All posts filed under: Pastry School

Black Sesame Orange Tart

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What better to do with a Saturday afternoon than to hole up in your kitchen for several hours experimenting? It all started with my relatively simple idea to actually practice some of what I learn in school on my own time and in my own kitchen, but then as all ideas I have tend to do, it quickly snowballed as it encountered the semi-jilted feeling I had of not having my recommendation to use black sesame in an entremets be well received. One thought led to another, and before I knew it I was dragging three bags of groceries home filled with more butter and eggs than any normal person would consume in an entire week, and I was ready to go. Even when I started baking though, I can’t say that I really knew what it was that I would be making. I knew the elements and I thought of ways I might combine and shape them into creating one dessert…but it wasn’t until about an hour into the process that I had an ‘ah …

Gastronomicom Week 12: Final Plated Desserts and Cocktail Party

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Chef wanted to teach us how complicated it can be to thoroughly carry one single flavor or ingredient throughout all parts of a plated dessert—but also that it is possible if you set your mind to it. We started the day on Monday by pulling out the whiteboard and listing all the things that are important in a dish—color, texture, flavor, and emotion—and then the different kinds of recipes we could use to get all the textures we were looking for—since the other elements such as flavor were already decided (strawberry) and emotion comes from the chef as the dish is being made and plated. After we decided on eight elements for the dish, Chef divvied out the recipes to each of us and we set to work. One by one we finished our recipe and divided it between all the students, getting ready to combine everything. Chef demonstrated how to plate the dish…but then told us it was free plating and that we weren’t allowed to copy him. T_T My dish didn’t exactly end …

Gastronomicom Week 11: Final Chocolate Week

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It is with surprise that I write that I am sad that my final week of chocolate has ended. I know, I know–what spirit has possessed me and is forcing me to write that I enjoyed chocolate week, right? Well, its true. This past chocolate week was filled with not only amazing recipes, but also with amazing teamwork and camaraderie between the students and our Chef. Structured like entremets/plated desserts week this time—we finished approximately one completed dessert per day which was built using several recipes, ingredients and textures. By now we are capable enough to handle putting several recipes into one dish—we can temper chocolate without having Chef glued to our sides and we are slightly faster at preparing things like our ingredients and completing recipes. Monday we went back to the techniques from the “snickers” from the last chocolate week,  since it hadn’t gone perfectly last time for most of the students but everyone still enjoyed the flavor and the process. This time our creation had an almond twist, and a reconstructed dough …

Gastronomicom Week 10: Final Entremets Week

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So either Chef enjoys watching me squirm or the school is secretly plotting against me, because when I walked into pastry class on Friday Chef announced that I was in charge…of the class. But I’m four desserts and days ahead of myself, so let me go back to Monday. Monday was not just the start of a new week for us, it was the morning after the Étoiles de Mougins gastronomic festival–where I went for the weekend along with some other students to watch our Chef compete and participate in some demonstrations. Needless to say, Chef was running on about two hours of sleep after a very busy weekend, and some of the rest of us still hadn’t switched back from our weekend-vacation mindset. Luckily we only had four recipes to prepare–two types of sanded dough, our flan filling, and the base of our caramel crunch. Probably because we only had four recipes to complete within two and a half hours, and for the most part they were simple and self explanatory, we all worked …

Gastronomicom Week 8: Plated Desserts Week

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I was so looking forward to plated desserts week ever since the last plated desserts week ended. Of course, it just had to come with another test. This time we knew about the test the week before, so that we could do our best to prepare recipes in accordance with the theme at hand–which was a dessert that represents memories of summer in our countries and cultures of origin. I spent most of the weekend designing a s’mores themed dessert–because besides donuts what is more American than bonfires and marshmallow induced sugar highs? But when I talked to chef about the recipe and he asked if I was going to incorporate any fruit, I tried to find a way to mix another flavor into my design for hours before scrapping the entire idea in favor of a new one. Something so simple I hadn’t given it real thought. Pie. So while I regale you with stories and pictures of the other amazing desserts we made Monday through Thursday, just know that while all this is happening …

Gastronomicom Week Seven: Chocolate Week

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Chocolate, my new arch nemesis, has returned. On Monday we first tackled two types of dough to use later in the week before getting anywhere near chocolate, which I was grateful for. But then we moved on to tempering chocolate in order to make some spiced chocolate bars–and somewhere between going to get a thermometer and putting my chocolate in the top of my double boiler, all my confidence went completely out the window. In theory, I understand that chocolate needs to be tempered in order for the correct crystal structures to form, leading to a stronger, shinier chocolate that doesn’t melt at room temperature or when you slightly touch it. But that doesn’t stop my exasperation of needing to temper chocolate, and watch with anxiety as the thermometer somehow jumps from 40 degrees C to 60 degrees C in seconds–when I am aiming for my chocolate to cap out around 55. Chef just looks at his chocolate and knows what temperature it is. I think he might have super powers. The tablet we made turned …