Hello Momma!

While I am starting to get used to city life I do still get home sick a lot too, although I do try to go home when I can it's hard with my hectic schedule between studying for class and interning. So I was overjoyed when My mother and Grandmother decided to come see me for a weekend to help pass the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Their visit came with perfect timing. They got to come and dine at our afternoon of desserts at school. As a class we had prepared for this day all week Mise en Place-ing our desserts and then when the orders came in from our families we fired them and sent them out. I even got to be in charge of calling out orders and making sure that they got to the table timely, ( they should have known better than to give me permission to yell!)

After a quick tour of school we settled into our hotel room. The next day we went exploring some and went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I all ready can't wait to go back again. Everything was just simply beautiful and completely inspiring.

Before they left on Sunday we went to L'Ecole for brunch. It was good I got Steak tartar with a raw quail egg. I think better than eating it was watching the look on my mom and grandma's faces when I spilled the egg on to the raw meat and dug in!

My Favorite Toy

Settling into our new spacious kitchen was very nice. But the fact that we were now to work on more chocolate worried some. I have to admit even I was a little worried, I still hadn't quite mastered this tempering thing just yet. Although thanks to my manager at Jacques Torres who insisted that I try tempering chocolate with out a thermometer. You want me to do what!? The thought of not using a thermometer made no sense to me in my head I knew that there were very specific numbers that we had to hit as we heated and cooled the chocolate how could I possibly do that with no thermometer? But as Melissa explained that it was all about learning

the look and feel of chocolate when its tempered I thought OK, maybe I can do this. So when Chef Jurgen said that we were to be doing out final Chocolate showpiece the next day I decided to put my thermometer back in my tool kit and see if I could do this relying only on my senses. And to my excitement batch after batch came out perfectly tempered with no sign of a thermometer in sight. And by class end I was very happy with my Chocolate show piece.

I was nervous yet excited to bring my chocolate showpiece into Jacques Torres chocolate to show everyone, yet their opinion and knowledge of chocolate was greatly respected. Melissa was overjoyed that I didn't use a thermometer like she suggested. I think she was even more amused by how excited I was about it. An then there was Chef Torres himself. Part of me didn't want to show him the showpiece, after all he is the master. Chef was very impressed and said it was beautiful and he couldn't do better. He even asked me how I made some elements of it! Hearing that from him meant so much to me, truly a proud moment.

sugar one

After all that plating I was definitely excited to get back into some show piece work. Our First level of sugar was one I had been pretty excited for. First we got to work with marzipan and we made several different fruits and vegetables along with a nougatine basket. I've always enjoyed sculpting so this was a lot of fun, plus I got to use an airbrush again which I am all ready pretty confident with.

Next we moved on to working with pastillage, a stiff sugar dough that drys like porcelain and is very fragile. This medium proved to be frustrating for all of us. The goal was to make a 12in tall cake stand that could support a 6 inch round cake with both design and air flow. I chose to do a Japanese dressing screen type design. And after much frustration of pieces breaking and not adhering as planned I finally got it together and it held the weight!

Now it was time for what I had been most excited to learn, sugar paste flowers with Ron Ben Israel!!! At home I can often be found at the table all night working on sugar paste flowers so it was no surprise that I would be excited for this lesson. We watched videos and eagerly asked all the questions we could think of in our short time with Ron Ben and in the end we came out with some very beautiful flowers. Even on the plane ride home for Thanksgiving had them sitting on my lap and the man sitting next to me asked to take a picture of them. I couldn't help but laugh.

At the end of our last day of sugar one Chef Jurgen came into our class room and gave us his "tomorrow you will be mine!" speech. And with that we were all reminded that this was our last day of level 2 and that tomorrow we would be in level 3, our last level before graduation.

Pretty Plates

Now its time to see what we really do know. The first level of plated desserts showed us all the ways we can can twist and evolve our recipes any way we please. This section worked a little differently than those in the past. At the beginning of each class we are all assigned different elements of the final desserts to make such as doughs, sauces, and ice creams. Then at the end of the day we put it all together and made some very nice plating's. This unit was nice because it showed us in may ways how real restaurants work. Hardly ever will we see everything start to finish in the work force. It's all about being a team and working together to get the job done. It was great to see that we all ready knew how to make all the different flavors and components. I hadn't realized how much I've learned all ready.

tempering tantrums

Oh Chocolate how I love and hate you! Despite Chocolate being one of my favorite things to eat it in many ways can also be one of the most difficult things to work with. Between it being extremely easy to burn and only being able to work with it in a 4-degree temperature window without having to start over you can see why I stress. Chocolate is not something that you can "wing" or just throw together and hope for the best it take a lot of deliberate precision. You melt, you cool, you stir, you reheat, then you mold and pray. Because even if you swear up and down that you did everything right sometimes its still not in temper. And that means that your chocolate won't dry and it will turn into a grainy cloudy hot mess.
But have no worries we had a lot of practice and managed to make not only a chocolate box filled with unctuous Gran Marnier truffles, But also a structurally sound chocolate candy stand. I do have to say after the written chocolate test was complete I think my whole class shared in a sigh of relief that we were finally done with chocolate.... at least for now.

NYC Chocolate Show

One of the great things about being in college in New York city is that in many ways it is one of the food capitals of the world. Because of this many great events are held here, one such event that I had the pleasure of going to was the Chocolate Show. Now this place was a wonderland for anyone that has a soft spot for chocolate. With over 52 exhibitors all offering several chocolate samples you can see why I was in a sugar high dream. After walking around and stuffing my face with as many varieties of chocolate that I could I decided it was time to sit down and watch a few demos in the viking sponsored theater.
Many people don't realize that cacao can be used in both sweet and savory preparations. And I got to enjoy some of the best examples of this from shrimp in chipotle vanilla sauce served with cacao over fresh corn polenta to a 4-start dirt cup. This day was quickly becoming too good to be true. I even got to talk to Johnny iuzzini, the James Beard award wining pastry chef from Jean Georges. I even got him to sign his new book for me.
This show made me realize how much I do in fact love chocolate and even got me thinking about going into business selling it on the side with the dove company. Hey you never know when an opportunity will come knocking.

Cakes from level two

As I'm sure everyone knows I love to play with cake. So I was more than happy when I found out that we were once again returning to my favorite subject. It seems like for everything I thought I knew about cake decorating I have learned two more great tips here at FCI, I love it! We got to use lots of new mediums that I haven't gotten to use much before now such as Marzipan. Which is a very yummy cake covering alternative to fondant. I also learned a new fondant recipe And a few tips and tricks for making cheesecakes. One thing that I have been anxiously awaiting making was the buche de noel, the traditional french Christmas yule log cake. The one cake that chef says we are allowed to over decorate and throw a bunch of little decorations on. Cake level two has made me even more excited for the wedding cake we will get to make once we get to level three.

Little Mouthfulls

Petit Fours was our next unit. And now we were finally getting a chance to be a little creative and come up with our own little desserts. Roughly translated Petit Four means little ovens in french. And even though they are little these little guys pack a big flavor punch and are dangerously addictive.
This Test proved to be additionally difficult because we had to collaborate with our partners to create a petit four. Everyone has such differing opinions on what makes a good dessert that agreeing on something to present can be very difficult. My partner and I choose a puff pastry disk with a smear of rum pastry cream and topped with a caramelized banana sphere.

The Benefits of a Great Internship

My time so far at Jacques Torres Chocolate Heaven has taught me a lot. I have found such a new appreciation for chocolate and all the thought that goes into each bar. There is certainly never a dull moment there. Chef is always running around and playing jokes on people. And there is always a side project going on whether it's building shelving units for the new store in Chelsea Market, leading children through the factory on a tour, or busily getting ready for a demo that chef is holding somewhere.

Ans that is just what happened one Saturday afternoon. As Chef was busily preparing himself for a class he was teaching at the New York Culinary Experience being held at my school. This event is held by the New York Times to help raise money for charities. Local foodies spend large amounts of money to take classes with celebrity chefs it surely was a star studded event.

Well as Chef talked about all of the things he had to get done to prepare for the event I thought to myself Hello this is an opportunity!!! so I asked him if he needed any help. And he quickly replied " sure, if you want to go meet me at school tomorrow morning I always need help."

It was a great experience I not only learned a lot from what Chef was teaching the class but I got to work one on one with a lot of them and help them with their recipes. It reminded me of how much I used to love helping out with the younger home economics classes in high school. And makes me think that down the road teaching the very thing I love to do so much may be a really good idea. Who knows maybe that will be an adventure for another day. Yet another vision for the future.

Level 2 Here We Come!!!

It was sadly time to say goodbye to Chef Mike and Chef Tom this saddened me because they had taught me so much. But it was time to move on... to next door Pastry Kitchen 2. Chef Chris welcomed us and immediately you can tell he has quite the whimsical personality. With an impressive resume under his belt including time at the Waldorf and the Plaza hotel Chef Chris is to say the least very knowledgeable in his profession. Although you can't help but laugh at his strikingly on the par impressions of Julia Child's and Chef Alain or the way he seems to compare everything to classical music. For the life of me I can't understand a single one of his analogies, maybe I should have paid more attention in music class.

The first unit of level 2 is breads and wow do you get a workout with all that kneading. We made some very nice products from sally lunn rolls to foccacia and bagels. And the things we love most savory food!!! Being a pastry student your diet largely becomes made up of mostly sugar butter and chocolate. Not that I am entirely complaining but when we here we are making something that Isn't sweet we get very excited. Such was the case when we made pizza, Tarte Flambe and smoked salmon bagels yum! oh how I love my profession.

An Amazing Opportunity

In the midst of my internship search I discovered that most Cake studios in the city work only week days, and unfortunately that is not going to fit into my schedule while I am school. However those are some hours I can look forward to in the future. So I decided to take a new approach and thought about who my inspirations are in the culinary world. Immediately I thought of Jacques Torres.

my fascination with the work of Mr. Torres started when I was about 14 and used to watch Mr. Chocolate on food network. I would Marvel in aww at the huge chocolate sculptures he created and laugh at his light hearted humor and fun way of doing things. A few years ago my mother and grandmother took me to a demo that he held at the casino where he made a variety of desserts and made a sculpture. I got an autographed cookbook and a twinge of curiosity out of that day. Ironically that was also how I found out about The French Culinary Institute. during the demo he mentioned that he was the dean of pastry arts there.

Anyway back to the internship search. I decided to go out on a limb and apply at Jacques Torres chocolates. I was very nervous since honestly I know nothing about chocolate except that it is complex and temperamental but I definitely want to learn. After a quick interview and a trail the head chef asked me if I had a good day. I thanked him and told him I had all ready learned alot and enjoyed the shift. He smiled and said "See you tomorrow then." I could hardly believe it.

Cakes and a Great Opportunity!

Finally what we have all been waiting for.... well at least what i have been. Cakes! though in this first unit of cakes we are doing pretty simple things I am still pretty excited to be working with my dear cakes once again. We learned to master egg foams to leaven our cakes and how to get a high rise and tender crumb with only 4 or 5 ingredients and no chemical leavener to be found.

And icing a cake, just when I thought I knew what I was doing I learn yet another technique. But that's the beauty of this course I learn tons of new things every day. One of my favorite things about life is that you never go a day without learning something new.

So in an effort to hone my skills I have gone out and bought a few things of playdoh and I can often be found practicing my roses and forming little figures. Now if I can only work on my writing skills. Chef made a comment on how it could be improved. Hasn't he seen my hand writing on paper? That skill is definitely going to need some work.

Viennoiserie and a roomie!

At the end of class I walk into my room to find... a new roomie! Yay I don't have to be painfully bored anymore. Her name is Chelsea and she is from New Hampshire here for the art of international bread baking as well as classic french pastry. We thankfully get along very well in spite of the fact that she is fattening me up with all of her delicious bread that she brings back from class.

These days I have also been making some bread of my own. The latest unit is Viennoiserie. It is breakfast breads from the region of Vienna. And this unit is sure to please anyones sweet tooth. with everything from Bourbon Pecan sticky buns to Croissants and Scones this stuff is good! And I 'm sure my family could attest to that I sent a big box of some of these yummies home and from what I hear they were happily received and quickly devoured. There was no test for this unit, (phew!) but the main purpose is to give us an introduction to yeast and prepare us for the breads unit in level 2. Most importantly it is stressed that we should work on perfecting our Croissant making skills since that will most likely appear on our final. I am at a french school after all.

Defeating the Puff

Puff pastry I have found is definitely one of the most under appreciated products. Pretty much everyone can say they have had it in some form. Always light and flaky with all those yummy tiny layers. Sure it's great. But what I don't think a lot of people realize is that each layer is put in their by the chef with folds and turns of the dough sandwiching layers of butter. It's complex and not difficult but there is definitely a specific way of doing it with out crushing the delicate layers.

Of course this unit came with some of my favorites. Like napoleons and danish! Oh how I can feel my waistline growing all ready. happily my arms are as well. All of this kneading and whisking and rolling is a workout!

Day 20: Puff Pastry

Wow does time fly! All ready I am done with Choux the test came just 5 days after starting the unit and it had come and gone. We did get to make something that I have been wanting to try for a while, a croquembouche. Literally translated it means " crunch in mouth". It is the traditional french wedding cake. A tower of stacked cream puffs dipped in caramel and decorated with piped choux and spun sugar. Finally I get to be creative!

I also had the great opportunity to go to a demo held by Nils Noren who was a contestant on top chef masters. He made the meal that he made on the show for us and it was all very good. He also demonstrated a lot of the new cutting edge technology in the industry such as sous vide, agar agar clarifying, and vacuum cooking.

Next stop on this adventure? Finding an internship! I have been so bored because I'm used to being so busy all the time. Deciding on doing a restaurant or cake design internship was difficult since both offer such different learning experiences. I decided to first apply to a cake design studio for an internship since those are the most competitive in the city. So I whipped up a resume and sent out some pictures to Mark Joseph cakes. So now I just cross my fingers and wait...

Unit 2: Pate a Choux

It's bye bye tarts (at least for now!) and hello Pate a Choux! not sure what that is? It's commonly known as cream puff dough. And wow is it trickier than it looks. Choux is the only french dough that is cooked twice. First you cook it over the stove in a pan, and then you bake it in the oven.

The first thing we made was eclairs, yumm my favorite! We made chocolate, vanilla, and coffee eclairs. And yes I did take a few of those back to my dorm for a snack they were very good. We also made a traditional dessert called the Paris-Brest. Which is a choux ring filled with a buttery praline pastry cream. My mom and grandmother met me at the train station to take me home for the week end and we devoured that on the drive home.

Today we made a very special dessert. The Gateau St. Honore. Translated this means the cake of St Honore, who is the patron saint of pastry chefs! cool huh? This was probably the most challenging piece we have made so far. It had a Pate Brisee ( flaky tart dough)base with rings of choux piped in rings over that and caramel coated choux balls around the edge. It is then filled with a chiboust which is a vanilla pastry creme lightened with an Italian meringue.

This is a very short unit. I can't believe our test is all ready in two days!

Day 13: Test Day!

After waking up extra early and staring at notes for hours I stumbled into the class room starbucks in hand. After unloading all of my supplies and getting my equipment ready I took out my calculator and got ready for the 45 min written exam. We all scribbled frantically trying to recall conversion formulas and the ingredients and methods of all of our essential recipes. I then turned it in a few minutes early and went into the hallway where the rest of my classmates that had finished were comparing answers.

We were then quickly whisked away into the classroom and the practical portion of the exam started. The mission was to complete one 9 inch Caramel nut tart, 2 small Quiche Lorraine, and 6 hazelnut crescent cookies. I quickly formulated a pan for the day and synced my baking times with those that I was sharing an oven with. Then we were off put this in the oven, roll out that, stir the caramel, temper the custard, grate the gruyere, blanchir the eggs. it was a crazy day we all ran around while working fast and most importantly working clean!

After a quick break for lunch I pulled all my products out of the oven, garnished them and put them on my tray. The only thing I worried about was the caramel in my nut tart. I had almost overcooked it and it was very dark. I could only hope that the sweetness balanced well with it.

Then it was my turn. As I walked up to chef Mike tray in hand I became nervous. To anyone that watched cooking competitions it's kind of like that. They check the angles of your corners to make sure they are a nice 90 degrees. look at the doneness of each product, the aroma, and the garnish. Then for the big one they taste it. I held my breath as Chef cut into the nut tart. He complimented me on my flaky even brisee crust. Then he tried it... and hesitated. "It's a little bitter just on the line of almost being too much so" oh no! I thought. "But I really like how it compliments the sweetness of the tart It's pleasantly bitter" PHEW!

As soon as I got back to my Dorm today I went online and checked my grades. I got a 98 on my written and a 98 on my practical. Not too bad for my first culinary school test, now I just gotta keep it up. Tomorrow we Start Pate a Choux and our first recipe is Eclairs!

Day 9

Yesterday I started volunteering at an organization in New York called God's Love We Deliver. It is a not for profit organization that prepares and delivers meals to home bound HIV patients with severely low immune systems. I had a good time despite cutting my finger. Everyone there was so upbeat and fun and it's great to just go to places like that and give back whenever I can.

I think this week is my slump week. I have had my bad days like when I cut my finger or when those in charge of baking forgot to bake my tart yesterday and it never got done. And yes I have even been homesick at times. No I still haven't fallen in love with city living just yet. But I am still very glad that I am here and so anxious to just keep learning.

Days are getting even busier now that we are done with sanitation class. Today we made lemon tarts and meringue then got to torch them with big welding torches! I'm liking our projects that include fire haha. We also made a nut tart which was very good maybe even my favorite tart we have done so far. Oh and the cookies! gingersnaps, and the oh so yummy fig newtons! We also made candied citrus peel and had a lecture on the three different types of meringues. There's so much science that goes into everything!

After School I had the pleasure of going to a food demo at the international culinary theater which is conveniently just down the hall from my class room. Today the demo was by chef Aaron Sanchez from the food networks melting pot and Chefs vs City. Not only was his food amazingly good! ( I now know how to cook duck and I can't wait to try it!). He also seemed like a great guy and was very caring and open to share all of his knowledge with us. It is great to be in such an environment where everyone is working towards our ( the students) overall success.

End of Week One

Wow this week went by fast. Class goes by very fast each day because we are constantly running around. I hope that next week the AC gets fixed because we have had 4 ovens running all day and it is HOT! I am definitely enjoying this and all ready learning a lot. Our chefs really are a wealth of knowledge and I have taken them up on the don't be afraid to ask tons of questions speech several times.

To wrap up this week I have made lots of tarts and a couple different cookies. I have learned the ins and outs of the proper ways to make tart doughs and custards. As well as how ingredients scientifically affect each recipe. There's a lot more science that goes into these recipes than I thought. Another thing we got to do this week that was really fun was flambe. There's just something exciting about being in control of 4 foot flames!

And yes, we do bring just about everything we make each day home with us. Ironically I'm not much for sweets, so I have a freezer full of tarts all ready. So if you come to visit you better be prepared to take some sweets back home with you because I get rid of them whenever I can.

I can't wait to start a new week of school. But for now I am resting my feet in my dorm and enjoying the AC. Oh and lots of studying and washing dirty uniforms!

Day 2

Today the day was started off with a class on sanitation. We will be studying sanitation for about a week then we will have a national sanitation examination next Friday. This will lead to a national serv-safe certification which can prove to be very valuable in the food industry today. I found the first day of sanitation to be both very interesting and very gross. For example I found out that when I had E Coli poisoning when I was 5 that it was caused by not just milk but milk with cow manure in it. ( I think I could have gone on with life just fine not knowing I ate poop!) Most of all this has me thinking more of where my food comes from, and the fact that we really have no idea half the time. Kinda scary huh?

Then after notes and all the book stuff it was back to cooking and the wonderful pace that comes with it. Today we finished our apple tarts. My first completed dessert as an FCI student! we then made pate brisee and creme de patisserie for the banana cream tart we will be making tomorrow. I'm really starting to get used to weighing all ingredients instead of measuring in volume, it really is a lot more accurate. I can't wait to try out my brand new digital scale tomorrow!

ok, Study Time!

ps: It was so hot i the kitchen today it melted the black design off my aluminum water bottle!

First Day!

Today was my first day in class and wow was it quick and exciting. After getting changed into my oh so cute uniform, we headed down to the kitchen to await instruction.

Chef Tom an Chef Mike were to be our first instructors. After giving us the rundown on the classroom procedures and school rules we had a brief lesson in sanitation and safety. Then it was time to start cooking! Yes, on the first day. They made it very clear that this is a very fast paced program and thus we will always have to be moving quickly.

Our first recipe was Pate Sucree which is a sweet tart dough (Boy am I glad I took French!) this is one of many recipes that will have to be memorized for tests. The instructors worked closely with us to make sure we were doing things right and all on time. In between everything we do we had to watch a demo, clean up our workstation, do our dishes and sanitize.

We then had our lunch break and had our family meal that the level 3 culinary students make for us each day. Our chef instructors shared with us that sometimes the meal is really good and.... sometimes its really not.

After lunch we worked on our knife skills and learned the proper way to peel, core and finely dice apples. This went into our next recipe which was compote de pommes. ultimately both of these recipes will go into an apple tart that we will be finishing up tomorrow.

Oh but before I forget perhaps the best part of today was getting our tool kits. It was like Christmas as we opened them up and inventoried all of our new equipment. Lots of which has been on my wish list for a while. Especially a brand new Silpat and microplane! I labeled all of my equipment in pink and yellow tape to identify that it was mine. I hope nobody else has the same color combo!

Well now I have to go work on homework and read ahead in my book so I know what to expect tomorrow! I don't think I've ever been this excited to go to school. Yes Chef!

Orientation Day!

Up at the crack of dawn with an aching back (I miss my bed!). I took in my bright room and strange noises after all this is the city that never sleeps. After a quick groggy good morning call from Adam I got out of bed.

I spent the morning dusting, vacuuming, texting, anything to keep myself busy and kill time. Then I headed to orientation. I only messed up the subway once on my way and after grabbing an ice tea from Starbucks went in and gathered my assigned bags.

Orientation was filled with talking about procedures and rules. We were informed of even more wonderful opportunities that were about to be made available for us. I of course signed up for every club except wine club (still a baby) after all I'm gonna do this right. I then got My text book and a big bag full of uniforms. And What?! a home work assignment? but i haven't even had my first day! oh well looks like I will be reading about sanitation this weekend and apple compote tarts. Oh and washing and pressing those uniforms. On the way back to the dorm I ended up in the wrong direction a few more times. But that's OK I'll figure it out. Boy it's hot in this city!

Move In

Yesterday I moved into my dorms in Brooklyn Heights where I will be living while I complete the Classic French Pastry Program at the French Culinary Institute. After unpacking my Stuff and hauling it up to the seventh floor I found that I had a room mate but she was gone to class. After sad goodbyes and a quick lunch my mother and grandmother left and I headed upstairs to unpack my stuff.

Surprisingly enough all of my stuff fit into my dorm storage space. (Yes even all the clothes I brought! Actually I could probably even fit more... shopping!). I then Met up with a girl in my class named Sarah that I had been talking to on face book. And explored some of NYC which would be my home for the next 6 months. After wandering around Manhattan and getting lost on the subway several times I returned to my dorm with blisters and tired feet. Still no sign of my room mate I talked to Adam (he's off to San Diego tomorrow!) and went to bed.