Project Update

Last night, the kitchen was very tame, I didn't set the school on fire, no celebrity chefs, I kept up with the pace of orders and all was fine in Garde Manger.

Today, after shopping for ingredients, I continued to work on my menu project that I need to hand in on Wednesday, the 17th of September. I plated my dessert, salad and re-did my soup so I could photograph it in daylight. It was overcast this afternoon, and the light was clear and soft - I thought, a good medium to work in.

Working on the dessert first, I cut a very clean slice of Tarte Tatin and glazed it with some apricot nappage to give it some shine. I made a caramel sauce to decorate the plate and added a swirl of Crème Chantilly to add a creamy taste to every bite.

Next the soup was reheated, seasoned and poured piping hot into a bowl. Garnished with creme fraiche, pepitos (roasted pumpkin seeds) and pumpkin seed oil the butternut and acorn squash puree didn't look picture perfect to me.

Lastly, the salad napoleon with heirloom tomato slices was dressed with a warm leek vinaigrette and accompanied by mache, herbs and baby greens. As an addition I added toasted baguette slices with creamy goat cheese.

I'm calling it a day for now, the kitchen is a mess and I have lots to clean up. Just two more dishes to go - my shellfish and meat course - that I will complete on Saturday. This Chef-in-training is tired.

The Big Apple

After a long flight from L.A. into JFK I raced home to grab my chef whites and knife pack to get to Monday night’s class. Our last class before our Midterm and you can cut the tension with a paring knife.

My last recipe to practice on for Level III is the Tarte aux Pommes (Apple Tart). It is very likely that this recipe will appear on my Midterm but I won’t find that out until tomorrow’s exam.

So let’s talk about the Midterm for a minute…tomorrow, I will go into our kitchen classroom and learn my fate. Each student picks a piece of paper from a bowl and the letter/number combination is associated with two dishes that are to be prepared. You either get a appetizer and meat or fish and dessert. These dishes correlate with a specific time that they are to be presented to the judges.

For our written exam, Chef chooses one of the 16 dishes we have been making over the past 7 weeks and we have to write down all the ingredients and the procedure to complete it.

I’ll be upfront, yes I’m nervous, one slip up can set me back on the practical exam. Everything needs to be perfect no matter what – no mistakes. Deep breath…I just need to focus and be on my best game.

Back to the tart, I carefully mix my dough which is not the easiest thing to do in a 95 degree kitchen – my pâte sucrée needs to remain cold so the butter in the mixture doesn’t melt. It is a simple dough recipe: 200 g all purpose flour, 100 g cold butter, an egg with 2 tsp of cold water, 30 g sugar and a pinch of salt.

It is vital not to over knead the dough, or it will be tough and glutinous. Also, the dough needs to rest for a good 30 minutes so timing matters – get the dough made first then work on the apple compote filling and then the topping.

With my tart in the oven, I assisted with making the Amuse Bouche – a curried carrot soup puree conceived by one of the team members. Each night we present Chef with an Amuse Bouche made by the team – since we have four team members in our group we each have had the opportunity to drive the Aumse Bouche decision. One night I made a roasted garlic and mushroom soup that I pureed and served in Chinese porcelain soup spoons with bacon dust and chives. Another evening, I was really on the soup kick, and I made a Vichyssoise (cold potato and leek soup) that I served in tall aperitif glasses that were tied with a thin strand of leek that I had blanched.

Once my tart comes out of the oven it needs to cool before I glaze it with apricot jam. The color on the tart is beautiful with the overlapping apples nicely browned on the edges. On the side I made a Crème Chantilly which is basically like a whipped cream but not as sweet. I presented on time which is always a plus and Chef came over to my station to judge the results. He flipped over a slice of the tart and started to tap the crust with his fork. The crust should easily crumble with no or little resistance. Chef had to chisel through the dough with his fork, I rolled out my dough a little too thick which made it a little tough to get through and he thought it might have been slightly over baked.

Overall the tart looked amazing and filling was very nice – nonetheless, all aspects have to be perfect and my dough did not cooperate fully. I guess that’s the way the cookie – or dough crumbles.

Beat the Clock

So on to Level III, new kitchen, new Chef Instructor, new game plan. Here’s the scoop – we work with the same partner as we go through the following stations: Garde Manger, Poissonnier, Saucier, and Pâtissier. My partner for the level is Michele, a successful attorney who has turned her passion for food into a second career option. Michele and I have a very similar style in the kitchen, we like to be organized, prepared and execute our dishes in a timely manner. We start on the pastry station and our task list for the night is Tarte aux Pommes, Crème Chantilly, Crème Choux, and Sauce au Chocolat.

The new space we are in is an old, beat-up kitchen that has seen better days! It has a very authentic feel, it is cramped and none of us have any idea of where anything is located – so we are running around like lost school children.

It’s all about timing and consistency in Level III – dishes must be presented at a specific time and the pace is rigorous. Everyone was working in their own little bubble – the kitchen was humming along. I don’t think anyone plated on time – we were all pretty late and Chef expected this to happen since the recipes are quite involved and it was our first night.

We were quite stressed out – it was almost as if we never cooked before in our lives and the recipes were written in some foreign language. Michele and I worked hard to get everything plated – we ran into some road blocks, when we put our choux in the convection oven it was set to a cool-down mode so they never fully baked. Luckily we had extra dough left over and started again. The Crème Chantilly was prepared and the Sauce au Chocolat was ready. We piped our choux and plated them for Chef to review.

It was a tough night and I felt beaten down by the clock. I was really worn out by the end of the evening and commiserated with Marcela who felt the same way. In Level III we rotate to a different station every two classes. I can only hope I will get faster and more confident in the dishes we are required to make since they will be on my mid-term exam. At almost 11:00 pm I was applying the apricot glaze to my apple tart and at the same time my eyes were glazing over.

Pâte à Choux, Gesundheit!

Puff Pastry (Pâte Feuilletée) and Pâte à Choux are two important pastry doughs to learn how to make successfully. Pâte à Choux is the only dough that is cooked twice and Pâte Feuilletée is time intensive and a little tricky.

If you love éclairs, profiteroles, or even the towering croquembouche, all of these are made with Pâte à Choux. Last night we tackled both types of dough starting with the Pâte Feuilletée since it needs to rest between folding and turning to create that flaky, layered pastry. Palmiers, Napoléons and Tarte Tartin all require this type of dough and time and care need to make it properly.

After combining our ingredients and making the puff pastry dough we let it rest for at least 30 minutes in the refrigerator. We started on the Pâte à Choux which is easy to make – bringing water and butter to a boil with a pinch of salt and sugar then adding flour to make the dough come together. Once the dough forms together, it is necessary to keep stirring it on the stove to dry it out before adding eggs. Once eggs are added and the dough cools a bit it is ready to use. We filled pastry bags with the Pâte à Choux and piped elongated éclair shapes and small cream-puff sized pastries brushed with egg wash. The dough baked for about 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven until golden brown, light and puffed.

We made our own Crème Chantilly to fill our puffs and Chef’s assistant made pastry cream and coffee cream for the éclairs. We ended the evening making Beignets Soufflés à l’Orange (Orange Fritters) with another batch of Pâte à Choux. These past few classes in pastry have been enjoyable – learning about different dough and their uses. I’m longing to get back to cooking real food – sweets are nice but I’m really all about the savory.