It's kind of crazy how quickly things ramped up at pastry school in the last week. The practicals, where we try to replicate what the chef did at demonstration, used to be at a pretty relaxed pace, and we would chit-chat as we worked on our dishes.
Not this week. Not even a little bit.
We found out that we would be required to make a dish from memory from a choice of three options for our final exam: a lemon tart, eclairs, or a genoise. We won't know which dish until we walk into the kitchen on the day of the exam.
We've only learned how to do the lemon tart at this point, and I showed up early for that demonstration, but it seems like everyone else had the same idea. I did manage to take some snaps of what it's supposed to look like, and chef had the chance to show off a little bit. It's amazing how beautiful everything looks, and it's also a bit intimidating that we're expected to do the same.
I think the best part of the demonstrations is that we get to sample most of the things. I've learned by now to not eat breakfast before class so I have lots of room to gobble down chef's creations. Teehee.
As fun as eating at the demonstration can be, the practical was beyond stressful.
We have only 2 1/2 hours to make the lemon tart from scratch, which means making and blind-baking the tart shell, cooking the custard filling, making and piping the italian meringue, candying the lemon peel, and assembling it all into a beautiful presentation within that time. I made plenty of mistakes like forgetting to strain my custard after I finished cooking it and forgetting to add the butter until I already cooled my custard. Urgh. My custard was also a bit runny, and I think a bit more sugar wouldn't hurt.
In the end, it came out fairly presentable and was ridiculously delicious. I was planning on taking it to J's office, but he told me to take it home instead. Big mistake. We ended up demolishing the entire thing that night after dinner.
The following demonstration/practical was for an apple tart, and it was a walk in the park after the lemon tart. I actually had time to slow down and enjoy myself, which resulted in a pretty good looking tart. Chef was very kind, and I got the best marks I could've hoped for! I took it straight to J's office, where I hung around for a bit to enjoy a piece, and I was glad I didn't take it home. Otherwise, it would've been a repeat performance of the previous night, and I'm not quite sure how much my waistband can stand!
Not this week. Not even a little bit.
We found out that we would be required to make a dish from memory from a choice of three options for our final exam: a lemon tart, eclairs, or a genoise. We won't know which dish until we walk into the kitchen on the day of the exam.
We've only learned how to do the lemon tart at this point, and I showed up early for that demonstration, but it seems like everyone else had the same idea. I did manage to take some snaps of what it's supposed to look like, and chef had the chance to show off a little bit. It's amazing how beautiful everything looks, and it's also a bit intimidating that we're expected to do the same.
I think the best part of the demonstrations is that we get to sample most of the things. I've learned by now to not eat breakfast before class so I have lots of room to gobble down chef's creations. Teehee.
As fun as eating at the demonstration can be, the practical was beyond stressful.
We have only 2 1/2 hours to make the lemon tart from scratch, which means making and blind-baking the tart shell, cooking the custard filling, making and piping the italian meringue, candying the lemon peel, and assembling it all into a beautiful presentation within that time. I made plenty of mistakes like forgetting to strain my custard after I finished cooking it and forgetting to add the butter until I already cooled my custard. Urgh. My custard was also a bit runny, and I think a bit more sugar wouldn't hurt.
In the end, it came out fairly presentable and was ridiculously delicious. I was planning on taking it to J's office, but he told me to take it home instead. Big mistake. We ended up demolishing the entire thing that night after dinner.
The following demonstration/practical was for an apple tart, and it was a walk in the park after the lemon tart. I actually had time to slow down and enjoy myself, which resulted in a pretty good looking tart. Chef was very kind, and I got the best marks I could've hoped for! I took it straight to J's office, where I hung around for a bit to enjoy a piece, and I was glad I didn't take it home. Otherwise, it would've been a repeat performance of the previous night, and I'm not quite sure how much my waistband can stand!
No comments:
Post a Comment