The finishing touches

Yesterday we had our demonstration and practicals to finish off our creme deserts. In demo we were shown some decorations means and methods such as shaping out tuilles, sugar spinning and piping sauces and choclate using fine paper cone bags. We also had our first fire drill, which happened convieniently whilst I was mid- wee. We filed out like good boys and girls, had our register, and then went back in to see the chef complete her plates and tuck into a mid morning creme brulee.

Poppyseed tuille

Obligatory sugar swan

Spun sugar candy floss

Seven hours and a quick trip to the cinema later we began our wild friday night of shaping, piping and presenting. This is the first time we have had a proper dish to present to the chef to be marked and the only instruction was that our designs must include a tuille. Other than that we had fruit, sugar, chocolate and sauces to play with. At the end of class we took it in turns to present our plates to the chef and get our feedback. And now, here they are for you to pass judgement on:

And the feedback? Okay, here we go:

Creme Caramel: "Good colour, nice custard, well cooked" 

Presentation: "Very good, good use of 2 colours and height. Good idea. Need to work on chocolate piping to be finer and smoother" and, I promise, "with work, almost a perfect dish"

Creme Brulee: "Good amount in dish, good glaze, could possibly go a shade darker"

Presentation: "Needs more height. Should make better use of tuille to give height"

Overall, I was pretty pleased. Really need to work on my general neatness and piping, but that was always going to be the case. Excluding the strange anomaly of an A in GCSE art, my creativity is generally blemished by my clumsy disposition. Piping, I have been told, is the crucial difference between a good and a great pastry chef. So, a weekend of piping a plenty. 

On the plus side, the desserts definately looked good enough to eat and really were delicious. 

Stirred and Baked

Here begins our two part journey into the world of protein thickened custards both stirred and baked. On the 'stirred' agenda was your classic pour-on-apple-pie style custard (creme Anglaise) and representing the 'baked' were creme caramel, creme brulee and the big daddy of the custard world: pot au creme (pot of creme). This lesson has been split into two parts because the baked custards need to sit in the fridge for a good few hours (and preferably overnight) before they can be finished. To add to this, we were also being taught to make coulis and tuille biscuits to decorate our finished products tomorrow.

So, we spent our practical lesson time today cooking the creme Anglaise, caramel, brulee, coulis and a batter for the biscuits and tomorrow we get to do all the fun finishing touches (e.g. blowtorching our brulees). After spending a couple of hours cooking up these treats they were labelled, wrapped and put in the fridge. Painful as it was to to come home empty handed, the thought of tucking into them tomorrow is already making me drool slightly.

To add to this we even recieved what I am going to take as a compliment from the teaching chef. By which I mean he looked at the consistency of our creme anglaise and said "good". Perhaps not much to boast about, but a few other custards in the class had taken the unfortunate turn towards scrambled eggs. How our other custards will turn out tomorrow is yet to be seen. But, for now, I can sleep happy knowing that by some fluke I turned out a "good" creme Anglaise.

Does the lady have legs?

Today our grooming continued with the first of our wine tasting classes.  We were taught about the wine making process, various wine regions in France and their regulations and finally how to test and taste wine, spitting optional.

Several glasses of white and red later and I was still unable to recognise any of the 2000 possible smells, except of course alcohol, and became increasingly perplexed as students began to pick out supposed undercurrents of fresh leather and liquorice. On the plus side we got to drink some top wines and nibble on some bread for a few hours.  Perhaps with a little practise my conclusions will develop from "crisp and fruity" to the more poetic offerings from our teacher. Just need a steady supply of nice french wines..

By the end of the class, when asked "does the lady have legs?" (a test for a good Bordeaux) the answer was, surely, no. Well, not after an afternoon of taste testing.

Crèmes & Meringues

On friday we continued to learn le preparations patissieres de base (basics of patisserie to you and I) by learning about starch thickened custards and meringues. This lessons the chef got through a lot more covering: crème pâtissère and its derivites crème diplomate, crème mousseline, crème chibouste, as well as crème chantilly and three types of meringue, French, Swiss and Italian. The highlight of the lesson was tasting little drops of heaven otherwise known as swiss meringue filled with piped chantilly cream. Perhaps not the healthiest of breakfasts, but definately up there in the taste stakes. And here they are for your viewing pleasure:

They were honestly too cute for words.

Seven hours later and it was time for us to attempt to recreate them. In our practical we attempted the swiss meringes, crème chantilly, crème pâtissère, crème diplomate and crème mousseline. The lesson was great, less nervy, a lot to do and a chance to get our first goods in the oven. Although my piped meringues are no way as perfect as the treats above, I became quite protective of my little babies, especially on the tube home where my tubberware was held stable with two hands at all times. I think they passed the taste test, generously described by a friend as "angel poos", hmm, well not quite drops of heaven but its only week one...

So here are my little angel turds in all their glory:

Piping practise is this weekend agenda. Need to try to perfect a smooth finish and avoid the little spiked peaks. Off to the supermarket to buy some Smash to fill my piping bag. Yummy. 

Fruit and Sugar

Today we had our first demonstration and practical lessons. Topics covered: general kitchen equipment (what do I use this knife for chef?), knife skills, sugar in its many forms (from syrup to caramel), basic sugar decoration work and fruit preparation. All of this was neatly brought together by the creation of a fruit salad in an infused sugar syrup with sugar decoration.

First, the demo. This was the first time I'd seen any of the teaching chefs cook, to add to this we were being taught by the head of the department, and, my god, was she good. We watched in awe as Chef Julie casually turned an apple into a swan, just for a bit of decoration, I think there might have even been an "oooh". During the demo I somehow managed to write 4 pages of notes on making a fruit salad and a further 3 about heating sugar ready for the afternoons practical.

So, onto the practical. In the kitchen we had a run through of some more equipment, learnt how to identify the various stages of sugar, made a sugar syrup and tried to replicate the fruit cuts we were shown in the morning. First new skill - if you have a pan of boiling sugar and a bowl of ice, I should now be able to tell you its approximate temperature by touch alone - I know, quite the party trick. The lesson went surprisingly quickly and by the time we'd made out syrups (infused with cinamon, vanilla, orange and lemon, since you asked) and cut our fruit we were running out of time to present our dish.

Unfortunately this means my first dish is brought to you in tupperware, ready to be transported home.

Before you go allowing yourself to be too impressed, here are some of the beauties whipped up by the proffessional.

Perhaps I should get myself down to the market to stock up on fruit and sugar?

To summerise, life is pretty top right now. I left the practical feeling a bit giddy, as though I'd just been on a first date, not cubing a kiwi.

Tomorrow: meringues.

Knives

Today, in preparation for knife skills tomorrow, I took my Wüsthof blades to be engraved. Walking to the shop, kit in hand, I truly felt like the biz. Pretty sure i developed a chef swagger somewhere on Oxford Street. But, who wouldn't carrying this on their shoulder?

After choosing the swirliest font on offer, I awaited my knives. And here they are...

Waiting for the grand reveal

 Voila!

You will all be pleased to know my new cocky chef demeanor swiftly vanished when I was caught by the bigger kids taking photos of my knives in the locker room. What an amateur...

On the plus side, I get to test drive my new knives tomorrow, so wish me (and my fingers) luck!

Day One

Friday was a glorious day. It was my first day school and the begining of what will hopefully be my career. The school is in Marylebone which Wikipedia assures me is an " affluent, inner-city area of central London", and indeed it is. The highstreet boasts many boutique-esque shops and pâtisseries, and tucked away on 114 Marylebone Lane painted in the signiture blue and white is LCB.

As we entered we were told our classes for the term (BP-D) and sent to meet our classmates in various rooms that were laden with breakfast pastrys to indulge in. From here we began our introductory tour of the school from one of the teaching chefs.

The rest of the day I spend in an odd state of overwhelmed bliss. Without sounding too mushy, I just felt so lucky to be there. This is it - Patisserie school.

To add to this, we were given so many goodies that I could barely carry them all. List to include a beautiful set of knives and kitchen equippment, a sack of chef uniform and my bible for next 3 months - term ones course manual. 

Throughout were given a lot of information about timetables, regulations, saftey and told about the great prospects that potentially lay ahead of us if we put our heads down and worked for it. 

So a year of hardwork begins here. But with a curriculem that includes "a brief history of ice cream" who's complaining? Certainly not me.

P.S. Check out the toilets.