Learn More Eat More

Today marks two months of being in NYC and 21 days of class at FCI. In theory, according to my syllabus I have learned 46 different recipes. Is that true? Maybe, it sure feels like I've learned a lot. Needless to say, its a lot of work and I'm sweating constantly. I am becoming a regular at the laundry mat, so if you have any extra quarters you could send them my way : )

But despite the work, or maybe because of it I still feel elated at having this opportunity. I'm trying to suck the blood out of every single opportunity I have. The school has so many different visiting guest come for demos, tours and field trips that I learn more and see more here in a week then I would months of being at home.

Most recently I was a student volunteer for Ron Ben Israel (see link). When I was thinking about attending culinary school, Ron Ben Israel actually played a big part in deciding what school I wanted to attend. He is not only a regular at the school but temp teaches a few of the classes during the cake unit. He does cakes for Martha, Bride Magazine and has been on Oprah.

As a student volunteer I was able to meet Chef Ron, visit and tour his studio, meet some of his staff including his current FCI interns and be his assistant while he's doing the demo at the school.
For the demo, Chef Ron made a three tiered s'moore cake which we (that includes me) decorated with gold metals (looks similar to the picture above). To make the edible metals we used real metals that Chef had won at various competitions, made a mold out of a food safe rubber, filled the mold with chocolate fondant, chilled the mold, took the chocolate out of the mold and covered with edible gold powder.The picture is just something i found online but it gives you a pretty good idea of the type of molds i'm talking about.

Being a volunteer for the Chef was pretty cool, especially because I got to paint the metals with GOLD! I'm gonna get some pictures from the actual demo up really soon. So look out for that.

Master Chef Jacques Torres

Yesterday I attended the demo of Master Chef Jacques Torres, The FCI's Dean of Pastry and Owner of Jacques Torres Chocolate in NYC (see link). Chef Jacques is by far one of my favorite people I've met in a long time and I completely admire him. He's a very accomplished business man, engineer, chef and teacher. He's cooked for a lot of famous people, worked at Le Cirque (see link) and now owns a chocolate shop. He has a great sense of humor and is very playful in his work.

He told us about the time he cooked for the Pope and while the Pope was away, and no one was looking he sat in the Pope thrown.

How cool is that!

Have you seen what the Pope's thrown looks like?

No.

OK. Here's a picture. ------------------------------>

Seriously.

See what I mean. That's pretty cool.

Anyway, so at the demo, Chef Jacques initially explained some principles of how to be a successful restaurant pastry chef. " When you make a new dessert menu, make it the best one you ever wrote. The last menu you wrote must always be the one you ever wrote. " He said that every menu needs to have contrasting temperatures, textures, flavors and weight. Creamy, crunchy, hot, cold, light and fruity, heavy and deep.

For me, his ideas on creating dessert menus was especially interesting because I'm thinking that's what I want to do first when I'm out of school. There are a lot of different job opportunities for a pastry student and many of my fellow piers want to work in bakeries, cake shops, at catering companies or open their own shop. Initially I thought I would be interested in cakes. However, after finally having the opportunity to work in a restaurant I think, at least while I'm young and have the energy, the restaurant life will suit me well.

At the Demo, Chef made a birds nest out of slivers of filo dough, resting on a creme brulee, topped with powder sugar covered egg almond slices. It was very cute and playful.

This was just my tasting portion but you could add multiple layer of filo which could sandwich chocolate or bananas or chocolate and bananas. Yum! The cool thing is, I know how to make every component of this recipe so I could make it at home.

But just in case you wanted something a little easier... here is a video from Chef Jacques which I think most everyone could handle.






How to make chocolate covered corn flakes


I'd love to know if anyone does indeed try to make the chocolate corn flakes how it goes. (Honey I'm expecting you to try this, if you haven't already)

Choux makes me sad

I'm feeling very lazy today so instead of explaining about what I've I'm been doing, I'm gonna keep the typing to the minimum and hope the pictures explain enough.

We made Eclairs a couple days ago and I will have to make them tomorrow for my test. I feel...

Yah my Eclair were under baked meaning they fell flat (literally) and will never resided in some one's stomach. Instead they made it into the garbage. The ones picture below clearly aren't mine.

They come in 3 flavors, chocolate, vanilla and coffee... horrah or something.

....
The French love their bike races. This is a pastry that's suppose to look like a tire wheel and is called a Paris-Brest. I know bear with me here. It's a stretch.

OMG shoes...

Questions?
Comments?
You know the box to put those in.

Sparlum

On a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to share a few random pictures of my apartment and neighborhood. So friends and family can have a better idea of exactly where it is I'm living.

This is my street, 117th, in East Harlem aka Sparlem.
The neighborhood is mostly 3 and 4 story apartment buildings. On every corner there is a bodega. The McDonald's by my house has a walk-up window instead of a drive through, and there are tons of street cart food vendors.

When I first moved in I spent a lot of time decorating. We don't have a lot of money or nice things so I've had to do the best I can. This is the east wall of our giant living room.

The north area of our living room, that's my new couch!


My tomato plant is HUGE! Its started climbing the cable lines. In a few months I'm gonna be eating yummy tomatoes.

This is our porch, it's pretty big. I spend most of my nights in that big red chair relaxing or talking on the phone. When the sky is clear I can see the big dipper. It's pretty awesome.

Kiss Me

We've started our new unit which concentrates on Pate' a Choux, also called Choux for short. It sound really exotic but if you've ever had an eclair than you've had choux. It's the chewy crunchy, brown dough that's hollow on the inside.

The dough is cooked 3 times, twice on a stove top and then finally in an oven. When in the oven, water inside the dough becomes steam, causing the dough to rise. The long gluten chains cause the dough to hold a shape and create a hollow middle.

The items we've been making in this unit are much more playful and involve more plating,but more on those dishes later. For now I just wanted to show you my swans.


Two swans, kissing, in a pool of chocolate.

This is the most romantic dessert possible!!!

Slight Sake Intoxication.

There's something to be said for a school that serves its students alcohol. Most universities are "dry campuses" or have an alcohol policy (however strictly enforced) but clearly drinking during class is never permitted. However, culinary schools don't follow these same EtOH guidelines. Obviously alcohol education is a really big component of a good culinary education, but I'm not sure getting buzzed off sake at 4 pm is part of the normal curriculum. haha

So here's what happened. I went to a chef demo on Sake food pairings. It's a common misconception that Sake is only appropriate with sushi, but that's completely wrong. In fact, Sake isn't the best thing to eat with sushi. Rather Sake can be paired with more 'traditional' foods.

I love sake and this demo only made me appreciate it more. The brewing process is really unique because rice lacks natural sugars unlike wine grapes do, so a mold, Koji-kin, is used to convert starch into sugar. That sugar can then be turned into alcohol. The type of rice and type of mold are what traditionally control the various flavors of sake.


We tasted 5 different types of sake with a mini meal; raw tuna tar tar, raw oysters on the half shell, green beans and chocolate curry cake with creme chantilly. My favorite sake that we tried was a sweeter, more coconut flavored sake called Nigori Genshu. It was a hazy white color because it has small partials of the rice still in it. I tasted some premium sake including Daiginjo (pictured right).

The sake was from one of the only American Brewers, Sake One in Oregon. They make an organic sake, which I also tasted. Pretty good stuff.

The process of brewing sake is rooted deeply in tradition, the basic premise is that the best sake in the world is that which taste like water. Personally I'd never drop a ton of cash on a bottle of sake that has no flavor! But that's how it's been done for hundreds of years in Japan.

I don't wanna bore you with more details, but I will say everyone needs to go home and make this summer drink:

White Saki Sangria

Ingredients

- Honey Dew Melon (1/2" cubed)

- Strawberries (sliced)

- Blue Berries (whole)

- Raspberries (whole)

- Fresh Pinnacle ( 1" wedges)

- Kiwi Wedges

- 1 part white rum

- 3 parts sake

Mix fruit and rum in a jar. Cover. Let sit for 1-3 hours in a fridge so fruit can absorb the rum flavor. Add sake, LOTS of ice and maybe a mint to garnish. ENJOY!

Test of Tarts

Yesterday I had my first culinary test. It was everything tests in college were not... fun, exciting, scary, crazy and rewarding. The tests are divided into two sections: written and practical.

The written part is about 40 minutes and goes by way, way, way to fast. I had studied, knew all the material and still almost ran out of time. I was scribbling like a mad person up to the last second. There was multiple choice, matching, T/F, conversion problems and essay questions. I know for sure I got one conversion wrong because I didn't know how many fluid oz. are in a cup, and I got another question wrong- wasn't sure what creme patisserie mixed with creme Chantilly makes. But aside from those two I feel I got everything right.

The practical is two and half hours, but it feel like it's 30 minutes long! It's open book, open note. Ever receipt is fair game and you draw out of a mixing bowl to see you're doing. Every student must present Chef with one large 8" tart, 2 tartlettes and 5 cookies. However if you're smart and fast, it's better to make extra and then only present Chef with the best.

The first and most important thing is to have well organized station initially. This is my drawer full of tools. I have a TON of tools (and these aren't even all of them). I totally love my tools. I think during robotics I was told "With the right tool you can do anything" and that's exactly how I feel about my tools. They each have a very specific use and I'm trying to keep very good care of them. In case you're wondering, the purple and silver tape on all my tools is an identifying mark in case they get mixed up with someone else's tools.

Anyway back to the test. I was really happy with the 3 items I choose;

• 8" Tarte aux Pommes (traditional apple tart). It was the first thing recipe made in class.

• 2 Clafouti tartlettes. (a baked custard tart) Usually made with cherries but any berry can be substituted.

• 5 Spritzkakor (spritz cookies) A piped cookie with a chocolate, jam or nut topping.

Ready for Chef's examination and tasting.

To do well on the practical test you must have good planning and timing skills. Tasks need to be completed in the correct manner, at the correct time and in the correct sequence. You need to have good knife and tool skills. Cleanliness and organization are critical. You must follow the directions perfectly and the final product must be pretty, appetizing and of course taste GREAT.

Here's how I did:

Spritz cookies (pictured left)- almost perfectly. The one mistake I made was in the piping of the cookies. I didn't tuck the end of the piping tail into the center of the cookie, I tucked it toward the bottom. Not a big mistake but one I will never make again. I only lost a point for that mistake : )

Apple Tart (picture above)- my weakest product. I made several mistakes, they are kinda technical so I'm just gonna briefly describe them. First I sliced my apples and didn't keep the apple as a unit. I allowed the apple pieces to fall apart. This mistake did not affect my final product but just made it hard and slower to assemble.

The second mistake I made was I forgot to file down my tart crust, silly me. I remember when I did my tartlettes but forgot for my apple tart. Oh well... mistakes were made.

The largest mistake I made was I forgot to glaze the apples with butter and dust with sugar BEFORE baking. This causes the apples to burn, and get a more grainy texture : ( Not a single person baked this tart remembered to do this though. We all forgot and scrambled to get a glaze on the apples after they were half baked.

Raspberry Clafouti (pictured left)- Awesome. Basically kick ass. Chef could only think of one suggestion, make the sides of the crust slightly thinner. But she said "the custard is perfect". I was sooooo happy!


I have another test in ten days so I should probs go study : ) yah right.