End of Module 1!

Tuesday was my last day of module 1 and the day of our exam. We had a written test for the first hour and then the practical portion. For the written part, it was a lot of describing procedures (how to make this or that), differences in certain recipes (for example, between creme anglaise and pastry cream, 2 of the core cream sauces in pastry), definitions, matching, identifying fruits by category and sugar stages, etc. It was all covered VERY extensively in class, so I'm sure everyone did well on that part! (I got a 100 - yay!) The practical was a little scarier. We had to slice an apple into 1/4 inch slices, decorate a cake board with chocolate and finally, bake the perfect chocolate souffle. I was so glad to be done! And, because I was the first person to bake my souffles, I got out really early. My friend Gabriela was done shortly after I was, giving us both about 2 hours before our next class. It was a nice day, so we walked to the Chelsea Market and got lunch out at a little French cafe. For our management class on Tuesday afternoon, we had our last day with "Chef Ted," this time going through pork and poultry. The first pic below is of two chickens, one fed corn (the yellow one) and the other had a more free-roaming diet, which is healthier. The second pic is Jonathan with a squab (looks like a baby chicken, but it's really just small squab. The third pic is of a regular goose liver (on the left, the small one) and the one on the right is a fatty liver from a forcefed goose - otherwise known as fois gras. The geese were the same size goose, but check out how different their livers are! I am not sure that I agree with forcefeeding geese and don't really care much for fois gras, but I did think it was an interesting contrast. Pic 4 is a pork loin - about 19 pounds.




After class let out, I went with Gabby and Anastasia to this wonderful store called ABC Carpet and Home. It's about 7 stores full of international home decor, furniture, etc. What a fun house! Things were too expensive for me to really buy anything, but I did get some great ideas for my future business! The reason we were all hanging out in the city is because we're all signed up for a 6-week Wine Appreciation course on Tuesday nights that started this week. Ron Ciavolino is a certified sommolier and wine expert, and all-around funny guy who teaches our class. We learned about the origin of Champagnes (Champagne, as most of you know), tasted 2 of them, learned about the labelling of French wines, tasted 4 more whites (Poilly Fuse, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Gewertztraminer), as well as one tawny port. For the record, French and German Rieslings are not typically dessert wines, as they aren't as sweet as the Americans drink them. If you ever see a French/German riesling in the US that is sweet, rumor is that it's only in the US because the French won't drink it. The one we tasted was drier than most I've had, but it was still very good. I had a day OFF on Wednesday (our treat for ending Module 1 on time). I spent the morning doing school stuff (ha ha) - I practiced the sugar ribbons with my chef in the morning and then went for an interview for my externship at noon. I was done soon after, though, and spent the entire afternoon and evening enjoying myself. It was a beautiful day here in the BIG APPLE, so I really had a great time!

Assorted Choux and Fun Sneakers

Today we finished our assorted choux pastry. Pate a choux (pronounced pot-a-shoo) is a french pastry dough that is usually called "Eclair Paste" or "Eclair dough" here in the US. The literal translation in French is "Cabbage Paste," probably because the little puffs look like cabbage heads. One of the major things the French use Pate a Choux for is to make the French wedding cake - the croquembouche. It's basically a huge tower of mini cream puffs glued together with caramel and decorated either with spun caramel decorations or sometimes marzipan roses or candied violets. We made "mini" versions today - the Petit Croquembouche. We also made a wide variety of other choux pastries, including eclairs, choux a la creme (cream puffs) and the Paris Brest (not breast, BREST - I know you are thinking I am making boobie things daily, but I'm really NOT), which is a round ring that signifies an old bike race between Paris and Brest. The circular shape either represents the out-and-back race, or possibly a bike wheel. It's filled with pastry cream, whipped cream, berries and sprinkled with almonds and powdered sugar. After class, Gabriela and I took all of our pastries, including both of our croquembouche, on the subway to her boyfriend's office. Everyone in his company appreciated our goodies and we enjoyed bringing some happiness into the workplace. (I MISS DOING THAT!) Sorry to my work peeps - this stuff won't keep through the mail. I promise I will eventually send something that will keep long enough to get to NC. I stumbled upon some fun new sneakers today too. A girl's gotta shop sometime, right?

Sightseeing, Shopping, Famous Ladies

Kristen arrived on Friday night for a weekend visit in NYC! She flew in early iin the day, so Todd took the afternoon off to do some sightseeing with her. They went to the Empire State Building (I hear it was windy), and then to the MoMA for the Target Free Fridays. I met up with them after class for a drink at The Modern, a restaurant in the MoMa. From there, we went down to SoHo and found a place to have dinner. We weren't out too late since we had plans for a busy day on Saturday. For those of you who don't know Kristen, she likes to shop even more than me so I was excited about having an excuse to hit the pavement this weekend.




We started out Saturday at Ground Zero, then shopping in SoHo, stopping for European Hot Chocolate at Marie Belle. We had lunch in SoHo before heading back to Roosevelt Island to get cleaned up. We picked up Todd and went to the Meatpacking District for dinner. We ate at a place called Nero - it was great Italian food and drink. (Lots of Italian here, but all different.) We had brunch at Balthazar on Sunday morning and then took a downtown train to Whitehall Street to catch the (free) Staten Island Ferry. The ferry leaves every 30 minutes and takes about 25 minutes to go from lower Manhattan to Staten Island. As I understand it, the ferry is provided as a free service so that people who work in Manhattan are encouraged to spread out and move to a place like Staten Island. While waiting in the terminal for the next boat to leave, we made friends with this bomb-sniffing dog, Gillian. (She was also very good at sniffing out the leftover bread from brunch in my to-go bag.) The ferry is supposedly one of the best kept secrets in NYC. I have to agree. It provides a great view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Manhattan skyline. We were on Staten Island long enough to circle around the terminal and catch the same ferry back to NYC 5 minutes later. Round trip = 1 hour. The afternoon also held a visit to see another, not-quite-so-famous, lady, Beverly Feldman. Beverly Feldman (www.beverlyfeldmanshoes.com) sells some outrageous, Hollywood-style shoes. Fitting that Kristen found out about it and wanted us to fit a visit into our weekend. Here she is trying on a (very expensive) pair of flashy shoes.

Unmolding our Ice Cream Bombs...and then Fish

We unmolded our ice cream bombs on Friday. My group made a tropical bomb, the outside layer was coconut ice cream, followed by a sprinkling of toasted coconut, then a layer of mango sorbet, followed by another layer of toasted coconut and finally the center was filled in with a pina colada mousse. We froze the whole thing with a final layer of toasted coconut on the bottom and this is what it looked like when we unmolded it. Some pictures of the bombs from the class are also attached. (Different groups made different flavors and shapes.) We also molded another flavor of frozen mousse on Friday (praline). We molded it in little half-sphere molds and when we unmolded them, they looked like BOOBIES! Turns out the praline paste was a little denser than the whipped cream we folded it into and it separated out in the freezer before it was solid, so...........boobies. They were quite yummy, though, and the three of us (Heidi, Madeline, Colleen) got lots of compliments on our boobies.




My afternoon Culinary Management class was again spent with Chef Ted, this time on Fish Fabrication. We got to see a video on farm-raised salmon (BAD, BAD, BAD for SO MANY reasons) and then got to see some different fish and how they are fabricated (in other words, fileted and cut up). It was interesting, just as last time. I love how Kathleen (on the left in the 3rd pic below) looks so grossed out by this fish. I know this meat stuff has little to do with pastry, but my bakery/cafe may just have me purchasing meats/seafood and I darn sure better know how to tell if it's good. By the way, the lobsters ARE alive in the picture and, NO, we did not have to watch them die. (They were spared.)

Smiles

Here is an updated on my chocolate writing and a snapshot of my friend Anastasia. Doesn't she have the greatest smile?