Week 5 was confectionery, which consisted of marshmellows, candied almonds, lollipops, fruit jellies, soft caramels, and nougatine. We also made a pastillage (sugar dough) show piece with sesame nougatine as accent pieces. However, due to private matters my chef had to leave class early Wednesday morning and we lost a day of the lab. The other two days we had to work harder and cut a few recipes out of the schedule to fit them all in. Even though we had one less day, I still feel like I learned a lot about confectionery and lots of different candy techniques.
Chef Pierre and I in front of my completed Olympics themed showpiece
Completed show piece with sesame nougatine, pastillage, pulled and poured sugar
Candy buffet with sugar coated almonds and marshmellows
Lollipops! (In a homemade chocolate holder)
Soft caramels flavored with fruit purees and some poured sugar hearts
Week 6 was entremets which are fancy layered French cakes. I was obsessed with entremets class at JWU so I was even more excited about his lab. Plus we had Chef Richard again who I really enjoyed as a Chef during our chocolates lab!
Monday morning rolls around and I wake up for AM lab feeling like absolute garbage. I was SO sick. My vision was clouded, my throat was on fire, my nose was stuffed, my ears were congested, I had a head ache.. all the works. But I pushed through the desire to crawl back into bed and I trudge off to class. About an hour in I realize how much of a fog I was in and decided to go back to the castle for a quick snack, some tea, and to lay down for a little. Next thing I know I'm upstairs in bed and it's 8pm... at least at that point I was feeling better and VERY well rested. Missing a day of lab was pretty difficult though, there's always so much you can miss out on. Luckily, the class is designed in a way where missing that one day wasn't as terrible as I thought.
Entremets are a layered cake consisting of a cake component, a crunch component, a cream insert, a mousse, typically glazed, and a garnish. Monday we did all the cake and crunch components. Tuesday we did most of the creams and finished a few cake components. Wednesday we did all the mousses, constructed the cakes, and made the glazes. Thursday we made all the garnishes, glazed our cakes, finished the cakes, did a buffet presentation, then tasted them all.
Although I had missed a day, my Chef and everyone in class was helpful with quickly filling me in on what I had missed and I jumped back in the second day right on track with everyone else. I really enjoy entremets class and I am excited as ever to take this information home with me and see how I can remake some of these cakes in the states!
Our final entremets were;
Zeste d'Ete - crumble base, lime cake, strawberry jam filling, and basil mousse
Exotique - coconut biscuit, a mango passionfruit cream filling, coconut mousse, and marshmellow garnish
Pomme 'n' Nuts - hazelnut biscuit, chocolate crispy crepe with parline, apple compote, milk chocolate mousse, and apple chip garnish
Tete de Linotte - Pistachio and pecan chocolate brownie base, creamy caramel, milk chocolate mousse, and biscuit cracker garnish
Carburer au Cafe - Chocolate crumble biscuit base, coffee pastry cream, chocolate pudding, and tempered chocolate garnishes.
Entremets class was amazing and they all tasted SOO good. The tete de linotte is literally the best thing I've had here to date. I can't wait to make it for the next family get together!
Chef Richard and I in front of the final buffet.
Last weekend they held a MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France) competition at the castle, which is basically a giant pastry competition between prestigious chefs to get the title of MOF. So naturally all the people competing needed a place to stay... and we all got kicked out of our rooms at the castle. Luckily, ENSP was kind enough to put us up in a hotel in Lyon! So Kendall, Lisa, Rob, and I lived it up in Lyon for the weekend. It was so fun. SO much walking! (and equally as much drinking..) My feet are still swollen from it all. I even stupidly wore heels out drinking two nights. Cobble stone walk ways and heels are NOT a good combination.
We found this really fun pirate themed rum bar, a whiskey bar, a lot of clothing shops, a few cute bakeries, an awesome sushi shop, and we had lunch at a Michelin star restaurant on Monday. It was a very fun trip but very exhausting. I'm still tired from it, but it's worth it.
Well, behind every good blog post is an empty bottle of wine. And frankly, I'm exhausted! Hopefully next weeks blog post happens sooner than later. Hah
I also made the decision to opt out of the internship and come home a month early! It was a very involved decision to make, but I feel it's the right one and I am eager as ever to come home and start rebuilding my life in the states. I also plan to travel and explore the states more, as every person here has seen more of the states than I have!
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