New kitchen, new chef, new level!

We all are growing up so fast :)
Our class is still getting used to our new kitchen, as well as our new Chef! Chef Peter is awesome so far...and we are so lucky that Chef Mike is still with us!  It is kind of like having your parent watching over you as you move onto high school. He saw us mature, and now can watch us soar.  I hope he is proud.

We are starting with breads and today we made an oat loaf...

...an onion, bacon, and gruyere tart with a brioche crust...

...and (the best!) chocolate, plain, almond, and ham & cheese croissants! Here, also, is a picture of Chef Peter demonstrating how to rolls croissants...

Stay tuned for more treats from level 2!

Let Them Eat Cake!

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.  

Two weeks and two tests down!!

Hello all!
So I have survived my first month and first two tests! A bunch of my classmates and I studied together and I can speak on all of our behalves by saying we were very nervous.  But I guess that just goes to show how much we all care about what we are doing.  I had to make the apple tart, mini clafoutis, and spritz cookies and I, as well as the chefs, were quite pleased with my work! Stay tuned for a picture of my final products....
We completed our pâte à choux unit which included such pastries as éclairs, Paris Brest, profiteroles, cygnes (swans), and gâteau Saint-Honoré, all pictured below. The Paris-Brest  was created in the late 1800's to commemorate the famous bicycle race that went from Paris to Brest and back to Paris, which explains the circular shape. It is filled with a praline based pastry cream and is positively delicious! The gâteau Saint-Honoré is named after the patron saint of pastries! The cake is made up of some of the most difficult techniques; the choux balls have to be consistent sizes which represent your piping skills, the choux itself has to be delicious and tender, the caramel has to be the perfect color without over or under cooking, and the cream is a mixture of pastry cream and Italian meringue, both of which illustrate challenging techniques.  Many years ago, this cake was used as an interview tactic.  When a young pastry chef applied for a job in a kitchen, the head chef would say, "Make this and perhaps I will hire you!"

 

We finished of this unit with the beautiful croquembouche  which, although is the traditional French wedding cake, we had creative license to make it our own. Chef Michael's was beyond impressive:

But I was quite happy with mine as well :)

Our class displayed a selection of ours to show off in the hallway:

"There is just something for you to choux on" :)

Stay tuned for puff pastry pics coming soon!!

"You are what you EATALY!"

If you live in or around Manhattan, and have not yet been to Eataly, GO! NOW! I cannot even describe in words how beautiful and delicious of a haven this authentic-Italian-Batali-created-food-hall is!!

One of my classmates, Kelly, and I went today after class.  We initially went for a quick wine tasting and ended up eating at TWO different places and stayed for THREE hours!!

We began at the carne e formaggio station, then moved on to the pesce station (picture of delicious branzino below), and ended at the cioccolato bar (with a little wine in between :)).  I left with two bottles of delicious Italain wine, some fresh bottled peeled tomatoes that I will use to make homemade sauce, and some homemade chocolate (which I couldn't resist taking a bite out of - can you blame me??).

Best three hours of our lives!

Fire Drill! (Day 9)

I know, I know...I haven't written in a while...but so much has been going on!! I have so much to tell you...and show you. :)

First a few pictures of our creations of the past couple of days: below please see a picture of our tarte aux noix (nut tart), which is my favorite so far.  The first pictured is mine, with a beautiful powdered sugar maple leaf.  The second picture is of my classmate's, Hunter (and resident class clown for all obvious reasons :)).

The next is a mini fruit tart. The other one in the picture was smashed during rush hour in the subway...hey that's what you get in New York City!

One of my favorite endeavors so far was piping our Spritskakor cookies (a Scandinavian butter cookie):

We also did: a savory tart of caramelized onions, gorganzola cheese, and tomatoes; tarte aux citron (lemon tart), with beautiful confit de citron as a garnish, which I gave away to a homeless person on my way home (didn't want to carry it around Eataly - see next blog entry :)); and of course learning how to brulée.  All creations are pictured below, including a picture of Chef Michael demonstrating the brulée technique, and my fellow classmate, Jennifer, practicing said technique.

Our days as pastry students are extremely intense.  You have to LOVE what you are doing or else you will surely fail.  This presents a certain stress within our days, however it also reinforces our dedication to the art.  During our first week or so of class, we have all been walking on egg shells (no pun intended) and quietly learning our way, not only around the kitchen, but around each other.  Last Friday some of the class went out to the "dedicated" student bar, O'Neil's, and got to know each other a bit more.  I learned that my fellow classmates are pretty cool!  We also got to mingle with more seasoned pastry students, as well as some of the culinary students.  Every single person I met had a fire inside them when it came discussing food...a true inspiration and motivation! One of the pastry II students even visited me the following Monday and blessed us with his passion fruit macaroons...yummm!!

With every passing day I am loving pastry more and more...as well as loving my peers more and more! We find time to laugh a bit during the day...especially today when we had our first fire drill.  Whilst filtering out into the street and seeing a sea of white, we could all not help but laugh...and secretly all be proud of what we represented!

Congrats future chefs!!

Day 5: Yes Chef! No Chef! Thank you chef!

These are basically the only three phrases you say in a day as a pastry student...and you barely have time to say them! As I am cutting in my butter for my pâte brisée, I am also weighing out and rolling my viennese vanilla crescent cookies, while simultaneously preparing my mise en place for my beautiful tarte alsacienne. All while I am making sure to keep myself, and my station, sparkling clean!  Oh right, and also all while trying to not pass out from the pressure, sugar high, and pure excitement of it all!

Today we learned how to flambé: a technique that is both classic and exciting! We flambéd apples for the tarte alsacienne by first caramelizing the apples and then adding apple brandy and tipping the pan into the flame in order to catch the liquor on fire and cook it out.  Watching this technique as chef demonstrated was great! But then walking away and realizing that we could potentially burn the school down on our 5th day was, well, completely frightening! However we all walked away with the school in tact, with all of our eyebrows, and with delicious tarte alsacienne.

Here is a picture of the class watching chef  flambé, a picture of my apricot tart, as well as a video of Chef Mike demonstrating rolling the vanilla crescents.
Bon appetit!

Day 1 - 4

I have completed my first four days in the pastry kitchen...and I am exhausted! But I am also elated. I am in pastry boot camp and loving every single second of it.

Walking into the school on the first day was...well...it was scary! This is the Princeton of culinary schools and everyone is there to be the best of the best.  I was so nervous and anxious to start my studies that my uniform was starched to the point where I was not sure I could move, and I had about 20 pens and 3 notebooks.  For those of you who really know me, I have never necessarily been the stellar student.  So my level of preparation can only speak to how excited I was to begin this incredible scholarly adventure. 

After successfully finding my way through the many (confusing) hallways to the locker room, and sloppily dressing into my uniform (I had no clue if my apron went over or under my chef jacket, never mind what the heck I was supposed to do with the necktie) I ventured into the student lounge to meet my other equally-confused classmates.  "Do we put our hats on now? Did you bring your own knives? Do we really have to wear these pants?"  My only internal reactions to these questions were: Thank God I am not the only one that is freaking out. 

Chef Mike started the first minute of the first day off with an obvious zest for cooking.  Every flick of a wrist, slice of a knife, and placement of a product was an inspiration to even the most novice of student-chefs. We were introduced to Chef Jeanne (the assistant chef), the ins and outs of a professional kitchen, how to work as a team, our own personal chef kits (which was a brand new bag of every tool you would ever need and more!), and all of our ingredients. I could not wait to get started!

While I thought perhaps the first day would consist of a 6 hour lecture, the next thing I knew I was beating my pate sucree in preparation to assemble my apple tart.  At this point I realized that I was in the presence of the geniuses of the pastry world as well as the 19 other students aspiring to be just like them.  In other words...I was in heaven!

I will be trying to blog everyday, but here are some pictures of my first 4 days as a student of the French Pastry Arts:


First my chef jacket (so exciting!), my Tarte aux Pommes (apple tart), my Tarte aux Bananes et Creme (banana cream tart), my Tarte aux Fruits Frais (fresh fruit tart), and my Tarte Bourdaloue (poached pear and almond tart). 

Also a picture of Chef presenting his Tarte Bourdaloue, as well as Chef and Chef Jeanne doing a demonstration.

Bon Appetit!!