Chocolate Showpiece!

Just checking in quickly to show you all my chocolate showpiece. I am very proud and wanted to share! Our theme was spring...

Death by Chocolate

OK so maybe petits fours aren't my favorite things...but isn't that what we are here to learn for? :)
Collectively, I think our class did very well (as we always do :))  Here is a pic of all of our different mini cakes

As well as some of my own...

Petits fours are tough...especially when you are working with others. Not only do they all have to look exactly the same, but you aren't always the only one making a certain treat, so you have to match the other people in the kitchen.

As we moved on to cakes, we all could express our own creativity. And we rocked it!
These are a couple of my practice cakes...a black forest cake

a marzipan cake that i practiced piping on...

An a fondant cake with fondant bow...

Also a Fraiser cake filled with strawberries and delicious pastry cream buttercream

And a Buch de Noel, which is the traditional French Christmas log.  Here is Chef Kir demonstrating the cake, and then my own version

I was so happy with my final cake! It was a Valentine's cake that I made for my love :)

 Here is a pic of Kelly and I with our cakes (her's says "I love you more than cake." how cute is that?!)

My classmate, Sam's, beautiful winter solstice cake...

Hunter's hilarious Bachelor cake

Lindsays gorgeous flower cake...

Angela's adorable Baby shower cake...

Josee's perfect cake... I told her she should own a cake shop! (She already does hehe :))

Kathleen's Marry Me cake (hint hint ;))

And Dru's Valentine's cake with a smooching frog...so cute and creative!!

I told you we all rocked it :)



And now...we moved on to chocolate!! Chocolate is its own beast.  I won't bore you with the details of the history of chocolate or with the specific times and temperatures in which to perfectly temper chocolate.  I will just pretend it is really easy and show you the pictures!

First I need to brag that I got to meet Zac Young from Top Chef: Just Desserts

OK moving on.
We of course needed to taste all different kinds of chocolates as an introduction to this unit...oh poor us!

We learned how to make chocolate leaves...
Step 1

 Step 2

 Step 3

 

See, easy! (ya right)

We made a delicious chocolate fruit cake (which doesn't sound good but it really is, i swear!) that I adorned with tempered chocolate and chocolate leaves

Then we made AMAZING L'orange truffles by hand!  Here is Chef Peter demonstrating hand rolling and hand dipping truffles...

We then made chocolate boxes, which was frustrating and time consuming and annoying....and rewarding!
Here is my box in its many pieces...each side is made separately, each pattern is layered, each flower is made pedal by pedal, and each bow is made in a million pieces. 

But when assembled and filled with truffles it is all worth it!

We are now working on our chocolate showpieces, which are 8 inch stand made entirely out of chocolate that can hold our little chocolate candies that we have created.

Stay tuned!!

Practice makes perfect!

Finally done with bread! I have to say it was my least favorite unit so far...but my favorite to eat! :)
The best part of the unit was being introduced to Chef Kir Rodriguez.  He is a former monk and brings an incredible calming energy to the kitchen...not to mention a great sense of humor! Here is a picture of Chef Kir frying English Muffins...

Our exam consisted of croissants, pain au chocolat, petite pains, and currant scones.  We also got to have some fun with pizzas to relieve the test stress. I made a prosciutto, mozzarella, and basil pizza.Yum! I did pretty well if I do say so myself!

 

We finally got to move on to one of my favorite things...petite fours! In French it literally means tiny ovens. These beautiful little treats are meant to be the one perfect bite...and they are! So far we have done raspberry and chocolate macarons, passion fruit tarts, financiers, Sarah Berhardts, and rum raison cookies...and got to plate them all beautifully.

 We also did traditional Opera cakes that are filled with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache. Decadence!

Being in a kitchen and baking every day, one would think that I would be sick of food...but this is not the case.  We all are aspiring chefs because it is a passion.  So on our free time, what do you think we all do? Eat, cook and talk about food!  We love to try new restaurants together, swap recipes, and go to food demonstration. 
Last week, one of my classmates, Angela, generously invited us to her family's trattoria. We walked into this beautiful, rustic restaurant that felt just like home! Her father greeted us and then brought out the most delicious food...and it just kept on coming! I wish I had taken more pictures for you but we were so ensconced in the food I completely forgot :) I did, however, take a shot of the magnificent pizza oven...it was brought in from Italy and the center stone rotates. If only I could fit one in my 250 sq foot studio....

FCI gives us great opportunities by bringing in top chefs to do all different types of demonstrations.  We can see Chef Jacques Torres demo a Bûche de Noël or Chef Ron Ben-Israel demo his stellar cake decorating skills...but we also can see savory chefs at work, which is a nice change of pace. 
Last week we were honored by the presence of Dario Cecchini, the infamous butcher from the village of Panzano in southern Italy.  We watched him butcher an entire cow leg that was brought in by the butcher from Eataly! It was one of the cooler things I have ever seen...I never thought I would say that about someone hacking up a 250 lb piece of beef...

(That's Dario on the right)

Just when you think you can't get enough of food...think again!  On Sunday I spent hours practicing piping. I made really cute sugar cookies in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. I am getting better everyday!

 When you find your passion, whether its a thing, or a spouse, or a friend, or a child...its something you will never get sick of.  There are days that it makes you so happy, days that it makes you furious, days where it makes you laugh, days where it makes you cry, and days when you just can't figure it out...but everyday, it inspires you.  I am so blessed to have found my "thing."

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.