Thank You!

Throughout my time in New York City I was blessed to have the support of so many of my family and friends. I am so thankful and blessed that so many people have believed in me all along. I hope to make everyone proud and continue to follow my dreams. Thank you for always encouraging me to spread my wings. Love always, Kala

Graduation!

After a day full of packing everything from my dorm room it was time to head back to school one more time and put on my uniform for graduation! We all excitedly warmed up our pastries and set up the buffet that would be held after the ceremony all of us very happy to finnally be done. Then it was time to line up and head into the amphitheater. I smiled and held mu composure as I walked past friends and family and sat down. One by one we were called up to receive our diplomas after some great speeches by our chefs. Then it was time for special awards. I received awards for Perfect Atendence, Outstanding Community Service, and Graduate with Distinction high honor student. It was all very sureal and soon after it started it was over.

I smiled and hugged family and friends and was overjoyed to see that my room mate Chelsea and my friend Meghan from Jacques Torres had come to support me. After hugs and pictures we went upstairs to look at my showpiece and do a tour of the school. It was all very surreal and I couldn't believe that my time at The French Culinary Institute was over.

The Final Four

Still running off a wedding cake high we were all reminded that the final four days were upon us. The Final exam is four days long and consists of a 2 hour written exam and 3 days of practical exam. We are all given one large and small tart or cake, one large and small vienoiserie item, one dozen petits fours, and one dozen chocolates that we need to make plus a showpiece demonstrating our favorite thing about NYC to hold it all. Mine were Dacquoise cake, Challah bread, Dark chocolate caramel bonbons, and petits fours glacee. And my showpiece was a tribute to Strawberry Fields.

Day one went well with the written portion in the morning and I was pretty confident that I got a good grade on that. Then the practical started and we were off. All of us following our own personal schedules and trying to get as much work done as quickly as possible. The four days flew by as we all tried to balance our time between making pastries and creating a beautiful showpiece.

We then had the frightening task of carrying our showpieces all the way down the hall and placing all of our pastries on them without them breaking. I was glad that it went mostly smoothly with minimal damage and nothing that couldn't easily be fixed. I blushed as people awed my chocolate painting of John Lennon as echos of the song Imagine played in my head.

We all were very nervous as we waited to be called in by the judges who were top industry professionals that had never seen our work before. Judging went well and she complimented my artistry and said what had set me apart was that just from looking at my work she could really tell that I cared. Phew it was all done... almost!

Tiny Bubbles!

On the day that I did my tour here at FCI the Level 3 class was making wedding cakes as we walked by and looked in the windows. And now my FCI wedding day has come. This is the project I had been looking forward to most.

The Level 2 class came in and did a presentation about a hypothetical wedding they put together for us. The theme was to be "classic island chic" set at the four seasons Bora Bora. The colors were to be coral and green and the flowers were orchids.

Immediately my mind went in different directions and 5 sketches latter I decided on the wedding cake. A white cake soaked with framboise with a strawberry filling, it was then covered with an ivory fondant. There is shimmering coral piped on the bottom tier with piped pearls bordering every tier as well. It is then decorated with crystal clear blown sugar bubbles, dusted sugar sea shells, and green sugar paste orchids.

For once I was happy with a cake I made. And my class was as well. I was voted best wedding cake from both my class and the level 2 class. Very pleased with myself I took the cake to Jacques Torres Chocolates for everyone to enjoy and Chef high five'd me and said I did good work!

A Menu of My Own

As we continued on to our 3rd level of plated desserts there were other things on our minds. And that other thing was our future. A somewhat far off future for me. The assignment was to design a plan and an executable menu for a future place of business that we can see ourselves actually opening. This was a lot to think about. what kind of place do I want? What is important to me?

What did I come up with? "The North Star Inn at Lorenzo" A country Inn serving brunch and dinners in Cazenovia's Historic Lorenzo Estate. With overnight guests and a reputation for wonderful home cooked pastries. The real focus for the restaurant though is to promote sustainability and seasonality with a dedication to representing and promoting local family farms and small businesses. I even brought in several samples of locally grown products that I bought from Nelson Farms.

After we all did our business pitches to the class the chefs chose two items on our menu and we had to make it and plate it exactly to our diagram. The Chefs chose a Pumpkin and Gingerbread Parfait with Cinnamon and Anglaise. And a Rum Mocha Roulade with a Cranberry Drizzle. The plating went very smoothly and the Chefs said they both tasted great.

This project was my baby, and possibly even my future. But who knows, I fully expect my plans to change a million times. But the devotion to sustainability will remain the same. We need to know where our food comes from and how gets to our plate. Think about it. Do you have any idea where that chicken your eating came from? And I don't mean the super market.

Sugar!

Our next unit was sugar. The thought of stretching and pulling hot molten sugar amazed me and I was excited! We first practiced making poured sugar and with that I made a poured sugar fish. Next we learned how to make pulled sugar decorations of course I was most excited to make a rose with this new medium!! Sort of like babysitting one always needs to watch the sugar when under the heat lamp if you don't they will melt too much and crystallize and ruin the batch, and we wouldn't want that would we?

Next we got to make some blown sugar, I have always been fascinated with the blown glass at the corning museum so I thought that this would be a lot of fun. And it was! I made several different color bubbles and even a little blown bird! Then we made a magnificent Christmas sugar showpiece towering 5x5 feet and 4x3 feet and my task was to make the angel for the top of the Christmas tree.

What was more intimidating than that was that when it was all finished I had to put it on the top of the Christmas tree. And well I'd liked to say that it didn't break but when it started to lean my friend fifii went to catch it and half the tree came crashing down. Yes it was sad but that's how things work in pastry world. You spend a lot of time making it and then its gone just like that.

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!