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!

Cakes and Bread

Our last exam dish, the Opera! It's made with a hazelnut sponge with a chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream and topped off with a chocolate glacage and piping. It's pretty fast to make in comparison to the others, but the chefs consider it to be the most technically difficult.

I was a bit over zealous with the trimming, so it turned out a bit undersized (like me), but it was still good enough for J to not share it with anyone. He's very keen on me practicing lots! 

We've had another gateau since, the Sabrina. It's named after Audrey Hepburn's character in the film of the same name. It's a rather girly cake, which isn't really my thing.

It's a sponge filled with strawberry mousse and strawberry pieces finished off with a chocolate glazed marzipan disk. I'm not that keen on the design, the piped batons with chocolate squiggles looks a bit strange. I didn't have any of it, but my partner didn't think it tasted that great with the exception of the chocolate-covered marzipan. 

We also had a boulangerie class wherein we made baguettes, focaccia and a rye loaf. I'm not such a fan of making bread, I find it a bit boring. We've had tube strikes, which meant I ran home that day with all that bread strapped to my back. Was not worth it, especially the rye loaf, but the focaccia was delicious!

The technicals thus far have been quite good. We had a class on savoury dishes, and we got to sample the chef's creations. It was a good thing I didn't have breakfast that day as I stuffed myself with sausage rolls, bouchees, and salmon puffs. Yum!

I find that I much prefer savoury to sweet these days, which also happened to a lot of other kids in my class. I guess you get tired of sweet things after being around them all day.