Sunday, June 29, 2014

Ten Days of Bread

Intermediate term may be over, but I'm still going to school every day as I volunteered to assist with the ten day course on Boulangerie.


The days are pretty long, around 8 hours or so, and my body is getting used to just spending all that time on my feet. I'm pretty wiped by the end of the day, and J's been taking care of dinner by bringing home Chipotle every night. Thank goodness, as I don't think I can look at another loaf of bread! The students make so much bread each day, there's usually a mountain of leftovers at the end of the day. I was gleefully stuffing my face with croissants in the first few days, but now I can't bear to eat another crumb of the stuff. I'm so glad the course is over, I don't think my waistline could've taken much more bread!


Today is my last official day at Le Cordon Bleu, and then I'm taking some time off to travel and attend some family weddings before returning to finish my degree. It'll be nice to be able to wear nail varnish and jewelry again, and staying out of the hot kitchen during summer is pretty much a no brainer. I am definitely not going to miss the uniforms and the awful hat that seems to shrink with every wash. Either that, or my head is growing bigger.


However, I'm going to miss my classmates. I think there's a special bond that forms when you all start on the same journey together, and I'm kind of sad that we won't be finishing it together. But I still live nearby, and I'm already planning on lots of informal visits to see what they're up to throughout the term. I guess it's just as well, as our original group finally got split up into two separate groups, so I guess it wouldn't have been the same anyway. But it's still a bit saddening to watch them continue on their journey without me, but I've been promised invites to their big afternoon tea that they throw as part of their class and to the graduation ceremony.


I'm also going to miss the chefs a ton. I can complain that the administration of the school isn't great, but the chefs are absolutely amazing. Not only are they extremely talented at what they do, but their love of teaching also shines through. They all have their own distinct personality, and each of them are hilarious in their own way and make learning pastry much more fun and less stressful than it could be.


I'm hoping they invite me back to assist for them, even if I'm not a student at the moment, and it'll also give me a chance to hang with my favourite porters. The porters work incredibly hard for ridiculously long hours, and I don't think the students understand how hard these guys work for us to make our kitchen a more comfortable place for us to work in. So a big, heartfelt thank you to them, and to everyone else at school who made it so much more fun than I ever thought it could be!

I'm not feeling too sorry for myself, since we're adding a new member to our family! She's joining us in July when I get back from LA, and I can't wait!


Many more cat adventures to come!


Saturday, June 14, 2014

Intermediate Term Is Over!

It's been a crazy week, but I've managed to make it through somehow. It's been busy what with exams, selling our condo, and getting tested for my laser eye surgery.

The practical part of my exam went pretty okay. I thanked my lucky stars that we got the opera, woohoo! It's supposed to be the fastest cake, but also the most technically difficult. I've done better operas at home, but I think the one I did for the exam was enough for me to pass. I didn't start studying for the theory exam until the day before, and it turned out that none of the things I studied were actually on the exam. Doh! But I filled more blanks than left empty, so I'm not kicking myself too hard over it.

After the exams were finished, we got a taste of what to expect from the superior term. One of the chefs demonstrated the making of a chocolate box with tempered chocolate, and the end result was beautiful.



I'm almost tempted to give it a go, but maybe after I've recovered from exams.

We had the last few classes to decorate the fruit cakes that we had made earlier in the term. The chefs have been feeding them rum on a regular basis, and I tasted a bit of it. It tasted better than I thought it would and reminded me a lot of Christmas spices with the dried fruit and rum. It is, however, hard as a rock and quite dense.

In any case, we got to work on decorating. We had two technicals demonstrating how to decorate using flowers, but I just could not get the hang of it. I squeezed and rolled the same piece of paste for two hours before producing a few pitiful looking petals and giving up. I think it's become a mental block dealing with those fiddly little things, and I'll get to practicing again when I no longer feel like putting my head through a wall.

It was just as well that my cake didn't call for flowers, and I chose to do a stained glass inspired cake instead. I ended up taking the cake home to do a bit more work on it, and Casper decided to help by tasting my food colouring dust. I think I laughed for twenty minutes straight before I finally got back to decorating my cake.


I finished my cake just in the nick of time at the last practical, although there were some finishing touches that I would've liked to added. I was piping like a madman for the last thirty minutes or so, but I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out! The chefs were also really complimentary, and it made my stone cold heart all fuzzy and warm inside.


It's hard to believe that intermediate term is officially over. Especially since the current plan is to take a break during summer and return for the autumn term. I'm maybe reconsidering that plan since the chefs told me autumn is going to be manic busy and super crowded. Ugh. I can't imagine the locker room fuller than it already is. That's one thing I'm definitely not going to miss. But I will miss my group and hanging out with the chefs. But it's not goodbye, just see you later, especially since I live so close to school, and I'm planning on volunteering regularly for the short courses. In fact, I'm volunteering for the boulangerie course that's scheduled to begin on Wednesday! 

Some of the other girls are leaving as well, but are actually leaving the country, and everyone got together for a dinner at the Savoy to say farewell. It's the sad part of being one of the few that actually lives in London. Pretty much everyone else is from far away, and it feels odd to feel like you're being left behind when school comes to an end.



Some of the girls got me flowers since I won't be returning for Summer term, and I'm going to miss going to classes with them. I really can't imagine being part of a funner group.



But I've promised to visit them lots over summer, with the cats and champagne in tow!