The week when we had another art class

Remember how we had the evacuation situation on Friday due to a gas explosion nearby ? well, school had to ensure safety and cancelled all classes on Monday. I had heaps of art homework due on Wednesday and on that Monday our chef would be teaching a different class and we were to have the 'substitute teacher' for our macarons making day, so that didn't happen either and everything worked out for the best in the end.

School life resumed to normal on Tuesday, by the way it was the week of petits four secs. We started by making our filling for the macarons, the flavours were : pistache/fleur d'oranger, mangue/passion, chocolat au lait/gingembre, chocolat/menthe, cafe, citron, and chocolat. I chose mangue/passion and it turned out really nice, second favourite after citron and chocolat au lait/gingembre my third favourite. Then we made madeleines and financiers, as well as four poches which were to be baked the following day. We also made and baked the macarons shells which we freezed for the next day. We were told that all the macarons that we had bought and ate, would had been frozen guys, nothing would had been sold fresh. Somehow I wasn't surprised at all because by now, if I could afford it and have lots of space it would be really wonderful to have a blast freezer and a freezer the size of a cupboard and a walk in fridge please.

Wednesday was quite hectic.. ok so first thing in the morning at 8 am we had our second art class. I thought art class had been postponed to May and even when on Monday I had a free day I only did a little part of the homework, just the eggs in black and white and THAT took hours. It turned out that art class was ON! WOAH SHOCK! I had soooo much to do and I was so regretful of being such a slack throughout the long weekend. I slept so late for my standard, i.e. 12.30am but I know that some friends slept like only an hour! to do this art homework. The class itself I like it's just that the homework is dreadful. Our teacher is a MOF from 1979 haha and he is such an adorable character. By the end of the morning I was quite proud of my artwork.

Unsurprisingly art class ran soooo late, we were again given so much homework which in the end made me laugh because of the ridiculous amount of work he asked. I only had two pieces of bread and butter for lunch because we had to run to our lab.

We baked trays and trays and trays of madeleines, financiers, four poches, diamants and piped trays and trays of macarons. We also baked some langues de chats and tuiles aux amandes. We were like a factory more or less, and here is the result of our 2 days work. Ta daaaa....

On Thursday we had a demo by a world champion in patisserie and glaces and it was great! Really great! Yazid was very organised and clean, his work is impeccable and beautiful. He was really interactive and very nice guy, I sat on the very front row and maybe because I was very attentive listening to his every word, I got called up to help him decorate. I think all of us were very impressed by this guy and we all like him and so the atmosphere was very jovial and we took lots of photos, I have lots of photos from that day but I will just show you my favourite. This is like a tableau this photo haha.

On Friday it felt a bit flat because the demo was like the highlight of the week and that day we made 'simple' stuff that I still managed to not get correct ARGH. When I make mistakes I learn to not do it again but in my head I kick myself everytime I don't get things right and I feel really annoyed. I was especially kicking myself when I didn't put the pectine bit by bit when making the pâte de fruit because I was telling myself like a mantra to put the sugar and pectine bit by bit and suddenly HOP I tipped the whole bowl into the saucepan. The bloody thing turned lumpy and I had to strain and plus the colour, rather than transluscent and clear became milky and dull. It should've been so simple and something like that makes me worried that maybe I am just going to be mediocre :( You live and you learn right? Anyway so we made guimauve, pâte de fruits, caramel au beurre salé, and nougat montelimar. . and I loved them all because they were a far cry from packaged stuff especially the guimauve. The day finished with us wrapping the caramel au beurre salé and the nougat with cling wrap ONE BY ONE.

I was glad the week was over because... the following week we would have another week of viennoiserie! and we would make some kouign amann one of my very favourite!

As I'm typing this, we are on spring break which means that we are already halfway through the course. It's only Monday and I'm already missing school. I don't know how I would feel when the 18 weeks is up honestly. I'm such a lame sentimental I know.... *sigh*

Melinda x

Unforeseen event

So you can plan ahead and scheduled this and that but when it comes to life, you never know what's around the corner do you? April Fools day fell on the Friday our class supposed to have another evaluation, and for this particular evaluation I felt like I had underprepared. Some class mates practiced their pâte à choux at home and everything!! I only scribbled out my 'plan' in the morning...

Anyway, so we had class as usual in the morning then went to lunch. During a particularly good lunch of pintade aux pruneaux all of a sudden we heard a loud KABOOM and for a second everything trembled! Everyone ran towards the window and we saw parts of rooftop flying up the sky just around the corner from school. Immediately we heard chef instructed us to evacuate and we walked through a thin cloud of smoke. So what happened was, there had been a gas leak in a building situated one street behind our school.

I didn't think that we had to wait out for that long, maybe half an hour... and everything would go back to normal and evaluation would run as per normal... but to cut a long story short we waited around for about 5 hours on the street luckily it was a particularly sunny day so mid afternoon a group of us took a walk to Angelina in Jardin du Luxembourg and had some team bonding tasting session. So how about the evaluation chef? some of us asked.. NO evaluation, no time to fit it in the packed schedule, too bad.

By late afternoon the sun was nowhere to be seen and because we were just standing around it was cold! I was probably seen huddling on to people like a duckling to its mama. Finally around 5pm we were allowed to enter school which was in darkness especially the basement where our change rooms are, we were told quickly to change and leave. Honestly, not that I was shaken but it was a bizzare day and even though I was tired I went on a good long walk to clear the head... I felt a bit cheated like an olympian who got disqualified... no evaluation after all that (little) preparation? I want to know whether I make the grade you know... you are talking to a nerd here, not sure everybody shared my disappointment about escaping the evaluation.

Apart from the explosive Friday, the week was fairly relaxing and a short one because Monday was Easter Monday. Tuesday in the lab was more collective work than individual, we made batches different types of pâte d'amandes and praliné. I actually love learning making basic ingredients like this, because I am all for 'if you can make it better why buy?! though I am not going to make my own pâte d'amandes anytime soon, not a fan. Praliné maybe ... because it is oh so good! Find a step by step praliné tutorial by my chef here.

On Wednesday we learnt to temper chocolate properly. I'd never done it before and I honestly didn't know much about chocolate. But as always whenever I listen to a talk about something I find interesting I get into it A LOT. Just like when I went to a talk about growing food in the balcony. I became a bit obsessed! I got myself a worm farm and everything! Anyway, back to chocolate. What I didn't know before was that tempering is precise work and I love PRECISION !! I want an infrared thermometer!! Also to enrobe things in chocolate using a fork and try to make some pattern is so much fun... love it!! Though to enrobe soft rocher in a coat of chocolate with chopped hazelnut with our hands is NOT as much fun.

And then on Thursday we made something that had been in my list of things I wanted to attempt one day, tarte infiniment vanille de Pierre Hermé. Even though I am not super happy with the pimply glaçage and my piping, I have to admit that it still looks quite pretty and I didn't have any intention to give this one away to anybody.

On that day we also made tarte caramel aux fruits secs. Over the years I have become very daring when it comes to making caramel, I like it dark and almost almost burnt. Caramel au beurre salé comes after vanilla and citrus in my top three favourite flavours, but when I asked if I could add salt chef said NO! Don't add salt because it wouldn't go well with the fruits. I think he was right, I love the caramel as it was without salt. This tart came as a surprise because in the end it looked quite festive and it tasted beautiful, lucky I kept one (we made two).

Friday you know what happened. So that was the end of another week that was 2 weeks ago now.

Time seriously flies and I am already a bit sad that we are nearly at the half way mark. But everything has an expiry date right? C'est la vie and all that ... *sigh*. Anyway, trying to look at the brighter side of things, I think I would love doing intership as well.... because not only I am a nerdy student, I am also a workaholic.

Melinda x

Ps. Chef said he rescheduled the evaluation to the 12th of May... bless him ;)

Pegel

Pegel is an Indonesian word to describe stiffness in the muscle, pronounciation is a bit like peu as in un peu, beaucoup, pas du tout and girl pronounced in thick Aussie accent. My right arm has been pegel pegel for the past two weeks because at school we had been making different sort of sponge based cakes and been whisking eggs, egg whites, cream by hand that it's been feeling numb and sometimes I have pins and needles! On the upside, it is looking super toned like never before! Next week I think I should try to whisk with my left arm only to even it up...

So it all started Monday the week before with the Moka, and honestly I am not in love with this cake. When we went on the patisserie tour with the class we bought a Moka from Pierre Hermé and even that I would've preferred something else. Each to their own taste I suppose... But I really enjoyed making it! To get the butter cream coating super even and flat and slick was fun, had I been allowed I would've spent half an hour just to get it nice and even.

That day we also made the joconde for our Opera cake which we were going to assemble on Tuesday. So I thought Tuesday would've been a walk in the park, but NO. I think we were even running late on Tuesday so much work went into building this cake. The layers from top to bottom : chablon, joconde, butter cream, joconde, ganache, joconde, butter cream, glaçage and chef said a good Opera has to have a nice balance of everything... mine turned out lovely, even though they didn't look exactly fine and dainty cos of my clumsy attempts at cornet!

On Wednesday we didn't take anything home but we made Bavarois au coco and prepared a few things for Thursday. We had our first art class and that was a bit SCARY! because much do I want to be a creative person... I don't have much up my sleeves!! Ah well, so I plan to take this learning seriously.. and hopefully any repressed artistic genes in me might surface. Anyway, so Thursday we finished three cakes! and that felt a bit like a relaxing time compared to just 1 Opera. I prefer cakes that don't look too busy, and I am all for negative space and less is more. Watching my chef decorated the bavarois and the fruit mousse was quite breathtaking. Really beautiful and with restraint, when you see the cakes you couldn't help but sigh... Lucky that he preferred us to copy what he did because I would've anyway! I have to say my cakes also ended up being really pretty, except that I really could've done with less strawberries on the fruit mousse. I gave them out happily and quite proudly.

Friday we had our first evaluation on tarte aux pommes and tarte au chocolat. To cut the story short I was in the middle pack, but I am my own competition anyway... I think I could've done better and like an elite athlete I would try to beat my personal best next time :)

New week, still on the cake theme... Monday we made 2 types of cheesecakes and made the french meringue for the Concorde and that was a walk in the park. I know I sound like a SNOB :) but cheesecakes are simple to make. I wasn't enthralled. We finished the unbaked cheesecake and I think for this one we were allowed to decorate as you wish but I imitated my chef's style from the other week. (You know, I am a copy cat and am really quite concern about the creativity challenge for the end of the course!! A bit like a masterchef mystery box x invention challenge!!)

On Tuesday we made the first of the 3 types of chocolate mousses we learnt this week. For the Concorde the mousse is similar to how I normally make it which is just with eggs. I piped the meringues too chunkily and they didn't look fine and delicate. I used to sell these when I worked in David Jones food hall I should had known to make it nice and thin grrrrrr!!

Anyway, then we made a Fraisier and I must had drawn the shortest stick because my strawberries were HUGE! and so had to cut them horizontally and turned out that I didn't like that look at all. Then I made a huge mistake, I didn't hear when chef told us to keep the crème patissière outside so they are not too cold having came out from the blast freezer. When I mixed the butter in, I could see then the texture became weird... I showed it to chef and he said the cream and butter should had been at the same temperature and not too cold. When I took the ring out and saw that I didn't chemise the cake well. I just wanted to dig a hole and cry hmmpphhhh but I just grit my teeth, not be a baby, and told chef that it was a fail for me. On that day we were to have a cornet evaluation, lucky he postponed it because after that... I don't think I could handle double disaster. Fraisier my nemesis.

On Wednesday we made a dangerous cake called a Royal. Whenever someone asks chef how long can we keep this and that, normally the answer is one day. Well it might be very sickening of me but I still have this cake in my fridge!!! I should and will throw it out today! But it is soo good! It has a couple of layers of sponge, a layer of hazelnut milk chocolate feuillantine, covered in praline chocolate mousse, the 2nd type of chocolate mousse which has whipped cream and no eggs. And I really had a good day making this cake.... after feeling a bit defeated the day before I decided to be more focused and maybe it was a good thing that I accidentally left my phone at home. I was more attentive and somehow for the first time since we started I was not left at the back of the pack and completed the steps in line with everybody.

Thursday early morning wayyyyy before dawn, Amie and I got up and made our way to the Bon Marché. All the Anglo Pastry students and our chefs were going on a school excursion to Rungis yay! I love markets and this is THE market professionals go to so it was really interesting. We also went to do a little tour of Les Vergers Saint Eustache, a produce supplier to the palaces and Michelin restaurants around the world and the array of products and the quality are amazing! I took heaps of photos that day and this is my favourite.

On Friday we made our last cake and I had high expectation because I love love crème brulée.. it was going inside as an insert, sandwiched with a couple of layers of sponges, covered in chocolate mousse. This is the 3rd type of chocolate mousse that we made, it would be really interesting to have a taste test of all three just to compare which one I prefer... this one has eggs and cream. I was happy that my cake turned out pretty because I wanted to offer it as a gift.

Also on Friday we had about an hour to practice cornet and had our evaluation. I tried to keep calm and not to have a nervous breakdown when I saw other students piped flourish decoration in addition to the letters. I passed... and also realised that I have such a long long way to go and must practice a thousand times over because all I can write for now, is just Fraisier.

And so it was... the two weeks of sponge cakes and by now I think my whisking skill if there is such thing, has reached advanced level. I used to beat stuff with hand held mixer at least... hardly ever with a whisk because it seemed such a hassle and a tiresome thing to do. Now, give me a bucket of cream and a whisk, 5-10 minutes. Bam! No sweat.

Melinda xx

Viennoiserie mon amour

Normally we would be told the week before what we are going to make the week after, when chef said we would be making viennoiseries, I kept my cool but my insides were doing back flips. So excited :) because you know... I've tried and tried but I was far from happy with the result.. and I think it wasn't due to me being incapable you see... it's because I wasn't in the right environment with controlled temperature. Anyway so I practically pranced to school on Monday... I had French in the morning and the lab in the afternoon. Someday I will write about the other classes we attend, and the school lunches .. because I enjoy them in equal measure.

That Monday we finished around 8pm, and especially in the beginning it was pretty intense and chef was yelling pushing us to work faster. We had three types of dough to make pâte à croissant, pâte à brioche and pain au lait. All by hand. It was like slap slap roll roll laminate, next dough, bam bam fall down, next dough, cut cut shape egg wash. We left with big bags of fresh pain au lait, but the croissants and brioches were to be baked the next day.

Tuesday we prepared pâte à croissant and pâte à brioche again though this time we mada a huge brioche dough in bulk with a mixing machine phew... (cos it is so s t i c k y!). The brioche dough from Monday had to be shaped and to make the little brioche with a head.... turned out to be super tricky!!!

Actually to cut pain au lait into a navette shape with the little teeth... that was hard as well. It's ok if you can stand them being irregular and homey but I CAN'T! And sadly at the moment, my cuts are looking like a british bulldog's teeth.. different sizes and pointing everywhere. On the other hand my croissants and pain au chocolat were not bad!

Happy with the shape and how they look... when I cut in to check the crumb.. pretty good... so yes overall, happiness! I left most at school and only took a few home, cos you know no need to be greedy so early... Wednesday we made pâte à croissant again... and I think that's all but we each were given a kilo of brioche dough to shape into 5 different classic shapes : Parisienne, Nanterre, two types of brioches tressées, and a brioche feuilletée.

This photo of brioches feuilletées I love!

We baked the croissants from yesterday, this time all were shaped into croissants because they are the hardest one to master and disappointingly they all came out from the oven misshapen and looking all weird. Not just mine, but for most of us in general. My chef said the dough was too strong and so they opened up when baked. Boo... anyway this time I took them all home and gave most to the sisters.

Thursday we made pâte à croissant AGAIN and even though I had never had a perfect batch, by then the process became something almost banal and easy. I think a few in the class were a bit over it by then but I really love it and I think, for those who makes croissants even everyday it's always a quest for perfection... NO??
Croissants baked from Wednesday's dough turned out ok, when I cut them in half when we make them into croissants aux amandes I was quite pleased with the crumb.

Alright! Who burnt my almond croissants?? Sigh, anyway.. gave them all out but one, really good.

We also made a kougelhoph which we mixed in a machine thankfully... baked in a traditional clay mould which I had been wanting to get for years if not for it's bulk and weight. Once they baked, then they get submerged in a syrup flavoured with vanilla, cinnamon, star anise and then a bath in melted butter before finally get showered in cinnamon sugar and lastly icing sugar. It is seriously very very good! A long time ago I had kougelhoph in Alsace and it is no where near this beauty, after I tried this I really want to try Christine Ferber's.

Before we started cleaning, chef told us to make another .... croissant dough yes! So half class had to do croissant dough the rest puff pastry dough ready to be laminated tomorrow. On Friday the last day, let me tell you first what we made : 8 croissants and 8 pain aux raisins, 8 danishes, 6 chaussons italiens and I got the kougeloph from yesterday that I kept in the freezer. Chef swapped our class and so we started at 7, sanitised everything then we started rolling and rolling and laminate, then we shaped the croissants and the pain aux raisins, then the danishes. Lastly the very unassuming but very yummy chaussons italiens made with puff pastry rolled in sugar then filled with a mixture of choux pastry and crème patissière and rhum soaked raisins. I brought everything to Accor to share with some colleagues I know and they also said kougelhoph and the chaussons italiens, THE tastiest. As my chef who is always right would say, NO FAT NO FUN. Oui chef!

Hours and weeks really fly by... this week honestly had been the most tiring and physical but my most favourite so far! Sometimes I still feel that it's crazy after only a month all of us can pull things out like these like little machines... especially when we lay out all the stuff that we had made for the chef to inspect and for us to take photos I can't help to feel a certain kind of pride. And even though I may not seem that I was.... (cos you know.. i'm mature and all that), I sometimes feel that I could burst out with happiness.

Melinda xx