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!