So, it's been nearly three weeks since my last post. For that I apologize profusely. Class in the kitchen is intense most of the time. We're on our fourth week of class, third in the kitchen. First week in the kitchen was basic skills. First day was the worst, since it was just standing around listening to kitchen procedures, cleaning procedure, where things were located, who would clean what when, etc. I really questioned why I was there, I was so bored. Things began changing the next day.
That first week in the kitchen we made all sorts of things from meringue to pastry cream (pastry cream!!) to pâté sucree to pâté a choux. We piped basic shapes, spread meringues using offsets, and made cookies out of sweet dough. We also cleaned a lot of dishes and will continue to do so since we wash all of our dishes by hand. Yeah, all you Owens students, you have it cushy good. The cleaning we do is incredible, the kitchens are maintained by the students and interns. Not to say the chefs don't clean or don't help, but they've earned their relaxation, the chefs have all done what were doing somewhere, somehow, and usually with longer hours with not as nice equipment. And that's the point. They have us clean to teach us the importance of hard work and a clean kitchen.
The second week in the kitchen we started with entremets. Probably one of the more difficult things to start out with, and also on a four day week thanks to MLK day. We got pit late most of that week and our chef (Chef Dimitri) and our intern were yelling at us to hurry up. As they should, it's to be expected. But we were also new and dealing with a lot. It's a toss up, I can understand what the chef and intern were expecting ( a lot because they know that we can do a lot) but I had to sympathize with my stream, it was rough. We are showing improvement, though. We got out early three times this week! And we're still on entremets, but I feel only Monday counts since that was the only day we had a lot to to do.
I promise, I'll post pictures soon!
Oh, and the title was a direct quote from Chef Dimitri as he explained how we would use a lame to cut the top of our Pithivier to make a daisy design.
"This is not a shank. You are not shanking the Pithivier." Which meant we shouldn't stab the dough, but deftly and lightly slash it.
Entremets!
White Chocolate Silk: White chocolate mousse, raspberry gelee, almond dacquoise, and hazlenut crunch (think nutella krispie treats, best thing EVER).
My favorite entremet, Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse: From bottom up, hazelnut dacquoise layered with caramelized hazelnuts, hazelnut mousse, chocolate biscuit (say "bis-KWEE"), and chocolate mousse. Finished in chocolate mirror glaze.
Nougat mousse cake, from bottom up includes: almond dacqouise, apricot-passionfruit gelee, pistachio dacqouise, and nougat mousse layered with dried chcrries, dried apricots, pistachios, and pecans.
