Day 26: Mixed Up Pies

Today we took another attempt at making cinnamon rolls using the milk bread recipe. I made mine with  Nutella spread and cinnamon sugar and butter. Instead of making individual rolls, Chef decided that we should bake them in a round cake tin. The result is similar to that of Chelsea buns where there is a sticky sauce all over the bread when you turn it out of the pan. The cinnamon rolls came out very nicely and were yummy too. I'll have to make this for a family gathering. I'm sure that everyone will enjoy these and may even be surprised that I am bringing baked goods. My younger sister is usually in charge of that area.

With our cinnamon rolls completed Chef had us making a few apple based deserts. We started out with individual apple and cheddar cheese pies. We used tart granny smith apples tossed with brown sugar. In our tool kits we have Y shaped peelers. I've never used this type before and it took me a little while to get use to using this type of peeler. Once I got the hang of using one, peeling an apple was very easy. When the apples were peeled we cut around the core and made apples slices of half an inch thick. The apples were tossed with brown sugar ~ sugar is used to keep the apple from breaking down in cooking. Nobody wants a flat pie. A pie filled with apples high is what appeals to our sense of "we eat with our eyes first".

Before I could fill the pie with apples I needed to make a crust. The ingredients for the crust are pastry flour, butter, cold milk, and salt. Butter is pinched in to the dry ingredients and when all incorporated, the milk is mixed in and the dough is lightly kneaded. If you knead the dough too much the pie crust will be tough and not flaky. My dough was rolled and my pies were made with apples piled high inside and topped with aged white cheddar. I was looking forward to eating my cheddar apple pie with a scoop of ice cream when I got home... But when I got home, I discovered that I hadn't come home with the pies I had made. There were so many bags with baked goods in it, that I had gotten mine mixed up with others. I was disappointed that I didn't get to try my cheddar apple pie or get to take a a picture either.

I also made an apple crumble in class. Apple crumble is a very simple desert to make. If you are ever in a bind for a quick and easy desert ~ apple crumble or any fruit crumble for that matter will do. The apples are mixed with sugar and placed in a baking dish and topped with a crumble. The crumble is made with flour, quick oats, sugar and butter. A serving of apple crumble with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is always good.

I was appointed Sous Chef for the week by Chef. I was put to the task of delegating clean up to my colleagues to different areas in the kitchen. Chef is putting each of us in the role so that we know what to expect should we decide to find a job in a kitchen. In small kitchens, kitchen staff may be responsible for clean up at the end of the night. This could be washing up the remaining dishes, cooking utensils, pots and pans, cleaning the stoves, sterilizing work counters, sweeping and washing floors, rotating product/stock, and topping up cooking essentials such as spices. The role is also responsible for checking to ensure that clean up is done properly and completed each day.

Homework tonight is to review the recipes for chocolate mousse, Genoise cake, and coulis. Chef is marking us on the preparation of the chocolate mousse desert that we made last week and the plating presentation for service in an upscale restaurant.

Day 25: Salt for Sugar

We start the week off in the kitchen scaling our ingredients for a milk bread and leaving our yeast to bloom in warm milk. While we are waiting for the yeast to react with the milk we start scaling out the ingredients for the rye bread and also get the yeast started for the rye. 

The milk dough is a two step method ~ wet ingredients are added to the dry ingredients and mixed together. The dough is kneaded to the proper texture and put in an oiled bowl to rise in a warm spot. When the dough has risen, we roll out our dough to about and 1/8 of an inch thick. We are making cinnamon rolls, and a brown sugar and cinnamon mixture is spread on top of the dough then dotted with butter. The dough is rolled and then cut into 1 1/2 rounds. The rounds are now put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brushed with an egg wash and set aside before putting in a 375 F oven to bake.

Something went wrong with my cinnamon rolls ~ they didn't rise during baking. The same has happened to Chef and to a few of the students. Chef noticed when rolling out the dough that the dough just didn't seem right and continued on to show us what our cinnamon rolls would look like if the ingredients weren't exact as per the recipe. In determining what went wrong, Chef found that salt was in the sugar bin ~ and that instead of adding sugar to our recipe we were adding salt. Baking is an exact science ~ you cannot leave out an ingredient, substitute a main ingredient for another or increase or decrease a main ingredient substantiallly.

Our second bread today is a rye bread. I am making a rye bread with chopped walnuts and caraway seeds. This is not a traditional rye bread, but is more a rustic rye bread. Molasses is also added to give the rye bread it's colour and for taste. The kneading for the rye takes about 10 minutes to get it to the right texture and is then shaped in to a ball and put in a greased bowl to rise in a warm spot. After the dough has risen, the dough is pinched to the centre and formed to the shape of a ball. The top is scored with a knife and given an egg wash before leaving it to rise before putting it in to the oven at a temperature of 400 F.

We have worked quickly today, and Chef is having us make some corn bread. The corn bread is made with corn meal, bread flour, salt, sugar, baking soda, egg, and water. We are making a savoury corn bread and have added ingredients such as fire roasted red peppers, lime zest, sun dried tomatoes, chipotle peppers, and cheddar cheese. I like the savoury corn bread, but I think I like the sweet better and will make a corn bread muffin next time.

Chef assigned me as Sous Chef for the week. Sous Chef is responsible for the kitchen when the Chef is not there. I had the role of assigning clean up jobs for my colleagues. I think we did a great job on cleaning the kitchen for the next crew in.

Homework I don't feel like doing tonight. If I get a chance before I leave for school, I'll do a quick read on pies.

Day 24: Plating and Loving It.

Another busy day. Chef has us working on two breads and plating one desert ~ focaccia bread, pretzels and chocolate mousse. All very yummy indeed!

Earlier this week we made made a french bread, so kneading bread should become second nature. We started off the day by measuring out the ingredients for the two breads and starting the yeast. For a bread to rise, you typically need to use yeast. My first batch of yeast looked pretty good. The second for the pretzels looked a little off, but Chef said it was okay to use.

Focaccia topped with herbed cream cheese,
bacon and caramelized onions.

We started off with the focaccia bread because we were going to add ingredients to the top before baking it. Some of us used the mixer in class to knead the dough for them. There are only four mixer's so, I had to knead my own dough for the focaccia. It actually wasn't so bad. I have made breads by hand before, and it is always good practice to make bread by hand, because you never know when the machine you are using will break down. I added a few spices (rosemary, basil, and chili peppers to my flour before kneading. I let it rest in a warm spot over the stove.

After the dough had risen by double, I stretched the dough out onto a pan lined with parchment paper. I then lightly tapped my fingers all over the dough and started on the toppings. We made caramelized onions and bacon and let them cool off. Before adding the onion and bacon to the focaccia dough, I spread out a layer of cream cheese that had been infused with a few spices. Once cooled, I spread the onion and bacon on to the dough and as a finishing touch, grated some Parmesan cheese for the top. The focaccia was put in the oven bake at 375 F.

Pretzels topped with
coarse salt or sesame seeds.

When making the dough for the pretzels, it seemed that I didn't have the right amount of dry ingredient. We are told by Chef that when making a dough that we should keep a bit of the flour to the side because there are times where the dough may be too dry or too wet. You can always add more flour if a dough is too wet, but if it is too dry it is harder to add liquid. I found that finding the right texture for the pretzels was harder than for the foccaccia bread. The hard part for me in making pretzels is when you shape the dough in to a typical pretzel shape. I did manage to make one pretzel in the traditional shape. The rest are in the shape of a chain. No matter what shape you make your pretzel will still taste great. Especially when they first come out of the oven. We were offered the option by Chef of making a sweet pretzel ~ which I passed on. For a sweet pretzel, you could add ingredients such as nutmeg, cinnamon, or more sugar. Then when baked you could dust it with cinnamon sugar if desired. I wanted a traditional pretzel, one that had coarse salt on it. Before the pretzels were to be baked I washed them with a soda wash. A soda wash is made up of one teaspoon of baking soda, and two teaspoons of malt and warm water. After the pretzels were baked, they were washed with a glaze of honey and butter. I sprinkled coarse salt on half the pretzels and sesame seeds on the remaining half.

Chocolate Mousse.
My first attempt at plating.

Now with all the bread had been made and put away, Chef said that we would next plate our chocolate mousse deserts. Chef did demonstrations of how she would plate the chocolate mousse deserts that she had made yesterday ~ a small round, large round and a tear drop. For plating we had the options of strawberries, raspberries, mint leaves, and the berry coulis we made yesterday too. Chef demonstrated how she likes to fan a strawberry by first taking off the steam end and then slicing in to it from the pointed end. Before plating the strawberry with the desert Chef likes it fanned out. Chef plates looked so nice. I was so excited to try my hand on my own two deserts.

Getting a little more creative on my plating
using small sprigs of mint in the coulis.

I chose to use three raspberries placed on top of my small mousse with a small sprig of a few leaves added to it. I dotted the berry coulis around the chocolate mousse. For the large mousse, I sliced one strawberry and fanned it the way that Chef did and placed it on top of the mouse. I placed a few mint leaves in front of the strawberry. With the coulis I made what could look like a single quote three times around the chocolate mousse and placed very small mint leaves on the larger part of the 'quote'. Great way to end the day.

It's the weekend ~ TGIF. Well at least for me.

Day 23: Whipping It Up In The Kitchen

Chef is back and has us working on chocolate mousse, sponge cake, banana bread pudding, and a berry coulis. Lots to make today and not a second to stand around.

We set up our stations and then measured out the ingredients for a Genoise cake (sponge cake). The first step for this cake was to whip the sugar and eggs over a bain marie (water bath) at a temperature of 110 F. This process took a lot of arm muscle and time to whip the mixture to the proper consistency and colour. When you have a nice pale yellow and the proper consistency you are done. The next step was to add the sifted cake flour and fold it in. Then melted butter and melted vanilla. Once all ingredients were mixed together, it was put in to a butter floured cake pan and baked in the oven at 350 F.

Next we made some chocolate mousse. Butter and semi-sweet chocolate are melted over a bain marie. While the chocolate was melting, I whipped together sugar and 35% cream making sure not to over mix. With a clean and dry wire whip I whipped up the egg whites forming a nice stiff peak.

One of the students was having problems with getting the egg whites to whip up properly. It was discovered that there was water in the egg whites and that was the reason for them not whipping. A wire whip that was not completely dry. Baking is a science, so it's very important to remember exact measurements and exact procedures for mise en place. Anything not done exactly as called for could be the cause of a negative end result.

To make the chocolate mousse, the chocolate butter mixture was added to the egg whites and combined together. This mixture was then added to the sugar cream mixture and folded in and mixed to a creamy texture. The chocolate mousse now needed to be put into a pipping bag and put in the refrigerator to cool for use later in the day.

We had made banana bread on day 21. We each had put aside a loaf in the refrigerator to be made in to a bread pudding. With half the loaf I made a bread pudding by mixing cream, vanilla and egg yolks, adding a pinch or two of salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and about a half loaf of the banana bread loaf cut in to cubes. This was then poured into a loaf pan and baked in the oven 350 F.

Chef asked up to get out our ring moulds so that we could get started on our mousse desert. We got our Genoise cakes and sliced the top off. About a 1/4 of an inch. We used our ring moulds to make the base of our chocolate mousse desert.

Chef showed us a technique to make a mould the same size as those made with the rings. We used semi-sweet chocolate that had been melted over a bain marie to create the mould that would be positioned on the Genoise cake base. We then two uncompleted deserts back in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to set inside the ring moulds. While waiting for the chocolate to set we made a berry coulis.

Making a berry coulis is very simple. Add mixed berries to a sauce pan and add some water and sugar. If you like it tart, don't add so much sugar. Cook the mixture on the stove over a high heat until the berries have broken down and the sauce has started to reduce. At this point remove from the heat and pour it the sauce in to a bowl. Take an immersion blender to it to break the berries down further. Strain the mixture back in to the sauce pan to remove any seeds from the berries. Place back on heat and reduce further until you get a nice consistency that coats a spoon. We strained the sauce again and poured it in to a squeeze bottle and put it in the refrigerator to be used for plating our chocolate mousse deserts.

As always the last thing to do in the kitchen is to clean. Pots, pans, dishes, utensils, and kitchen tools were all washed, Table tops sanitized and floors swepted and then washed. At the end of the day, my body was tired and I was ready to put my feet up for a good rest.

I'm too tired to do any homework today.

Day 22: Switching Up Chefs

I arrived early and noticed that Chef wasn't in the kitchen. Chef is usually there ahead of us to set up so that we know what tools we would be using for the day. Everyone noticed that another Chef was setting up and so we found that we were going to be taught today's class by the Chef that is currently teaching the advance class. Today we are making profiteroles filled with vanilla pastry cream a chocolate drizzled on top.

All was good and Chef started us all off with gathering the ingredients to make a pastry cream. The ingredients consisted of sugar and milk in a sauce pot, egg yolk, whole egg, cornstarch, and sugar in a bowl, butter in a bowl, set aside and vanilla. Chef gave us a demonstration of the steps that we need to follow to create a vanilla pastry cream. We started off by bring the sugar and milk to a boil. Then tempered the egg yolk, whole egg, cornstarch and sugar mixture with the hot sugar and milk. Once the mixture had tempered, I added the remaining hot milk and sugar stirring to combine thoroughly. The mixture was returned to the stove to thicken and butter and vanilla were stirred in well afterwards. The cream was covered with saran wrap and then taken to cool in the refrigerator to be used later. There are many variations for this pastry cream such as adding chocolate or coffee in place of (or addition to) the vanilla.



Vanilla Pastry Cream
Filled Profiteroles Drizzled
With Dark Chocolate

With the vanilla pastry cream completed we moved on to making the pate a choux (eclair paste) or as the Chefs like to call it, shoe (choux) paste. We decided that with the pate a choux that we would make profiteroles. How classic is that for a French pastry? I had my first profiterole in 1979 and I can still remember how good it tasted!

Making the pate a choux was even easier than making the pastry cream. Simple ingredients that we all typically have in our pantry were used ~ water, butter, salt, bread flour, and eggs. The water and butter were heated to a boil ensuring that the butter was completely melted. Once this occurred it was taken off the heat and the bread flour was added and stirred quickly. The pot was then returned to the stove and stirred vigorously until the dough formed a ball and pulled away from the sides of the pot. I transferred the dough to a bowl and worked it around every so often to cool so it was no longer hot to the touch.

To make the profiteroles, I fitted a pastry bag with a large star tube (a large tube is typically used) and filled it with the pate a choux. I then piped round mounds of the dough on to a parchment lined baking pan ~ 24 to be exact. I placed them in to the oven to bake at 425 F turning the temperature down to 375 F after 10 minutes. The profiteroles were taken out of the oven when they became browned and very crisp.

While the profiteroles cooled off we made churros with the left over pate a choux. A churro is the Mexican version of the doughnut. The dough was piped in a straight three inch log on parchment paper. The churros (I had enough dough for three) where slid in to the hot oil to cook. After turning a lovely dark brown they were taken out and drained of excess oil and tossed in a cinnamon and sugar mixture. These were absolutely wonderful. Fried food cannot get any better than these. The texture of the churro on the outside was crisp while the inside was creamy.


Practicing my plating skills
with some pulled sugar.

The profiteroles now cooled were ready for the pastry cream. I filled a pastry bag with the vanilla cream mixture and piped it in to the profiteroles. I made enough cream for a dozen profiterole, the remaining will be frozen to be used later this week. The vanilla pastry cream filled profiteroles were finished off with a drizzle of dark chocolate.

As an added bonus Chef showed us some sugar work and how it's done. I got to try it out and used my first try at sugar work in platting my profiteroles to show off the pastries I baked today.

Homework tonight is to share the goodies with my family, neighbours and friends who live nearby.

Day 21: The Beautiful Smell of Baked Goods

My biscuits on pan, left side, at back 

You can tell when something baking in the oven is done (or almost done) when you can smell it's aroma floating through the kitchen. This is how it was ~ times three ~ today.

We started class today with organizing our tools as laid out by Chef. We placed all tools on our working space according to what Chef had put out on her space, so that we didn't have to search for them while working on our products. This is done to be efficient in the kitchen. Organization is a huge part of cooking and this is just the start of working that practice in to our everyday kitchen experience.


Olives, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Basil,
Feta Cheese Stuffed Bread. 

The first item on our menu was a stuffed bread. We began by making the bread so that it could proof while we made our banana bread ~ the second item on our menu for today. For starters we began with the yeast in warm water making sure that we sprinkled the yeast in the warm water so that it could bloom while we were gathering the other ingredients for the bread. We measured out the ingredients ~ dry and wet ~ with the scales in the kitchen for accuracy. To the dry mixture we added the wet ingredients and kneaded the dough until it was the right texture. This took a few minutes of kneading to get it to the right texture so that we could put it in to an oiled bowl covered with saran wrap and let it proof in a warm place just above the ovens.

While we were waiting for the bread to proof we began gathering the ingredients for the banana bread. Top the banana bread mixture we had the option of adding walnuts, raisins or chocolate chips. I decided on adding walnuts and chocolate chips ~ I don't like raisins. The wet mixture of egg and oil were mixed in to the dry ingredients using the muffin method ~ mixing only until all dry ingredients become wet. Over mixing causes the flour to release too much gluten making for a tough bread. The batter was then put into loaf pans, mini-loaf pans or tart pans and then into the oven at a temperature of 375 F.


Walnut, Chocolate, Banana Bread.

As the banana bread was baking away in the oven, we went back to our bread which had risen. We stretched the dough out into a square ready to add our stuffing. I used green olives with pimento, sun dried tomatoes, Thai basil, and feta cheese. The ingredients were laid at one end of the dough and then rolled to the shape of a baguette size loaf, brushed with an egg wash and placed on a parchment lined baking sheet to rise before putting in the oven.

We all cleaned our work area and tools ready for the next recipe. We could smell the aroma of the banana bread and knew that our breads were almost ready. By the time we finished clean up, the banana bread was finished baking and it time to put the stuff loaves of bread into the oven. Chef let us take a break and enjoy some of the banana bread that we had just baked. The loaf was put in the refrigerator to be used in a bread pudding that Chef would give us direction on putting together.

Fresh baked savoury bread loaf.

Right after our break the bread was checked for doneness. With the bread ready and out of the oven cooling we started on our last recipe of the day ~ savoury biscuits. Chef decided that we needed more organization in the kitchen. With 12 of us there is a line up waiting for the scales to measuring out the dry (flour, baking soda, etc.) and wet (egg, milk, and butter) ingredients. Chef divided the class in half with one half measuring out their dry and wet ingredients and the other half working on mise en place. I was directed to shred a white sharp cheddar with the block grater, others were directed to slice prosciutto (each then had to chiffonade their portion of prosciutto), chop rosemary and chives.

Prosciutto, aged white cheddar,
chive, rosemary and thyme biscuits.

After everyone got their ingredients together, Chef gave a demonstration of how to mix the ingredients for our savoury biscuits. Spices were added to the flour such as rosemary, chives, salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes (optional), and then the cheese and prosciutto. The butter was added last breaking small pieces into the dry mixture. We pinched the butter flour mixture until it resembled a coarse meal. At this point we added the wet mixture of egg and goats milk and mixed the wet and dry together trying to combine and not to over mix. We patted out the batter to about one inch in height so that we could cut out biscuits with our ring moulds placing them on a baking sheets, then giving them an egg wash and into the oven.

With all the baking done, our next task was to clean our working space and the kitchen. When all was done, we packed our baked goods ready to share with our families and friends. It was a great first day in the kitchen.

Day 20: Theory Completed! Kitchen Here I Come...

For the last chapters in the textbook, Chef reviewed chapters 32 to 25 ~ Cakes and Icings, Cookies, Pies and Pastries, Creams, Custards, Puddings, Frozen Desserts, and Sauces. I like to bake and am looking forward to making some of these goodies to perfection. I'm sure that the creativity in me will bring my baking to a higher level. There are so many things that you can do with food to make it taste and look good.

I have limited experience/experimentation with icings. I've really only done two types ~ whipped cream (which I don't think is really an icing) and a cream cheese icing. I use the whipped cream for berry cakes as part of the filling and topping. The cream cheese icing is used for a carrot cake that I make. While going through review of this chapter with Chef, I have begun to think about infusing a number of different tastes into icings for various baked goods.

There are many methods for making cakes. High-fat cakes or shortened cakes use the creaming method (conventional method) or the two-stage method (also known as the blending method). The creaming method as you likely have guessed is the process of creaming all ingredients by starting with the butter, sugar, eggs and then the dry ingredients (flour, salt, cocoa, spices). The two-stage method involves adding the liquids in two stages. This method creates a very smooth batter that bakes up into a fine-grained, moist cake.

The foaming or sponge method, angel food method, or chiffon method is used for low-fat or foam-type cakes. The foaming or sponge method involves warming the egg-sugar mixture over a hot water bath or warming the sugar on a sheet pan in the oven then gradually beating it into the eggs. The next step involves beating the sugar egg mixture at high speed until it is light and thick. The foam is what gives the cake its volume. You must be fairly quick when combining the ingredients because the foam will begin to deflate. The dry ingredients are folded into the foam mixture carefully to not deflate the foam. Once all ingredients have been mixed together, you need to immediately pan and bake the batter. Delays will cause loss of volume in the cake.

The angel food method uses egg whites instead of whole eggs as is used in the foaming or sponge method. Angel food cakes are based on egg-white foams and contain no fat. The chiffon method also uses egg-white foam. However, in a chiffon cake, a batter containing flour, egg yolk, vegetable oil and water is folded into the egg-white foam. The chiffon cake also contains baking soda and is on dependant on the egg-foam for its leavening.

There are many types of icing used for cakes: fondant, butter cream, foam-type icing, fudge-type icing, flat-type icing and royal or decorator's icing. Butter cream is the most commonly used icing for cakes. The little hard candied flowers (rosettes) that you see on some cakes is made using royal or decorator's icing. This type of icing is made with egg whites (which when dry makes it hard and brittle) and is used exclusively for decorative work.

Thirty-five chapters (1,053 pages) in twenty days. Theory completed! Now for the fun stuff ~ turning theory in to practice.

During my first week in the kitchen I will be using the sponge cake method to make a Genoise cake. I will be sure to take a picture of the end result for my portfolio. I have confidence that the cake will turn out the way it should. Stay tuned for many pictures to be posted of my food results.

Homework? Complete my recipe bible and put time aside to work on my business plan for a food establishment.

Day 19: My Very Own Toolbox

As the days come to an end for classroom theory we are all getting excited about entering in to the kitchen. But first we need to finish the last chapters of the textbook. Today we reviewed a few more chapters getting us another step closer to actually creating what we know as theory.

We completed chapters 29 to 31 in our textbooks ~ Bakeshop Production: Basic Principles and Ingredients, Yeast Products and Quick Breads. Baking is a science where exact measurements are necessary. A scale is used in baking for accuracy. I will need to bring mine in to class for use. There are about four scales in the kitchen for our class of 12 students.

With baking, if you add too much or too little of an ingredient or stir it too much or not enough, your product may not turn out as it should. Who wants a flat cake because you didn't put enough baking powder in it. I learned that if a recipe calls for cake flour, bread flour, or pastry flour that you should use that flour for best results. I've been using all-purpose flour which is fine. But it looks like I will be purchasing the three flours recommended for baking going forward. I love to bake and I'd like to get the best results.

With my textbook, I received a few online tools which are very handy. I have access online to all the recipes in the book. Included with the recipes are details such as the nutritional values, quick calculation of ingredient amounts when changing the quantity. I find this so handy. I don't need to carry around my heavy textbook. I can carry my mini laptop which is way lighter. I'm thinking I should try to get the recipes on my ipod.

Next week we will be in the kitchen. During the first two weeks, I will be working on my baking techniques. Did I tell you I love to bake? Chef gave us our recipes for our first week of baking. We have nine recipes ~ which works out to at least two recipes per day. Here's what I will be making next week: banana bread, biscuits, eclair paste (pate a choux), pastry cream, Genoise cake (sponge cake), chocolate mousse, focaccia, milk bread (used for cinnamon buns), and pretzels. I will be taking pictures of everything I make for my portfolio. The pictures will provide prospective employers with a good example of my plating and knife skills.

To end the day I received my very own toolbox filled with cooking tools. I took mine home to give a good wash before I use them next week. I already have about 90 per cent of the tools provided today in my own kitchen. Having doubles will allow me to practice my baking or cooking learned at school at home and not have to bring my tools to and from school every day.

I'm not doing any homework tonight ~ it's my last night of curling for the season.

Day 18: Five Weeks and Still Going Strong.

I am already in the fifth week of school and have been managing to keep up. The days are long with school and then home and other activities. I can't believe that next week I will finally be in the kitchen and that we will have gone through our text book ~ all 35 chapters. I handed in my resume and cover letter ahead of time to keep my nights free to finish off writing the recipes in my cooking bible for when I'm in the kitchen. I will also need my nights to work on my last project ~ my business plan for a business in the food services industry.

Today we moved to another classroom because the advance class and the food basics class were doing their exams ~ which means that they are preparing a meal to be marked/critiqued by chefs from their programs and a guest chef. Today's guest Chef was from The Paramount Restaurant in Niagara Falls. Yesterday the classes worked on their mise en place and today half the class put their plates together to be marked. They all worked hard and of the few plates that I saw I thought that they looked great. One of the cooked in my opinion had what looked like beautifully cooked scallops. In ten weeks I'll be getting my mise en place completed and pull together my final plate for judging. But I still have a long way to go before that!

In class today we cover chapters 26 to 28 ~ Sausages and Cured Foods, Pates, Terrines, and Other Cold Foods, and Food Presentation and Garnish. I've never made sausages or cured foods. Chef said that we would get the opportunity to make Gravlox. This is cured salmon made by using coarse salt, sugar, white pepper and fresh dill sprigs. The course salt draws the moisture out of the fish and is also used with the sugar to cure (preserve) the salmon. The white pepper and fresh dill sprigs provide additional flavour to the fish.

We will get the opportunity to make a basic mousseline. The mousseline will be the farce (stuffing) used in a pork loin. The mousseline is like a pate in texture. The ingredients used in a basic mousseline are: chicken meat, lean veal, fish or shellfish, egg whites, heavy cream, salt, white pepper, cayenne and nutmeg. The terrine is based on mousselines. To make a terrine, you layer the mousseline with other ingredients such as vegetables like carrots, asparagus, peas. red peppers, etc. The shape of a terrine is like a square loaf of bread. When you serve the terrine, you cut it like slices and this when you see the layers in the terrine that have been created by alternating the mousseline with other ingredients.

Food presentation and garnish will play a large part in the plating of our food. I am looking forward to the creative aspect. If you have ever seen any of the food network shows such as Iron Chef or Top Chef you'll understand how creative one can get with plating. We all eat with our eyes first before we eat with our mouths. If it doesn't look good, then our expectation is that it won't taste good. If it looks beautiful, we imagine that the taste will be amazing. In a classical arrangement, the main food item is in front, with the vegetable, starch and garnish at the back of the plate. Which ever arrangement is chosen, the main ingredient is the highlight with sauces and garnishes usually on the plate around the main item.

We ended the day with Chef asking us to design a buffet to be used at a wedding reception. My take on the buffet was to design one that is somewhat simple and easy to manage. Buffets are usually self serve so should not be confusing as to what sauces go with which food and related items should be kept together for flow. Foods should be selected to ensure that they don't loose moisture or dry out ~ especially those foods that need to be kept hot with the use of chaffing trays.

Two more days and seven chapters left in the textbook to review and then we will be in the kitchen! The chapters remaining deal with baking. This is what we will begin with in the kitchen.

Homework tonight is to review chapters in the textbook and continue working on my business plan project.

Day 17: Monday, Monday

I was so tired today. On Sunday I volunteered for a charity event held at the Scottish Rite in Hamilton. The opportunity allowed me to work with the Executive Chef and Chef de Cuisine from the Ancaster Mill Restaurant. The day started at 9:30 a.m. with the kitchen staff working on mise en place for the lunch. It was a non-stop day that included preparing three dishes ~ salad, main course and desert. It was an interesting experience to see how food production is done for large catered events. My day ended at 3:00 p.m. with weary feet and body. I had no idea how tired I could get moving constantly for five hours.

The class started off slow with us going over chapters 22 to 25 ~ Sandwiches, Hors d'Oeuvres, Breakfast Preparation and Diary and Beverages. Lots of information for a Monday and a couple exercises on menu items. These were to create two appetizers used for a catered reception. My first creation ~ Smoked Salmon with a Chive Infused Cream Cheese Crepe. My second creation ~ Fried Oyster Po-Boy Slider with Mint Infused Creme Fresh. I even thought of a third ~ Curried Cream of Pumpkin Soup Shooter.

I'm looking forward to making hors d'oeuvres. These are mini bite size creations of main courses. I love the thought of sampling rather than eating one main course. There are so many combinations of food that the ideas are endless for creating hors d'oeuvres. As a chef you may be called upon to create an amuse bouche (ah mews boosh) ~ a tiny appetizer or hors d'oeuvres, compliments of the Chef and usually in more expensive restaurants. It is an opportunity for a Chef showcase an aspect of their cooking style and talent and to welcome guests. I've had the opportunity of an amuse bouche when I've dined at Canoe ~ an upscale restaurant in Toronto.

Three more days and we are in the kitchen! We are all counting down the days with enthusiasm.
The chapters covered today will help with my business plan project in preparing the menu choices.

I've done my resume and cover letter. Homework tonight is to continue on with the busines plan project and write out recipes into our cooking bible for when we are in the kitchen. I should do some reading too, but I think this may have to wait until the weekend or the weeks that we are in the kitchen.