All posts filed under: Recent

Black Sesame Orange Tart

Published by

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 …

Yam’tcha Lunch

Published by

Have you ever watched Chef’s Table or the more recent Chef’s Table France on Netflix? Well, then you may very well recognize the chef to the right of this photo: That’s right, while on an epic pastry tour in Paris, Babette and I were more than fortunate enough to get a reservation one day during lunch hours at Yam’tcha, Adeline Grattard’s Michelin starred restaurant. And from start to finish, it was one of the most beautiful lunch experiences of my life. If you read my last michelin restaurant related post, I have some criteria that I will tell you about before getting into all the pictures and specifics of what we ate–so feel free to keep scrolling til you get to that, or keep reading as you like. Ambiance: 4.5/5 It was a lovely and comfortable space, with beautiful walls, decorations and seating. However it was still within the bounds of an ‘expected’ level of comfort for me, which is why I didn’t give it the full marks. Taste: 5/5 Constantly amazed and unexpectedly the …

La Bottega del Buon Caffe

Published by

What better way to explore the world and expand your horizons than through food? After some intensive research and frantic emails and phone calls exchanged in order to try to get a table for one at some of the most exciting looking locations, I ended up going to four different Michelin starred restaurants in four different cities within 10 days. I know–what more could a person ask for in life? La Bottega del Buon Caffe came up again and again as I researched things to do in Florence, Italy, and they were able to squeeze me in one of the nights I was in the area. I was already excited based on what I saw on the website before going, but oh my lord was it ever worth it. When I go to a restaurant (particularly a nicer restaurant) there are a handful of things I am looking for in order to determine whether it is a good destination or not. I’m going to give you a little overall review, but feel free to keep …

Coconut Mango Entremets

Published by

Baking for my younger brother allows me the chance to reach into the crazy section of my creative side and try things and combinations that I usually wouldn’t try out on other people. I’m just going to come out and say it; he’s a complete weirdo. Since he is returning home from college this week, I decided to be a nice sister and bake something for him. This time my train of thought started out with a layer cake. Maybe I’ll make an exotic layer cake covered in coconut, I thought. Then I flipped to Miette’s Coconut Mousse Cake and thought maybe I would add in some coconut mousse layers… and then that led me to thinking about adding in some mango…and before I knew it, the idea had changed into an entremet with a never-before-seen liquid mango juice center. So I started in with my experimental creation–making a mango puree and simmering it with some simple syrup before straining it and putting the juice into some silicon molds. At the same time, I made …

Honey Matcha Castella Cake

Published by

I told myself I wasn’t going to do any baking this week. I was going to avoid the kitchen in lieu of being productive and getting important things done in all the other areas of my life. And then the spark of an idea led to me tumbling down the rabbit hole–flipping through a handful of cookbooks and spending a solid hour furiously Googling subsequent ideas… Until not only was I in the kitchen, but I had about four projects in various stages spread across every available counter space as I vaguely listened to 30 Rock playing from my computer while sitting cross-legged in front of my oven, carefully regarding the cakes inside. Despite not understanding how the oven in my parents new house can simultaneously over and under cook the things I try to bake, my evening baking adventure turned out to be quite a success. Half following some recipes and half throwing in ingredients haphazardly like the rebel I am, I ended up with a Honey Castella Cake, Almond Matcha Mousse, Matcha Spread, …

Chaos and Strength: Week 15 in the Kitchen

Published by

I don’t know if someone wrote ‘lets all make fun of Maddie this week’ on my forehead while I wasn’t paying attention, or if we all just snapped a little at being overwhelmed by the new schedule and the lack of our chef in the kitchen…but lets just say that it is a good thing that I am relatively speaking an easy going and patient person. My American accent, my many lists, my desire to do everything and control everything possible, my lack of ability to correctly conjugate verbs in French, my laugh, my knowledge of French music…I basically couldn’t do or say anything without it coming back to me as the butt of a joke–in the friendliest way, of course. “How are you Maddie?” Stan asks me in English. “I’m fine and you?” I respond, speaking English as well. “WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT SPEAKING ENGLISH HERE? YOU ARE IN FRANCE!” T_T There is just no winning. Another winner of a conversation was when my coworkers said after one of the many times …