I was volunteering in production kitchen for the last 11 weekdays in a row, hence I didn't have as much time or energy to tend to this blog. Now I am making up for it.
The last 11 weekdays in production kitchen have been fun. The American chefs were in town for training by LCB Ottawa chef instructors (cuisine), and I was one of those who volunteered to prepare the demo boxes for that. I am getting much more efficient at assembling the demo boxes now, because I know where to go to get the different types of ingredients, how much to include, and how to prepare things. I consider it good practice for keeping up MEP (mise en place) skills.
I still got to help out with some pastry stuff early in the morning, as per usual. The last few days, instead of making cinnamon twists for staff breakfast, I asked if I could make papillions out of the puff pastry (just for a change), and Chef CP said OK. Chef N had shown us how to make papillions (butterflies) in the puff pastry lesson in Basic Pastry, and I'd always wanted to try making that. Well, the papillions I made sort of look more like bow-ties, but that's ok. They're cute enough!
I also learnt to make some chocolate truffles in production kitchen. The ganache was flavored with orange zest, cognac and grand marnier, cayenne powder, and finely-chopped prunes (for texture). It was a really nice flavour. I'd always loved orange flavored chocolates, but this one had a twist - you can taste a spicy aftertaste in it (because of the cayenne). I loved it so much that I came home and made something similar.
The last couple of days, I volunteered for Bistro, because things were quieter in production kitchen (as it is almost holiday time for the chefs now). At Bistro, I had the chance to learn many new techniques from various chefs, just by watching them, talking to them and also by practising the techniques when the opportunity arose. For instance, I now know a fast way to peel an apple in a few seconds. Chef M (from cuisine) showed me the technique, and I was grateful for that, because I had to peel lots of apples in a hurry for Bistro on Thursday. The way I was taught to peel an apple by Chef T (from pastry) was good (because it makes the apples look nice and presentable), but it was not as useful a technique in this situation.
(Aside: "Bistro" refers to "Bistro Cordon Bleu", a "new application restaurant which is the school's full-service, fine-dining restaurant, run and staffed by students". This is the official description of Bistro Cordon Bleu from the LCB Ottawa website.
Since I volunteered for the pastry station, Chef CF came and talked me through how to make the dessert on the day's menu Prunes with Armagnac in Crispy Phyllo, served with Vanilla Ice Cream. I had learnt how to make creme anglaise (to make ice cream) in Basic Pastry, but when asked to make 2 litres of it, I suddenly had a mental block. So Chef CF patiently took me through the whole process again. Now I won't forget how to make vanilla ice cream from scratch.
[FYI: Creme Anglaise for Vanilla Ice Cream --> Boil 2 litres of milk in a pot, with 2 vanilla beans. Prepare 24 egg yolks in a bowl, and then mix 300g of sugar into the egg yolks. When the milk is boiling, sacrifice some milk into the egg mixture, stirring the mixture to homogenise everything, then pour all of the homogenised egg mixture into the remainder of the boiling milk. Cook (stirring with a wooden spoon the whole time) the mixture for a couple of minutes over medium heat until "a la nappe", to pasteurise the mixture and to get the right consistency. Pour the cooked creme anglaise into a chinois to sieve it (eliminating any lumps in the mixture). Take out the vanilla beans, cut them open and scrape the seeds into the creme anglaise mixture. Then pour the finished creme anglaise into the ice cream machine. Churn for 15 minutes. Done!]
Chef M was most patient when he showed me how to plate up the dessert for the lunch service. I'd never ever worked in a restaurant kitchen before, so I had to ask how to do this and that - I took nothing for granted. He showed me how to pipe the sauce and garnish the dessert, how to place the plated dessert on the pass for the servers...
I enjoyed myself so much that I volunteered for next week's Bistro, which is the last one for the year.
Yesterday afternoon I went with my housemate to Carlingwood Mall, to help him with the third gingerbread house. He was being interviewed by a local radio station's afternoon program (All in A Day, with host Adrian Harewood, CBC 91.5FM), and they'd asked him to demonstrate to a live audience (of shoppers) how he would build a gingerbread house. He was able to turn an ordinary gingerbread house kit into something extraordinary. I was just there as his assistant, helping out with a few things when required. It was lovely to see how well all the elements of the gingerbread house came together. So many kids (and their parents) came over to the table to look at it and we hope they were all inspired by it. I will post some pictures of the third gingerbread house soon.
