Bienvenue a Le Cordon Bleu: Demonstration #05 and Practical #05

Again we had Chef Cotte as our demo chef, which I personally don't mind because I find that he is always a pleasure to have because of his happy comedic character. Sometimes I love the fact that he doesn't mind ridiculing himself in front of the whole class... (personally I'd be too shy to do that!). 

Chef Cotte and his knife suitcase kit! 

Somehow he always manages to bring the class to laughter... but I wonder will we eventually get bored of his jokes? Until now, I have yet to have him as a chef in my practical classes because (maybe fortunately for me) the one time we actually did have him, I was absent.

Anyhow, demonstration #05: grasping the delicate art of puff pastries.

By now, our recipes are becoming more and more challenging. I've realised that we're also starting to incorporate decorating techniques into our repertoire as well. Before in the past few classes, it had just been all about grasping basic patisserie knowledge like making certain doughs and mixtures, but now... they're upping the game by throwing in decoration skills like marzipan flower and awesome-ass piping skills. It's our finesse of these things that determine our overall evaluation in practical class...

So...Puff pastries...

Puff pastries are a hell to work with. Firstly because of the sheer amount of BUTTER used in the recipe and secondly, you really really really need to concentrate and focus on what you're doing - puff pastries are one of those recipes where it's a procedure involving little steps which ultimately have a GIGANTIC effect on the end product after baking.  

So, if you have a memory of a goldfish or you just simply weren't paying attention, then... 

good luck!

In this demonstration class, we learnt 3 classic french puff pastry desserts:

Chaussons aux pommes 
(Apple turn overs... or maybe Apple PIE for those of you McDonald-holics!)

Palmiers

Raspberry strawhats

Grasping the techniques and methods of puff pastry can be very daunting because they're required to be made in a certain way. However, if you don't stress about how much you're going to screw up, you may end up enjoying the process of making it.

I'm actually quite keen to give the Raspberry strawhats a try during my individual time - the taste test after demo was quite delicious! I wonder how it goes with other fruity flavours: pears? grapes? strawberries?

The palmiers were great too - i just didn't expect them to be SO HUGE!! Each one was bigger than the size of my palm! Nonetheless, it doesn't mean they weren't good: the big sizes ensure that they retain a soft chewy texture inside while having crispy carmalised edges on the outside. This recipe calls for a ridiculous amount of butter AND sugar. I was so shocked... !

Apple Chaussons were even BETTER!! I've never been one to love hot fruity desserts but I'm glad to have discovered them. Being slightly sick and still recovering, the feeling of nice hot chopped apples slide down my throat during the cold winter days was just simply... divine!

For our practical, we had a rare treat: 

our presiding chef was one of France's highly regarded Chefs - Chef Christian Faure, MOF.

my chaussons aux pommes

 my palmiers

FIRST, allow to me say that it was a HONORABLE PLEASURE to have him as our practical chef! He was very patient, very instructive and VERY helpful. Whenever we had a problem, not only would he NOT criticise us and NOT make us feel bad about it but he PROPERLY SHOWED us the right method of doing it! It was a good class and I was quite happy with it.

the Brazilian girls

SECOND, not once did he say that what we were doing was BAD or WRONG or *BOO!* (some Chefs do say that...) or actually say NOTHING AT ALL (yes we have those too!). Some students ended up with wacky palmiers or smaller chaussons but he was nice about it. He was fine as long as the characteristics of a puff pastry were still there... he also explained that generally they're made to be a different size or shape. 

What I loved about him was that in the end, he said it was up to our preference and style. It felt like he was encouraging us to develope our own style, which was very rewarding.

By now, I'm sure you're wondering what an MOF Chef is?

MOF stands for "Meillure Ouvrier de France" (translated as Best Craftsman of France).

It is a coveted prestigious title awarded only to a very few in France. The MOF competition takes place every 3 years and here you'll only see the best artisans in France doing their very finest. The standards are VERY high and those who succeed in winning are awarded the title MOF for LIFE.

Every chef whose won is awarded (FOREVER) a special chef's jacket with a collar of the French flag. This title is recognised by professionals and the French public.

Training for this competition requires years of preparation because of the demand for PERFECTION! Technical skills, innovation, respect for traditions and other aspects are all practiced repeatedly to a level of refinement. Through this, they develope excellence, effectiveness and speed to succeed. All this will be judged by a jury, which makes its decision according to the distribution of points awarded during the entire process.

 Chef Christian Faure, MOF doing product evaluation

If you'd like to see his impressive achievements in life: Click Here.