After two months with this class some personalities have made themselves known. It is always interesting to throw any group together in an intense situation and see what dynamics arise. Cooking classes are no exception. We have a pretty diverse group in most ways except one, we have only one man in this collection of 13 women. That fact in itself can make for fireworks. Of this melange of women I would say most are in some sort of relationship. But that doesn't stop any of them from flirting. Our one male is an Italian American from the Bronx, maybe mid twenties. Can you picture him? I bet you can. Let's call him "Vinnie". He works in his Uncle's bakery on Arthur Ave where they make Canollis and Sfogliatelles. Are you still with me? He is holding up remarkably well in this hen house with all these women cackling around him. I felt the need to expound on this topic after I realized over this week that he distracts many of the women in my class. Last night my partner could barely keep her mind focused on the pate brisee, pate sucree, frangipane and curds that we were making. I thought she was feeling under the weather and kept asking if she was ok, she said she was fine, just tired. But she got all perky when "Vinnie" asked her a question or generally smiled in her direction. It didn't bother me, when I finally figured it out, because it just meant that I could do most of the exercises by myself, which means to me that I lean more. All this week "Vinnie" has been subject to much ribbing (read flirting) by the class, including Chef Gerri, perhaps because this was the week that we made Canollis and Sfogliatelles. Chef Gerri is also Italian American so I think she feels he is her people, she relates to him, therefore she needs to dote on him. Don't want anyone to think there is any sort of harassment going on here. "Vinnie" blushes everytime he gets all this attention but he certainly can hold his own when the ribbing gets going. I have observed that any time there is a woman in class who isn't quite paying attention or somehow gets reprimanded by Chef Gerri, it is because she is working with "Vinnie". The testosterone he brings to the class disrupts their ability to focus on dough.
Other dynamics include two women who individually do not carry their weight in class chores or contribute good will to the group ethos. Neither of them are any good at washing pots and pans. One says she gets a rash from the soap(?). The other just somehow never seems to get to the sink when it's full. Both of them are very good at telling their partners what to do and when to do it, but are very bad at doing their fair share of mise en place and cleaning up. ironically neither of them moves very fast in the kitchen. All of these qualities will not go over well when they get out into the working world. There is another woman who showed her true colors at the first practical exam. We were all helping each other out with moral support, there was a nice feeling in the kitchen. She however had her head down and was not making contact with anyone. When the moment came for her to present to Chef Gerri she couldn't find the paper where the Chef would mark her grade (which she needed to present with her souffle) and she had a mini meltdown. For someone who previously gave the appearance of being a competent businesswoman who travels often for work, it came as quite a surprise to see her freak out over so minor a disruption. She also will not have much luck in a pro kitchen where stress is part of the package. Then we have a class clown, what class would be complete without one? She jokes about everything, even Chef Gerri, who takes most of it in stride but occasionally has to rein her in. The class clown spends so much time joking that she completely misses parts of demos and explanations of technique. She has made some pretty stupid mistakes in class and aften asks embarassingly simple questions. Then there is the dutiful young woman who is fresh out of college, she moved to NYC with her husband to go to school and she works really hard. She has some experience decorating, having had a job with a cookie company somewhere out West. She is young and needs to grow some confidence with her abilities. She will be good when she learns to trust her instincts. In the meantime she works very hard, follows direction carefully and is generally a good bet in the kitchen. Another interesting character is the woman who has also been through the culinary program at ICE and has no intention of being a chef. She wants to learn about food so she can diversify her businesses. She thinks it would be a good thing to own a restaurant to balance her printing business. She knows a lot about food, has good instincts, is a crack mise en placer, moves quickly and efficiently, but seems somehow removed from the process. I like her sense of humor and her energy. She can be counted on to do what she says she will and is sure to be an asset to any kitchen if she ever decides to actually work in one.
I am not writing any of this as judgements. Some of these people may annoy me individually but that is just my experience. Noone in class knows that I am blogging and I do wonder about the ethics of the whole concept. Seeing how many people don't even seem to know what a blog is, I doubt any of them will be reading this. I do not however want to be sued, or whatever.....
This week we moved away from bread, slowly. As mentioned above we made cannolli and sfogliatelle, two items I do not have any desire to make on my own. But we also made brioche, which is a delcious bread like substance which I plan on practicing over the weekend. Will report on that progress. And then on the progress note I did make something out of Claudia Fleming's book "The Last Course". I made her pistachio brittle and I have to say it is fabulous! Very simple and straightforward, easy to make, and yummy! Will have to try something else from the book to see if the brittle is an exception. At the end of this week we began tart doughs : brisee and sucree. So next week should be action packed. Tart dough (as pie dough) is tricky and working with it is a real skill. I have not had much luck to date so am hoping that school will add insights I have not acquired on my own.
Will try and blog more than once a week.....
a bientot,
Samantha
I'm back.
But I have just lost a load of writing that was cruising along nicely so I am already reconstructing. That was the first time I have ever done that here, written something I really liked and then somehow, mysteriously lost it with a keystroke. SIGH.
So I will try again.
My Grandmother's remains are laying peacefully in her grave next to her husband, who predeceased her by 25 years. They are together again, and reunited on Valentine's Day. Her entire family was present at the grave site for her interment and then we celebrated her in an intimate service, followed by a lunch I know she would have loved at a beautiful country club in Locust Valley. It was a long two days. I was happy to see most of my family. Like most all families we have our quirks. Mine includes a sister who has never liked me and now barely acknowledges my existence. Can be a little difficult at family gatherings, don't you know. Some people get stuck and can't move forward. As evidenced by the continued existence of the Mullet. Ah well.
To the other family members who are following my exploits: a big shout out to you lovely folks! Ganache forever!
Oh, the artfully articulate post I had written before I carelessly spilled my cup of Earl Grey and had to mop it up, somehow deleting my wonderful prose. $%%#@*^%^%$@)#
Bread. That's what I started with. I am of the opinion that we are not covering it carefully enough, or with enough time for it to sink in. And this from the woman who has had some previous experience with the process. I have gathered from the grumblings of my fellow students that I am not alone in this opinion. In two short (Presidents Day holiday included) weeks we have attempted : Semolina; black; fougasse; baguettes; olive; bread sticks; pizza; focaccia and challah. Tonight we will have a quiz followed by the sour doughs we have been nurturing for a week, and pretzels, and bagels. Hrumph. Too much! I will register my displeasure at the end of the module in the evaulation.
I mentioned previously that bread was of an early interest for me in the baking world. It still holds a powerful draw. I feel like I will have to explore working in a bread bakery in the future. Who knows maybe that's where I will end up. It is an endlessly changing field. Bread is not a static creature, just the nature of yeast and it's actions on flour provide infinite variations on the theme. Add in the variables of climate, season, freshness of ingredients and you have a formula for constant change. I also find something very appealing about working in a bakery all alone with the flour, the hobart and some jamming tunes.... But I may be romanticizing that concept a shred, maybe?
I did make baguettes here in my home kitchen, sucessfully, last weekend. I needed to decompress from family mingling, don't you know. Don and I had a us a long walk on Sunday. We moseyd up to 7th ave and had an ok brunch at the new City Lighting place on Flatbush. (yes, for those who are Bklyn natives, the former lighting store on Flatbush is now a restaurant after laying vacant for close to a decade) I won't go into the brunch, it was passable, but I doubt we will be going back soon. Then we hot tailed it up to center slope to meet a charming pooch named Blue. He will not be coming home to live with us, unfortunately someone else got there first. We are still looking. It is an depressing fact of NYC life that there is never a shortage of stray dogs looking for homes. Please people, neuter your animals!
After meeting doggie we wandered down to Barnes & Noble (not usually a favorite store for either of us) because Don wanted to give me a cookbook for a valentines present (wonderful man that he is). I was having a hard time on Sunday so found the selection of cookbooks at B&N overwhelming. It is, however, impressive how many cook books there are in the world these days. B&N is not even a speciality store and there were stacks of them. Of course there were lots of the recognizable faces: Jamie Oliver; Rocco DiSpirito; Mario Batali; Nigella Lawson and Mark Bittman. It is a tribute to the Food Network that there are so many recognized faces, not that I would necessarily buy any of their cookbooks-but that's another post entirely. Cooking is so much more glamorous these days. Not really, of course, but in the public's mind. My friend Robin's 5 year old daughter, Zoe, was playing with her toy kitchen out in their yard recently. Robin came upon her with all her stuffed animals lined up and asked what she was doing. Zoe replied she was making a cooking show! And Robin doesn't even have Cable tv! Anyway, I picked out Claudia Fleming's book, The Last Course. For those of you unfamiliar with her name she was the pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern, currently working for Pret a Manger(don't ask me, I don't understand, bigger paycheck/audience?). Very nice book, and finally I have a recipe for Goat cheesecake. Will keep you posted on the success or failure of any recipes attempted.
After B&N we perambulated down 7th ave and had to stop in the housewares store. I bought a baguette pan. What's a baguette pan? It's a long shallow loaf type pan with grooves that do not have ends so you can form the classic long baguette shape. Think of what a baguette looks like, that's what the pan looks like. This is not how commercial bakers make baguettes, they use couches. A couche is a large piece of raw linen that you put on a sheet pan. As you form your baguettes you line them up on the couche creasing the fabric between each loaf. This is where they proof. As they rise they provide structure for each other. And then they are slid onto long peels before you slash and then bake them. A metal pan is home bakers alternative.
So I made a poolish on Saturday night and by Monday AM it was ripe! I mixed up a dough that a combination of Beranbaums recipe and the specs from school. It fermented and then rose all day long while I knitted. When I put them (recipe made two large loaves) into the above mentioned pan I began to sense that my proportions were off. I had too much dough for my pan. It was not a tragedy. In fact I am so happy that I accomplished an actual bagette with the chewy, slightly sour, crumb and the flaky crust that the size of the loaves can be worked with. I had one definate mishap that I regret. You need to steam these babies when you bake them. Beranbaum suggests putting a pan on the bottom of the oven and throwing ice cubes in it when you put the bread in the oven to create steam. Well, silly Samantha put a glass gratin pan in the bottom of the oven. Guess what happened when I threw in those ice cubes? Can you guess? I knew, somewhere in the back of my head, what would happen, but was distracted by the process and so the pan shattered. Ooops! Luckily there was the pizza stone between the bread and the glass pan, so there was no glass in the loaves. So much for that gratin pan. but the bread was great! I need to tweak, it was not perfect, but to get so close to that flaky crust/chewy airy crumb was so exciting that I am ready for another try. Bread is great stuff. I am always happy eating bread. Staff of life shit, and all that.
Non food related commentary. I was home to actually sit in front of the TV Monday night and we watched a little Fox. Now I am not a culture snob, but I was disgusted, and I do mean disgusted, by this show My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance (or some such title). It is one of these reality shows where a couple have to get married on TV with all their family present in order to win a million dollars.
The catch is that the woman thinks it's real but the guy is an actor, as is all of his 'family', and his goal is to make it not work so he can get his own $mil. So he acts all obnoxious to her family, and I missed most of this but Don says he is a real pig, but she has to convince her family that she loves him and that they have to stand by her and come to her wedding. Her family is freaking, her siblings won't come, her parents are distressed, everyone is crying. But this woman wants that million so badly she is willing to put them all through hell on tv. I found the whole thing cringe worthy. I am ready to move to Europe. Claudia Fleming went and worked for Pierre Herme at Fauchon. It certainly seems to be the thing to do if you are serious about being a pastry chef. Don is willing and able, we both feel it would be an exciting opportunity. So we'll see in six months. ICE can arrange an externship anywhere in the world. I'd just have to bone up on that high school French......
A bientot,
Samantha
I realized too late, yesterday, that I did not have enough time to blog properly. I apologise. I am trying to pound my body back into shape so that I can withstand the rigors of the pastry kitchen. This requires a certain investment of time that I could otherwise be using to blog. I have time management issues, if I haven't mentioned this before. I will figure it all out someday. In the meantime I will attempt a proper discussion of bread making.
Bread making is the area of baking that I would reckon I have spent the most time on in my life. First tried my hand at it about 10 years ago when I moved North and was not working regularly. I had a large garden and was entertaining visions of Foxfire and back to the land. The total package included growing and making my own food. Now, I will not fool you in to thinking that I was that hard core. We did have a large garden which provided much sustenance. However we were making trips to PriceChopper on a regular basis. There were no cows to milk (or slaughter) no chickens for eggs. We were limited to growing fruits and veggies, baking bread and preserving what we made.
But there in Marlboro, New York, I tried my hand at bread baking. I had a modest rate of success. I was mostly baking from James Beard, Jane Brody and some other whole foods type books. As you may be able to guess many of those loaves were a shred dense and sometimes masqueraded as door stops. I did manage a pita bread recipe that was quite sucessful. I did a lot of reading but somehow there were some crucial elements that I couldn't quite absorb. I feel that way about most of what I have learned at school so far. I can teach myself much from books and trial and error, but having someone show you the proper method and explain the reasons for technique really clicks for me. I feel like I can do a souffle blind now, where before it was still a matter of following recipes nervously.
Breads are basically broken down in to two categories: straight or direct doughs and sponge or indirect doughs. Don made a wise ass comment about sponges in our house being by the sink. A sponge in bread terms is a starter, the predecessor to the bread. It is where the layers of flavor begin. To back track for a moment, a direct dough is one where the yeast, flour, fat and water are mixed together to form a rough dough. This substance sits in a bowl on the counter and doubles in size, this is called fermentation. Then the dough is removed from the bowl (deflated) and shaped into it's desired final form. Then it sits again, to double in size, again, this time it's called proofing. Then it is baked. A two step, or sponge dough, is usually started the day before (at least). The starter is classically flour, water and a small amount of yeast. This mixture percolates along over night. The yeast grows by feeding on the carbohydrates in the flour creating gases which cause the dough to rise, and alcohol which enhances the flavor of the bread. The classic example of a starter bread is sourdough. sourdough uses no commercial yeast, the starter (or sponge/levain/poolish/biga/chef/madre) consists of flour and water which attracts the natural yeast present in the environment. As you can imagine this is a less predictable and more time consuming process. That's why sourdough tends to be more expensive. Starters are cherished by bakers, some claim to have starters they created way back when. There are even tales of starters passed down through generations and across continents. Sounds very romantic, no? This concept appeals to me greatly. I like the idea of being a part of the great chain of bakers who have been providing bread (basic sustenance, staff of life stuff) to humanity. Don't know if I am romanticizing this too much. Should probably try working in a bread bakery some time to see how this idea bears out.
Straight doughs make tasty breads: think semolina or your basic white/whole wheat breads. But when you taste a bread that was made with a starter you can tell the difference. Your basic baguette recipe includes a poolish. That's what makes that tangy difference. We actually made baguettes twice in class. The ability to make the poolish the day before and let it ferment overnight gave our baguettes more flavor. Howver we were still doing the initial ferment and proof in a four hour time slot, which really isn't enough time. Nonetheless we made relatively sucessful breads. Not quite the crackly crust of a traditional baguette but still a respectable showing with a chewy crust and tasty, airy crumb. Chef Gerri gave me the proportions for a smaller batch of the dough so I am going to try and make baguettes at home this weekend. I will report on my progress.
I am feeling distracted by my Grandmother's pending funeral and the accompanying family gathering so I am going to sign off now. Will update Sunday or Monday.
A bientot,
Samantha
It appears we will only being doing yeasted breads for 2 weeks. I find this fact somewhat disturbing as all my previous study of bread (which is being reiterated by Chef Gerri) indicates that bread making is a long and involved process that can take a lifetime to master. Not that I expect we will master anything in this course but the fact is that bread is a very complex concept and we are going to breeze through it in two weeks. I will wait a little longer to see how other topics get covered, but I may need to open my big mouth to the powers that be about this part of the curriculum. Ah well. Last night we made baguettes. That's what I mean about fast. Your average baguette doesn't get made in four hours even by master bakers who are familiar with every step the process takes. We did make a sponge that fermented over night, which got us on the road to a more complex flavor. But when we finally got to the mixing of the dough last night we had less than 4 hours to mix, ferment, shape, proof, slash and bake a recipe that made about 30 baguettes. It was a bit of a comic sight, all us students in white throwing flour around trying to coax under fermented dough into baton shapes, all for the first time. Bread making is an art and a science combined. Measuring and temperature must be precise. Yeast is somewhat delicate, too hot and you kill it, too cold and it won't grow. You want it to feed on the carbohydrates in the flour as it grows because that process creates the gases and the alcohol that cause the fermentation that fosters the rise, and makes it taste damn good. As chef Gerri pointed out many times, a long, slow, cool rise is much preferred to a short hot one. Due to the class time strictures we were forced into the short hot method. We could only make baguettes in that time frame because we have a proofing box in the classroom. A proofing box is like a reverse refrigerator. It has a heating element that can bring the inside up to 100-110 degrees and a pan for water that makes that heat humid. Good conditions for making dough rise, but ultimately you would want to do the same thing at lower temperatures over a longer period of time.
As I am writing this (and looking over my shoulder at the clock, yoga is calling) I realize this is a more in depth discussion than I have left myself time for. I will come back to it tomorrow in depth when I have more time (and one more class under my belt). We got our grades for the first module last night and I am proud to report that I got straight A's and a 4.0. For someone whose formative years were spent at a school with no grades of any sort, I am feeling a perverse pride in this accomplishment. Other good news is that Don and I are days away from adding to our family. We will have a dog sometime in the very near future. We are talking to shelters and foster parents and I think it is only a matter of meeting one before the critter comes home with us.
More soon, promise.
A bientot,
Samantha
This entry is dedicated to my departed Grandmother, Elizabeth Sayer Hoyt. She passed away Thursday morning. It was a peaceful ending, I am told, with no pain and people who cared for her close at hand. She was a charming woman, my Grandmother, with a lot of style. I will miss her. She has been gone, in effect, for about ten years now, as she was living at a community in Ponte Vedra, Florida. We would visit with her, but it was not the same as visiting her in Cold Spring Harbor. The family is decending on NYC Friday for a dinner followed Saturday by the funeral. Please raise a glass to Betty.
It has been an action packed stretch here and I have not gotten around to posting, so I have some catching up to do. It feels like all sorts of things are percolating around in my head. It may take a couple of posts to get it all out.
LA was an eye opening experience. Samantha who has never liked LA before, liked it this time. What does that mean? I can see that staying with my dear friend Robin in her beautiful house in Highland Park allowed me to see a different part of LA that I previously had missed. We spent lazy mornings sitting in the sun (60's and sunny the whole time) drinking coffee/tea and talking, petting the dog, knitting. Don made trips to the book show while Robin and I went shopping in charming South Pasadena. We went out to eat a couple of times which were nice, if unremarkable. But the thing both Don and noticed most was the way we calmed right down and felt at home. How much more like our ideal location the climate and the pacing of California was. I can already hear many people scoffing. Samantha in CA? Hah! Well, let's just say at this moment that Don and I are considering Northern CA. I can imagine there might be some for whom this is good news. Must also admit that the life change my friends Jim and Susie are making to the ranch in Mendocino is having some impact. Don was particularly attracted to the idea of being able to have a garden all year round. Robin has a huge rosemary bush in her yard. It's impossible to get rosemary to grow in the ground in Maine, it must be planted in pots and brought indoors over the winter. So now I contemplate the idea of doing an externship at Chez Panisse, or maybe French Laundry? Although I guess Tom Keller will be in NYC at Per Se in July. But the opportunity to work with Alice Waters? Damn, that would be fine! OK, always something new to think about... One of those things I am particularly happy with in my relationship with Don, we work as a team, a partnership, plotting out what we'd like to do with our lives, where we'd like to go, see, be. The possibilities seem only as limited as our imaginations.
Just to touch briefly on the main topic of the blog, my exam on Wednesday went well. I aced the souffle, getting a hundred on that particular aspect. I wasn't nervous, felt on top of the process and I think it showed. There were some iffy moments for my fellow students. Interesting to see how some people respond to stress. One woman had an unexpected mini meltdown. Not sure that kitchen work is for her if she lost her cool that badly at this juncture. But no judgements here. Generally there was a feeling of comradely support, everyone helped each other out, smoothed over frayed nerves. And now we are on to doughs. We only spend two weeks doing bread, which to mind is not very much time. Last night we did a basic semolina loaf. They came out nicely, considering we did them in four hours, which seems very short to me for bread making. My partner's and my loafs got dropped on the flour while being transferred from proofing box to oven, so didn't actually taste the fruits of our labors. We put the dough together with our hands, which I must admit was the first time I had done that. I always use a machine of some sort. It was helpful to feel the dough through the process. I learned that I usually add too much flour which is why my loaves are often dense. A good dough is actually pretty sticky and wet, too much flour weighs the crumb down and makes it harder for the gases emitted by the yeast production to leaven the bread. Ah, information, so helpful.
I will write more about bread in the following days. I need to go take a yoga class. Got to get stronger in order to survive in the kitchen....
A bientot,
Samantha
Truly this one will be short as I have not managed my time well today. We are having lunch at Bolo in an hour so I will post a short update. Financiers made over the weekend were well received. However I found them a little chewy and dense. Took one in to Chef Gerri and she had the same opinion. I relayed to her the recipe (and it's source, Nick Malgieri-head of the ICE pastry program) and she was suprised. But on further contemplation I think I figured out the problem. The recipe asked me to whip the egg whites with sugar to firm peak, then fold in the nuts/flours and melted butter. Malgieri then wants you to put the bowl in the fridge overnight, or at least stir the mixture over cold water to deflate the whites. The problem here is that when you whip whites with sugar they become very stable, that is one of the reasons you whip the sugar in with the whites. Italian meringue, which is the most stable version you can make, has sugar syrup heated and added to the whites before whipping. The whites for the financier recipe were too stable to add the airiness appropriate for a financier. My cakes were too dense. I am annoyed that Malgieri's recipe was so wrong, but proud of myself for figuring it out. Will have to wait a shred to test my theory, we are going to LA Thursday and I have the paper due and the exam tomorrow night, so not much time for baking at the moment. But I will get back to you with the reprised results.
Last night was Pate a Choux, first time I felt like I didn't have enough time to absorb the info being taught. Got the pate a choux part ok, but feel wobbly with the pastry cream. Another item I will have to practice sometime soon. Feel ready for the exam, finally got those sugar temperatures in the old noggin. Speaking of which, I am having some skin issues which I am attributing to all the sugar in my blood stream. I am breaking out! Ugh! Seems worst along my browline, where my commis hat hits, wouldn't ya know? Hoping it will clear up soon, feeling very adolescent, haven't wanted to hide my face for zit embarassment in years.
My Grandmother had a stroke on Sunday (god damned superbowl) so I want everyone out there reading to send her some good karma. She is 91 and has lived a very full and happy (I think) life. She is resting comfortably, being very well taken care of in Florida, so even though she has lost the use of her right side, she appears comfortable. I talked to her for a spell this morning. She cannot respond, has lost speaking abilities, but I could hear her breathing quietly and the nurse says she looked alert while she listened. I told her about school and my paper and my exam. Hoping I brought a little distraction to her morning. Hang in there Betty!
Off to Bolo. Hopefully will be able to increase size of post tomorrow. Raining and 40's in NYC, positively tropical!
A bientot,
Samantha
I haven't figured mine out yet, obviously. Can't quite get into the groove. I apologise if anyone out there is looking for regular posts. This is more writing than I have done in decades. I do feel I am getting better but don't have the habit down yet, so there are breaks between posts. I do feel a responsibility to myself, and to all you lovely people, to write consistently but am trying not to stress out about keeping on top of it.
Montrachet. Is it obvious from the pause in posting that our meal was not as stellar as we might have liked? It was fascinating to see how the quality of the meal and the whole dining experience correlated with our mood and subsequent conversation. Where I felt like we were going to conquer the world after our meal at 11 Madison Park, at Montrachet we both left feeling deflated and depressed. We had to go home afterwards and rest on the couch till we got our psychic strength back up to face the world. Where do I start. The waitress almost forgot to ask if we wanted a drink with our lunch. She was nice but cold, perfunctory. We had a nice large table, one that in some restaurants would have easily sat four. But our fellow diners were very distracting. Don immediately pegged them as movie people, talking loudly about themselves, as if anyone would care. My seafood bisque was salty, the sign of an insecure chef-one who oversalts. Don's Venison and Barley soup tasted like Progresso, something we both joked about, but only half ironically. Don had a piece of Cod that was crusted with mustard which was tasty. I had a Duck Bourginon which arrived covered with a puff pastry crust. It was nice but unremarkable, the duck flavor was not well melded with it's fellow bacon, pearl onions and mushrooms. For dessert I had a fruit financier with raspberry sauce and Don had a chocolate terrine with pistachio sauce. Both were also unremarkable. Don's chocolate was dense and bland, needed more pistachio sauce. My financier was tasty enough, although the bottom was a shred crunchy, as if it had been slightly overcooked (or cooked with too much bottom heat). Don had a cabernet franc which was quite nice and I had a riesling which was also good. In hindsight the wine may have been the best part of the meal. Oh well, can't win them all. Just goes to show that what one person thinks is great, does not do it for another. Montrachet has been around for a long time, 10-15 years maybe longer and it has a loyal following. It was not my cup of tea. We remarked after lunch that if we had gone there before 11 Madison we might not have been so disappointed. However we were also glad that we had only spent lunch money on the place.
Thursday's class felt like curricular left overs. We made non-specific frozen desserts. Chef Gerri didn't even really have names for them : frozen mousse or souffles? They involved making a base that was from either dairy (custard like), simple sugar syrup or meringue. Then the base was folded into whipped cream and frozen. My partner and I made a dark rum flavored custard based version. It was nice, light and airy yet rich. These applications can also be made into bombes with layers of ice cream and mousse and even some sort of cake. We tried some of those with our ice cream from the earlier class but they didn't work very well. We really needed larger molds, we were working with individual molds that didn't leave much room for layers. I found it unusually lax for Chef Gerri, she didn't make us follow through with the procedure as she usually does. At one point in the middle of class I looked over at her and she looked lost. I think she is overworked, by choice would be my guess, but overworked nonetheless. She teaches the afternoon pastry class and then us, four days a week (the afternoon class meets 5 x week) and then she teaches the amateur classes as well on the weekends. She looks like she is burning the candle at both ends. Thursday she didn't have Chef Kathryn to help out either. We are also coming to the end of the module. Our paper on 10 different fruits is due on Wednesday, the same night we have an exam that includes a practical. In addition to a couple pages of a test that covers the temperatures, stages and applications of cooked sugar (among other things) we have to pare and slice an apple, make a cornet and pipe chocolate without the use of the decomaster and, best for last, make a chocolate souffle! A real practical exam. I am not worried about the souffle, have already been organizing plan of attack in my head, more concerned with the sugar temps. Memorizing numbers is not my strong suit, been going over them again and again. I will be ok, but mostly because Chef Gerri told us what specifically to study for. Doing a practical, though, that feels like real life. Having to produce on demand, there will be time limits and everything and we'll be judged on finished product. Feel like I understand the souffle concept very well, it's integrated into my psyche, so I like the challenge of doing it well.
Been working hard on the paper. Thought initially it would be simple, and in the long run it is. But had to find my voice, my reason (other than that it was an assignment) to write about fruit. Logically the voice came from the blog. I have been poring over my reference material ( Alice Waters, Chez Panisse Fruit; The Oxford Companion to Food; Jeffrey Steingarten, The Man Who Ate Everything and The Cambridge World History of Food) ferreting out the interesting facts to add to the necessary elements required by school. From all this research I have come up with an approach, which I can only call the Samantha approach, that I think makes the paper enjoyable to read rather than a rote assignment. We shall see how it is received, I will keep you posted. I have, not to brag, gotten 100 on my previous exam and excellent on my other paper, so I think I am on the right track. When I first sat down to write the fruit paper I felt like I was just spitting out facts and it felt unnatural, I was worried. Now I am actually proud of it. Did you know that Peaches and Plums were part of the rose family? I didn't before, but I do now.
Wednesday will be not only the day the paper is due and the day of the exam, but also the last day of this module. If I have not mentioned it before the whole course is broken up into 6 modules. The first is basics, the second is doughs , the third is breads, the fourth, cakes, the fifth chocolate & extras and the sixth is the externship. We have Thursday off as a break between modules. I am taking advantage of the break to go with Don to LA. He is going for a book show, I am tagging along to visit my friend Robin, who we will be staying with. It will be a long weekend in LaLa land. If anyone has any suggestions for restaurants, please let me know. I am not a huge fan of LA and so my knowledge of it is limited, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Airfares were dirt cheap, $200 round trip, how can you stay at home? When we come back and I start the new module I will be required to start photographing my creations, to compile them into some sort of portfolio by the end of the course. So the moment has come for my former career and my future career to overlap. I have quite a few film cameras sitting on my shelf, all of them in fine working order. Yet I feel compelled to go buy a digital camera for this particular purpose. I have been resisting the digital plunge, many of my photographer friends encouragements notwithstanding, but now feels like the time. Have done some research online and am leaning towards the Canon Powershot S45. Have to go check one out with my own hands, certainly. Don't buy a camera sight unseen. This purchase will serve my pastry needs and also perhaps some snapshot opportunities. Don't want anything too complicated, too fancy, too big or too expensive. If anyone has burning opinions on this matter feel free to share them with me. I am ready to make this step.
Will sign off as I am making dinner for my friend Serge tonight (no, we don't care about the superbowl) and want to make some financiers to go with the frozen dessert I brought home Thursday.
A bientot,
Samantha