Sorry I've been a bad blogger. It turned out that I really didn't have too much to talk about during Hot & Cold Dessert Presentations, so I didn't blog at all.
After a lovely spring break full of reading, knitting, and lounging on the sofa with the four-footers, it's back to the grind. I'm in chocolates class now, and then my last segment will be Advanced Cakes. We (my fellow GYD's and I) are also taking a class called Menu Planning and Cost Control. There's math. There's a group project. Those of you who know me well know how much I just *love* math and group projects. Yeah, right. In any case, that class is going to kick my butt. Right now in chocolates, we're designing chocolate boxes and formulating our own truffle flavors. My box is going to be a ball of yarn with chocolate knitting needles and a swatch made out of modeling chocolate; the box will be a poured mold. For truffle flavors, I'm thinking about a chewy molasses caramel dipped in dark chocolate, and then an triple layer truffle, likely white chocolate orange in a white chocolate shell, dipped in dark chocolate. But, I need to do a little research first.
This morning I assisted Chef Clement, who was running an ACF competition on campus. ACF, the American Culinary Federation, runs competitions and certifies chefs in culinary and baking and pastry. Check out their website for more info. But back to the competition. It was just the thing I needed to reinvigorate my interest in food. School has been a long haul, and the class dynamics between the GYD's and traditional students in my class this tri is making everyone a little tense. I'm starting to feel a little worn out, and stress over picking and setting up a co-op site for summer term is adding to that. So, even though I was not looking forward to being at school at 5 am (!!!) today, it was totally worth it. I was timekeeping for a two person mystery basket. The entrants received a mystery basket that contained three protein items, plus a few side items, and then they had to formulate a four course menu (appetizer, soup/salad, entree, and dessert). They had three hours to prepare their food, and half an hour to plate and present for judging. Even though I'm not in culinary, it was fascinating. One of the chefs competing is a faculty member at JWU; I don't care for him as a person, but his food was amazing! And the quality of his work was amazing! Not just the taste of the food, but his precision and the fact that he was working really clean ("working clean" means keeping yourself and your work station free of trash and clutter, and wiped down). I mean, I've gotten better at working clean, but I've got nothing on that chef.
Now for some goodies, for my mom and for Leslie, who were asking: some pictures. These first ones are from cakes class, from our wedding cake project. Behold Team 4's Victorian-style wedding cake in robin's egg blue and eggshell...
In the group photo, from L to R: me, Kendra, Shannon, and Maria.
This is my cake from my Cakes midterm, just before Christmas:
And these are from Hot & Cold, my two plates for practical.
This one is my composed dessert, a lime cheesecake accompanied by blackberry-blood orange sauce in a cookie cup, blackberry coulis, and strawberry-kiwi salsa:
This one was my signature dessert. Flourless orange-chocolate torte with orange reduction, dark chocolate ganache, and candied orange peel. Ignore the stupid cookie. If I had my way, I wouldn't have put it on the plate, but we had to have a crunch component and height on the plate. Whatever. When I'm working in the industry I'm sure I'll really learn how to plate a dessert...
That's about all for today. I think in my next post, I'll talk a little bit about what a practical exam is like. I'm telling you, you've never experienced anything like it!
