Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A Perfect Fit

I positively love my pastries and confectioneries class on Monday and Tuesday mornings! This week alone, I've had my products used for demonstrations twice! On Monday, I made pâte à choux (eclair paste) for the first time ever and turned out perfect eclairs, cream puffs, and Paris Brest's. See:Ryan, one of my partners, made the pastry cream, and while I piped out our pastries, he and Mary, the third of our group, made variations of the cream for each pastry: chocolate for eclairs, vanilla for cream puffs, and hazelnut for Paris Brest. Once the pastries were all baked up, Chef Hunter gave a demo on how to fill them and garnish them.



Tuesday was just as delightful- I made a lemon curd tart topped with Italian meringue, of which Chef used to demonstrate how to pipe the meringue on top of the tart with the special tip to make it all pretty and wavy. And she showed us how to torch it too!

Both days, my group has finished an hour ahead of anyone else and so we've been fortunate enough to have time to hang out with Chef and do additional projects. Chef Hunter told me that she has high expectations of me and believes that I could be great at this! I love my Monday and Tuesday mornings so much that I wish I didn't have to take any other savory classes!

New favorite bands: Flight of the Concords.
New favorite restaurant: Kostas Authentic Greek