#20 - Up to, and including, Easter Weekend (in which I do pretty much nothing)

It has been a few days since I put anything up...so here's a quick rundown of what we did last week:  pastry.  Pretty much the whole week.  In Cuisine!  And of course in Patisserie.

So you may wonder, "Why are they teaching pastry in Cuisine when you are doing it in Patisserie?"  To which I say, there are only about 18 of us doing both.  There are things in cuisine which use the pastries (think Quiche Lorraine from the last post, puff pastry which I will get to shortly...) so we cover it there too.  I'm pretty sure the Cuisine chefs will get tired of hearing from us that "but in Patisserie they told us..."

In which I discuss the weather...
Last week was also quite warm.  It may be novel for London to be warm (so I've been told - my personal experience has included warm days) and most people enjoy it.  However - it wreaked havoc in our classes.  The chefs can work quickly enough that it may cause a few hiccups but nothing they can't handle.  We students, on the other hand...

So what happens is this:  when you learn something new and there is a chef looking over your shoulder, your hands get clammy (usually a bit warm too).  None of that is good when working with pastry.  It's even worse when it is warm, or in the case of the Cuisine kitchens, hot.  It melts the butter and does bad things to the doughs (I don't know the chemistry - maybe you'll find it in that $600/8 volume? thing that the guy who used to work at Microsoft released earlier this year).  The class before us had been doing something with lobster (2 ways) - the stoves were hot, the refrigerators were not very cold (because everyone had been opening them) and they ran about 25 minutes over time.

Puff Pastry - which may not puff
The hardest parts in the time allowed, was to get the initial pastry dough (aka detrempe) finished in time to allow enough resting before rolling it out.  For some reason, some people in class had very wet dough (including me) and some people had very dry dough (JK two spaces down) even though we had all measured the same - at least I hope so.  That went fine, as did the resting.  And since we had somewhere around 20 - 30 minutes, we rolled out the butter to be included in the dough (the tourage), then made our crepe batters.  More on that later - this is puff pastry time.

The puff pastry rolled out too thin and I could see the butter leaking out between the folds so the cheese sticks, which are actually more like sausage rolls but with cheese instead of sausage, will be uneven.  At least it was still fairly elastic - some of the drier doughs were tearing and really rolling out at all.  Our teaching chef, Chef D, had to help almost everyone with something because we just couldn't work fast enough.  You know how it is - the first time you do anything, it can take ages but once you've done it a couple of times, you might get it down to a 1/10 of the time it took you the first time.

Every 20 minutes or so, there was a frantic burst of activity as we all took our doughballs out of the fridge, rolled it out, made our folds (aka turns), wrapped it again and put it back in the fridge to rest.  On a cool day you can do two turns before resting the dough.  Wednesday was so hot that we had to refrigerate the dough after each turn, which added quite a lot of time to the process.  We actually ended up having to do the last two turns together without resting the dough - hence my being able to see the butter leaking through the layers.  It's not actually mille feuilles - someone did the math and  came up with 1024 layers after the 6 turns.  I haven't checked tha math...

So they are all resting in a fridge for the weekend and on Tuesday we will need to roll them out, make more sauce and make our cheese sticks.  Hopefully there will be pictures from Tuesday.

Crepes au citron
But on to the crepes...my batter was a bit lumpy to start with, but eventually got sorted out - lots of whisking...and I had to cure my crepe pan a second time because it killed my first crepe (as well as the second).  So we did a lemon syrup to go with it (thank you for teaching us how in Patisserie) and I made little extra lemon peel julienne to candy because it seemed like we would have enough time.  Also to practice my julienning - still needs a lot of work...

I wasn't the last one to finish!  It was my goal not to be the last one for at least one class by the end of this term and somehow I made it last week!  Of course I was still the last one to leave (for other reasons) so maybe it's time to rethink the goal.

Sorry - I digress from the crepes.  I know I am biased, but WOW!  I actually managed to finish candying the lemon peel and since it had a bit of extra syrup, I mixed that with a spoonful of the one from the recipe and sprinkled it over my crepes.  I'm sorry that I don't have a photo of the crepes.  I was running short on time because the puff pastry needed another turn and I was hungry, so I ate all my crepes after Chef tasted them.  I almost fainted when he inspected the layers before he ate it, but the crepe was thin enough and he liked the julienned peels ("nice presentation").  We didn't use icing (i.e. powdered) sugar on our crepes - you don't really need it if the crepe has a good sauce/topping.  If you want crepes, you will need to get a crepe pan (or we can fake it in a non-stick small frying pan).

For each class, we get graded:  presentation, taste, hygeine, safety, correct techniques, etc.  I tripped over a big basket near the end of class - I am hoping coordination doesn't go under the hygiene heading...

All about cheese
We also had a technical class on cheese from Tom the Cheese Guy, as he introduced himself.  He was so excited to talk to us about cheese that it was hard not to get at least a little caught up with him.  We have a similar lecture for wine in about 3 weeks.  We actually have wine and cheese lectures for each level of our course.  I have started thinking about putting together a stinky cheese board (but have to figure out the wine to go with it - questions already for ___ the Wine Guy/Lady!).  I have a feeling that I pissed off a couple of my classmates because I kept shushing them, but they may already know this stuff and I didn't know anything so I wasn't interested in not being able to hear the person brought in by the school to teach us about cheese.

Still not a huge fan of bleu cheese (I'm sorry - it's not sweet to me) but got to try some good ones (to quote Homer Simpson:  Mmmmm, cheese...)  Also - finally got an answer about the stinky cheese.

Why stinky cheese
A couple of posts ago I asked why the French like stinky cheese when they don't like their food overseasoned.  Tom the Cheese Guy said that it goes back to the monks making cheese and having it as a substitute for meat.  Since many monks were from the aristocracy (second sons, wasn't it?) and the aristocracy tended to eat (game) meat which you have to hang, they were used to stinky meat.  Hence they wanted their cheese to be stinky too.  So there you have it - the answer without using Google or Wikipedia.  I'm not quite so caught up in cheese to actually go look it up myself, but if you want to do so, feel free!

Tarte au Pommes

Thursday was the sweet pastry dough - a lot harder than short crust because it will break and fall apart in your hands.  Also, it appears that the ovens in the Patisserie are a bit out...apparently our chef (humorous Chef M - the first time we had him) had discussed it with some of the other chefs.  We will need to be very careful for our practical exams but they are not getting new ovens until the school moves premises next January - aagggghhh!  It's kind of like the Cuisine kitchens were we kind of have to guess at the temperature for the ovens based on the position of the dials because the numbers have rubbed off.  So - the apple tart:

Apple Tart with Apple Compote -
it's not supposed to be singed...

 

And this is what the tarte looks like
after you massacre the crust...



Friday morning I made it to ballet - what a relief after not being able to go for a while, to actually move.  Of course the consequence is that muscles tend to protest a bit (I am still paying for it today).  This was followed by a picnic in Hyde Park with CL from LCB and some of her friends.  She had to go (while I was in the longest line ever for the ladies bathroom!!!) for wedding dress fittings for one of her friends.  She felt bad, in case it was awkward since I had only just met this group of people (about 7?  I've forgotten most of their names) but it was fine.  They were all really nice, mostly from elsewhere - some Canadians, a fellow American, a couple from the Czech Republic, I think...

Location, location, location

MS - I realize that Hyde Park isn't exactly my environs, but it's quite near and it's the one where I had my camera out.  Other photos to follow - eventually...

One of my favorite
sights in the spring -
hard to take photos
without random
strangers in them...



Not quite
the road less travelled -
but much less travelled than
Picadilly which is just on the
other side of those trees!

You might just see a building
peeking out from behind the
magnolia tree

It seems that spring not only brings out all the lovers, young and old, but aspiring photographers as well.  I'm not an aspiring photographer so my shots are generally hit or miss.

R&R

Yesterday I slept all day...there was a little bit of thunder last night and yesterday was a little overcast so it was a perfect day to stay home and rest.  Also needed to recover from all the sugar and butter from school.  I have to say that my attitudes toward both are slowly changing (I can hear my dentist cheering.  Also - does anyone know a good cardiologist?  May need one after this year...) but it was nice to eat broccoli and plain steamed rice.  It might become necessary to have weekends off from butter.

It is Easter Sunday and I am contemplating whether or not to go to ballet class.  Well - I was contemplating whether to go to class, but the time has come and gone since I started writing this post.  I may just mosey on out, get some coffee and wander the neighborhood.  London has mostly cleared out for the long weekend so I am enjoying the quiet before the storm of nuttiness that I suspect will ensue with the Royal wedding in less than a week.  No classes on Friday, but we have an 8am practical on Saturday morning to make up for it.

May is quite civilized - only one 6-day week in the whole month, although we have quite a few 9-hour days.

Island Girls in London!

There are also a couple of girls from Hawaii at the LCB.  V was in Hawaii for 10 years before coming here (so she's as much from Hawaii as I am from Sydney) and LM, who is in Intermediate Patisserie, grew up on Oahu.  We are all still new enough that we talk to everyone, although of course people tend to form bonds with their groups.

Anyway, the ladies' locker room is very small - I can't remember if I've already mentioned it.  You can't have a quiet chat in there because people are always rushing in to change into/out of their kitchen gear (aprons, hairnets, hats, etc).  In the course of chatting to whomever - because it takes a little while to figure out who's in Basic whichever - I exchanged pleasantries with a lovely girl.  Somehow the Hawaii thing came up and she said, "Oh, you have to meet L, she's from Hawaii too!"  I didn't actually meet LM until last Wednesday (was it then that I had that headache?) but we've seen each other in passing a couple of times.

With various other people coming to town, I think we might have our own little Hawaii club, for which I am actually quite excited.  LM has a rice cooker (yay - because I didn't buy one when I did my crazy shopping spree for a Kitchen Aid and pots so that I can practice for our exams) and other unspecified local food.  I'm just glad there's someone who understands me when I say that Uncle Ben's IS NOT REAL RICE to a local girl/boy.

Now - just have to figure out where to put the Kitchen Aid and mixing bowls.  I will need a stepladder to reach the higher shelves, which are currently empty.  So until next time - happy Easter everyone!  I hope you know where you hid all those eggs...

#19 - Two Michaels, a Nigel, a Rufus and a Quiche Lorraine

It is week 3 and many of us feel like we have been run over by trucks.  Or at least the germ fairy.  There is a veritable outbreak of coughing, sneezing and sniffling in our classes.

Today was Cuisine's turn to do short crust pastry.  The demonstration was yesterday and our practical was this afternoon.  I have learned that the pastry for Cuisine can be much wetter than the one for Patisserie.  We also cheated on the resting time, or at least I did - Chef L told everyone to put their pastries into the oven at the same time to begin the blind baking (regardless of how long they had been resting).  Shhhhh!  I also finally found out what the missing tool in my kit was - it was the pie crimper.

Our knife kit comes with various thing and each pocket has an item in it.  Even though today was the first (and according to more advanced students, the last) time we used it, I couldn't figure out what was missing when I saw the empty pocket last week.  I thought it was my chef's knife but I eventually found that where I used to store the bread knife.

Quiche Lorraine
Anyway - enough about lost tools.  On to the pastries - I thought it would turn out badly because I had had a small issue with the water (Chef L decided to help by pouring in water to my dough while I was mixing it - except he took the water from the bowl, instead of my measuring cup where I had measured the water and by the time I tried to tell him, it was too late).  Not to worry, said he, as he added a bit more flour to dry out the dough.  I have no idea what the actual measurements were, but I know they weren't what was written on my recipe!

After all the resting and the rolling, the lining and the docking, the blind baking and the rest of the preparations, came the moment of truth - would the liquid filling for my quiche Lorraine leak out of its case?  It didn't...and FYI, we were told that a traditional quiche Lorraine is ham and Gruyere cheese, no onion...

We got through the day and I was told to make sure I was more careful (attention to detail) because my egg/cream/milk mixture had slightly slopped over the side of the quiche case as I went to put it in the oven.  Also, Chef L wanted more cheese (no problem!  I love cheese and am very happy to put in more than the recipe says to put in).

Quiche Lorraine - Bacon & Gruyere cheese...

2 Michaels, a Nigel and a Rufus
On Saturday afternoon, I made a new friend.  I had seen him before as I walked past on my way to or from class.  He likes to hang out on the sidewalk outside the Fine Art store just across the street from me (incidentally next door to Mrs Langan's chocolate pudding).  His name is Rufus and he is big, beautiful and is always glad to see me, if twice can count as always.  I believe we are going to be pretty good friends...


Rufus - with Nigel, aka Not-Michael, sitting behind him

Rufus's person's name is Michael, who works at the Fine Art store.  There is another man also named Michael there, who grimly informed me that his ex-wife had trained at the Cordon Bleu down on Marylebone Lane and look where it got him.  "Where?"  I wondered out loud to Rufus's person.  "Divorced,"  came the whispered reply.

What about me?



Rufus watching carefully for his share...

Anyway, this afternoon I wandered into the store on my way home from class, warm quiche in hand.  I had promised Rufus's Michael that I would bring over the quiche Lorraine because I don't like bacon (especially if it's not crispy).  This was pancetta that had been blanched and cut up really small (all fat trimmed off).  Luckily the two Michaels like quiche.  They also had a visitor, Nigel, whom I initially greeted as Not-Michael.  In any event, all three of them dispatched the quiche in relatively short order while Rufus gave me beseeching looks with his sweet, doggy eyes (see picture with Nigel above).  I felt a bit bad that I was impervious to his looks, having grown up with dogs and their sad, pathetic, not-quite-begging looks.

I tried one little piece of the quiche to see what it tasted like.  "Not bad" was my pronouncement, which was greeted by a snort of laughter from Rufus's Michael.  I am learning understatement from the British (kind of) but this still wouldn't be my first choice of meal although I agree it's a great way to get rid of leftovers.

Nigel, whose mother had also trained at the Cordon Bleu, rather wistfully asked if there were any onions in my quiche.  I regretfully told him no and gave him the explanation above about the traditional quiche Lorraine.  "Oh," he said, disappointed, "my mother put onions in her quiche.  I rather liked them."  Then he bit into his little piece and immediately brightened up a little.  He liked it even without the onions.  It seems there's not much a bit of short crust pastry can't cure, even a quiche with bacon in it or a question as to whether or not he would be breaching copyright by publishing some print or other.  (I asked him who owned the copyright - he's going to check.)



At long last - they caved!  Rupert and some short crust pastry...

Rufus gave the quiche a dinner-plate sized paw up and a tail wag to go with it.  The others were happy to provide homes for any extra portions or items that I don't eat, especially since the portion sizes seem to serve 4-6 people for many things.  Certain recipes lend themselves to making smaller quantities (i.e. salads, vegetables, etc) and some don't (i.e. roast chicken, a whole tart of some description, etc).  It's very hard to keep up with eating what you cook if the recipes serve 4, there's only one of you and you are cooking days in a row.  Rather than waste the food, I choose to share it.  The feedback has been appreciative, warm and generous.  I feel good because it hasn't gone to waste, so there's something for everyone, really.

We are spending quite a bit of time with pastry doughs between last week and the next.  I bought a blueberry puff pastry something-or-other from Paul's (yummy patisserie/boulangerie) - for research purposes, of course, since we are making puff pastry tomorrow.

Unfortunately I have been felled by my craving for bread...it always happens around this time of year.  Having no self control, I have just had (a small) baguette all on my own - with brie and some fig concoction.  Just as an endnote - I think my palate must be wimpy when it comes to cheese.  The sharp or medium English cheddars take off the top layer of my tongue and the French brie I just had in my bread was quite...robust.

The part I don't understand is that the French chefs don't like it if we overseason our food (so we have been told) and overseasoning is a bigger crime than underseasoning.  So why do they like such strong cheeses?

If anyone has an answer or a theory, I am listening (and reading)...so until next time...zzzzzzz...

#18 - Late Start and Shortcrust Pastry (Tarte au Citron)

Borough Market
Today was one of our late start days - our demonstration wasn't until 3pm.  Some of the others went out last night but I sensibly went home (also my headache made me decide that discretion was the better part of valor).  One of the girls suggested that we go to Borough Markets.  I think I mentioned it in the last post.

Anyway - it has the good coffee (thank you Monmouth!) and the good coffee place also has good pain au chocolat.  The only problem was that it was all a bit too rich for breakfast.  We arrived and EA brought a friend who was down for the weekend from Oxford.  He found himself surrounded by four girls (the others, for various reasons, couldn't make it) who wandered around the markets and basically got excited about everything and wanted to eat it all.  He couldn't understand how anyone could be excited by perfect aubergines/eggplants or the seven different kinds of wild mushrooms. 

It could possibly be explained by the fact that each of us love to eat while EA's friend said that he ate so that he wouldn't be hungry.  Philistine!  Still - he took it in good part and eventually just watched in bemusement as we went wild over the various vendors (drunken cheese!  I forget the Italian word for drunk, but I got cheese which had been...soaked? in red wine and prosecco, respectively - ok, I didn't know prosecco was white wine).  We are having some sort of get together at EA's house tomorrow night and since I can't drink, I decided to contribute cheese.  I eventually stopped at 9 cheeses...any more would have been slightly over the top.

Borough Market does not sell clothes or arts and crafts - at least none that I could see.  It's pretty much all food or food related, in the case of the stall selling Borough Market handled bags.  We tried a bunch of different things (raclette - melted cheese starting with "O" whose name I can't remember over baked potato whose name I also can't remember), a steak/egg/caramelized onion/cheese sandwich for me (I have to wash my jacket because I got ketchup all over it), a burger with bacon and egg for TN (they got her order a bit wrong and gave her bacon instead of sausage), some Biltong for EA and her friend (it's kind of like beef jerky - South African), some juices and the coffee & pastries.

Eventually we all went and sat down near the church to chat a bit and discuss any confusion (each chef has their own way of doing things so it can confuse the issue between a demo and a pratical when we are told to do things a bit differently).  We eventually staggered off to class, feeling a big sick from all the food but sublimely happy.

Class demo was a lemon tart and a chocolate tart.  The chocolate tart had so much butter it was kind of disgusting if you think about the amount - but it tasted so good and the lemon tart was yummy too.

French
See Mom?  I knew that taking French was a good idea!  Some of the terms are in French and we have a vocabulary test as part of our written theory exams (not that the Chefs told us any of this of course).  So I have a bit of a head start, but only for this.  The rest of it happens to be still quite difficult - getting the timing down for the Lemon Tart is going to be tricky for the final since I am quite sure that we won't have a chef there to pull our tart casings out of the oven while we are making our meringues, nor will we have a partner to watch the candied julienned lemon peel.  There is a lot of pratice ahead, as well as revising the methods for the various recipes.  1 chance in 3 of drawing this as our final...

We are given a lot of theory in class (for example, why the lemon juice and water have to be a certain temperature to keep the eggs from curdling).

So - pictures from today:

Tarte au Citron avec Creme de Citron Garniture, Meringue Italienne et Decoration
(Lemon Tart with Lemon Cream, Italian Meringue and Candied Lemon Peel Decoration)



Our uniform...

Not there yet, but a second day without injury is indeed a cause for celebration.  Also am beginning to think that I may just survive this course.

Have set aside the weekend to rest, take dance class (to work off all the butter and sugar!), do laundry and catch up with friends.  I have to say, Patisserie is a bit more friendly to my clothes - not so much laundry to do, unlike in Cuisine.

Have found willing victims to give a home to half of my tart.  I have shared part of my other half with my friend JB (whose flatmates are going to eat the tart half I left in their fridge) and have a bit in my fridge for me to take to my ballet teacher tomorrow.  It's a little beaten up now because it was sliding around in the box (and I almost dropped it so the meringue got smushed) but still tastes good, if I do say so myself.  Having made the lemon cream, I am prepared to admit that I may be just a bit biased.

This is my first full weekend off since the course started - can it be only 2 weeks ago?  It seems like a lifetime ago...so until next time, have a wonderful weekend!

#17 - Basic Patisserie Preparations

So, pictures (apologies in advance - it takes too long to line them up perfectly):

Poulet Roti, Ognion glace et Broccoli a L'Anglaise - replated (Chef got the perfect ones and I only had one onion left...) - yesterday's Cuisine practical

Today's class
I won't bore you with the details, but a typo (possibly?) in a recipe almost got me unstuck in class.  It's a big difference whether the ratio of egg white to sugar is 1:1 or 1:2.  Ahem.  Anyway, it eventually got fixed and most importantly, I wasn't the last one finished today!  And I had made a mistake...cause for celebration, much rejoicing and a little jig in my head.  Also, no injuries, so a definite bonus.

Also, the vile headache finally subsided - after more panadol, lots of water and a mocha frappacino from Starbucks (yes, I finally caved!  I needed the sugar and caffeine to get me through the day...) 

Meringue Piping Practice - before baking

  

Chantilly Cream Piping practice (Chef N's shapes

are the first two on the far left of each row) 












   

 

 Meringues after being baked
(Very nice - a little uneven, but will be very
good after some practice)



And now, tasting and judgment...



   










The Creme Chibouste (in the bowl - combination of patisserie cream and italian meringue) was too liquid - no whipping the meringue when adding the cream!  Whoops...

Tomorrow the girls and I have planned on visiting the Borough Markets.  I'm not sure quite what to expect, but it's in a lot of the guidebooks and visitor guides so not to be missed.  Plus - they have good coffee!  Or so I've heard.

Now - on to dinner #2...we were all making meringues and creams in class but everyone was hungry and left wanting something salty.  I just wanted to go home and go to bed.  Going to class in rubber slippers and a t-shirt is fine, but it's a bit chilly not to have a jacket when we go out at night.

#16 - Poulet roti, ognions glace and broccoli a l'Anglaise (Warning: long and rambling post)

The good thing about not having a French keyboard (or knowing where the short cut keys are for the relevant accents) means that I can hopefully just write, leave out accents and people will accept it.

The good...
Good chicken, good onions and good broccoli - all perfectly cooked (although the chicken could use more salt, needed to be washed better inside and the onions were a blanc instead of a brun).  I wonder if I flunked colors in kindergarten?  Chef J liked the jus - there wasn't much of it and it was a bit thicker than the one in demo, but that may just have been a smaller quantity of liquid that had to reduce down to this brown, shiny, sticky yummy goodness of pan juices with the fat skimmed off as much as possible.  I suppose it helped that I measured things exactly when quantities were indicated - apparently cooking is as precise as baking, I just got away with not measuring because cooking at home generally involved throwing everything together and seeing what came out.  Super yummy - I had to taste it to make sure it was seasoned after all...

Trussing the chicken was a bit tricky because the instructions in the demo were a little different from the ones in practical.  Apparently I now know how to truss advanced style - but I'm not sure I'll ever know how to do it the way they showed us today (in our Cuisine Foundations book with lots of pictures, tricky if you don't know what you are actually feeling around for).  The chicken wing section ended up looking pretty, although photos will have to wait - too tired tonight.  It may not look as pretty tomorrow, not being fresh out of the oven, rested and then carved but it should give an idea.

Onions - they didn't look as brown as what was in the book but they took a long time and I couldn't be sure - the last time there was no glazing at all so this time I am just grateful they were cooked, shiny on the plate AND they didn't slide around everywhere.

I disagree a tad with the broccoli - I like mine a bit crisper than what ended up on the plate, but on the other hand, if the Chef likes what's there then it's a good thing.  I don't think I'd do butter for myself at home, but I can see why they want us to do things by the book the first time around and I know some people who love butter.

Any thoughts I may have entertained of immediately turning vegetarian while trussing the chicken disappeared the moment I smelled and saw the chicken sizzling away in its pan, all golden brown and oh-so-delicious.  The skin made that amazing crunchy sound while I was carving it - my fingers were burning but my mouth was watering.  If this were a cartoon, everyone would have had drool down their fronts.

Thank goodness for watching Dad carve the joints on chickens for all those years, it made things so much faster when I finally got to the carving stage.  The pieces I presented looked fine but I made a hash of the other pieces.

The bad...
Am now doing my third load of cooking school laundry in 4 days - the days with raw chicken just don't do it for me - no way to know if that tiny drop is raw chicken juice so I have to wash it to prevent contaminating my locker and/or my bag - ick.  At least with fruits and vegetables you can be pretty sure of what the spot might be and whether you can put off laundry one more day.  I always keep a spare jacket in my locker in case I spill something - they require us to be in clean, pressed uniforms.  I don't iron, so I have to hang everything up overnight to dry in order to avoid wrinkles.

Somehow managed to get dehydrated despite drinking a mugful of water and lots of the small plastic cups' worth later in the day and a whole bottle of Snapple.  Yes, they have Snapple here!  (Ok that should be in the good, but it's not.)  I got about halfway through the next class before the headache, which had been hovering for a while, really hit me hard.

I was allowed to leave our third class (actually, I had to leave class) and go lie down outside by Reception.  Chatted to a couple of people (another girl from Hawaii, doing intermediate Patisserie, and her lovely friend who gave me a croissant they made this morning - for the record, it was delicious) for a tiny bit but mostly drank water and kept my head down to see if the headache would go away without panadol.

Also managed a burn on the palm of my left hand and another on my right index fingertip.

Injury count:  Monday (a little of the left index fingertip and nail); Tuesday (burn on the back and side of the right hand); Wednesday (left palm and right indext finger).  Stoves and ovens 5, hands 0.  Am a bit concerned that I will be out of fingers and hands by the end of the month, let alone the course.  Apprentice injuries for an apprentice chef...

The ugly...
I can't remember the last time a headache got so bad that I had to throw up (I did say ugly).  I think what pushed things over the edge was the smell of the stock from the production kitchen, which is down the hall from the female locker room.  For whatever reason, the normally enticing aroma of soup stock was yuck today and made it a struggle to change back into my street clothes and bolt up to the bathroom in time - thank goodness the bathroom was not engaged.

Am now recovered - 2 panadol, a liter of water and a two hour nap can make such a difference.  Have had dinner, shower and ready to go to bed as soon as I hang up the laundry.  Cannot wait to crawl into my crisp sheets and snooze the night away.

Roast chicken dinner/s...
The rest of my chicken, which I carved LCB way, is now in my refrigerator.  I have a tupperware container which has compartments (which can also be lifted out) so the carcass went into one bit and I used the other bits for the chicken and the broccoli.  It's actually great timing because tomorrow and the next day we have class until 9pm - tomorrow is the basic Patisserie Preparations (i.e. whipped cream and variations, pastry creams and a meringue!) and the next day is a chocolate tarte (shortcrust pastry, filling and decorations) so I doubt people will want to go out for dinner or feel like cooking when they get home.

Method
The roasting itself is very different from the way my Mom does it.  Maybe we'll learn another way later, but this basic way involved washing the chicken (inside and out), patting it dry and singeing off any feathers (or you can singe, then wash and dry), trim, truss, sprinkle with salt (inside and out), scatter a few knobs of butter over it, stick it in a pan on its side and put it in the oven for 20 minutes each side and 20 minutes on its back.  On the side means that it will cook faster on the side that is up (because hot air rises) and legs take longer to cook.  (I burned my right index finger on the blowtorch.)

My Mom puts strips of bacon over the breast (keeps you from having to baste it) and she stuffs it.  We were told not to because we wanted to get the chicken up to temp as quickly as possible.  So I miss Mom's stuffing, gravy and the crispy bacon strips (one of my few exceptions to the no pork thing), but I can try that at home as English style (Australian style?) roast chicken.  Someone asked about something else and the Chefs are fond of telling us, yes, but this is a French cooking school so we do it this way.  I'm not going to argue, especially if it means playing with things like blow torches and blast chillers, which we haven't gotten to use yet.

Other stuff
Tomorrow is a late start for our pastry - 3pm demo and then class until 9pm.  Have plans to go to ballet class - Zena, our regular teacher, is away on vacation until next week but need to move around a bit.  Maybe even have a snooze before class - and depending on the weather, a walk in one of many parks around the area.

There is so much greenery around and one of my favorites is to walk in Regent's Park and stand on one of the many bridges while enjoying the day.  Another good one is the Serpentine in Hyde Park - some parts of it can look a little ick but the Serpentine Gallery is there - even though it's in the guidebooks, I discovered it by accident on my own so it holds a little extra appeal.  The guidebook is merely a confirmation of something I already know.

These late starts are a good time to hit the museums, which can get so crowded on weekends but right now I can't face the crowds.  Perhaps when we've all settled into a routine...for now it's all about getting a bit more settled.

So until next time - drink lots of water!

#15 - Mother Sauces (SO not enough time!)

Serious bets
I forgot to mention - I got out of class early (was it yesterday?  they're all starting to blur together) and there was this guy running up and down Marylebone High Street.  Unremarkable except for several things:  it was about 4pm or so and there was a bit of traffic; it was chilly; he was dressed in a little gold crown, gold short shorts (think Goldmember), a gold cape and...gold boots?

I had to pass him to go home because he ran past and then was just hanging out there on the sidewalk.  "What happened?  Did you lose a bet?"  I asked him.  I never expected him to say yes!  So - further note to self:  never make a bet with friends in London which involve humiliating yourself in public in the event of a loss.  Who knows, there may be incriminating photographic evidence.  I would have taken a photo but it didn't occur to me at the time.

Questionable girly credentials
The girls in London tend to wear really short skirts.  How many of you boys just sat up and took notice?

Yes, reallly short.  They pair them with tights and boots, either with or without a heel.  I am showing my age - all I can wonder is whether they happened to look in the mirror before they left the house and how come they couldn't afford to buy the other 60% of their skirts.  Generally, short skirts are a bit like Speedos - you don't necessarily see them on the people you'd like to see wearing them.  Call me Grandma.

I don't understand the super short skirts and I don't understand the ugly, ugly shoes.  I blame the ugly shoe trend for the last 3 years on Hollywood and movies (I'm looking at you, Sex and the City!) - if there's a hot trend, wouldn't you want to have at least a couple of classic things that aren't trendy for the non-fashionista crowd who don't care about the plastic crystal triangly things that go up the front of your foot and ankle and make your legs look short and stumpy?

I'm just saying - just because it looks good on a supermodel.  Um, hello - she gets paid a zillion (insert your currency of choice here) a year because she can make it look halfway decent.  Are you a supermodel?  No?  Then don't!  It could look great on you.  Or it could look awful.  Take a look at who writes your paychecks and then decide.  (And while we're at it, even supermodels don't look good in those bubble skirts - and they're professional clothes hangers.  If you're over the age of 5 - don't!  My eyes, my eyes!  They're not cutesy on you and they make you look like you have a big butt, so unless you're going for that look, in which by all means...)

Today's cooking lesson
We did 4 base sauces today:  brown veal stock (very nice), white chicken stock (cloudy because it boiled too fast), tomato sauce (which was too thin and seasoning didn't come through because it didn't reduce enough) and a bechamel (a bit too thick and the flour not cooked enough - still gritty on the teeth).

But seriously - the only ones we actually had enough time to (sort of) finish was the bechamel and the tomato sauce.  The others went into enormous pots which then went to the production kitchen to be finished.

In which a key ingredient is missing (and more than once)
So my partner sous-chef had taken her list and was very concientiously checking it against our ingredients, then checking it twice (we were ignoring who was naughty or nice, although the fellows in the Production kitchen are on both lists).  They said, "don't worry, we know what you need."  This is after she caught them out with missing bacon (pancetta - for the tomato sauce) and white wine (to deglaze our veal pan).

FYI - the elevator was fixed sometime between 4pm yesterday and 8am today.

Apparently what we needed was more exercise.  We were short 2 veal bones so I went down for those.  And then...

What do you think we would need for a tomato sauce?  That's right, some tomato puree, chicken stock, mirepoix, garlic and...yes, tomatoes.  There weren't any.  So down I went for a tray of tomatoes.  Luckily for the other 2 kitchens doing the same recipe, they were still in the basement so they didn't have to make an extra trip for the tomatoes, but since they still had all their other stuff to take up to their kitchens, I schlepped the tomatoes up by the back fire stairs.

And then...more exercise.  Because there was no parsley, stalks or otherwise, in our boxes.  Down again, because all the (one!  You can see why I had that little problem yesterday) elevators were in use.  I had to pass the other kitchens anyway, so I dropped some off with them because sure enough, I heard someone asking Chef in Kitchen 1/1 for some parsley for their mirepoix.  Luckily on that last trip I could take the elevator up.  It was getting a bit tiring, all this running and as some of you may know (and now all of you know) - I don't run.

Each time the guys saw me, I could see them thinking, "now what?"  I finally said to them that I thought it was their way of contributing to our fitness regime, what with the gym which used to be across the laneway being gone and all.  Chef D looked me up and down and said, "yes, you do need to lose weight."  (I wish I could get his sarcastic tone in this post...)

So - 3 trips up and down the stairs after class had started - resulted in losing a fair bit of cooking time.  We were given about 2 hours and I think I lost at least 15 - 20 minutes (running - sorry, walking, up and down several flights of stairs, getting the extra ingredients).  When you're at my level (i.e. still takes ages just to peel an onion) that makes the difference between a cooked bechamel sauce and one that isn't.  So flustered that the rest of my lesson was absolute chaos.  Chef wanted to know what had happened.  I think he said something like "it's so weird - yesterday your station was meticulous.  Today it's all over the place - very messy."

So - must work on organization.  Maybe not to so many trips up and down the stairs next time?  And ew - covered in either chicken or raw beef juice - the smell was enough to turn me vegetarian on the spot.  Everything came home with me and went through the laundry on hot water - twice.  Maybe I should do it again...


It actually doesn't look bad in this picture at all...

Have succeeded on slightly singeing (???) my hand - an open burn on the back of the right hand and another along the side.  Lucky the left index finger is almost completely back in commission, as long as I am careful.  And the veal stock pot was super heavy.  Once we had the water, the bone and all the other bits and pieces, I couldn't lift it because I couldn't get sufficient leverage and keep from touching the hot sides of the pot.



The burn 3 days later...

 Didn't really notice the burn on the back of my hand at first except as a slight stinging sensation (200 degrees Celcius may do that, I haven't done the conversion into Farenheit - afraid the number will shock me).  I only noticed later because the heat from the stove was hurting my hand and, oh yeah, there was a small hole in the back of it.  I will have hands like the Incredible Hulk after this course.

Clearly I will not be able to work in a commercial kitchen because I won't be able to lift the heavy stuff (and according to a friend in the know, there is no chivalry in a commercial kitchen).  If Gordon Ramsay is anything to go by, I would find conversation of limited interest there anyway, so most likely not going to be a career change even if I were confident of my cheffing abilities.  At this point I will be grateful to finish the course intact.  Have considered change of musical instrument - one where I don't need all my fingertips, or at least not the full reach and/or sensitivity.  Voice?  No, then you would need to sing in places other than in the shower...

So, tomorrow - roast chicken, broccoli and glazed baby onions (great - chance to practice glazing - more butter, more sugar!).  Note to self:  don't do anything not on the procedures (i.e. no more fingers/hands/any other body parts).  After all, this is only the second week and I've only got 10 fingers and 2 hands.  Can't use them all up now, what about Intermediate and Superior Cuisine?  Not to mention all the fun in Pastisserie, especially when we get to the sugar work.

So until next time - use pot mitts!

How's this for a letter home?
Dear Mom and Dad,
I bet that you didn't think about what being in a kitchen would do to my hands and wrists.  Neither did I!  Is it too late to confess to vanity and say that I may never change careers because as painful as paper cuts and plastic folder cuts can be, they generally only leave small scars instead of taking chunks of flesh and/or nails?  Good to know my previous education won't be wasted.

#14 - Wounds of battle

Too tired to write much - it is late and my finger hurts.  More later this week, but as promised, here are some pictures of my pretty, pretty knives (just the most interesting ones)... if you look really carefully, you may be able to see my initials engraved on the blades.

Today we made glazed vegetables (not enough butter and sugar so no glaze), turned turnips (totally undercooked), tomato concasse (undercooked) and duxelles mushrooms (chopped up really small and cooked with shallots, butter and a couple of other things, quenelled - which means you do fancy stuff to it with two spoons and hope it doesn't fall apart before Chef tastes it) - underseasoned...I would put up a photo except I didn't take one.  Not enough time!

Gross Stuff (aka don't look if you are squeamish)

And here's a picture of my first cut:

Conversation went something like this:

Chef D:  All right everyone, no more cuts today!  We've used up our quota of one cut!

Me (a few moments later):  Chef!  (Looking at the lack of a nail on half of the tip of my finger and thinking, wow, that kind of sucks, but maybe it's not that bad, there's no blood...oh wait, there it goes.)

Chef D:  That's not so bad.  Go wash off the debris and we'll get you a plaster.

(The band aid was bright blue - so that if you drop it in the food you can see it and fish it out.  He also showed me the scars on his left index finger - scars from several cuts which had obviously been quite deep.  Yikes!)

Me:  I kind of need that finger, Chef.  It's the fingering hand for my violin.

Chef D:  Can't you play with a band aid on?

Me:  Um, not really.  The size of the band aid makes a difference.  (Not to mention it hurts to put pressure on it and we still have most of the cooking, plating and cleaning up to do.)

The initial cut didn't hurt and it took a little while for the blood to well up.  It hurts a bit now and washing my hair was a bit complicated.  Must remember to get blue band aids and a finger condom from Reception at the school tomorrow.  Yes, they really do look like condoms - only thing is, I think they're made for bigger hands.  Mine kind of fell off - luckily it was after class so I know it wasn't in the food!

Sigh...suffering for my love of food.  Tomorrow we make sauces and basic stocks.

Some bitching and moaning

Oh, I forgot.  I was one of two sous chefs today.  The other one left immediately after she got her feedback.  The lift was broken - it went up to the 3rd floor and stayed there.  Luckily the things I had to carry down were light so Chef M (who was just starting the advanced Patisserie class) didn't have to help me down to the basement.  I just hope it's fixed before roast chicken on Wednesday.  And we have a class after our practical on Wednesday - how's that going to work with our cooked chickens and a 3 hour class after?  Hmmm...but if we're clever, that's dinner...

So until next time - be careful with those knives!

#13 - (full) Week 1 finished

Each of the things that we have been given in the past week (raw salads, cooked salads, mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, boiling eggs, making custards, etc.) would have taken one of the chefs about 30 minutes.  To be fair, they did things a bit more slowly in demonstration so that we could see what they were doing, but they also demonstrate other things (which we don't have to do in the practical).  It's like watching my own personalised cooking show every day.  No wonder I don't need a TV at home...

Works in progress (aka you didn't do that very well)
Oh thank goodness for comment sheets.  At the end of each practical, we get feedback from our chef (what you did well, what you didn't do well, what needs work).  So far I have to work on the consistency of my cuts (still haven't figured out how I get curved edges with a straight blade when I am trying to cut straight - maybe I should try to cut curved???) and how quickly I work.  Because I am S-L-O-W.  Yesterday was our practical class on custards.  Thank goodness we worked in pairs or we would never have finished on time.

Custards
Baked (i.e. in a water bath in the oven - creme brulee and creme caramel) and stirred (i.e. cooked on the stove) custards.  One of the girls had a mishap with her creme anglaise mixture and it turned into scrambled eggs.  Chef N was sorry he had missed it.  She had chucked that one out and made another one and still finished before I did.  Not such an issue for the moment - the school allows us plenty of time to start to get into the groove, but it may be a problem later on when we have more complicated and time consuming dishes (and they have to be served at a certain temperature - that gets marks too).

Ludovic, our lovely porter who makes sure we have enough clean bowls, measuring cups, paper towels, etc. assures me that we will all get faster.  He comes from the somewhere in the south of France (he didn't say where) and lets me practice speaking French with him.  He also got the brulee with the perfect crust (not in the presentation dish, so not the one Chef marked!) and I piped Merci on it with chocolate (no, not a traditional accompaniment to brulee).

Piping - also needs work.  Must buy non-stick paper so that I can practice piping.  The chocolate was only for the practice because it is thicker.  The coulis was too runny still to be able to pipe anything (unfortunately I tried).

Decorations
The sugar and tuile patterns were fun but the tuile only allows a short window (8 - 30 seconds, depending on which chef you ask) after you take it out of the oven before it sets and cracks.  The flowers I made over the patterns were lopsided and goofy.  The ones I tried to do freehand were...well, here are some pictures of the various ones I've done:


Sugar spiral (which I made!)



Tuile and sugar decorations



 Chef N has a different method for making the tuile mix than Chef M (who did the demo) but at the end of the day, it's 4 ingredients that you mix together, make into shapes and then bake for a few minutes in an oven.

Creme caramel and creme brulee...


Creme brulee with more practice decorations



Creme caramel with piping practice,
tuile, sugar drop and spiral





 





My custard was too light - too much air in the yolk.  Apparently these are one of the few things we want a bit heavier.

(Think all this in a French accent)

Messy plate (caramel) and piping "too in your face".  Brulee - not enough sugar, so no crack and never, never put coulis on brulee.

I have to say, hearing something is always nicer when it's in an accent.  Given that everyone here seems to have an accent of one kind or another, I am finding chatting with people enjoyable.  Of course, I can't remember anyone saying anything unkind anywhere, but who knows, that may change.

Not pretty yet, but hopefully things will look better by the time finals roll around in May.  I have a list of things to study/practice for the finals.  Apparently it's both written and practical.  I have visions of Meryl Street as Julia Child sitting the written exam with recipes running around in my head.

So much to do, so little time...
So we have lots of practicing to do:  piping, dicing, slicing, mixing (whipping the eggs for mayonnaise and the creme anglaise?  yikes!).  There's a certain physicality to some of this, which means that we will all have to build up stamina.  Mayonnaise is particularly trying and I have to say, after feeling the burn, I'm not looking forward to meringues.  Yes, yes, we get the big balloon whisks, but I'm all for using the machine if one is available.  I suppose it's something of the philosophy of knowing how to do it by hand - what if the machine breaks?  But if the machine breaks, somehow I don't think you're going to be making 600 meringues for a banquet?  I'll have to ask a chef.

I can't believe all of this was in our first week!  They did have to move up the schedule a bit in terms of what we were going to learn and when, but still, this is usually only in week 3 or 4.

Must go and fix up my notes now, so a hui hou (until next time)!

#12 - almost end of Week 1

Uncooked salads
The first few things we did this week included an unstable emulsion (aka oil and vinegar vinaigrette), tomato and basil salad, julienned carrot salad and seasonal salad.

What didn't go right...
My vinaigrette kept splitting - I'm not sure why, since I've been making them at home for ages.  I want to blame the vegetable oil but I'm afraid it's user error.

The julienned carrots are still uneven.  For the record, I have a different idea of what centimeters and millimeters are from what the chefs say they are.  I will have to learn their distances because frankly, it's a lot easier for me to learn inches.  I know we are learning French cooking but I was hoping to catch a break since we are in England.  Apparently not, which is also the reason why we don't use olive oil in our dressings (extra virgin is too flavored and I suppose it would be just as quel horreur to suggest extra light olive oil, which would also draw approbation from the Italians.  Did I use the right word?  I am so tired...)

What did go right...
Well, I can blanch a tomato.  The proper word is monder, although I've seen several spellings of it and will need to check the cook book I bought from the bookstore.  Basically you drop the tomato into boiling water for a few seconds (just long enough for the skin to split) and then drop it into ice water so that it doesn't cook.  That just loosens the skin enough so that you can peel it - better for presentation and also because the skin is acidic and indigestible.

Cooked salads and stable emulsions (aka mayonnaise)
So - I can boil an egg.  I got the comment, "They really are starting you right at the beginning aren't they?"  Well yes.  We have a couple of people in my class who have pretty much never cooked before.  Also, there has always been several ways to hard boil an egg.  Now I have one which will result in perfect eggs as long as something doesn't happen to the stove (like it not being hot!).

Making mayonnaise by hand (no garlic, otherwise it's an aioli and we are learning French cooking!) - so, there is a lot of oil in mayonnaise.  We were all kind of grossed out by how much there is (one egg yolk to 250ml/2 cups?) of oil.  And you have to beat it all by hand so you can't have wrist, elbow, shoulder or muscle problems in your dominant hand.  If you can beat the egg sufficiently with your weaker hand or you are ambidextrous, then I am jealous.

More tomates mondes (?) - yippee.  More vegetable cuts (my cubes are still not cubes and I can't tell how big 5mm are) - blanched carrots and turnips.  I am really starting to dislike carrots.  At the beginning of the week, it was mild distaste.  Yesterday it turned into actual dislike.  Of course carrots are on my shopping list for the market on Sunday morning!

Salads were fine but my mayonnaise was too thick for the potato salad and didn't coat it evenly.  I can tell I'm super hungry by how many things I would normally not eat all of a sudden become appealing.  Our Italian vegetable salad had salami as one of its ingredients.  Tonight I can't believe I actually ate it, but it was delicious yesterday, right after we made it.  Especially with a small piece of hard boiled egg.  Sounds totally disgusting to me now.

On the agenda for tomorrow
Demonstration of decorating the creme brulee and creme caramel which were demonstrated today.  Chef M even showed us how to make scrambled eggs out of the creme Anglaise (which you don't want) and then how to rescue it.  I hope I got the rescue correct in my notes!

In any case, the custard desserts looked pretty simple, but we will see.  Everything (especially the slicing, dicing and cutting!) looks so easy when the chefs do it, only to turn into a complete hash when we try it.

Eggy custards
One of the objections my sister and I have about ordering custard-y desserts at restaurants is that it's such a hit or miss proposition.  Sometimes they come to you and all you can taste is egg.  I finally found out today - it's because the restaurant cheated!  Adding more egg makes the dessert set more quickly, so the ones I didn't like were actually bad custards.  Good to know, next time I can send it back with no guilt and get a totally different dessert.  Like it's going to be a better custard if I just ask for another one - they cheated on one, they likely cheated on a whole batch (if not all of them).

Anyway, some of my classmates and I have been discussing going to someone's house on successive weekends to practice our recipes (but unfortunately not the brulee because no one is quite game enough to buy the blowtorch, although I am so very tempted...)  On the other hand, I'm quite sure that burning the apartment building down is bad form.  The school is on very good terms with the local fire station, which should be indicative of the number of alarms which go off.  I hope no alarms go off when I experiment with searing the meat and flambeing things with brandy (hm, is that something that has to wait until Superior Cuisine???) which was described the other day.

For the moment, must think of uses for all those brunoised and macedoined carrots.  That's fancyspeak for super small dice (cubes) and bigger dice (cubes - actual size of playing dice - must remember that, but they said those cubes were too big...so confused with cm/mm!!!) for those who couldn't care less what the technical name is for the cuts.

Just so you know, I have no idea how a straight knife blade can turn out a carrot that is wavy in the middle and all skewed.  They say that it is affected by how we hold the knives and what our pinky fingers are doing.  I will worry about what my pinky is doing once I am more confident that I won't cut another finger while I'm checking it out.

For the moment, more veggies...but I hear that once we go to meats, it will be crazy (and yummy?).  Must stock up on tupperware and bottles (for coulis).  Thanks for the tips, Intermediate and Superior students!

Until next time...