Pastry'd Out

All I've eaten today is buttery, layery dough in various forms with various fillings. Two days ago we made Croissant dough, Brioche dough and Puff Pastry, and today we used them to make Croissants, Pain au chocolate, Pain aux Raisins, Brioche a la tete, Brioche Nanette and Braided Brioche. Then we used the puff pastry to make a big almond thing (no picture, sorry) that I threw out because it didn't taste good enough to justify the calories and apple turnovers (also not pictured...I had to bring them home warm and they are kinda smushed....and they're not so photogenic). So a lot of pastry thingies and all went well. I chefs were talking about me today, all in French that I couldn't understand except every few seconds "Melanie" which they pronouce "May-la-nee"....so hopefully it was all good stuff. I tried to work fast today, but I did make some mistakes, though it all worked out in the end. Sorry the pastries pic is sideways, I'm too tired to figure out how to fix it, but you get the point.

Enjoy the pictures. I wish you were all here to eat these damn things for me. I'm going to eat some leftover chicken wings because I haven't had any protein today at all.

Chicken Ever

What chicken ever exactly? Well, it could be a number of things: Worst, Whitest, Palest, Blandest....but I think that Most Disappointing sums it all up best. Most Disappointing Chicken EVER. Looks bad. Tastes like it looks.

Not a great day folks. This pic was taken after my evaluation, which was meh. The sauce was a bit too thick and things just didn't go as smoothly as they could have. But there will be days like this, and I will do better tomorrow.

Tomorrow is croissants, pain au chocolat, pain aux raisins....lots of goodies to bring home. I got no complaints about that.

Hold out for tomorrow

Tomorrow and Thursday will be big days for the blog, fans, so never fear. Today was just demos and doughs....doughs that need to rest for a day or so before we can turn them into deelicious croissants, pain au chocolat, brioche....yummmmm. So no pic, and no excitement on that front today. We did watch our chef truss a chicken and cook it white. Yes, it was, bascially, boiled (poached) and then there was a white cream sauce on it, on top of white rice. The whole dish was, well, pallid (and that's being nice). And we aren't allowed to dress it up with parsley or anything. It has to be totally white. It tasted ok, but I may have to snazz it up when I get home tomorrow to make my leftovers more exciting. I have to truss and poach a whole chicken...I better want to eat it when I'm done. So that's tomorrow night...then the french baked goodies will be Thursday. So watch for all that good stuff.

Last note: I'm am LOVING this. So fun. It just dawned on me that all day every day I'm cooking. So much fun...

Lemon Tart and Dover Sole!

All in all, a pretty wicked day. The tart happened first thing and it turned out great (see photo). I've been working on my speed and I've been really speedy lately....yes, at the expense of a little bit of perfection - but you lose points if you serve late, and you lose points if things aren't perfect. My plan is to get fast and learn to think and act quickly and logically, do my best, and then make the speed and the perfection meet nicely in the middle (hopefully on the fast/perfect end of the middle).

I was especially proud of the dover sole dish this afternoon in cuisine because I hardly looked at my notes, I trusted my gut for the quantities (no scaling for me in cuisine!) and fixed errors (not enough flavor in my sauce turned into a MAGICAL sauce thanks to some quick thinking, a chinois and a giant sautoire) AND I served with 5 minutes to spare. I felt good, I felt happy for just trusting myself to have watched the chef make it, and to then go and replicate it. Checklists are the way to go for reminder notes, not instructions. I'm learning every day how to improve my note taking to be more practical for the practicals.

Went out for burgers and beers after school today and it was DEE-LISH. I hardly eat anymore, so I packed it in tonight and now I'm off to eat the fruits of my labour...mmmmlemontart....

Leaning to the Left

Today I woke up at 4:40 am in order to get into the production kitchen by 6 am to volunteer. The production kitchen is almost like the prep kitchen in the basement, but it's the heart of the place, where all the demos trays are made (so the chefs can make our dishes for us to see how it's done during demos periods) and where all the boxes are put together for us to then replicate those demos. It's also where they bake the bread, and treats for everyone in the morning (students included) and where they make staff meals (for the teachers/chefs and other employees) and then they make stock, and rotate the food in and out with deliveries....truly the heart and brain of the whole place.

So I got to julienne oh, 10 giant yellow turnips first thing this morning, and when I woke up I had no balance, I kept falling to the left. It's like I was having inner ear problems....and I was dizzy all day. So to julienne a hard veggie like that was a real treat. I managed to not lose any fingers and my julienne is getting better, so all in all a successful morning. I also put together some demo trays and rearranged food in the walk-in.

Then in the afternoon we had a pastry practical so we made lady fingers and genoise (sponge cake) and we had the opportunity to make one of them twice if it didn't work out exactly the first time, which is awesome, because that opportunity is rare. I didn't heat my genoise enough the first time (it was a little flat) so I remade it after my almost-perfectly piped lady fingers. Naturally everything worked out well (after the second cake) when we aren't being marked for our efforts!

I brought home both of my cakes and my lady fingers. When I buy batteries tomorrow for my camera I'll take a picture and add it to this post. I'm going to practice my piping on the cakes this weekend. They taste kinda blah on their own (they're a great base for cream, liquor and fruit, but are very unexciting alone) so they'll be a great canvas to practice piping techniques and chocolate piping (different bag, different world). I plan to just wipe the icing or whatever I make off with a knife and keep doing it until the top layer of the cake sogs off.

So tired, must go to bed and sleep off my dizziness.

Monday Monday...

Not too much to report today, we had our fave chef for both practicals, so all in all it was a good day, despite the lackluster Apple Charlotte that was unevenly toasted and kinda dry. My puff pastry was pretty good, though I overcooked the cheesesticks and burned off my fingerprints (which was the reason for the overcooking). Nothing warranting a picture and my camera batteries are dead anyway.

But I did drink the creme anglaise straight out of the bowl at the end of class...it was boozey and it was good. Any stupid frustrations left over from today will not be carried on to tomorrow....where we will have great success in the production kitchen EARLY in the morning, and make wonderful spongey genoise and perfectly piped lady fingers. It will be a good day.

Good out, better back.

Heel Hell

My dogs are barking. I had to buy gel heel pads on the way home today because being on your feet from 8:15 until 3:30 is tougher than you think it would be. I know I'll get used to it because I remember feeling like this that summer I worked retail and waitressed, not to mention that treeplanting summer. In fact, my hands are starting to feel like they did when I was treeplanting. I get the claw at the end of the day from holding knives and peeling and they're dry and cracked. My knife callous is still developing - meaning it's still an open blister...but one of these days I'll stop cutting long enough to let a thick elephant-like skin develop over top of it.

We made our Quiche Lorraine today...and our crusts were all layer-y and funky due to some un-sage advice about the fraiser step. But despite the crust debacle I am still thoroughly enjoying it for dinner. What's not to love about pork belly and Gruyere?

On the pastry front we did a piping workshop today, which was so so fun. So far my biggest struggle is remembering NOT to lick my fingers when I get buttercream or chocolate on them. I have to tell myself that it's something much less appealing than chocolate....and I'll say no more. I think the most fun is having access to all these great tools....like giant vats of melted chocolate to just drop into a cornet and practice piping any time you have a few minutes during pastry practice. We also watched him make 4 different sponge cakes during demo, one of which he turned into a jelly roll filled with raspberry jam. I could have eaten the entire log.
Raspberry log: just as good as meat log.

Every once in a while, on a day like today where I have three classes and I'm hitting the wall mid-demo when I need to be sharp and attentive, I start to feel a bit overwhelmed. I have to take a few deep breaths and remind myself to trust the curriculum and trust that the things that seem challenging now will become second nature in a few weeks. The curriculum is set up really well to teach you basics, build on them and repeat them. If I just focus on one day at a time and try not to look big picture then I can handle what I've gotten myself into. This is an insane amount of information to retain and put into practice. Insane.

It's log, it's log, it's big it's heavy it's meat.

Today started off with me pouring a pot of water all over the floor, and ended with a meat log. And not just any meat log, a meat log with a core of back fat wrapped chicken livers. Wicked.

I assisted in a pastry demo today. I was nervous, but it was fine - with the exception of dumping a whole pot of water in a basin that looked like a sink, but was in fact just a hole to the floor. As the dishwasher and I stood there, water pouring down on our feet, she looks at me and says in her french accent "I do not think this is a sink." But I survived and managed to control the camera pretty well, which you have to aim at different surfaces with a remote control so that the whole class can see what's happening from above in order to replicate it. They made an Ambassadeur cake, which is a layered with cream and candied fruit, then covered in a marzipan sheet, like a perfect smooth surface (which has always grossed me out, no help that it was bright green) with the name piped on it in chocolate. Makes no sense to me...but then I've never been a big fan of cake.

Then we watched our demo chef for cuisine make the same doughs as pastry chef did yesterday, but in a very different way...with very different results. I will leave it at that. The highlight was the meat log though - or Pate Pantin - forcemeat (pork w/chicken liver) with a core of more chicken livers wrapped in barde (pork back fat in a very beautiful, white, thick, uniform, almost soft-looking sheet), then the whole meet log wrapped in pastry and baked. mmmmmmmmeatlog.

The Longest Day

You all know how much I hate early mornings. Well today I got up at 5:45 am and walked the hour to school; I had class from 8:15 am until 6:30 pm and then I walked home. And I'm on cloud nine! It was a really long day with cuisine practice (rocked it) pastry demo and then pastry practice. We made three kinds of pates (that's pat, not pat-tay) or doughs...pate brisee, pate sablee and pat sucre (see picture). Then if we had time we made cookies out of the sablee dough...also pictured. Not super sweet cookies...could have used some jam or something on them.

If I'm going to eat a cookie, I want a serious cookie, none of this lightly sweet crap. The calories better be worthwhile. Don't tell the teachers, but I'd rather have a Fudgee-o, ooooh! or a Pirate! (For you Americans, a Fudgee-o is a chocolate sandwich cookie and Pirates are peanut butter sandwich cookies). Among the things I am enjoying about being back in the homeland are all the things that you can't get in the States: President's Choice White Cheddar KD, Peak Freens, Mr. Christie....and cheese curd. I suspect the list will get longer as I rediscover all the crap I ate in university. I am, after all, a student again.

The Calm Before the Storm

Today was a demo-only day, which means that tomorrow will be insanity. First thing is the practical to follow today's demo (vegetables in sticks and cubes!) and then pastry demo and pastry practical.

I'm really excited to get going with the pastry side of things. So far we've just had a seminar for pastry where we smelled all the different ingredients we might see over the next 8 months. It kind of felt like they keep all these things in "show and tell" containers, little styrofoam cups with clear lids, for a long long time. I don't know what I expected glucose to smell like, but every container smelled the same...mostly odorless with a slight tinge of rancid. I wonder how long they've been sitting in those "seminar cups?"

Rancid seminar cups or not, I say bring on the butter sculpture...

Here are pictures of some of my "better" carrots. Still not perfect little 7-sided footballs...but they're ok. Also, the scraps created and the whole bag of cheese curd I ate in the process. (No, it wasn't squeaky...sigh)

Cooking School - Week 1, or How I learned to be a keener

When I was in university I always rolled my eyes at the keeners. What a bunch of lame try-hards, pssh.

Ten years later? I'm a total keener. Yes, I show up way too early. Yes, I sit in the front row. Yes, I answer the instructor's questions. And yes, I'm going overboard on the homework. Homework that doesn't get checked, isn't assigned or really required to pass. Does this happen to all of us as we get older? Are only a few of us really prepared for the value of school when we're 19? Whether it's that us "mature students" finally, a decade later, know what we want, or whether we are finally too old to be wasting our time in a class learning something we aren't enthusiastic about, I've heard similar stories from other people who've gone back to school in their 30s. We all turn into keeners.

The first week of culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa was everything I expected. (But I do suspect they're going easy on us because it's the first week...) And didn't I go straight home to buy onions, carrots and potatos to practice on on my way home? Then didn't I buy mushrooms so I could master the art of turning them into strange little fungi spirals? Three pounds of carrots, 5 pounds of potatos, 2 pounds of mushrooms and 8 giant onions later...I'm still nowhere near perfection, but I am knee-deep in vegetable stock. I am getting used to a 9-inch knife and feeling more confident for the practical classes. The coming week will be a better taste of the rhythm of things for the next three months, with lots of early mornings and long days using both the pastry and the cuisine sides of my brain.