Bienvenue sur Le Cordon Bleu: Demonstration 14

Demonstration 14: Brioche 

"Let them have Brioche"

Those were the legendary words Marie-Antoinette had said in response to the starving French folks protesting outside the palace gates. It was from those fateful words that so suddenly, was born, Brioche as one of the staple breads in the French pastry world.

Personally I hadn't known what a brioche was until I came to France and saw the signs plastered on the windows of every single patisserie and boulangerie in every corner of Paris. 

My discovery of Brioche was akin to one who just discovered the signifcance of gold! I had an epiphany. You know that feeling? You know, like in the movies where the character makes a surprising discovery towards the ending of the film? The scene where it's as though a brand new universe had just started to unravel right before your eyes, that so suddenly the rose-tinted glasses which you view the world with has suddenly been lifted...

Yeah... I had an epiphany like that...

Well... kind of...

Truly, it amazes me how the French can come up with something so wonderfully delicious, gob-smackingly delicious, did I mention delicious?, bread such as the Brioche! Seriously, why wasn't I born French??! I would love to be from a country that has stemmed itself with strong historical culinary and patisserie foundations.
 

Brioche is truly unheard of from the petite country of where I come from!

So what is a Brioche?

Brioche is a French bread, highly enriched in butter and egg rending its flavours sweet and rich, whilst flaky and uber-soft in texture. Although it falls under the category of patisseries, the brioche is more bread than cake because it requires yeast and kneading for a good 20-mins by hand!!! (can you say, STRONG BICEPS?!! - no wonder majority of the bakers in France are men!! Baking is labour-intensive!!!).  
 
In France, Brioche is eaten as breakfast as well as tea/snack time. It's baked in different sizes and shapes from traditional rectangular bread loaves to the a small round dough baked on top of another bigger dough, resembling a cupcake with a growing head!!

 Parisien Brioche: the cupcake with a growing head

The Grosse Brioche: The Big Brioches with bigger heads!

What I particularly loved about this demonstration was that Chef Jean-Jacques (so far my favourite chef of the lot because he's an AWESOME baker!) showed us the different bread-based desserts. Another reason why I love Brioche... i can make Brioche-based kougelhopf!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!! Brioche-based rolls and so much more!! GAAAHH!! I'm SO excited to try them all out that I can't help but giggle like a school girl! Hehehe

 Kougelhopf and a Braided Brioche

Chef Jean-Jacques Tranchant - my favourite chef

Sadly I didn't take photos of my brioches from practical because I had forgotten to bring my camera and I was in a rush! Much to my dismay, I had both the demonstration and practical on my birthday: the first being at an early 8:30am and the latter being the last session of the day at 6:30pm (ending at 10pm).

Not that I'm complaining but it didn't help that as well as being late for pratical, we had the horrendous Chef *ehem-I-refuse-to-mention-his-name* who... to my delight (and I'm being sarcastic)... threatened to give me a ZERO because he THOUGHT i hadn't bothered to listen to his directions and do something completely different...  

WORSE was when he realised his mistake (that I actually WAS doing what he wanted me to do) and rather than apologising or anything a decent person would do... he simply said...

"MAYBE a zero"...

Ohhh boy was I angry that day. VERY angry.

But I tried not to let it get the best of me, and in the end I succeeded.

Because despite it all, I realised three things:

First: that I've already gone through one of the hardest experiences of my life, so a chef threatening me with a zero is NOTHING compared to what I've been through before;

Second: that once in a while, in life and at work (especially in a working kitchen) I'm definitely going to cross knives with people and chefs WORSE than him, with threats that are FAR MORE serious than a mere zero (such as... being fired, for one thing!);

Lastly third: in the end, Chef was just doing his job. It's normal and nothing out of the ordinary. It's one of the few ways a student can learn from their mistake. Although obviously there are better ways of going about it, but still in the end.. chef was just doing his job.

I have to say that this experience with the horrendous Chef certainly helps you learn to develope a thicker skin. Things like these aren't meant to be taken personally and being from an environment where it's very rare to experience these things, it was a big personal learning curve for me.

I'm also VERY VERY thankful I had people like Ellie, Klara and all in my class - who despite everything was brave enough to joke around with me and eventually got me to loosen up and let everything go. I'm happy to know that I have people like this in my life :)

Btw: I discovered that there exists an oven that can shoot out steam jets inside, whilst baking... WOOOO!!!!