Beautiful Ottawa
I know I haven't posted the last couple days, the lack of sleep has really caught up with me. The house I'm living in has had problems with its cooling and heating and it has been ridiculously hot in my room since I arrived. Sleep has just seemed to elude me the past few days. I came home yesterday and the problem was fixed though! Finally got a good night's sleep!
Anyway, it's been a great first week. To recap, we had a seminar on Monday which was three hours on everything you need to know about butter, sugar, eggs, milk, etc. It was actually really fascinating. I kept thinking how I had spent four years in University learning about Shakespeare, Chaucer and British History (which I loved) but now I'm sitting in a seminar for three hours learning about butter...and loving it! It's definitely what I should be doing. Then we had our demo on the different types of dough.
Tuesday, we had our first practical class where we had to prepare three doughs: our shortcake dough, shortcrust dough, and our sweet dough. Unfortunately, I didn't get time to bake anything from the dough, but it wasn't a requirement. Chef told me that I'm well organized, I work clean and I understood the techniques well. Overall, he said I did a good job. Although, I did slice my finger open on one of our knives from our knife kit...I was a little over zealous upon receiving it! Haha!
We then had another demo on:
1. Genoise sponge cake
2. Biscuits a la cuillere (lady fingers)
3. Biscuit roule (rolled biscuits - like a jelly roll)
4. Dacquoise (nut cake)
Genoise Sponge
Biscuit roule
Biscuits a la cuillere
And then another practical (yes, very long day), we did our practical on the Genoise sponge cake and Lady Fingers. It was a good practical, although the chef we had overseeing this practical was much more intimidating than our other chef. He's a bit younger, but has a bit of a serious air about him. He gives off the impression that he's critiquing everything you do, rather than supporting you. I was quite flustered at the beginning and wasn't quite sure where to start. I quickly gathered myself together though and got to work. You have to work quite quickly. You are allotted three hours to prepare, bake and plate your dish and it's crazy in the kitchen. We have 14 people in the class and everyone is running around yelling "Behind, Behind, Behind!" or "Open Oven!", "Hot Pot!" Haha it's fantastic! I managed to finish both my dishes (sorry, no photos of those) and Chef said that I'm well organized, very hygienic and he said "Nice sponge! Even biscuit!" Which is very good. He did say that I need to even out my piping on the lady fingers but other than that, they were quite good. He's not as scary as I had first thought!
Wednesday was a bit of a shorter day, but we still had a demo and a practical. Our demo was on creams. It was a very intense demo as Chef had to whip everything by hand...you build strong arm muscles doing that! In our Basic unit, we are not allowed to use mixers. The Chefs feel that we will understand the concepts and the feel of the product better if we start by working everything by hand.
1. Crème Chantilly (Chantilly Cream)
2. Crème Patissere (Pastry Cream)
3. Crème Anglaise (Custard Sauce)
4. Crème Bavaroise (Bavarian Cream)
5. Crème d'Amandes (Almond Cream)
6. French Meringue
7. Swiss Meringue
8. Italian Meringue
9. Crème au Beuree (Butter Cream)
10. Ganache
In our practical we had to make Italian Meringue, Crème Patissere, Crème Anglaise, Crème d'Amandes and Ganache. I've made Swiss Meringue many times before, which is egg whites and sugar that you melt in a double boiler and then whip vigorously, but Italian Meringue is slightly different and a little more complicated. You make a syrup from sugar and water that you boil on the stove. It has to thicken and harden slightly, just enough so that you can mold it into a soft ball. This, incidentally, is called "soft ball stage." You then, slowly pour the syrup into your whipped egg whites and you whisk vigorously. It's definitely hard to do this maneuver with a hot pot in your hand! That's why it's so nice that Chef would pour for us while we whisked. He did suggest we practice this on our own though.
My Chocolate Ganache
My Italian Meringue
My Chocolate Ganache
I had trouble with my Crème Anglaise, though. I overcooked it the first time, it almost looked like scrambled eggs...not good. I threw it out and had to start all over again. It was better, but as Chef pointed out, it was still slightly over cooked. He said that the small bubbles are cooked egg and they can breed bacteria if left too long. Needless to say, this was thrown out. Other than that, he gave me good feedback on everything else. He said my Italian Meringue was very well done, and I had good taste on the rest. He also reiterated that I am well organized, work efficiently and work clean.
Yesterday, we had a demo and a practical. This section was on tarts.
1. Tarte au Citron (Lemon Tart)
2. Tarte aux Pommes (Apple Tart)
3. Tarte aux Fraises (Strawberry Tart)
Loved this class! I was a little disappointed that our practical was only on the lemon tart, I'm not that fussy about lemon meringue, but then I figured that it actually works out nicely because then I won't be tempted to eat it!
See how beautiful Chef's tarts are?! I hope that someday I'll be as precise as this!
Tarte au citron
See how beautiful Chef's tarts are?! I hope that someday I'll be as precise as this!
Tarte au citron
Tarte aux pommes
Tarte aux fraises
We started on making the sweet dough. I started off to a poor start though. I finished making my dough and was about to put it in the fridge to harden for rolling when I look over to my left and there's another bowl sitting there with icing sugar in it. I made "sweet dough" without putting any sugar in it! I ended up having to throw out the dough and re-do it. Chef was making fun of me a little, but no harm done. I finished my tart with seconds to spare! Chef came around to critique our tarts and I did fairly well. He did mention again not to forget any ingredients, but he said my meringue was nicely done and so was my piping. The edges could be a bit neater, but that could have been straightened out with a knife. I brought my tart home to my land lady, she was thrilled when I told her she could have the whole thing.
Here is my attempt. The meringue cracked slightly.
Finally, today was our last day of classes for the week. We had a seminar on Food Safety, which to be honest, was interesting but some of it was rather dry and about half the class was struggling to stay awake. We had a fairly easy afternoon though, with a workshop on piping. It really was a nice way to spend a Friday. I really need to practice this though. Some of my piping was pretty good, but others need some work. Apparently next week we will be making rosettes on one of our cakes. I need to practice making these consistent.
I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow, the school is putting on an event for students.
We will be dining at Le Café,
in the National Art Center and then proceed through Major’s Hill Park to see the tulip festival on our way to
the National Gallery of Canada. Unfortunately it did start to rain today and it appears it will rain all through the weekend, but I'll make sure to bring an umbrella! I think Emily and I are going to go out on the town tomorrow night as well, with another girl from our program. Should be a good time, not sure where we're going yet though.
I think I'm going to sign off now though, Dustin and I have a date night via Skype. I've done my makeup, put on a dress and some jewelry and we're going to download a movie on to our laptops and watch it while we Skype with each other. You have to do what you have to do in a long distance relationship! I'm really excited about my date :)
Talk soon! xo
Date Night!
0 comments:
Post a Comment