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Adventures in Culinary School - Advanced Baking
I started in Oct 2002 at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. These are my stories.
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Advanced Baking
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Monday, June 09, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 1, Day 1. According to Chef Mallet the title of this course is a misnomer. We learn neither "advanced" stuff nor do we bake. A better title to the course is "Introduction to Pastries." The average weight gain in this class is 7-8 pounds. Chef Mallet encourages us to eat everything we make. Couple that with the fact that we may or may not get fed by Meat Fab, our only choice seems to be to subsist on pastries. Chef will also allow us to snack on fruits, bread, and cheeses in the walk-in. He is very lax in his management style. He is trying to give us the feel of an industry pastry shop: complete with tempermental equipment and allowance of mild profanity, a term he feels is ill defined because what is profane to one person is not to another. We have a project due the third week of class. We have to redo the dessert menu of a restaurant. We have to cost out the desserts, write a paper about them, sketch their presentation, and create one during our practicals on the last day of class. I was invited to join Jen, Molly, and Eve in their group. It should be a lot of fun.
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 1, Day 2. First day of production. All the desserts that we make are for the school's fine dining restaurant L'Ecole. We make all the desserts for lunch and dinner service. We had a lecture first to discuss all the things that go on in the kitchen. My assignment today was Creme caramel with Jim. I didn't expect to work with Jim becuase he's not in my group but Chef seems to be treating the two dessert groups as one.
Creme caremel is a simple dessert. We made caramel and custard. Then we lined small disposable aluminum tins with the caramel and then poured the custard in them. Then we baked them in the oven until the custard set, cooled them down, wrapped them up, and stored them in the walk in.
After cleanup, we had a lecture on pate a choux, Chef Roberts demoed that. Boil water, butter, and salt. Add the flour, incorporate into a ball, mix until cool, add eggs one at a time until slow plop, and you're ready to pipe. Pipe into shapes (we do eclairs and swans) and then bake.
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 1, Day 3. More desserts. My assignment today was Sacher Torte with Joe. We had to made four of them. In Basic Baking, we make the cake part. In Advanced Baking we get to finish it. The Sacher Torte is named after Franz Sacher who owned the Sacher Hotel in Vienna, It still exists today and you can have their Sacher Tortes shipped to you for a price. The cake is made with chocolate and almond flour. Joe and I trimmed the tops off and then cut the cakes in half. We spread the bottom layer with apricot jam and put the top layer back on. Then masked the cake with a layer of ganache. Ganache is equal parts of cream and chocolate. It's like a frosting at room temperature. Then we froze the cakes. After that layer set, we poured a ganache glaze on top of it and froze it again. Then we marked it into twelve pieces and wrote the word 'Sacher' on each piece with ganache using a piping bag. Kind of easy only if you can make ganache properly. Chef had to show us how to make after two failed attempts. Boil the cream. pour over chocolate, and mix vigorously.
I also helped Chef Roberts with the Paris-Brest dessert. Name after the oldest bicycle race, it's a dessert with a ring of pate choux, cut in half, drizzled with ganache, filled with pastry cream, topped with whipped cream, and then the top is placed back on top and drizzled with more ganache.
Thursday, June 12, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 1, Day 4. Chas's birthday. In Chef Mallet's class the birthday ritual is a pie in the face. Chas took it on good humor. Chef Mallet made him a chocolate mousse cake to take home. According to Chef Mallet, theoretically it should taste good.
Today I worked with Blair to make cheesecake flavored at our discretion. Since Blair is allergic to dairy products, I was designated flavor chooser. Apple cinnamon, a nice flavor combo, not too exotic. The cheesecakes were literally a piece of cake. We had enough leftover batter to make mini cheesecakes for the catering class.
We then helped Kalei and Eve with eclairs. Blair and I cut the baked pate a choux in half while Eve and Kalei filled then with pastry cream. After that I help Molly cut bisquit for the bottoms of her bavarians.
Chef Mallet gave the lecture tonight on cake mixing methods.We learned that his favorite dessert is Marjolane, a cake made with halzelnut flavored bisquit.
Friday, June 13, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 1, Day 5. I was on Production today with Chas. Supposedly it was an easy day consisting of a parallel mousse cake, bavarians, and finishing a marjolane. To make the parallel mousse cake we first "prep the bottom." This means to get a layer of chocolate flourless bisquit(BIS-KWEE), which is a thin layer of sticky cake than serves as the bottom layer, spread melted chocolate on top of it, cover it with parchment, invert in onto another sheet pan, and put a sheet pan extender on top of it, so we now have a rectangular box to hold the mousse. All we had to do was put a 3/4 inch layer of chocolate mouse on, freeze it until set, and then an equal layer of white choclate mousse, but this is where our troubles began. We attempted to make white chocolate mousse using a recipe for dark chocolate mouse. Mistake number 1. After an errant batch, we had to start over again. Then we didn't have enough chocolate mousse, so we had to whip up a batch of that. Mistake number 2. It was definitely poor organization on our part. I broke off to do the bavarians and let Chas finish the chocolate mousse. I enlisted the help of JB to help make creme anglaise for the bavarians. I forgot to look in the walk in to see if there was creme anglaise already made. Mistake number 3. After slapping the bavarians together during our dinner break, I had to finish the creme anglaise I started while everybody else was doing gel piping practice except for Chas who was finishing off the parallel mousse cake.
After cleanup, we a our first test. It was reminiscent of the Basic Baking tests. Lots of procedures to regurgitate as well as terms to remember. No big deal. Two more days of desserts. Chef gave us an extra credit assignment worth five points. We have to bring in proof of leisure: a ticket stub, a receipt, something to show that we advantage of the time off. I must admit this will be tough, but I'll think of something.
Saturday, June 14, 2003
Weekend event: ACF Junior Team practice. We did some knife cuts for an hour and then we went over some techniques for our menu. Chef Riposo made us some breakfast burritos. They were pretty good.
Monday, June 16, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 2, Day 1. I worked with Chas on restaurants. It was a little easier than I thought. We didn't have a lot to do. We cut the Chocolate Guiness cakes that Molly and James made on Friday. Cutting is an interesting process. We have to heat the knife blade with a blowtorch, slice through the cake, pull it out slowly, clean the blade, and repeat the process.
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 2, Day 2. Working solo on panna cotta. I really enjoy panna cotta even though it's simply gelatinized heavy cream. I put raspberries in mine after about an hour of setting so that they would be suspended in the panna cotta instead of sinking to the bottom. After that I helped Kinsey make Apple Phyllo logs. It's frangipane and apple pie filling wrapped in phyllo. Chef makes us do a bunch at a time and then has us freeze them. They hold well. We had our gel piping practical. Everyone had to pipe designs on five petit fours. I didn't do so well. It's a combination of poor bag making skills and bad luck.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 2, Day 3. Switch day. The dessert sides switched to pastries and decor and vice versa. Our group went to decor. Chas, Jamie, and I were assigned to do tuiles. These are like thin crispy cookies used for decoration on dessert plates. The batter we use is pate a cigarette. I made some stencils out of a cake box. Then we put the stencil on a silpat and smoothed the batter over it. After making all the shapes on the silpat, we mixed cocoa powder with a part of the batter and used that to draw designs on the shapes. The teardrop shape I cut out turned into a leaf. Chas chose to use some precut stencils in the toolbox, and Jamie made a lighthouse. Then we bakes them in the oven and cooled them off. It was a pretty easy project; we even had time to do another batch.
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 2, Day 4. I was assigned to work on tuiles with Blair and Michele but Chef Roberts decided that I had worked on enough tuiles and I worked on a special assignment with Jim. We made Chocolate caramel mousse cakes topped with crushed pistachios in a chocolate cylinder. The key to the assignment for me was working with chocolate. I got the chance to temper dark chocolate.
Friday, June 20, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 2, Day 5. Blair, Michele, and I worked on sugar. For the sugar station, we made things out of sugar for decoration on the final plates. The first thing we did was to caramelize three saucepans of sugar. We made shields, almond thingys, and corkscrews. It went pretty fast.
We also practiced masking a cake. We split a cake into layers, filled it, and masked it. We are going to finish glazing them on Monday.
Saturday, June 21, 2003
Weekend event: Titanium Chef Grand Finale. for the final round, each team chose a chef instructor to work with. We chose Chef Deflieze as our Team Chef. The protein that had to be in every dish was red snapper. We were lucky to have Chef Deflieze since he is real fast at butchering protein. We came up with the following dishes: Red Snapper Roulade with artichoke heart, and fried polenta, red snapper bisque, pan seared snapper with snap peas, black rice rissoto, and prickly pear beurre blanc, and a peach brule with candied snapper skin. We didn't finish in the top three so I'll just say we finished fourth. The judges were top chefs from around the valley. Half of them were former SCI graduates which was a good thing to see.
Monday, June 23, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 3, Day 1. Pastries. Chas and I worked on petit fours. We built it backwards. First we rolled out a half sheet pan of marzipan. Then we spread raspberry on top of that. Next we put on a layer of frangipane. Another layer of jam, followed by frangipane, more jam, and then the final layer of frangipane. At this point, we put it in the freezer for 30 minutes so that it would be easier to cut. Then I cut the cake into one inch square pieces while Chas dipped them in pate a glacier. Bill and Kinsey, the future pastry chefs in our class, piped designs on each piece. We served them at the family meal that the meat fab class prepared.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 3, Day 2. Chas and I were assigned mini fruit tarts. I've noticed that pastries lend themselves very to suggestive decorations. I turn a deaf hear to such talk and concentrate on symmetry, balance, and visual appeal. All Chas and I did was to arrange kiwi, strawberries, mandarian orange wedges, and rasperrries in two different designs. The mini tarts were easy to make and everyone will probably choose that to do for their pastry practical. We rolled out short dough on the sheeter machine. Short dough is made for us by the Basics Baking class; very conveneient. Then we lined up the mini tart shells, placed the dough over them, and rolled across them cutting off the excess dough. We docked the shells by piercing them with a fork and blind baked them. Next we filled them with pastry cream. After that we put out fruit designs on and glazed the fruit. Done. the fruit tarts seem to be a popular item. They taste great and it's a nice change of pace from chocolate.
We started our cake proficiency by splitting, filling, and masking a cake.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 3, Day 3. Final Exam. It took a long time to finish, but I think it went well. We also finished our cake practical with a layer of buttercream icing and a border around the rim. Chef judged it by slicing a piece and seeing if the layers were even. We also had our bag piping practical. We had to pipe five perfect rosettes. I still don't have them perfectly but I think it will come with practice.
Chas and I work on pate a choux today. We made a croque en bouche. It's a pretty cool looking dessert. First we made the pate a choux dough. Then we piped out a lot of golf ball size pieces. Then we baked them. Chas prepared some sugar while Manny and I filled each ball with pastry cream. There were a lot of balls to fill. Chef Roberts made a 10" base of caramelized sugar for us. Then Manny and I dipped the golf balls in very hot sugar and stuck them on the base. We went around and around forming a tall hollow behive. Then with yet another pot of sugar, we made angel hair sugar and wrapped it around the beehive. It was a very stunning presentation. Chef Roberts was pleased with the result. We nestled some chocolate leaves in the angel hair for garnish. The dessert was brought up to catering.
Thursday, June 26, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 3, Day 4. Note: for all those longing for the days of visuals, I have made use of my camera again, at least for a couple of shots. First day of practicals. I chose to work in the back room. It's more quiet and cooler there. It's also devoid of all the chaos that happens in the main kitchen. We have to do five things: make six portions of a dessert, six pieces of decor, 20 pastries or 12 mini-tarts, finish a cake, and present a dessert from our project. For our project we chose the theme of the last dinner on the Titanic. Eve had the inspiration for that one from a cookbook she borrowed from Jen. The dessert we are going to prepare is Floating Iceberg. It's not from the actual menu like our other desserts were, but it's a morbid rendition of the popular French dessert and Julia Child's favorite Floating Islands which are poached meringues drizzled with caramel in a custard sauce.
I started out with the decor. Before class I made a stencil of a cluster of cubes. It's basically a cube on each face of a central cube. It took a while to pipe out all the lines on the tuile. I got a point taken off because they were a bit underdone, but the chefs thought the design was cool. I worked a bit with James because we picked all the same things for our practicals. Next we worked on the mini-tarts. I thought everybody would do these for their pastry practical because they're easy, but quite a few people chose the eclair route. No one was insane enough to choose petit fours. But I think there would be time for that if some chose to do so. I baked off some small round tart shells, filled them with pastry cream, and conjured up a fruit design. I made a pear base with a slice of strawberry topped with a slice of kiwi, and topped off with the tip of the strawberry. I used Eve's pea scoop to remove the tip of the strawberry and put a blueberry there. Shelby was kind enough to let me use his blueberries that he brought in to use for his panna cotta. After that I worked on my cake practical. I split it, filled it, and masked it. I left the rest to tomorrow. I finished up the day with dessert. I decided to make Junior's cheesecake. I got the recipe from the web. I made the base recipe and added the rest of Shelby's blueberries. I still need to bake it, and unmold them. Hopefully that goes well. The bad thing about choosing cheesecake is that there are only two fleximolds in the class that are suitable, so I chose to experiment with ring molds. In theory it should work. We'll see tomorrow.
Friday, June 27, 2003
Advanced Baking Week 3, Day 5. Last day. The first five students done with everything got to go home early. Those who finished after them had to stick around and pretty much sit around. It was kind of like the last day of school where kids just sit around signing each other's yearbooks. They played Trivial Pursuit with Chef Mallet.
My blueberry cheescake came out pretty good. I had a tough time getting them out of the ring molds though and my crumb base was waterlogged due to the water bath. I finished my cake yesterday by icing it with whipped cream, coating the sides with graham cracker crumbs, and piping a border around the top. The last thing to do was a dessert presentation from our group project. We chose to do our signature dessert, Floating Iceberg. The base was a sea of creme anglaise with lemon rind and a splash of vanilla. I poached a quenelle of meringue in milk for the iceberg. Blair made the caramel sauce for the drizzle, Eve made the Titanic cookie out of shortdough, Molly made the lifeboat out of sugar, and Jen cut perfect small dice survivors out of strawberries and pears. She also assembled the dessert. The Chefs got a big kick out of the dessert. They were very impressed with the creativity. Chef Mallet recognized the Floating Island dessert as Oeuf a la Nage from a kitchen he worked at. We finished the day with a last bout of cleaning that included wrapping the tables that had product underneath them. Chef Mallet gave us our grades told us that we were no longer maggots and that we muxt take control of our lives because there are people more than willing to do it for us.
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