while I was trying to peel the acetate off. However, have managed to try a few different things and may finally have the chocolate cup thing down.
First - the yummy dessert
The bitter chocolate mousse (with a vanilla brulee in the middle) with the chocolate chalice came out pretty well - a pleasant surprise because the chocolate went on a little crooked yesterday when I was bending the acetate strip around the mousse. We had to decorate the plate somehow (ok, piping decorations will come later) and make it look pretty. I haven't quite gotten the height of the thing or the lid / base thickness down yet, so will have to work on making those twirls stand up straight. For the moment I'm just glad they came out ok - there were several doubtful moments. Hopefully today consolidated a few things so that I can do this quickly tomorrow for our ricotta mousse.So much work to do and so little time in which to do it! I have a lots of things which need to be improved. Among them is creativity. It's a lot more difficult if you don't have a clear idea in your head about the decorations and you just hope that the thing you are trying to do works out. Of course when that doesn't happen, you do spend a lot of time trying to keep your temper. I can see why the chefs tell us to have everything planned out as much as possible before the exam. I couldn't even think straight today and we only had to make things for one session.
Second - the not yummy (or, Who Likes This Dessert Anyway?) dessert
I'm not a huge fan of almond cream or chibouste cream, so our Mirabelle tart (Mirabelles are a kind of little, yellow plum) didn't inspire me much. In fact, probably my favorite part of the dessert was the fruit compote-y thing and the tuiles. The tuiles are very more-ish - but then again, it's just butter, sugar, flour and egg whites, mixed up then baked golden. You get this crispy light thing. Of course the crispy lightness sucks when you are trying to bend it and it snaps. Or you are trying to place it on the plate and it snaps. Or you looked at it slightly sideways and it snapped. I'm not sure many of these ones made it home. Bed time - but not yet...
Would love to crawl into bed but my laundry is still going. 2 days with chocolate means I have a lot of washing to do. More chocolate tomorrow but I don't want to go to class with a dirty uniform. It looks messy and disorganized and I need help getting organized, not the other way around.
Late start tomorrow, so I will be able to have coffee and hopefully update my portfolio for Cuisine and Patisserie. The Cuisine one is relatively straightforward - write a few recipes, do a bit of research and price out the cost of each dish. I'm not sure photos are even necessary. The Patisserie one is the one that is a bit of a pain (photos, diagrams, lots of lists, many components) and I have had to rethink my designs. This will affect which recipe I use as well as quantities and thought about building the dessert itself. More later, but the washing machine is getting near spin cycle so I am off to have a hot shower, then crawl into my bed with soft cotton sheets.
Too soon for nightmares about finals
Woke up this morning, cursing in my head. I had dreamt that I had presented my plated desserts at the Patisserie final, then turned back around to my station only to find a component staring back at me. I suppose it's a bit of leftover issues from the Cuisine final where I had forgotten to put mint into the sauce at the end.
So until next time, may you have sweet dreams.
Monday, October 31, 2011
#48 - Happy Halloween!
Midterms already (again)
We just started our restaurant dessert module today. Tutorial comments - I have lost most marks because I am not organized and must push myself more. And to get that brain turned on (not that the chefs said so, but I got the drift). Apparently the laid back island attitude isn't going to get things done. Right - must work on organization - time to start a list.
Today's schedule was one which students find less than ideal: an 8am class, then a 6pm class. Tomorrow: more of the same. I find it a bit of a mixed bag. It's good because I can do things in the day (i.e. osteo, pick up dry cleaning) but bad because we get out of class so late and I don't feel like going at 6pm. Of course then I think of the chefs - Chef M has this schedule for the next few days and he's in on Saturday.
We have Chef M for our Tea Party. Things can either go really well or really badly, I think. Luckily for us, the Tea Party items are already set, so we are paired up, then assigned 2 desserts to a pair. It saves us on having to come up with plating ideas or recipes or anything because those are already set. This is quite a test of making sure you produce the requisite number of items and having them be identical and be of an acceptable standard. I remember seeing these desserts 3 months ago and 6 months ago. I can't believe that we have learned enough to start to put these impressive looking things together.
If only I had known then what I know now
Oh, and the part that makes me want to die - my mousseline would have been all right if I had torched it just a bit more during the Intermediate final. I torched it a bit but was afraid of melting it. Of course it would have been more useful if it had split during class so I could bring it back instead of it happening during the exam. Crap! So I spent the last 30 minutes of class this morning kicking myself in the butt, then did it for real at ballet class. Then I spent the 2nd class today experimenting - if things go wrong, the Chef can tell me when/where/why.
Tonight's session was mostly for decorative work. Unfortunately it was very hot in the Patisserie (about 30C, which I think is somewhere in the 80sF) and we had to work a bit to get the chocolate tempered. The temperature also meant that we had to wait quite a bit for the chocolate to set because the ambient temperature was not conducive to a fast chocolate set. The good thing is we know that we can get it to set in a hot room and hopefully we will get quick enough that we can deal with a cold room which gives us much less time to work. At least today we had a little more time - which wasn't helpful when I wrapped my mousse in the chocolate which went on crooked (and once it's on you can't take it off and put it back on again). Thank goodness we get to have one more little try tomorrow - I need to work on those blasted twirls, cigarettes and the 2-tone casing which looks so cool if you do it right and is oh-so-wrong if you do it wrong.
Drama, drama, drama
By the way, if you thought cooking school wasn't dramatic, this morning there was an incident at the end of our class. Some guy from Basic had kind of pushed his way into the elevator because he was mad that we had been holding it - we were all running things down to the blast chiller in the production kitchen from the Patisserie and back up. Anyway, one of the guys in my class took exception to this other fellow (Spanish?) having made one of the girl from our class have to walk up to the 3rd floor from the basement (remember that in the UK, the ground floor is not the 1st floor) and they got into it - all the posturing and yetlling, etc. Chef M interposed himself between the two of them. I had to go downstairs to get changed, but I heard from one of the other girls that it went far enough that Chef M had to restrain one of the guys and Chef GB had to restrain the other. By the by, the Basic guy already had a shiner and what looked like a split lip. Looks like he had a hell of a weekend!
Are we nearing full moon or is it just Halloween?
Photos for today's work forthcoming as today was end of parts I & II. Tomorrow night we do more decorations and presentation of the 2 desserts we did today (a vanilla brulee encased in chocolate mousse and a Mirabelle plum tart).
We just started our restaurant dessert module today. Tutorial comments - I have lost most marks because I am not organized and must push myself more. And to get that brain turned on (not that the chefs said so, but I got the drift). Apparently the laid back island attitude isn't going to get things done. Right - must work on organization - time to start a list.
Today's schedule was one which students find less than ideal: an 8am class, then a 6pm class. Tomorrow: more of the same. I find it a bit of a mixed bag. It's good because I can do things in the day (i.e. osteo, pick up dry cleaning) but bad because we get out of class so late and I don't feel like going at 6pm. Of course then I think of the chefs - Chef M has this schedule for the next few days and he's in on Saturday.
We have Chef M for our Tea Party. Things can either go really well or really badly, I think. Luckily for us, the Tea Party items are already set, so we are paired up, then assigned 2 desserts to a pair. It saves us on having to come up with plating ideas or recipes or anything because those are already set. This is quite a test of making sure you produce the requisite number of items and having them be identical and be of an acceptable standard. I remember seeing these desserts 3 months ago and 6 months ago. I can't believe that we have learned enough to start to put these impressive looking things together.
If only I had known then what I know now
Oh, and the part that makes me want to die - my mousseline would have been all right if I had torched it just a bit more during the Intermediate final. I torched it a bit but was afraid of melting it. Of course it would have been more useful if it had split during class so I could bring it back instead of it happening during the exam. Crap! So I spent the last 30 minutes of class this morning kicking myself in the butt, then did it for real at ballet class. Then I spent the 2nd class today experimenting - if things go wrong, the Chef can tell me when/where/why.
Tonight's session was mostly for decorative work. Unfortunately it was very hot in the Patisserie (about 30C, which I think is somewhere in the 80sF) and we had to work a bit to get the chocolate tempered. The temperature also meant that we had to wait quite a bit for the chocolate to set because the ambient temperature was not conducive to a fast chocolate set. The good thing is we know that we can get it to set in a hot room and hopefully we will get quick enough that we can deal with a cold room which gives us much less time to work. At least today we had a little more time - which wasn't helpful when I wrapped my mousse in the chocolate which went on crooked (and once it's on you can't take it off and put it back on again). Thank goodness we get to have one more little try tomorrow - I need to work on those blasted twirls, cigarettes and the 2-tone casing which looks so cool if you do it right and is oh-so-wrong if you do it wrong.
Drama, drama, drama
By the way, if you thought cooking school wasn't dramatic, this morning there was an incident at the end of our class. Some guy from Basic had kind of pushed his way into the elevator because he was mad that we had been holding it - we were all running things down to the blast chiller in the production kitchen from the Patisserie and back up. Anyway, one of the guys in my class took exception to this other fellow (Spanish?) having made one of the girl from our class have to walk up to the 3rd floor from the basement (remember that in the UK, the ground floor is not the 1st floor) and they got into it - all the posturing and yetlling, etc. Chef M interposed himself between the two of them. I had to go downstairs to get changed, but I heard from one of the other girls that it went far enough that Chef M had to restrain one of the guys and Chef GB had to restrain the other. By the by, the Basic guy already had a shiner and what looked like a split lip. Looks like he had a hell of a weekend!
Are we nearing full moon or is it just Halloween?
Photos for today's work forthcoming as today was end of parts I & II. Tomorrow night we do more decorations and presentation of the 2 desserts we did today (a vanilla brulee encased in chocolate mousse and a Mirabelle plum tart).
Friday, October 21, 2011
#46 - The best laid plans, a first and Not-the-End-of-the-World
(Warning: long, rambling post...don't say you weren't warned)
I think the last post ended with a plan for my dessert idea. Well...it didn't work out quite as envisioned. In some ways this is a good thing because I now know what won't work. On the other hand, it wasn't good because (a) I probably got a bad grade on that set of classes and (b) I now have an idea of just how far apart Chef CB's and my tastebuds are (something on the magnitude of from here to Pluto). Which is to say, he said it was "tasteless as hell" and I thought it was way too sweet. My proposed solution? Add copious amounts of alcohol somewhere, but make sure it doesn't destabilize my mousse or jelly. By the way, writing about mousse - I looked at the recipe I had written down for a "pina colada mouse". Now that might have been an interesting dessert! So - to start at the beginning (for once):
The concept was sound but the execution was...
We spent Monday morning and afternoon making the components for our entremets. Tuesday around noon we finished assembling the desserts. The tuiles had to be put back in the oven to crisp up because they had gotten soggy overnight. Consequently the ones which had previously been bent into twirls and things snapped when I tried to bend them back after the second baking. Whoops. The chocolate was not good to begin with - Monday was so cold in the Patisserie that it had pretty much set by the time I had spread it, before I got around to making patterns and bending it. Note to self - must work even faster for the final...and I can hear Chef NB laughing in my head as I write this.
lacking...
I had misunderstood my brief a little bit. Since this was (I thought) part of our restaurant dessert module, I had planned on plating the thing - the plans including making a couple of different sauces and decorations. Ok, an entremet is always served on a cakeboard. No day in which you learn something is wasted and I have been learning a lot! On the other hand, my alcoholic pina colada sauce was a hit downstairs with Reception and the Administration office upstairs, or so I was told. Anyway, here are the photos of my unsuccessful dessert (fyi, Chef CB thought it was mango jelly - it wasn't).
These photos represent 4 class sessions: planning (session 1), making components (sessions 2 & 3) and assembly, presentation, critique and filling out paperwork (session 4). Given the results from this week, I now have a slightly better idea of what might work and what clearly won't. It may require quite a bit of tweaking for the final dessert plate idea, so I am glad that I hadn't started the portfolio yet. Sometimes procrastination does pay off!
In which we puzzle Chef FJ
Then it was straight on to a Cuisine practical, which was a bit unusual. We usually have Cuisine Wednesdays - Fridays. This one was particularly long. I thought we finished on time, or a little late which only goes to show how bad my sense of time is. In any event, one of the guys in my class burned his hand very badly on a pan handle (we had been roasting lobster shells in the oven) and had to go to the hospital. I had a couple of smaller burns on my left hand (same silly mistake) but they are mostly healed now.
My tomatoes got too vinegared in my dressing because I put them in too early and my lamb's lettuce was "burned by the dressing". Hence the reason why you always do it later - so the leaves don't go translucent and lose any crispness they may have. The celeriac salad was yummy, but only after I went home and added another whole spoonful of mustard (we made remoulade - pretty much mayonnaise - by hand in class) and a lot of salt. Yes, it would have been good if I had done that in class, but such is life. Still learning all the time. Chef was a bit unimpressed with the time and wanted to know why we couldn't get it done on time.
So the tips
I had to go to an osteo because I had tweaked a rib - but the appointment was for 2:30pm (can't be choosy about the time on such late notice). My practical was slated to end at 2:30, so I went to see Chef FJ (who had also had us the day before). I thought I would skip class. As Chef FJ laughs, hahahahaha. He said I would do class and leave at 1:30pm, but he gave me a break on the assignment - only do the risotto and the stuffed pepper. I thought about it and asked if I could also try the veal. Given how slow I am in the kitchen, he thought it was a big risk and was doubtful...so this is what I ended up presenting at the 1hr 34 minute mark (4 minutes over - "You're late! What am I going to do with you?")
In which Chef FJ was (a little) impressed - still not quite the end of the world
And yet, when I showed him the plate, everything was there except the Bayonne ham (because they didn't have any in the production kitchen). He wanted to know if I had done everything myself. Yes, Chef! I did...obviously not pefect, but I'm not sure I will ever get even close. A few things wrong with the timing, but it wasn't horrible, or so I hope. Others in class started to plate (and I assume present their dishes) soon after - but it was a nice feeling to get it all done and everyone was very encouraging as well. I have found out the secret to saving some time...which is not to worry about wasting a little bit. They threw out that little bit of carrot so I may as well use it to get the perfect little cubes rather than using as little as possible. The less wastage will come later (I hope). The chefs have been saying to treat our class days as we might an exam - given the nerves, shaking hands and nausea since I had to finish and go, I can only say that the Stanislawsky (sp?) school has something to say for it. Anyway, I still had to clean up before I could leave.
Chef FJ thought I took too long cleaning up, but having a look at my station (after I had cleaned away as much that was unnecessary as possible), wouldn't this take you longer than 5 minutes to clean up? Cleanup duly completed and all my knives cleaned, even had time for a quick shower before getting to the osteo (a little early). Must go back next week, but am back in working order.
More quail (cute, until they get blood everywhere)
Yesterday we had to make quail again. Puff pastry, chicken livers, veal sweetbreads...oops, forgot to tell the guys in the real estate agency there are sweetbreads in the puff pastry friands. I hope they like them. Or at least don't dislike them. We also did a mousse with minced chicken and thigh meat from the quail to spread around the quail, livers and sweetbreads to keep them from drying out. It was fairly warm in the Cuisine kitchen, which kept things a bit tricky with the pastry.
I have the leftover pastry scraps from some of the other students because we had discussed making mini-palmiers as part of our petit fours. The idea was subsequently abandoned, but I have the scraps in the fridge. I suppose this means I can used the poached pears to make some sort of puff pastry something-or-other so that nothing is wasted. Photos later, if I do them. This is a much nicer thought than what I was thinking while cleaning the quail carcasses for the sauce (yes, we butchered 2 of them).
You can't have blood and organs in the sauce because it will not be nice. On chickens this is fairly easy to address. In quails I have resorted to using the back of my knife to scrape out all the spongy (and wormy looking!) bits because it's kind of hard to get quail blood off your hands and the spongy bits feel disgusting. Plus you can't get all of it out unless you use something to get into those little nooks and crannies.
Switching gears - back to desserts, then ballet, then...
We finished our meeting about the Superior Dinner Event (now less than a week away, eek!) and it was still early enough that I got over to ballet class just in time for some exercise. It makes it a lot easier to sleep at night since it clears all the food stuff out of your head. Unless, that is, you're like me and you go grocery shopping at 9:30pm after cooking in class. I didn't want veal or quail (with livers and sweetbread) but Waitrose was selling a couple of salmon pieces for 30p. I was going to cook last night anyway, so I bought them. They were very nice on their own. They didn't taste as good with my salad dressing - something about the Cajun spices I put on the salmon not quite matching the dressing which tasted really good with the seafood ravioli (relax, only 6 raviolis!) but it was an interesting experiment.
I also roasted and marinated some bell peppers (red, yellow and orange) because they make a nice snack with french bread and we start our boulangerie modules on Monday. It feels so much more multi-task-y (even if it's just putting something in the oven) to think that you have 2 pots, a couple of bowls and the oven all going on at once, even if it's all easy, simple stuff. Apparently I am not quite tired of cooking and I knew we wouldn't be cooking at school today.
For now, it is Friday night. I have put on a load of washing (yes, more laundry - I dropped a piece of quail yesterday and it left marks down the front of my apron), written this entry and am about to go meet several of my London friends for dinner. We are celebrating a new job and seeing each other again after a while.
There has been a fair amount of sun this week, which always makes things seem so much brighter. There have been lots of discussions about technique, feasibility of various ideas, potential execution problems, an experiment or three as we prepare for our Student Event. Tickets went on sale yesterday (or possibly the day before) - today there was a sign up at reception informing students that they are all sold out - quite encouraging.
Have been watching the chefs even more closely during demonstrations. I think I have counted up to 7 pots and pans going on at once while things are still being done for other preparations. Way better than watching...is it Masterchef which is full of amateurs cooking? We can't predict the lines which always makes it more entertaining.
Until next time, may you have as enjoyable a week as I have had with all my classes and phone calls home. If everyone could have even half as nice a week, what a happy world we would live in. As it is, people seem pretty cheery and happy most of the time anyway. Everyone has been telling each other to have a nice day (I heard them) and smiling at each other.
I think the last post ended with a plan for my dessert idea. Well...it didn't work out quite as envisioned. In some ways this is a good thing because I now know what won't work. On the other hand, it wasn't good because (a) I probably got a bad grade on that set of classes and (b) I now have an idea of just how far apart Chef CB's and my tastebuds are (something on the magnitude of from here to Pluto). Which is to say, he said it was "tasteless as hell" and I thought it was way too sweet. My proposed solution? Add copious amounts of alcohol somewhere, but make sure it doesn't destabilize my mousse or jelly. By the way, writing about mousse - I looked at the recipe I had written down for a "pina colada mouse". Now that might have been an interesting dessert! So - to start at the beginning (for once):
The concept was sound but the execution was...
We spent Monday morning and afternoon making the components for our entremets. Tuesday around noon we finished assembling the desserts. The tuiles had to be put back in the oven to crisp up because they had gotten soggy overnight. Consequently the ones which had previously been bent into twirls and things snapped when I tried to bend them back after the second baking. Whoops. The chocolate was not good to begin with - Monday was so cold in the Patisserie that it had pretty much set by the time I had spread it, before I got around to making patterns and bending it. Note to self - must work even faster for the final...and I can hear Chef NB laughing in my head as I write this.
lacking...
I had misunderstood my brief a little bit. Since this was (I thought) part of our restaurant dessert module, I had planned on plating the thing - the plans including making a couple of different sauces and decorations. Ok, an entremet is always served on a cakeboard. No day in which you learn something is wasted and I have been learning a lot! On the other hand, my alcoholic pina colada sauce was a hit downstairs with Reception and the Administration office upstairs, or so I was told. Anyway, here are the photos of my unsuccessful dessert (fyi, Chef CB thought it was mango jelly - it wasn't).These photos represent 4 class sessions: planning (session 1), making components (sessions 2 & 3) and assembly, presentation, critique and filling out paperwork (session 4). Given the results from this week, I now have a slightly better idea of what might work and what clearly won't. It may require quite a bit of tweaking for the final dessert plate idea, so I am glad that I hadn't started the portfolio yet. Sometimes procrastination does pay off!
In which we puzzle Chef FJ
Then it was straight on to a Cuisine practical, which was a bit unusual. We usually have Cuisine Wednesdays - Fridays. This one was particularly long. I thought we finished on time, or a little late which only goes to show how bad my sense of time is. In any event, one of the guys in my class burned his hand very badly on a pan handle (we had been roasting lobster shells in the oven) and had to go to the hospital. I had a couple of smaller burns on my left hand (same silly mistake) but they are mostly healed now.
My tomatoes got too vinegared in my dressing because I put them in too early and my lamb's lettuce was "burned by the dressing". Hence the reason why you always do it later - so the leaves don't go translucent and lose any crispness they may have. The celeriac salad was yummy, but only after I went home and added another whole spoonful of mustard (we made remoulade - pretty much mayonnaise - by hand in class) and a lot of salt. Yes, it would have been good if I had done that in class, but such is life. Still learning all the time. Chef was a bit unimpressed with the time and wanted to know why we couldn't get it done on time.
So the tips
- Don't dress your salad too early unless you like limp lettuce;
- Don't grab a hot pan (duh! to quote one of the Patisserie chefs);
- Don't put your tomatoes in the dressing too early or they will be "not tasty";
- When in doubt, add a bit of salt;
- When in doubt, don't add vinegar;
I had to go to an osteo because I had tweaked a rib - but the appointment was for 2:30pm (can't be choosy about the time on such late notice). My practical was slated to end at 2:30, so I went to see Chef FJ (who had also had us the day before). I thought I would skip class. As Chef FJ laughs, hahahahaha. He said I would do class and leave at 1:30pm, but he gave me a break on the assignment - only do the risotto and the stuffed pepper. I thought about it and asked if I could also try the veal. Given how slow I am in the kitchen, he thought it was a big risk and was doubtful...so this is what I ended up presenting at the 1hr 34 minute mark (4 minutes over - "You're late! What am I going to do with you?")
In which Chef FJ was (a little) impressed - still not quite the end of the world
And yet, when I showed him the plate, everything was there except the Bayonne ham (because they didn't have any in the production kitchen). He wanted to know if I had done everything myself. Yes, Chef! I did...obviously not pefect, but I'm not sure I will ever get even close. A few things wrong with the timing, but it wasn't horrible, or so I hope. Others in class started to plate (and I assume present their dishes) soon after - but it was a nice feeling to get it all done and everyone was very encouraging as well. I have found out the secret to saving some time...which is not to worry about wasting a little bit. They threw out that little bit of carrot so I may as well use it to get the perfect little cubes rather than using as little as possible. The less wastage will come later (I hope). The chefs have been saying to treat our class days as we might an exam - given the nerves, shaking hands and nausea since I had to finish and go, I can only say that the Stanislawsky (sp?) school has something to say for it. Anyway, I still had to clean up before I could leave.
Chef FJ thought I took too long cleaning up, but having a look at my station (after I had cleaned away as much that was unnecessary as possible), wouldn't this take you longer than 5 minutes to clean up? Cleanup duly completed and all my knives cleaned, even had time for a quick shower before getting to the osteo (a little early). Must go back next week, but am back in working order.More quail (cute, until they get blood everywhere)
Yesterday we had to make quail again. Puff pastry, chicken livers, veal sweetbreads...oops, forgot to tell the guys in the real estate agency there are sweetbreads in the puff pastry friands. I hope they like them. Or at least don't dislike them. We also did a mousse with minced chicken and thigh meat from the quail to spread around the quail, livers and sweetbreads to keep them from drying out. It was fairly warm in the Cuisine kitchen, which kept things a bit tricky with the pastry.I have the leftover pastry scraps from some of the other students because we had discussed making mini-palmiers as part of our petit fours. The idea was subsequently abandoned, but I have the scraps in the fridge. I suppose this means I can used the poached pears to make some sort of puff pastry something-or-other so that nothing is wasted. Photos later, if I do them. This is a much nicer thought than what I was thinking while cleaning the quail carcasses for the sauce (yes, we butchered 2 of them).
You can't have blood and organs in the sauce because it will not be nice. On chickens this is fairly easy to address. In quails I have resorted to using the back of my knife to scrape out all the spongy (and wormy looking!) bits because it's kind of hard to get quail blood off your hands and the spongy bits feel disgusting. Plus you can't get all of it out unless you use something to get into those little nooks and crannies.
Switching gears - back to desserts, then ballet, then...
We finished our meeting about the Superior Dinner Event (now less than a week away, eek!) and it was still early enough that I got over to ballet class just in time for some exercise. It makes it a lot easier to sleep at night since it clears all the food stuff out of your head. Unless, that is, you're like me and you go grocery shopping at 9:30pm after cooking in class. I didn't want veal or quail (with livers and sweetbread) but Waitrose was selling a couple of salmon pieces for 30p. I was going to cook last night anyway, so I bought them. They were very nice on their own. They didn't taste as good with my salad dressing - something about the Cajun spices I put on the salmon not quite matching the dressing which tasted really good with the seafood ravioli (relax, only 6 raviolis!) but it was an interesting experiment.
I also roasted and marinated some bell peppers (red, yellow and orange) because they make a nice snack with french bread and we start our boulangerie modules on Monday. It feels so much more multi-task-y (even if it's just putting something in the oven) to think that you have 2 pots, a couple of bowls and the oven all going on at once, even if it's all easy, simple stuff. Apparently I am not quite tired of cooking and I knew we wouldn't be cooking at school today.
For now, it is Friday night. I have put on a load of washing (yes, more laundry - I dropped a piece of quail yesterday and it left marks down the front of my apron), written this entry and am about to go meet several of my London friends for dinner. We are celebrating a new job and seeing each other again after a while.
There has been a fair amount of sun this week, which always makes things seem so much brighter. There have been lots of discussions about technique, feasibility of various ideas, potential execution problems, an experiment or three as we prepare for our Student Event. Tickets went on sale yesterday (or possibly the day before) - today there was a sign up at reception informing students that they are all sold out - quite encouraging.
Have been watching the chefs even more closely during demonstrations. I think I have counted up to 7 pots and pans going on at once while things are still being done for other preparations. Way better than watching...is it Masterchef which is full of amateurs cooking? We can't predict the lines which always makes it more entertaining.
Until next time, may you have as enjoyable a week as I have had with all my classes and phone calls home. If everyone could have even half as nice a week, what a happy world we would live in. As it is, people seem pretty cheery and happy most of the time anyway. Everyone has been telling each other to have a nice day (I heard them) and smiling at each other.
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