Au Chocolat and an Excursion to Lyon

And so we're in the month of February already! 2 more days until Chinese New Year. I should really clean up the apartment even though I'm not all that traditional about it but I can imagine my mom instructing me to do so if she were here. Tomorrow night is also the student dinner so I hope that I can get all my errands done prior to that! Not to mention I idiotically left my phone in my locker at school so I'll have to waste some time trekking there to pick it up.

Anyway, so the past lessons have all involved chocolate! I've washed my uniform 3 times already because it just can't get enough contact with that ingredient. First, we learned to make the Bavarois aux trois chocolats: 3 layers of [dark, milk, and white] chocolate bavarian cream over a lady finger sponge disc covered with a cocoa glaze. Melted white chocolate was used for decoration. The following 2 lessons after that were Chocolat au lait and Chocolat noir. Here was our first time finally to pop the battery into our thermometers and temper chocolate. Lastly (tonight), we made the Douceur Chocolat (Heavenly Chocolate). By that name, you must know it tastes pretty darn good! It's like eating Ferrero Rochers but in cake form. Its main ingredients basically consist of chocolate and hazelnut. It even has that crunch in the center! The downside about it is that there's no pretty way of cutting into it. I tried heating up my knife to slice through but it still came out a mess. Oh well, it will only end up in my stomach anyway!

Examples from Chef T and D's demonstration.

I actually shipped home a box of those chocolates since they're more practical to send than say mousse cakes? I hope they'll still be edible by the time it reaches my brother's office.

And not to forget, I went to Lyon two weekends ago with 2 classmates. We did a little sightseeing on our first day (there were Roman ruins! My favorite!) then spent the next day at the Sirha Exposition. The expo was HUGE. If I could've stayed a few hours longer, I definitely would have. There were so many different foods to taste from savory to sweet in addition to a wine section (which of course I did not have the courage to try). Luckily for me, there were other non-alcoholic beverages such as cinnamon orange hot chocolate among other flavors. All sorts of kitchen equipment, restaurant equipment, and furniture were placed on display. The grand Pastry World Cup was held on the day we went also. That was exciting. In the end, I found out on Facebook that Spain won. USA, you weren't too shabby. I rooted for you.

After that one little weekend excursion, I'm now tempted to go on more of these 1-2 day trips outside of Paris. Hopefully I can find people to join me. If not, I guess I can also go alone since I'll be returning home on the same day anyway!

By the way, this past week or so, the weather has decided to dip below 0°C. FREEEEZING... someone please buy me a better heater. Thanks.

Fickle Weather and Trip Planning

It's been a little more chilly these days around again while the previous week I had to open the windows because it had felt so warm. It's like a tug of war between winter and spring! Or something of the likes.

Anyhow, we had our Lessons 05 and 06 this week thus far. (Lesson 07 tomorrow but I'll post that next week). We learned to recreate typical restaurant dishes such as the Crème brûlée au caramel and layered cakes with buttercream and ganache. Oh yeah, we also learned ice cream for the first time. I totally missed where they took the bowl of freshly made (not frozen yet) ice cream but it went out the room and was brought back in later when it was needed. There is a freezer in the classroom... I don't know. Anyway, pictures below!

Why yes, we made a fancier style of macaron known as Macaron Anis-Framboise (which is a raspberry filled macaroon with anise flavored pastry cream) and my favorite cake, Opéra. I forgot which way the accent mark for the "e" went so I didn't pipe it on. Unfortunately, Chef caught it and commented about my lack of an accent proceeding to draw into my glaze with his palm pilot stylus. Hence, that mark you see there is obviously not piped on. Don't ask what that horrible design on the corner is. He was stopping everyone from continuing on so I randomly rushed to just fill up some surface area.. Meh.

Onto other things outside of school, I had my first fondue here in Paris with some classmates. We ordered two different pots of cheeses. It was so tasty dipping bread and potatoes into them! Extremely tummy satisfying but a few hours later, I was hungry again. hehe. One meal a day does that to you.

And now with regards to the trip planning, there's quite a bit going on! This weekend will be a mini trip to Lyon by train. There will be an exhibition focusing on trends in the food and catering industry. There are a few schoolmates who are also attending. (It is an event that our school is promoting and participating in.) While we are there, might as well check the city out, right? The month after, two friends and I will be flying down to Milano for a bit during our break between classes. Hope the weather will be good.

The Friday on the week that we return to Paris, Sally will be visiting! I'm pretty psyched about that! Shortly after, my brother will fly in and we'll be heading down to where else but Italy again. Florence and Venice are on the itinerary. I would have preferred Athens but I guess that will have to wait. The calendar is quickly getting filled up with events! On the other hand, my wallet is quickly emptying out. Traveling is a bad addiction.

Anyway, until next time!

More Cakes With Fruits

This week focused on using fruits as the main ingredient. Both cakes were assembled with two thin cake discs entrapping a mousse or cream filling with fruit pieces in the center. As it usually is with mousses and creams, there was a lot of whisking.

Lesson 03: Jamaïque (Jamaica). Where this name originated, I'm not so sure. I can, however, tell you that it is made with a chocolate joconde biscuit that is decorated with grated coconut, sliced almonds, and coarse pistachio. In between is a coconut mousse with poached pineapples. On top is a thin layer of mango-passion fruit mousse (Mine was too thin because my strip of joconde was cut out too high)

After class, we took a field trip to Angelina, a well known restaurant on Rue de Rivoli. They're famously known for their incredulously rich hot chocolate and Mont Blanc (not the pen, but the chestnut/Chantilly cream dessert). Anyhow, we were able to take a quick tour of their kitchen through the guidance of the sous chef. We were shown the various machinery utilized to make production more quick and efficient. Sure beats whisking and piping everything by hand! By the end of the tour, they shared some deletable sweets with us.

Lesson 04: Fraisier. Many of you are probably familiar with this one. It's a genoise cake with mousseline cream lined with strawberries. My mom and I actually made this cake together in Hong Kong at those one-day culinary courses some while back. Of course ingredients and procedures were somewhat different. It had red beans in the mousseline cream and it used whipped (Chantilly) cream instead of Italian meringue, etc.

A weekend off! I will be seeing some school friends tomorrow night for a housewarming party so that will be fun. Before that, I hope I'd have the chance to buy some dried anchovies to make my soondooboo soup sometime this week. Attempt #2!

I'm also currently in the process of figuring out which destination should be next on my 4-5 day breaks in the coming months. Athens is quite tempting as the airfare is around $200 roundtrip. There is also the option of Italy (Florence + Venice or Rome + Venice). Any picks or suggestions?

A Love for Fruits

Our second lesson involved making tarts with the fruity fillings of raspberry, passion fruit, and lemon. It was a somewhat light and refreshing taste to the palette. Low in carbohydrates and butter. Yum.

The one with the white cream piped on top is the Tarte Légère au Citron (Lemon Tart). It has an almond cream spread at the bottom of the tart and lemon cream piped over it. The other one is the Tarte Passion-Framboise (Passion Fruit and Raspberry Tart), which is also the one we made in our practical. It consists of 2 layers: raspberry jelly and passion fruit cream.

I obviously need to work on my decorating skills but I guess it could pass as a simple design. They brought out strawberries at the end when I was done shaping my "S". Alas, I didn't want to bother with trying to somehow fit it into this design without it looking so apparent that it was a last minute addition. I'm sure there'll be some of you who are glad I didn't get my hands on the strawberries hehe.

Another afternoon class today. It appears my schedule this time is more broken up than previous. Many of the demonstrations and practicals for the same lessons are held on separate days. I suppose that will make these months go by quicker since there will be more or less something to do nearly every day.

Wow, we're already almost halfway into January. Chinese New Year is coming up soon. Of all days, that is the day that we will have both demonstration and practical from 12h30 on. I was all excited and looking forward to attend the parade in Chinatown just to see how is it conducted here. I guess that won't be happening after all! Boo. Enjoy it for me, guys.

Ringing in the New Year with Puff Pastry

Bonne année 2011! Intermediate Pastry began today with both demonstration and practical for my group. At first, I was dreading it a bit but it wasn't too bad after all. We received an entirely new binder full of recipes for the semester!

Lesson 01: We learned Streusel (Streusel Cake), Pavé aux Amandes (Almond Cake), and Écossais (Scottish). So, Streusel Cake was the only one that incorporates puff pastry. hehe. Pictures below!

Yeah, I tried to be fancy with my powdered sugar decoration but I was horrible at cutting the shape out the cardboard. At that angle, it's not as easily noticeable how my "flames" are not smooth and curvy. hehe.

My critique for today: be more generous with the garnishing! Oh, and also improve on crimping the edges of the Streusel Cake. It's very similar to how a "Gok Jai" (fried Chinese flaky crescent pastries with peanut & sugar inside) is sealed up. Whenever I tried to help my mom during all those times when she made them, I would never be able crimp them nicely. If I had done it more back then, it would have paid off today!

Onto other things: I finally took a quick stroll through Jardin du Luxembourg yesterday. Who knew they'd close up the park at 4:45pm! Luckily I was able to snap a few photos before I got whistled out the gates. I kind of wished that it was a snowy scenery instead but bare trees also signify winter just as well.

I'll leave it at that for now. I took more pictures but it's time to hunt for some food. :)

2nd to Last Day of 2010

Of course I'll have to write an entry in here before it hits 2011! It's been a while since I have last updated. So what has happened within these 1.5 months? Visits here and there, seeing him and her.

My ex-coworker, Sue, visited me from November 12-18. We took a mini trip to Venezia and it was a pretty sight with all the canals and bridges. If only the weather was less cloudy and rainy. We enjoyed ourselves nonetheless and ate many dishes of pasta. Yum!

We both flew back to New York on the 18th so I was able to spend Thanksgiving with family and friends. I decided to make some palmiers and an apple tart while I had access to an oven at home! Results weren't as great as they were when I made them in school but people enjoyed them still. That's all that matters I suppose! I found that I was missing New York more than I had anticipated. I admit that I felt a little out of place perhaps due to culture shock but it didn't take too long to adapt.

After a quick and short 2 weeks, I flew back to Paris with my buddy, Pocky. The day after, my high school friend, Frankie, came with his girlfriend. We visited the touristy spots and had many French dinners. Wow, I had never eaten that much French food in a single week before. Thanks to Pocky for feeding me so generously! It was a great opportunity to try dishes and restaurants that I had never before. Paris also experienced one of its unusual snowstorms, canceling many international flights and delaying many others. Pocky's flight was canceled so he was able to soak in the French culture for a few more days.

Upon their departure, I had a week to myself before my boyfriend would arrive. Christmas in Paris with the boyfriend: can't get any more romantic than that! Well, maybe if it were less frigid and icy, it would have been better. I was finally able to visit Disneyland Paris! It wasn't as magical as I had envisioned due to the lack of nightly fireworks! The Christmas decor was festive and appealing though. We also took a mini trip to Amsterdam for a few days. Drugs, prostitutes, ollibollen. What more can you ask for? hah. I was pretty bummed out when he had to leave though but I'll save you all from my mushy talk.

That brings us to today! Less than one week until Intermediate Pastry begins. I have both demonstration and practical on our first day. Bonne chance tout le monde!

Patisserie de Base: C'est Fini!

Wow, we're done for the year! Our group had our exam at 8h30 with Chef C. He was just screaming at us for the first half of the time. "Depechez vous!" "Dans le four!" "Maintenant!" - "Hurry up!" "In the oven!" "Now!". Yeah it was full of pressure but in the latter half, he calmed down. So onto the exam itself, I picked out the green chip which denotes Saint-Honoré. Obviously, we only find out what each color had meant after we were holding it in our hand. The other two were: yellow for pithivier and sacristains and red for dacquoise. In addition to making the Saint-Honoré, we also had to recreate the pâte brisée sucré, the tart shell. No baking was involved with that one though.

I am just glad we finished. Now, onto an entire 1.5 month vacation! I'll be going to Venice, Italy for the first time next week for 3 days. After that, I am home bound for New York! Of course I could have just stayed in Europe and traveled around but I promised my boyfriend that I'd resist the temptation and travel with him afterwards instead. Yes, travel is my love but boyfriend gets prioritized this time. .

So onto the photos!

The first photo presents the demonstration by Chef Tranchant and Chef Cotte individually. The second photo are my messy products haha. L to R: Sacristains, Mogador, Chocolate Pistachio Log, Pithivier, Alhambra, and Pear Charlotte. A lot of chocolate near the end getting my uniform all dirtied! Unfortunately, I failed to bring my camera with me during the exam so I was unable to snap a memory of my final presentation. I believe I have marginally improved on piping. Eh, maybe just in my perspective. hah Chef Cotte gave me a high-five when he finished commenting on my burnt sugar for my Saint-Honoré. Way to go!

In celebration on completing our Basic Patissiere course, later on that night, my classmates and I went out for a dinner at Cafe Constant in the 7th Arrondisement. Good times :)

Oh before I forget, here's a nice photo of us in our uniform during our last demonstration with Chef T sitting among the students. He's such a joker sometimes. Can you find him?

Today also marks the last day of our French course with Hélène, which also marks my last day of being called Evelyn, my French alter ego. To clarify, throughout the entire course, we were stripped of our names and went by a "French name" just to spice the lessons up. The past 3 Saturdays, our lesson became more like a tour of Paris. There were worksheets with questions in French to encourage us to practice reading and speaking. It's been fun. Was it worth the 625€? That, I am not so sure about. haha.

Autumn has fallen upon us! The leaves are changing colors; the shades of yellows and reds. It's so beautiful especially when you're walking along the Seine River. Anyhow back on track, so we had done both sightseeing and bakery/cafe/supermarket visits. Everything looked so tasty that we occasionally stopped to make some purchases. A pain au chocolat along the way or a cup of moka au café! A yummy and educational tour. Can't get any better than that!

Too bad the weather was not cooperating today but I think the umbrellas sort of gives it some flavor and color? haha.

I think I have written enough for tonight. I've been having this massive headache that won't go away despite sleeping for a few hours. Maybe I should cook some dinner now. My tummy is calling out to me since all I really had today was this horrible onion soup that was doused with half a bottle of wine. Oh and some crackers afterwards. Graduation next Wednesday! :)