I've been quite busy this week, so I haven't really had time to write about all the new things I learnt. But today is my rest day, so here is my week in review:
Monday: I had trouble with my Marquise au Chocolat (mousse cake), and ran out of time to plate my mini-Marquise. Then I spent the late-afternoon and evening watching Chef H do a demo on the croquembouche. A long day ...
Tuesday: I did my stage (internship) at Stubbe. I learnt to make the centre of the praliné-marzipan chocolate truffle, lemon cream, white wine cream and hazelnut pound cakes, and I practised making marzipan roses and leaves.
Wednesday: I spent 5 hours at School making the croquembouche (French wedding cake). I was pleased with the results, even if my croquembouche was not the prettiest in my class.
Thursday: I did my stage at Stubbe again. This time, I was taught to make a special blend of hot chocolate that Stubbe sells at the shop. I made some dark chocolate glaze for covering cakes. I also learnt to layer and mask the lemon cakes with lemon buttercream (I did about 9 cakes) and to cover some of them with marzipan, to glaze the cakes with dark chocolate glaze, and decorate them with piped rosettes and so on. The tricky part was to get the cakes to all end up the same size (even layering and same height), which I could not do at first, but by the end of the day, I managed fine. I have to say I learnt so much about the techniques for mass producing cakes (unlike at School, where we only make one cake at a time)... In mass production, one learns to be very organised and much more efficient indeed.
Friday: I volunteered in Production Kitchen, starting at 6am. As usual, I made and baked three kinds of baguettes for Bistro Cordon Bleu -- 1. plain baguettes with egg wash and sesame seeds, 2. baguettes with dried cranberries and chopped walnuts, 3. baguettes with chopped kalamata olives. Later I helped with the assembly of some demo boxes, and mentored a couple of Basic Pastry students (on Chef CP's orders). In the afternoon, I went to the Canadian War Museum with some classmates.
Saturday: I went to School to watch Chef B (Cuisine chef) do a demo on Spanish food. I love Spanish food, so I couldn't resist the opportunity to watch the demo. (Aside: LCB students who volunteer to assist the chef are allowed to watch demos when the chefs present short courses to the public on Saturdays. But because I used to attend French language classes on Saturdays, I missed out on those opportunities.) Anyway, I now know how to make Gazpacho, Horchata, Paella and Churros. It was such a stimulating class!!! I really like the way Chef B presented the techniques for preparing and cooking the ingredients. Like Chef H (from Pastry), he too is a methodical teacher! Now I wish I were taking French cuisine courses ... I hope the pastry chefs at school don't see this, or I would end up in their bad books. Heheheh!
[Aside: There's a bit of friendly rivalry between the cuisine and pastry chefs, and pastry students who are interested in cuisine (like me) get teased mercilessly by the pastry chefs about being tempted by "the dark side". :D]
Next week promises to be exhausting too. We have to make 3 different cakes at School (the Pacific cake, the Opera cake, and the Triple Chocolate Bavarois cake), as well as sitting for a written exam on Tuesday morning. I am giving stage a miss for a week, just because things are so hectic right now.
Stay tuned for pictures of the cakes I make next week!
