Chocolate Final Exam

Last Saturday my practical group had our chocolate exam.  We had the head chef from Basic Pastry and it was nice to get to work with him again.  I had a little trouble tempering but after that it was smooth sailing.  My only issue was trying to sponge paint a heart with a mix of red and white.  When I lined the mold I was hoping for splotchy pink but the white overpowered the red and my hearts looked like they were smeared with White-Out.  

Highlights From A Busy Week

This week was short but packed.  I was assistant for both pastry and cuisine classes.  Assistants have the responsibility of getting all of the ingredients to class before every practical and then storing extras after the practical and making sure the kitchen is left clean.  The problem is, the class inevitably uses more of one ingredient or another and you end up running to the basement whenever anyone needs an extra egg.  Not to mention that the chef in the basement is a particular breed of cranky native to France.  Mess with his system and you will surely regret it.

On the upside, we made a lot of great dishes this week.  In pastry we made a cold plated restaurant dessert consisting made up of cold lemon cream and raspberry foam.  We served them in verrines (tall shot glasses) and topped them with raspberries and a caramelized sugar wafer.  No one wanted to cart these home, so we all left them on the table in the common area, where they were demolished within an hour.

My favorite thing in cuisine this week was a squab breast with foie gras, wrapped in cabbage.  There was also a chicken mousse inside the cabbage, as well as a thick slice of black truffle.  We served this treat with a mix of wild mushrooms in a thin pastry cup.  We made a fairly straightforward jus and for extra presentation fun I made a red wine reduction.  Unfortunately, the dishwasher came into the kitchen and decided to throw away my reduction and my sauteed wild mushrooms, so I had to borrow the garnish from a friend and start my sauce again.  I guess I've learned to keep a more watchful eye on what I make.  

A Chocolate Pistachio Macaroon Cake and Lamb Tenderloin

After being here in Paris since August, I am burnt out on eating macaroons, but still love making them.  In Wednesday's pastry class, we got to make a giant macaroon cake, filled with chocolate mousse and pistachio pastry cream.  I may be sick of eating macaroons, but I don't think I will ever tire of chocolate mousse.  It was delicious.  After assembling and decorating our cakes, we got to spray them with the chocolate gun, which is pretty much a paint gun, but filled with chocolate instead of paint.  I thought the cakes looked nicer before, but using the chocolate spray gun is always fun.  

Yesterday in cuisine, we made lamb tenderloin, covered in an herb paste, then wrapped in warka dough, which is a lot like filo dough.  We breaded and deep fried garlic, and made a vegetable tian that looked exactly like the dish at the end of the movie Ratatouille.  

After class, Katherine and I walked 2 miles from Concorde to the Marais so we could treat ourselves to Myberry, the most wonderful frozen yogurt in Paris, although not as great as NYC's Yogurtland.  Imagine our disappointment when it was closed!  Our only consolation was the gelato from Amorino, the Parisian chain of  tasty gelaterias.  

Mango Cakes, Lobsters, "Pac Man" Meat Pie

Yesterday in cuisine practical, we made a puff pastry pie stuffed with shredded guinea fowl meat, hearts and lamb sweetbreads.  Not at all my cup of tea, but very French.  Instead of making a huge loaf, I made a mini pie, then cut out a wedge so that the layers would show.  What I meant to have look like a cake ended up bearing a striking resemblance to PacMan.  They must not have the game here, because Chef didn't say anything negative about it.

This morning in pastry, we made mango raspberry log cakes.  They were pretty easy to make and put together and we had a wonderfully relaxing class.

Later in the afternoon, I had another cuisine practical, this time with a lobster dish.  The chef made terrines with lobster and vegetables and I got in a very creative mood and did a deconstructed dish.  I made a carrot puree instead of slices, then I made a burnt sugar crust on top of it.  After that, I julienned leeks and daikon radish.  I presented the vegetables in varying sized ring molds, and put them next to a few lobster medallions.  I was very proud of my plate, but Chef thought I went a little too crazy, completely abandoning the recipe.  I guess I will have to find a happy medium in the next cuisine practical.

The weather has been so nice that Katherine and I have being going on walks AND sitting outside in a park during some of our school breaks.  Hopefully it will keep up so I can finally get rid of my pasty Parisian complexion.  

Saturday Morning Creole Cake

My classmates and I dragged ourselves to school at 8 this morning to make a Creole cake.  This one wasn't one of my favorites to make because we didn't do anything we haven't already done.  I do love the flavors though.  Syrup flavored with pineapple juice and Malibu rum?  Count me in!  

When I got to school and changed, I headed into the "Winter Garden" lounge area where students congregate between classes.  I noticed a huge table set up with glasses, mugs and carafes of fresh OJ and coffee.  I was joyed at how nice the school was, giving us coffee for coming in on a Saturday morning.  Then I noticed the DO NOT TOUCH sign.  Another espresso from the vending machine.  

Above - a picture of my Creole cake (I know, the decoration is a little uninspired), a picture of my fish pie plating from yesterday, the forbidden coffee from this morning, and of chef Therrien whipping up a beet mousse.

Delicious Bread

Last Friday night, we had our bread demonstration.  Chef made a ton of bread; baguettes, focaccia, sandwich bread, braided bread and rye bread.  Since there was so much food and some students brought cheese and jam, Chef decided to pass around some wine.  We had a wonderful time.

This morning, we got a chance to make baguettes and sandwich bread.  We made 4 baguettes, one round loaf, one square loaf AND we had a little extra dough to make whatever we wanted.  Chef suggested braids and everyone else in the class did that, but in honor of UNC destroying Duke on Sunday, I made a bread UNC logo.  

The entire process was really interesting.  There is a lot that goes into bread-baking; special molds, lots of kneading and rising and even equations to figure out what temperature the water should be.  The ingredients are very simple; baguettes are just flour, water, yeast and salt.  

Above are pictures of Chef's creations and a few from our class.  

Off to study for tomorrow's exam...

Finished Croquembouche!

Yesterday we finished out croquembouches.  First we baked choux buns, then filled them with delicious pastry cream, and covered them in caramel.  Then we used MORE caramel to glue them into a hollow tower.  after it tried, we stuck it together with the bases from yesterday.  I was a little sad that we couldn't make ours as tall as Chef Cotte's (the huge one in the picture above) but it was still a lot of fun.  Mine leaned a little bit, but it was the tallest in the class, which was kind of exciting. I left it on the "for grabs" table in the student lounge area at school during my next practical and when I came back down, a huge fistful of choux buns were missing from the top.  I guess someone enjoyed it! 

Off to the bread-making demo!

Guest Butcher and Day 1 of Croquembouche

Today during cuisine demo, we had a guest butcher come in and cut up an entire lamb.  It was very interesting and I feel like I learned a lot.  Granted, I probably won't ever need to butcher an entire lamb, but I'm still excited to know how.  I took a few pictures in case I wasn't the only person interested.

After a few hours of the bonesaw, we went upstairs to work on the nougatine bases for our croquembouches.  For storage purposes, we weren't allowed to make ours as tall as the chef's, but it was still very fun.  I made a base and a piece to add to the top.  Working with burning hot caramel was a little challenging, especially since my hand has just started healing from last week's burn.  I found that if I just worked quickly, dunking my hands in ice water when it started to hurt too badly, I managed just fine.  I escaped with only 2 small blisters, and I didn't even have to use the hot pink rubber gloves I bought in case of emergencies.  On Thursday, we will complete the towers; if anyone has any suggestions about how to get the completed work back to my apartment, please let me know!

Sweet Dreams!

Crawfish and Wedding Cakes

Yesterday was a long but fun day.  Pretty much this entire week in pastry, we are working on croquembouches, which are the French version of wedding cakes, since the French can't do anything the same way as everyone else.  Here, pastry chefs create wedding cakes with a nougatine base and a giant pile of profiteroles (choux buns stuffed with pastry cream, sort of like a ball shaped eclair).  The entire thing is put together with caramel as glue, sometimes completely covered in caramel afterwards.  It can be decorated with chocolate, flowers, candied almonds and spun sugar netting.  Instead of a cake-cutting ceremony, couples can crack the caramel with a spoon.  Usually each guest gets about 3 profiteroles and the croquembouches can cost thousands of euros. 

In class yesterday, we all watched chef assemble a HUGE nougatine base.  Ours will be much smaller.  The nougatine is kept in the oven while you work piece by piece, grabbing a chunk as you need it.  You must work the nougatine while the caramel is still burning hot, so I'm sure we will all have severe burns by the end of class today.

In cuisine practical, we made fish quenelles (dumplings) and baked them in a Sauce Nantua, which is made of crawfish.  We didn't get to plate the dishes, but I tried to jazz up my aluminum baking pan as much as I could.

Off to start my croquembouche!

The Fattest Tuesday Ever

Yesterday was Fat Tuesday and the chefs at Le Cordon Bleu were in the celebrating mood.  They made all sorts of fried pastries and a mountain of crepes.  I also had two very tasty practicals; in pastry we made passionfruit-raspberry mousse cakes and in cuisine we made cassoulet with sausages and duck leg confit.  It was all delicious, but I left my creations at school to avoid having to schlep everything on the metro.  

After all that, a bunch of us went out to dinner at Odori, a wonderful Korean barbeque place near La Motte-Picquet.  It was a veritable feast, with lots of bibimbap and kimchi.  Since being in Paris, Korean has become one of my favorite cuisines.  All of us at school need regular breaks from the French fare.  

Today, during a cuisine practical, we made bacon-wrapped monkfish, braised artichoke hearts and a cauliflower gratin in Mornay sauce  It was my first time working with monkfish, which was very exciting.  I also got a chance to try out my new ring molds and the chef was very pleased.  

Bon Appetit!

Non C'est Pas Jolie!

Today I had two practicals; one cuisine and one pastry.  In cuisine we made a rather uneventful meat pie with guinea fowl, livers, and cabbage.  Not quite my cup of tea so I split it into ziplocs and handed it out to homeless people on Blvd St Germain.  In pastry, we made the classic Opera Cake.  Layers of cake, imbibed in coffee syrup, layers of chocolate ganache and layers of coffee buttercream.  It is then cut into a beautiful square and decorated with the name of the cake in elegant script.  

I love the french way of making buttercream; you head syrup to about 118 Celsius, then frantically whisk it into egg yolks.  You then continue whisking until the mixture is cool and frothy.  The point of all the aggressive whisking is to let the hot syrup cook the eggs without turning them into scrambled eggs.  Then you whisk in room temperature butter and whatever flavoring you want.

I do not love the french way of "imbibing" cakes.  I am a huge fan of cakes, but here, we soak them all in flavored syrup.  Instead of moist, light, fluffy cakes, they're just wet, soggy cakes!  The chefs all love LOTS of syrup on the cakes, they want them to be sopping wet.  

After all the preparation and assembly, it was time to decorate.  we folded parchment into "cornets" -little pouches you can use to drizzle chocolate.  Everyone took a few turns practicing the OPERA script on paper or the backs of baking pans.  Finally, I went for it.  I thought I did a decent job until the chef came around, took my cornet, drizzled a fantastic decoration onto a piece of cardboard and had me admire it.  Then he pulled my cake towards him, said that the cake itself was wonderful but the decoration, "Non c'est pas jolie!"  Direct translation - "It is NOT pretty."  Everyone in my class got similar reviews.  Apparently it might be on the final so we should all go home, mix nutella with olive oil and practice scripting.

Perhaps I will practice another weekend...

Last Week's Pretty Cakes and a Cuisine Catastrophe

After completing basic cuisine and pastry, I thought I had a good idea about what I would be learning in intermediate.  Boy was I wrong.  The cakes are so much prettier than the more rustic desserts we made in basic pastry!  This past week we made 2 beautiful cakes, one Jamaique and one Fraiser.  The Jamaique combined chocolate cake, mango-passionfruit mousse, coconut mousse, and a delicious topping of fresh tropical fruit.  The Fraiser was a bit more traditional, with genoise cake, vanilla pastry cream, loads of strawberries and a meringue topping.  

Every day in cuisine demonstration, we are taught 3 recipes, one of which is always a dessert.  I find this convenient and it definitely makes for a more well-rounded meal, giving everyone a better idea of what desserts might pair well with what entrees.  Of course, in practical classes we don't have to make all 3 recip

es, just the main course along with the appropriate garnishes.  

We have one new chef, who speaks perfect english.  He is also teaching us a lot about keeping our work areas tidy and well organized, a lesson I desperately needed.  I have had him supervise 2 of my practicals so far, one of which I completely bombed.  We were making potato gnocchi with a basil cream sauce and I decided NOT to dry my potatoes after boiling them and before running them through a food mill.  Because of this small error, the gnocchi fell apart upon cooking and turned into a runny, floury paste.  Needless to say, I was very disappointed.  At least my duck "salmis" turned out well.  It was one of the more confusing poultry recipes we have used.  After browning the duck, we roasting it for a very short time, then removed the breasts, thighs, legs and wings, cooking them all completely differently.  

Until next time... Bon Appetit!