Day Six

Ok so first thing first. Got to school and Colleen, who I had loaned my copy of I Kill Giants to, had brought me her copy of What Ever Happened to the Caped Crusader. It is a story that is both Batman and Neil Gaiman, so it’s bound to be good.

Then chef had us whip up some Chantilly Cream, whipped cream with powder sugar and vanilla extract, for the top of rice puddings. Then we topped that with fruit and chocolate. It was the same way we finish most of what we do these days.

Finished Rice Puddings

After that we mixed fruit in a syrup and topped dozens of little cakes that the chefs had made that morning for an open house they were having tonight. Know some of you are like, Open House, Little Cakes, why didn’t I tell you about this. The reason is the open houses are for perspective students. So the whole class became a working machine as we put the finishing touches on these pastries, our first real taste of working as a team on the same thing at a time. At times it was hectic but we learned how to organize and get it done fast.

Then we prepped ingredients for Beignets. Some of you have asked me what I mean when I say prep the ingredients, well we measure them on a scale while in plastic containers. I took a picture. From the left we have egg whites, milk, yokes, yeast, oil, a combination of all purpose flour and high gluten flour, sugar and salt.

First the yeast goes in the milk and gets mixed up and tossed in a kitchen aid, then so does the flours, yokes oil and salt. They get whisked up on a high speed before going in a covered bowl to proof or rise.

While they were rising chef Sebastian went to the white board and drew us some piping designs. They were pretty complicated and we had to copy them down onto paper.

Chef Sebastien drawling piping designs

After that we whipped the egg whites and sugar and then folded it into out dough. Not an easy task mind you, but we got it there. Then it was off to a pan of hot oil to make the beignets, and as it turns out I am not that great with working with sticky dough. But we got them made.

After that we melted some chocolate and put it in small piping bags we made from parchment paper and piped the designs chef had taught us. We did it and I must say that most of us did it badly. But piping is a skill and it takes lots of practice. After the chocolate dried on our parchment paper we scrapped it off and put it back in a bowl, cleaned up and went to Thursday Night Tasting. There were all sorts of meat and sushi tonight along with 3 soups, one of which tasted like buttery asparagus, and demanded most of my attention. Also there was some lamb and some puff pastry full of forest meat, these were good too. Chef told us that when we come in Monday we have to have new partners, I wonder who I will end up with?