In Lesson 1, Chef H covered the following basic doughs and recipes in the demonstration class:
Doughs:
Short Crust Dough (Pâte Brisée)
Short Cake Dough (Pâte Sablée)
Pie Dough (Pâte à foncer)
Sweet Dough (Pâte Sucrée)
Recipes:
Chocolate-and-vanilla short-cake (Damiers, based on Pâte Sablée)
Small shortbreads (Petits Sablés Nantais, based on Pâte Sablée)
In the demonstration class, the chef instructor also showed us the correct techniques for preparing the doughs. The best thing about studying at LCB Ottawa is the emphasis on students learning to work with raw ingredients and making all the recipes from scratch. In Basic Pastry, we do not get to use machines to mix the doughs or to whisk meringue. Everything has to be done by hand. The School's rationale is that students need to learn to use their hands to feel the texture and consistency of what they are making. It is good training indeed.
Furthermore, LCB only gives you the ingredients list for all recipes, but not the instructions on how to make something. Students have to attend demonstration classes and take their own notes. If you miss a demonstration class (e.g. if you are more than 15 minutes late, you don't get to attend the class), you do not get to participate in the practical class, because you would not have seen how the chef instructor made something. And that (missed demo+prac) counts as two absences. More than four absences, you have failed the course. So, it really teaches students discipline. (Aside: At Wilbrod House, the dining room clock is set 20 minutes fast, so that we wouldn't be late to class. Everyone in the house knows it. No housemate is allowed to reset the clock, because it would throw everyone off.)
Anyway, yesterday I attended the practical class for the first time, and it was quite a learning experience. The chef instructor expects us to come to class knowing exactly what we have to do. We can bring some notes to help us to remember how to make a recipe, but we are not encouraged to consult the extensive notes we took during the demo class. Besides, there's no time for it -- the practical class is really not the time to start reading your notes and wondering what to do with the ingredients. All of us basically run through the process for each recipe in our minds before we go to practical class.
All in all, I was satisfied with my performance in the first practical class, even though I found it slightly overwhelming. I did make one small mistake (forgetting to add the salt and milk into the sweet dough at the appropriate time), but thank goodness Chef H (who was walking around the kitchen checking everyone's progress) caught it in time. I'm sure I will feel more at ease in the kitchen as the term wears on ...
