You Are Not Shanking the Pithivier

[Updated 2/12/2013 with photos.]

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. 

Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone

Today was the last day of lecture for the week. We learned mostly about food science/technology. A lot of it had been covered at Owens, but I think review is always good. And the instructors (Chef Scott and Chef Josh) have a lot of great stories that do (and sometimes do not) go along with the lecture. Let's be clear, though, the tangential stories were usually about the industry. Or about food somehow. Let's face it, everyone sitting in that room is slightly obsessed with food. Mostly pastry. And baking.

One cool thing I learned this week that I think I can share is how Scoville units are calculated for hot sauce and peppers. Turns out it was just some dude named Scoville had people eat peppers and used a spray bottle filled with sugar water to spray on their tongue. The number of sprays it took to relieve the heat and pain was the number of units the pepper would receive. Or so says Chef Scott.

Tomorrow Roomie and I will be heading back to the school to volunteer for the French Pastry Experience. We have to be ready by 8:15. That's practically late considering how "early" I've had to be at school all of this week. Although it's really late compared to when classes start for Roomie. She has to be ready to go, standing in front of the kitchen at 6:40 AM.

Although, to be honest, as soon as I find a job, I'll probably be operating on similar hours.

I'm excited, and nervous, and ready to start learning. I'm trying to put everything I learned at Owens at the back of my mind. It doesn't matter how I've been taught to do sugar or cake decorating or breads in the past, the information the instructors will provide will be from many different perspectives. That's unique and to make the most of it I need to be as receptive as possible to all the different methods I will be shown.

The title of my post is something that came to mind while Chef Josh was lecturing. He was trying to stress the importance of being nervous for something, so he spoke about the first time he went sky-diving. To him, being nervous was a good thing because it meant that whatever you were about to try doing was important, in one way or another.

I couldn't help but think of a quote I ran across on Pinterest (where else?) that is the title of this post. It was comfort to me when I was freaking out over moving to Chicago. I knew I was tired of Suburbia and living with my parents and wondering what life would be like in a large city. Even though I was terrified of going to an area with a higher crime rate, more chances to really crash and burn, I knew that if I didn't take that chance I would question it forever.

Next week classes start in the kitchen. I get to learn how to use a knife, make pastry cream, and all sorts of things all over again.

Yay, pastry cream!

I really love pastry cream. 

Parting is such sweet sorrow

[Edit 1/7/2013: this post was left in drafts unbeknownst to me. AKA I just forgot to publish it, it was written 12/19/2012.]

Today was my last day on campus at Owens Community College. I finished finals last week, classes the week before. I'm happy to report that I finished the program with a 4.0. Woo!

I also finished my job as an Owens Civic Ambassador. I didn't start as an Ambassador, the job had a different title back then. However, I think the title of Civic Ambassador fits the job description a lot better. I worked as a mentor and tutor for students in developmental education classes. In addition to that I was introduced to the concept of service learning and had the opportunity to volunteer at both the Family House and the Toledo Seagate Foodbank. Both are great organizations in Toledo that constantly need help. Did you know that one volunteer hour is worth about $21 to the community? I didn't. If you only put in two hours a week for the year you are giving time that is worth $1,092! I'll put links at the bottom for Family House and The Foodbank.

I really encourage you to look up these organizations and see if you can help them in some way.

In other news, it's the holidays and that means holiday baking! My boyfriend and I attempted caramels over the weekend. One batch turned out too soft, the other too hard. One didn't fit the pan we put it in, the other actually did fit (but it's the hard batch). All will get covered in chocolate, both taste too good to toss.

I also have been decorating and I made Cranberry Orange Cornmeal cookies. So tasty. Everyone approves. But my personal favorite are Peanut Blossoms. Our secret? Really good quality peanut butter, it makes all the difference.

"We Are Here to Learn Pastry"

Today was orientation at The French Pastry School. I've been in Chicago for about a week. Moving went pretty smoothly. My roommate and I have, as predicted, an overstocked kitchen. Although we're missing some odd things like a broom and dustpan and ramekins. But we have a bundt cake pan, a brotform, and two (two!) mini Cuisinart food processors. The exact same model. I just.... We need help. And more shelves.

So far living in the city has been stressful. First, there's the walking. So much walking. However, I've been told I'll go down a pant size. I remind myself this when I still have two blocks to get to my apartment, which is the top floor of a three story walk-up.

There's also the noise and the light. I've lived most of my life in suburbia in a relatively quiet, wooded subdivision. And now my window faces N. Western Ave, one of the busier streets in the area. I'm getting used to it, though. I really want curtains, though, the light is annoying. We are literally next door to a neon sign shop. It's so cliche, I kind of love it.

On to today's orientation. Let's just say that The French Pastry School (oh, right, I found out I can write about my experience) is invigorating and intimidating. The dress code is strict, and okay, really that's the only thing I found intimidating. We're also supposed to stage and volunteer as part of our experience. It seems intimidating but as Chef Joe pointed out, there's a direct correlation between staging, volunteering and a future promising career. I love volunteering so I can't wait to help out with the For the Love of Chocolate gala and with French Pastry Production. I even showed interest in washing dishes for the continuing education courses. I don't mind, I might even get to watch!

The students ranged from all over the world (the furthest I could remember was Singapore) and all ages, although most were in the 17-30 range.

Oh, and as a final note, the title of this post comes from Chef Jacquy, as he pointed out in orientation, we have paid them to teach us pastry and to help us secure promising futures in the pastry industry. The staging, the volunteering, the recipes, the classes, everything we've paid for is so we can learn pastry and excel in the field. Chef Jacquy recommended that we make a big poster for our apartment and write on it "We Are Here to Learn Pastry" to remind us of our purpose as we attend school.

Guys, I'm so excited!! I just hope I can keep up with the laundry.

Hunt Successful

So after many twists and turns in plot development, I finally have a new roommate. My old roommate-to-be had to drop out due to very understandable financial reasons.

But I got a new one! She's a student at the school. Let's just call her Roomie. So far, so good.

Last month I spent a few days looking at places. I hate apartment hunting. It's annoying and frustrating. One place seems great until you realize it's location and that it doesn't have central air. Another actually is great but darned if we could afford it. Well, we could, but I like eating and having the thermostat set above 50 degrees F.

However, we found a place. It's not ideal, but the location is good. It's about a ten minute walk from a blue line train station, which will drop us off right near our school. The apartment itself is airy with lots of light. It's the the top floor of a three floor walk up. The building itself feels very secure and there's laundry on site in the basement. I'll put up a few pictures.

Downsides, because there are a few, include almost no counter space in the kitchen, very little storage space, no dishwasher, and no garbage disposal. However, I've lived without a dishwasher before, it's not that troublesome. And at home we don't even use our garbage disposal. Storage space can be created by the use of hooks and shelves. Counter space can be created with a table and maybe a butcher's block storage stand like piece of furniture. I hope.

It could be a lot, lot worse. Like, bugs and no central air and no laundry in the building ( I know me and baking, I'm going to need that washing machine like the Doctor needs a companion).

Picture time! Photos were taken from the listing. Not mine, I didn't shoot them. They just show the common areas a lot better than my photos did.

One half of the living area. It's about 12x24 total.

See? No cabinet space or counter space to speak of. Going to have to get creative.

You can see most of the living area from this photo. Nice big windows, nice and bright.

Bathroom! I'm so happy to actually have a cupboard under the sink. Unheard of in most apartments.

If you turned around from the first photo this is what you would see.

Until next time. <3 R.

Let's Begin: An Intro and some Pretty Pictures

Hello all (or anyone who's found this post),

My last name starts with Rad, I'm an aspiring pastry chef (recently accepted into a baking and pastry school in a large city), who works as a cake decorator. One job is cake decorating, dessert creation, and maybe, sometimes, bread making. It's at a local, upscale grocery store. It's pretty cool.

For now I am disinclined to divulge names of others and specific places to protect the innocent.

And let me say this: I love what I do. I have not enjoyed anything before like I do my current jobs. There's a level of creativity required, but also a level of perfectionism. Things must be exact and beautiful. There's a degree of science as well as a degree of art required in baking and pastry. Anyone in the field can tell you this.

With this blog I hope to showcase my decorating skills, my baking experiments, and the geeky things I found that I must share (no promises that the last item will be related to baking or pastry at all).

So, to start, here are photos of a birthday cake I made and decorated for my friend for her last birthday. She was born on Halloween and is a nearly ravenous fan of the Joker and slightly less so of Jack Skellington, so I combined them into one cake. Also, there are some gingerbread cookies I decorated for funsies.

Cake and cookie designs are mine. I created them, and I took the photos (hence the large watermarks). Please do not copy or share without asking permission first (it'll probably be granted, I just want to know).

Thanks so much for reading!

 Skeletons and skulls, oh my!

 The whole cake. One side was devoted to Jack Skellington, the other Heath Ledger's Joker. Covered in fondant, painted on using food coloring, and bordered with grey royal icing.

 The face was drawn by hand, by me. No tracing.

 This was fun (and stressful). There was no actual Nightmare Before... font I could reference, so I used the DVD box and did my best to come up with what would be the font. 

Again, no tracing. Painted on by hand.