There are three classes left in this week during which we will all be working on our chocolate showpieces. Then next Monday we will have our written exam followed by the practical which will entail : making a ganache; tempering chocolate and filling chocolate molds with our labors. It is quite feasible but time consuming. I am, again, not worried about the final, just curious how we are all going to do this in one classroom. He will have to split the class in two and have half take the written while the other half does the practical, and then switch. There just won't be room, or enough equipment, for all 13 of us to temper chocolate at the same time.
Last night we made more molded chocolates, maybe because so many people were out on Thursday night and missed his useful (not being facetious) demo. I tried to pass along what I had learned to at least one of my fellow classmates (the one who I knew had missed the class for valid reasons other than sheer frustration). Standing in the classroom last night watching the way this group now works in some strangely dysfunctional way I was touched by vague feelings of affection. I imagine that after next Tuesday I will never see any of them again, and I won't miss them, but I have gotten used to their quirky ways. And there are a couple of them I actually like. A few of the ones I like are moving away which means I really won't see them again. Ah well.
Have decided the chocolate showpiece will be three (maybe four?) books, a couple in a pile and then one standing up next to them. Know that the title of at least one will be The Gastronomical Me by MFK Fisher. It was one of those books that really got me excited about food as lifestyle. Highly recommend it to all. She writes well about life and living, and it just so happens that one of her favorite subjects is food so there is a lot of it in her writing. She puts Frances Mayes and her Tuscany books to shame, although I did read those too. By half way through the second Mayes book I was annoyed with her but wanted to keep reading to learn more about Tuscany. Never get enough of MFK Fisher. Still working on the other titles. Maybe Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs. Maybe James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking. hmmm. Have to figure it out soon.....
Body of the book will be white chocolate which I will score on three edges to mimic pages. That rectangle will be covered with a marzipan jacket that will have lettering in chocolate on it. One jacket may be made out of pastillage to vary textures. Made the marzipan last night. Might be molding the bodies tonight. It has to be done by Thursday night...
Still isn't sinking in that I have changed my occupation. I have certainly left the old job, psychologically made that break back in January. But don't quite feel like a pastry person truly yet. Maybe it will feel more real when I get my first paycheck. The time at Craft will be uncompensated, it is an externship after all. Don't know what will happen after that ends. But feeling very secure about the ability to find gainful employment due to all the job postings I have seen on the board at school. Have moved from a shrinking industry (magazine publishing) to a growing one (food). That is a gratifying piece of knowledge. May not get paid the same wages but won't have to worry about finding work wherever I go, whatever the economy does. And hopefully one day in the not too distant future I will be my own boss.
moving right along
a bientot,
Samantha
I can now say after 3 botched attempts that I know how to temper chocolate. I cannot say that learning it was a pleasure, on the contrary, it was quite frustrating. I was not taught properly the first time so the second and third tries were with incomplete information. When I was finally given correct and specific information I was, of course, able to figure it out. This Chef Chad guy is a real pain in the ass. He acts all casual like, like it's no big deal anything we're doing, that a monkey could do it. But the monkey still needs to be shown the way at least once. He let us blunder through numerous attempts like bulls in the proverbial china shop before he suggested a review on the technique. At which point he gave us info he had somehow neglected to offer up the first time. So of course our success rate went up, and we were less frustrated. Last night four people didn't show for class. Out of a class of 13 that's a large loss. I do not doubt that it was because of the unsatisfying attempts we had been making at tempering chocolate. Wednesday was particularly bad as we were covering truffles with our poorly tempered chocolate. And things were not working out well. So the next class a bunch of my fellow students just bagged it and didn't show. Hmmm....
I am just happy to be able to say that I can in fact temper chocolate. It would have been very disappointing, not to mention a rip off, if I had gone through this program without learning this useful skill. Tempering is important for maintaining the gloss and sheen of chocolate when it is eaten as a confection. The process involves melting your necessary amount of chocolate and bringing it to no more than 120 and no less than 110 degrees. Next you take it off the heat and by adding small amounts of solid chocolate and stirring you lower the temperature of the chocolate to 85. Then you bring the same mass back up to between 87 and 91 degrees. Then your chocolate is in temper and you can use it to enrobe truffles, or make molded filled chocolates and other such treats. You must keep the chocolate between 87 and 91, if it goes above you must take it all the way up to 115 and start all over again. The first couple of times I tried it I put way too much solid chocolate into the bowl to try and lower the temperature and so had undissolved (and therefore untempered) chunks of chocolate. The key is to start with almost the full amount of chocolate you need tempered and then cool it down slowly with small additions, slowly, which you melt completely by stirring constantly. It is not an extremely difficult process it just takes all your attention. You cannot multi task while tempering chocolate. And you need to take your time, not RUSH as Chef Chad is so mad to do.
Now after a couple of unpleasant nights working with chocolate I am not so sure about the idea of opening a chocolate shop in Maine. I would like to work somewhere with someone who really knows what they are doing before I make any conclusions about the art. But I wasn't feeling the chocolate love this week. Let's see what happens next week, now that I know how to really do it.....
And as for the showpiece, I have decided on some arrangement of books. Perhaps they will be cookbooks, perhaps something else. Don has offered to come up with some titles for me. I am not sure whether they will be on a bookshelf, or open to a page with a certain recipe. Still working on the particulars.
One week of classes left. Not sure how I feel about all this. Glad to be heading for Craft. Currently sweating my little behind off here in sticky NYC and not looking forward to another summer here. But know that I need experience here before I launch for the hinterlands. Looking forward to a week in Maine to chill out and re-group. We leave the day after graduation for a respite between school and Craft.
a bientot,
Samantha
I have secured an externship!
whew. That's a relief. It apppears that others in my class have not yet secured their own externships. (those who are even doing them, many appear to be deferring this process to a later time...hmmmm...) I would question the effectiveness of the externship coordinator. Pastry students are supposed to have their own coordinator but a couple of months ago ours left for a job in Las Vegas. So the culinary person has doubled up, and honestly I don't think she is up to the task. She is a very nice person, but not very aggressive. I had to call her repeatedly and then take the matter into my own hands and call Karen myself. Only then did I get a concrete yes. So now I have paperwork to drop off with Karen.
I went in and trailed again on Tuesday. It was a good day, I very much enjoyed working there. I made brownies among other things and saw that as some sort of sign that Craft is where I am meant to extern. Karen is very nice as are the rest of the people I came in contact with. The kitchen is beautiful with Pastry having it's own distinct area with it's own well maintained equipment. We worked out a schedule that starts July 7th. I will be working 4 days a week: Th-Sun from 8-3. The ironic thing is that I will be doing production which is what I really wanted to do, not service as I would have been doing at Babbo. And my hours will be better, I will actually get to have dinner with my husband (not to mention all those friends I haven't seen in 6 months). So everything worked out for the best. Christine knew it would, I was a little shaky.....
Wedding cake was finished on Tuesday night and I am pleased to say that I did just fine, thank you, maintaining my gpa. The whole thing came out quite well. The fondant was smooth, the tiles went on evenly and the whole thing was level enough for government work. For something I was not jazzed about it was a respectable example of a celebration cake. If someone asked me to do this sometime in the future I would be fine doing it again, just not as a regular gig.
And now we move on to Chocolate. And Chef Chad. First class I was ready to kill the *&@%#%$, but then I realized he is just a schmuck from LI with issues. He knows what he is talking about, if I can just ignore his bravado I will learn from him. I also think he heard our collective grumblings from the first night so last night he gave us more concrete info, with just a shred less attitude.
Last night we tempered chocolate. Tempering is necessary when working with chocolate as a confection to keep it shiny and appealing. If you have ever had a piece of chocolate that was cloudy and covered with a coating of something grey or pale, that was chocolate that was out of temper. It rarely happens at the better chocolate shops: Maison Du Chocolate; Fauchon; Payard or Godiva. And it would never happen with a Hershey bar as that is not true chocolate. It is compound chocolate, a mixture of some cocoa solids and some cocoa butter but mostly other emulsifiers. It is horrifying stuff. I know, sometimes you just need to have that Almond Joy but whenever possible you should really splurge for the good stuff. Scharffen Berger makes a mean candy bar that is worth the extra dollar. Tempering involves stabilizing the crystals in the cocoa solids. You must melt the chocolate by bringing it to somewhere between 110 and 120 degrees. You cannot go over that temperature or it will not temper and then you have to use it for baking or give it to the dog (don't do that you might kill the poor thing). Next you have to cool the stuff to 85 degrees. This can be done by pouring some of it on a marble slab and moving it around with an offset and a spackling knife from the hardware store to cool it. Then you re-integrate it with the rest of the warm chocolate to cool the whole mass down slowly. This process can take a couple of trys on the marble. It is messy and time consuming but also the best way to carefully control your tempering. When the whole mass is down to 85, you then have to heat it back up to somewhere between 87 and 91. Then it's in temper and you can use it to make confections. It needs to stay between 87 and 91 so some people will put the chocolate under a heat lamp or on a heating pad, anything to maintain that temperature range. If at any point in this process you do not hit one of the prescribed temperature ranges you will fall out of temper and you will have bloom (cloudiness) in your finished product. This is the traditional method. One can also temper in a bowl on a double boiler by getting some chocolate (not your whole desired amount) to 110-120, then taking it off the heat and adding more chocolate till it comes down to 85 and then heating it back up to 87-91. This is a simpler, cleaner and faster method. You just don't have as much control. We will be tempering our brains out for the next two weeks. I should get pretty good at it. We got ours in temper last night with no trouble so I am confident that this will be interesting.
Chef Chad says as you work with chocolate your palate becomes more refined. I think I am a snob about chocolate, not that I am one of those chocoholics by any means, because I really notice the difference between good and bad chocolate. I have been making my brownies with Scharffen Berger for two years now and cannot tolerate even Ghiardelli, which is considered a premium supermarket chocolate. My palate is not so refined that I can tell the difference between say Valrhona, Callebaut, Guittard and Scharffen Berger. Chef speaks in terms of fruity and earthy and smoky like a wine conoisseur would speak about a fine Cabernet. But we all know that half of that wine speak is garbage, so I imagine the same applies to chocolate. This is not to say that I think there is no difference between premium chocolates. Valrhona grows all it's own beans and roasts them under strict secrecy. They have formulas to protect. And good chocolate is a whole other ballgame. Try it some time, just buy that stuff with the funky name and notice how well it melts in your mouth, how many layers of flavor there are, how the flavor lingers even after the substance is gone. It's good shit, man. And it's legal. Hell, there are even people who tell us it's good for us, it's an aphrodisiac, it's good for your heart. Whatever. I was not expecting to like it so much, I must say. Don't think I'll be opening a chocolate shop, although I don't think there is one in Portland, certainly isn't one in Kennebunk...... Hmmm, maybe there's an idea here.
We are cruising down to the end here, less than 10 classes left. And the only bad news is that I have to design and create a chocolate showpiece for my final. Examples of previous creations include: a clock made out of choclate; Homer Simpson laying on his couch made out of some combination of chocolate and marzipan; an ice bucket with isomalt ice cubes and a champagne bottle made out of chocolate etc etc. I find this exercise to be supremely silly. Trying to come up with a more dignified application of chocolate. Don't want to making no puppies out of the dark stuff. Have to come up with an idea by Monday so gotta work on it this weekend. Maybe the Magritte man with the apple head and the bowler hat? I don't know, this whole thing seems ridiculous to me......
At least I won't have to do any of this silly stuff at Craft.
a bientot,
Samantha
Had really hoped to be able to say that I have secured an externship before I posted again. This has, however, not yet happened so I am posting anyway.
We spent all of last week making gum paste flowers. I could not believe how frustrating that was. Roll out fondant mixed with Tylose (a substance that stabilizes the fondant) paper thin and cut out rose petal shapes which get attached to a bulb of the same material. It is a slow painstaking process that must be done over a couple of days in order to let the petals dry in between layers. And you apply four layers. I went home cranky every single night. The last night of the bleeping flowers I had come in to class cranky from another source and it was a miracle that I did not abuse any of my fellow classmates. Guess I am learning some control as I age. The ironic thing about making all these flowers, for me, is that I am not putting any flowers on my cake. While we are being taught the production of these elements for our own edification, the end result is the decoration of our cake for the module project. This fact is lost on me. My cake will have one inch square tiles of four different colors of fondant arranged in lines around the two tiers in alternating hues. After visiting the Dia in Beacon yesterday (which I highly recommend to all) I realized that my cake is in homage to Blinky Palermo, a minimalist painter from the 60's/70's. I have no doubt that my cake will look unlike any other in class, not that that was the intention. I just don't go for all that frou frou stuff, the flowers and the lace and the swiss dots, it's all just SO not me. The good news in all this is that tomorrow night will be the end of the wedding cake portion of the module. Next we move on to the chocolate portion of the program. Unfortunately in that move we lose Chef Rebecca, by far the best teacher we have had. We get a bait and switch with Chef Chad. This is occuring because Chad cannot teach decorating (so far the only place where I admire him) there for Chef Rebecca must go off to teach another section that Chad was previously helming. If you have been reading along with me you may remember Chef Chad as a one class replacement for Chef Gerri, who completely threw me in a puff pastry class. He was all rush rush, get this done as fast as possible, see what short cuts you can learn and WAY too much emphasis on speed, not enough on technique. I am hoping that I am further along with my skills, and therefore my confidence, so I will not be bothered by him. We shall see....
What this means, also, is that we are now three weeks from being finished. The end is in sight. And unfortunately I do not have an externship site yet. I am going to trail again at Craft tomorrow. Karen DeMasco appeared to remember who I am from our phone call. She will be needing someone come July so the timing is good and she was pleased with my open schedule. I would like to think that it is a sure thing, but my recent experience will not let me think any such thing. I would be very happy to work in that kitchen for 6 weeks. After our last trip to Maine for Memorial day weekend we are itching to move even more, and sooner. It is possible that if I do not have employment after school we will start the process immediately: put the apartment on the market and start looking for houses up there. Even if I do get a job we have talked about trying to move up there in January/February. I am going to mail a letter/resume to both Sam Hayward at Fore Street in Portland and to Frasier and Gaier at Arrows in Ogunguit to see if I can trail at either or both places the first week in July when we are planning to take a week off between school and the externship. Figure it would be good to get on their radar and see what the situation is like in both of those kitchens. If there is a good fit at either, and there is any interest, it would make moving that much easier.
Had my 20th college reunion this weekend and it was interesting to go back. I have no romantic or nostalgic feelings about my college experience. It was good, I have good friends from then (who I still have) but it was not a life changing event as I think college is for some people. It was good to see friends and know that we are basically all the same people. A little older, a little wiser, a few more lines on the faces, a smidgen(?) of grey intruding, but at heart the same people. That consistency was very comforting to me. My good friends, Jim and Susie, are embarking an a life change that involves leaving the city to manage the family ranch and I feel solidarity with them in their journey. The move from the big city to a quieter, more rewarding enterprise in the country is a concept that resonates with me. It was validating to realize that others have the same impulse. Also got some positive blog feedback which inspires me to keep this up. Wondering if there might be a way to integrate writing about food into my life in Maine. Will have to ponder on this some more.
In the meantime I must focus on the cake and the chocolate.... and the externship!!!
a bientot,
Samantha