Bread Showpiece Master Demo

    
     Chef Pierre made this bread showpiece on Monday in a master demo.  Amazing.  The main ingredients used are flour and water.  Thats for everything, flowers and piping included.
     Today we started exams for cakes, tarts and flowers. Things went well, I managed to finish everything I planned to.  My "to do" list for the next couple of days still looks long but I'm not sweating.

And I'm 25 now.

Boosh!

     My stage at Graham Elliot has come to an end.  I spent four long Saturdays there and it was more fun than I could of hoped.  I owe a huge thanks to Chef Gabe (Pastry Chef) for making me so comfortable there and giving me all the confidence that I had lacked.  All of the Chefs are super friendly and helped me feel like I wasn't just a bumbling idiot messing up their kitchen.
     I even learned to do the "spin move" in my time there.  A certain Chef, who for his sake shall remain nameless, took a lot of pride in his ability to spin Chef Gabe, catching him unaware.  So when he was least expecting it I, the lowly pastry stage, spun like the best of them; he was served a taste of his own medicine and to make sure he grasped the reality of the situation, I exclaimed "Boosh!" (something he is known to say on occasion), right in his face.  It was an epic moment and this story will be retold for years to come.  And that is what you get for messing with Chef Gabe.
     Chef Bowles had been out of town for sometime and as it was his first Saturday back in his own kitchen this week, there was cause for celebration.  I had the chance to introduce myself to him, just before all of the chefs and I were treated to a shot by the man himself.  And yes, this was before service.  I don't even know what it was a shot of, all I can say is that it tasted like burning.
     This was my first exposure to the restaurant world and it was awesome.  Brett and I are going to go and enjoy Graham Elliot from the front of the house next Thursday.  I'm excited for him to see what I've been lucky enough to be a part of this last month.  I don't know if I would of had the guts to move to the city and go to pastry school without his encouragement.

So thank you Brett and Graham Elliot, especially Gabe, 

for making me even more Awesome.

Croquembouche

     Behold the Croquembouche

Cream Puffs stuck together with Caramel on a Nougatine 

base with Royal Icing Shells and String work.

Oh yeah and some gum paste orchids thrown in there. 

There should be an isomalt "fountain" on top but

it never made it off of the table.

And here is a picture of Chef's

Almost the same thing.

Buttercream Cake

 My first time piping buttercream.

A little something different on the back.

I feel pretty good about my wedding cake.  

I still don't know if I'd want this to be my daily 

job but I can make some nice stuff for fun!

Wedding Cake

     Look what I carried home on the el.  My first three tiered wedding cake.  We had to practice rolling fondant and making different kinds of decorations.  Then we stuck our little gum paste bouquets in the top.

Pearls

Delicate, frilly thing

Purple, pointy, swoopy thingy

     A close up of my broken, yet still sparkly, lily.  It was sticking out of my purse on my way home while I carried the cake. I lost one pedal when I sat down and heard a crunch.  I thought it would be okay the rest of the way home.  Then as I was walking I heard another crunch.  It fell out of my bag on the cold, hard, ruthless sidewalk.  

Flowers

This week we've been working our fingers very hard.  These 

pictures don't really do the color of the flowers justice but you get 

the idea.  We'll be putting this arrangement on top of a three tired 

wedding cake on Monday.

Roses, Carnations, Daisies and Blossoms

Orchids in a very soft purple.

These are going on a croquembouche on Friday. 

Don't know what that is?  You'll find out next week.

Gum Paste

     This week we started wedding cakes.  We'll be making gum paste flowers all week; yesterday/today we made roses, daisies, carnations and started lilies.  I know it's something that takes practice so my slightly crappy flowers aren't too discouraging to me.  When you look at them as a whole they don't look too bad; they are still a work in progress.  I promise I will post a picture when they are done.

In the mean time here is a picture

 of my classmates flowers.

Sarah's

The Nose Knows

An After School Snack

     Think you're a pastry pro?  Whip up one of these bad boys and prove it!  This is a Gateaux St Honore of course.  A base of inverted puff pastry crowned with chouquettes filled with pastry cream, dipped in caramel and then filled with vanilla lagere cream.  Yum.

    
     While you're at it use up the rest of that puff pastry and pastry cream on a Mille Fuille.  Inverted puff pastry is ridiculous amounts of flaky and fragile.  Yummers.

People who "don't like chocolate" clearly
have some sort of chemical imbalance or a
not being human problem.

    



     Yesterday was chocolate tart day.  Truly a decadent dessert.  It is a rich dark chocolate custard in a sable dough shell with big shards of nougatine crisp on top.
    

    
     Excessive amounts of awesomeness means my class was given an extra project.  The single most amazing apple tart in the universe.  Holy sneakers(!) it's glistening, mouthwatering, smooth as butter, forget your grandma in the car deliciousness!  I'm pretty sure Chef Della said that Chef Jacquy used this recipe in his competition for M.O.F.
     It took three days to get the apples ready.  Day One: peel, core, cut in half and soak in the apple juice of the Gods.  Day Two: bake.  Day Three: bake crust, glaze and garnish.  What I've done here is I've garnished the apple tart with sucre gran, a little bit of nuts and a beautiful shard of slivered vanilla bean.  Now eat it... oh wait you can't.  BWAHAHAHA!

Lemon Curd Tart

Lemon Curd Tart with Italian Meringue

     What's the difference between a pie and a tart?  The pan.  This is basically a Lemon Meringue Pie and yes, I decided that is a proper noun; when food is this good it needs to be capitalized.  This tart has more lemon juice/zest than yesterdays and more egg.  As unappealing as it sounds the high volume of egg causes it to curdle, hence the name.  I love this curdled lemon cream.

     Apparently there is some debate on weather the "tastes zones" are a myth or not.  All that I have to say is that the blue zones on this diagram exactly depict the areas of tingly delight when eating the above tart.

     We've been using our extra dough/filling to make some delectable minis, or as Chef Della likes to call them "little guys."  This picture does not do the meringues soft golden glow justice.

A little cross section action for you.

Lemon Cream Tart

Lemon Cream Tart topped with baked Meringue.

I heart lemon.

      I love lemon and this creamy tart does not disappoint.  My sisters boss and his wife really like the meringue cookies and I have leftovers from this amazing tart.  They are going to love me (even more than they already do).

Fruit Tart

Fruit tart made with Cherries, Apricots, Figs and Almond Cream.

Full size and minis.

     We started tarts today with Chef Della Gossett.  I can 

already tell she's an awesome teacher.

Chef Pierre Zimmermann

A show piece Chef Pierre was working on in class.

      Chef Pierre is amazing and I'm super lucky to have had him as a teacher.  He taught us the cakes section and Friday was our last day with him.  He's a two time winner of the World Cup of Baking and he's worked consulting and teaching all over the world.  Now he and his family moved around the world, coming from france, to teach at my school.  This guy is the man.

Chef Pierre's example of chocolate piping.

“Each time I meet students who want to dedicate themselves to this profession, who find happiness where I found my own happiness, it gives me energy; these are the bakers who will write tomorrow’s history.”  

- Chef Pierre Zimmerann (frenchpastryschool.com)

I'm glazing apple turnovers!

Leftover puff pastry and apple filling= deliciousness 

Graham Elliot

  
Just got back from Graham Elliot and it was AWESOME!  The people are super friendly and Chef Gabe really took me under his wing.  He made me feel like I did a great job and I'm elated.  It was over twelve hours and it flew by.  I started with scaling and rolling/cutting out dough then moved into service and helped with plating desserts.  He told me they don't always feed their stages and I ate three different dishes and then some.  What can I say?  I killed it and they loved me.

Pithivier

    Just whip up some puff pastry and some frangipane  and you to can make a pithivier!
It is flaky deliciousness and we are using the left over puff pastry to make apple turnovers. Yum! Got a couple of comments from impressed strangers on my way home too.

Raspberry Silk Cake

Bottom up: Almond Dacquoise, Hazelnut Crunch, White Chocolate Mousse,
more Almond Dacquoise, Raspberry Gelee and more
White Chocolate Mousse.

     This cake is Jen's new favorite.  We may have a fridge full of cake but I came home to her baking brownies, I guess there's just no substitute.

I swiped this picture from a classmate.

     We airbrushed the top of the cake to highlight the 

waves in the mousse.

World Cup Cake

This cake, created by Chef Jacquy and Chef Sebastien,
won the Pastry World Cup in 1997

From the bottom up: Hazelnut Daquoise, Caramelized Hazelnuts,
Hazelnut Mousse, Chocolate Biscuit, Chocolate Mousse
and topped with a Chocolate Mirror Glaze.

    
     This cake is amazing.  It is my favorite cake so far and maybe my favorite thing we've made this whole time.  If you asked me how I felt about cake a year ago I may have told you I'm not a cake person.  Turns out I just wasn't eating the right cake.  Mousse is my new best friend; I'd like to take a bath in this hazelnut mousse.
     Saturday I had my first stage.  I worked at Julius Meinl all morning and I really liked it.  They do most of their production during the week so it was pretty low key.  They showed me around and actually trusted me to do things without looking over my shoulder.  It was a nice place for my first stage because a lot of their products are similar to the things we make in school; croissants, tarts and a lot of mousse.
     I lured Mom to the city on Sunday with the promise of cake.  While she was here we went across the street to get Chicken Works and realized it's closed on Sunday.  Then we walked the other direction to Thai Thai and it wasn't open yet.  So we finally walked another block down to Leona's, a family restaurant with good burgers, then came back to the house for cake.
     We watched Kings of Pastry and Mom really liked it.  When Rachael watched it she texted me right away to say how good it was.  Jen and I are planning to watch it with Derek, three peas in a pod style.  I think everyone should see it.  People watch those baking competition shows on tv all the time and they're not half as good.