Practical 01:
5 mins before the start of practical: students eagerly waiting for the chef to arrive
First practical of the whole school session and from here on then, the recipes will become more and more complex as the chefs become more and more strict and stern. Top on the day's list (well, the only thing on our baking list, actually): Diamants (that's diamonds, for you non-french folks).
I can see why they have that name: These shortbread biscuits are blended with vanilla and fruit pieces before the dough is enrobed and rolled in light sprinkles of sugar, resulting in shine and glitter when they pop fresh out of the ovens!
my diamants out of the oven: sadly they didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped
too much sugar and i forgot to roll the dough
In my practical there were 12 eager folks locked, loaded and ready to please the chef and out of that group, only two (?) were guys.... - well I think that one of the guys is in fact a girl with a really boyish haircut because I could've sworn I saw her in the girls' locker. Actually in patisserie courses, the number of women exceeds the number of guys by far! Funnily enough, you'll find more men in the culinary course.
For our practical, we had a substitute french chef: a tall, foreboding and stern chef. He spoke very minimal english and it proved to be challenging for everyone because in our practical class, only two people could understand french.
We didn't really focus much on the practical today because the chef was far too concern about setting down the rules and regulations of the working kitchen: again, with the emphasis on organisation, cleanliness and no wastage.
Personally I felt like he didn't really care much about being there, just to give us enough information about working the kitchen, letting us make the biscuits quickly before proceeding to take us on a quick tour to the supplies room upstairs and downstairs!
The chef we had was primarily a culinary chef with prior experience in patisserie. He didn't really give us much help in this practical... up until he sees something he doesn't like: such as unattended knives or filled workspaces - which in my case, was both.
In the kitchen, one must always maintain a clear workspace. Anything and everything not required at that given time, must be stacked away in an aluminium pan. In my case, I had my small knife and several bowls stacked up neatly by my workspace.
Within a span of a few seconds, I had the long-legged chef (he is quite TALL) stride across the room and proceed to explain to me the importance of clearing everything away - taking EACH item individually, showing them to me and explaining the dangerousness of it before proceeding to stack and clear them away from me.
All in a matter of 5 seconds (an eternity for me actually, because I could feel his eyes boring holes into my skull), my workspace was empty. I probably should be thankful - and I am... to a certain degree. :)
Accidents are bound to happen and with our uber-new and super-duper extra sharp knives... Well, you may have guessed: a girl had cut her finger quite deep - eshhhhh!!
Seems like accidents are quite common in the first lesson: in another practical, there were two people who had cut their fingers... and another student who had cut TWO fingers!!
Extra caution folks!
our diamants baking away in the industrial oven
i wonder where i can buy one?
note: notice the kitchen aid? yup, even school uses it :) but theirs are heavy duty though
Despite it all, I sort of had fun and enjoyed it. My diamants didn't turn out as great as others - perhaps I had placed a wee bit much sugar and forgot to give it a final roll before chopping them up?
Being it the first practical and how simple the recipe was, the chef didn't bother evaluating our biscuits. No one really paid much attention to their baking time either so some students ended up with really dry biscuits.
everyone with their baked diamants, packing away in their tupperwares
I was lucky that my biscuits were placed slightly later than the other so they maintained their soft crumbly texture.
my diamants: ended up giving mine away to folks at the office
i might try it again but this time incorporate different flavours to it?
Demonstration Class #02:
Personally I never really liked tart desserts: the sweet-tangy taste of the fruit had never been a personal favourite of mine. BUT, after watching the chef come up with the different kinds of apple tarts... I'm actually kinda psyched to give them a try in practical on Monday.
I was dead smack centre to watch Chef Xavier at work
The chef demonstrated a few ways of creating and presenting apple tarts and they were ALL AMAZING! My favourite has to be the Tarte Tatin (upside-down apple tart) - in caramalised butter and infused spices (just the thought of it right now is making my mouth watery!).
When the chef took the tart out and flipped it outside down onto the serving plate, everyone in the room was in awe! Seriously! There was an echo of "whoaaaaaaaaaaa!" Obviously it was a stroke to the chef's ego and he absolutely was living each moment of it!
the different tarts made by the end of the demonstration session
one thing i hate: shuffling with the students to get decent photos of the tarts
This happens at the end of EVERY demo
Sadly, we won't be making the tarte tatin on Monday. Instead, we'll be making the classic french tarte aux pommes (french apple tart) but still, I'm loving the techniques he employed in making the pastry dough.I'm eager to try it out in class!
The chef even made the pastry crust on a bottomless ring cutter! How awesome is that? Usually at home, you'll normally use the pie pans but clearly, no short cuts here!
Chef Xavier's fast ninja-skills at work:
crimping the dough
layering the apples which he ninja-sliced without even LOOKING!
More impressive was his cutting skills - secretly I think by now the chef was simply showing off his guns but still I reckon he has the right to... because (SERIOUSLY!!) AWESOME SKILLS TO HAVE!!
I think everyone in demo literally dropped their jaws watching him QUICKLY and EVENLY slice the apples with ease, without even looking down! We're definitely learning from a pro here!
the end product: Tartes aux pommes, Tarte Tatin, & Tarte Normandie
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