Happy 2011!! I have so much to share with you!
We made it through
pâte feuilletée (puff pastry), Viennoiserie part 1 (enriched breads), and part 1 of cakes!! We are moving on to level 2 and NONE of us can believe it has come so fast! We are so sad to say goodbye to Chef Jeanne :( She has been such a calming presence through level 1...but we are all so proud that she will now be the head Chef for incoming students. Very lucky students indeed.
Chef Mike will be moving up to level 2 with my class and I can speak for all of us by saying that we feel very lucky. Chef is a true inspiration and wealth of knowledge...and it is so cool that he will be there to see us excel even further!
Now, of course, I have many pictures to share. I loved puff pastry, not only because it is pretty much all butter, but you really can make beautiful desserts with this delicate dough. The process of making puff pastry was gruelling; its extremely time sensitive, temperature sensitive, and physically challenging. Rolling out a block of puff pastry made my arms so sore but it was a good work out!
One of the first things we did with puff was the traditional (as well as delicious and fun!) Tarte Tatin. This tarte was said to have originated in the Hotel Tatin in France, which was run by two sisters back in the 19th century. As the story has it, one sister was overworked one day and left the apples, along with butter and suger, cooking too long in a pan. When she smelled the mixture burning and realized she had neglected the pie, she quickly threw the pastry dough on top of the pan and tossed the entire thing into the oven. The hotel guests marveled at the piping hot, and unusual, apple pie, that it soon became quite popular. There are a few versions of this story, of course, but none-the-less the Tarte Tatin has maintained itself as a classic French dessert.
Here is a picture of Chef Mike demonstrating the apple flambe...a much safer way of flavoring the caramelized apples than just leaving them to burn as the original sister did :) As well as a picture of Chef Jeanne unmolding her beautiful Tarte Tatin.
I was quite impressed with my partner and my Tarte Tatin as well...It came out perfect, if we do say so oursleves :)
Our other puff pastry creation included the classic Napolean...
...chocolate Napolean...
...Dartois aux pommes (apple tart with a traditional lattice style)...
...banana and chocolate tart, which we got to practice as a plated dessert...Julie gave this a thumbs up :)
..."Conversations", also known as almond tartlets. These peculiar deserts seemed quite unappealing when we were making them. And to the eye, not so attractive. The history of these strange circles originate from a popular French book from the seventeenth century called Conversations avec Emile. Once we all tasted them, our opinions quickly changed...they were delicious!! Another pleasant surprise from our kitchen :)
...and my favorite, the Poires en Cage. This year, my mom and I spent Christmas with our closest family friends, the Ohmans. They have been a part of our family for as far back as I can remember, and when they invited us to Christmas dinner, I just knew I had to bring something special...and the Poires en Cage was just the ticket! I decided I would make this dessert for the occasion and I elected their daughter, Taylor, to help me. She was my best sous chef yet and we had an incredibly successful Christmas dessert!!
Pâte feuilletée came and went, as did part 1 of Viennoiserie (croissants, brioche, and coffee cake, oh my!)...
...cakes are what I am really after though, and I was thrilled to begin!
The coolest thing about cakes is that your options are limitless! You can pick any flavor, technique, color, or design...fit it with any occasion...and you can make people so happy!
We made an impressive Marjolaine cake, which is a multi-layer cake, using, meringue and chocolate genoise as the actual cake layers, and combining them with layers of ganache, chocolate mousse, praline, coffee flavored buttercream, and whipped cream...all to be presented in the shape of a pyramid. The cake was originally constructed by Chef Fernand Point of France, where he was the Chef of the Hotel Pyramid. Chef Point spent many many hours perfecting this masterpiece to make sure the flavors, as well as the aesthetics, were in harmony.
...we also made a beautiful Mirroir...
...dabbled in lady fingers...
...learned chocolate mouse cakes...
.and then we had our test....scary!! We each had to make a genoise (which is not as easy as it sonuds) and buttercream. We had to make our cake into three layers, add the prefect amount of jam in the layers, and then ice our cake to perfection.
Oh no! It does not stop there! We also had to pipe rosettes PERFECTLY sized and spaced onto said cake, as well as make a perfect marzipan rose AND if that wasn't enough stress, we also had to write "Happy Birthday" on a plaque that was smaller than my ring finger. OK, well maybe not that small, but when you have no experience in piping, this task wants to make you keel over!
I practiced at school...I practiced at home...I was not confident on my royal icing piping skills. During the test, I was sweating just thinking about this damn plaque. When I finally was about to pipe onto the plaque, I thought I was going to throw up. Nevermind my marzipan rose that I had already constructed but was obsessing over and kept wondering if i should do him over. So much stress, so much sweating.
Well luckily there is good news ahead! My rose and plaque were huge hits with the chefs. Whew!!
Here is my plaque and my marzipan rose...
..and this was my final project for level 1
Bon voyage, level 1...we will miss you tremendously. But I, as are all of us, looking forward to what lies ahead.
