Photo Journal

I know I haven't written in a long time... too long, but I'm just going to make a photo journal of the last two weeks... please beware of drooling...

This was the Ad Hoc meal... Thomas Keller's "temporary" restaurant in Yountville... 4 course chef's tasting menu - $45... best deal in town!




















Kim & Zani had their wedding and reception at the CIA in St Helena... they spared no expense for the delicious food served to their guests... each course complete with a wine pairing and favors from the chocolate bar in NYC...













The last day I was in Napa we visited Taylor's Refresher, a Napa institution... although I don't have a picture of it, I also enjoyed a delicious carrot cake cookie from Bouchon Bakery - cream cheesy frosting sandwiched by cakey carrot and walnut cookies...













And in class, one of the more attractive things I've made were some meringues - some piped, others spread into a fall leaf stencil and sprinkled with almonds, coconut and cinnamon...













Last Thursday the school gave everyone in our class $20 and our chef organized a walking tour to visit 12 different bakeries, pastry shops and chocolatiers in Chelsea, Greenwich Village and Soho... I was in heaven! I ate truffles, brownies, gelato, lots of chocolate, a spinach pie, a banana donut and a chocolate eclair... it was definitely educational to see so many different shops and how they were organized and also to get a better idea of what types of products are offered and how they try to differentiate themselves...

Pictured below is the bakery case at 3 Tarts, store front of Eleni's and The Fat Witch in Chelsea Market, the chocolate counter at Jacques Torres' Chocolate Haven and display window of Vosgues Haut Chocolate (my favorite of all)...

accident prone

On the second day of class two girls cut themselves - one on the plastic wrap box and another with a paring knife... today a girl just completely fainted in class... totally crazy!

But I love my class, because one of the guys, and another girl are trained EMTs and another girl is a former cop. I've never felt so useless in my life and so happy to be around such well rounded people! The guy, Sean, tended to the fainter with care and urgency and it was so nice to see people who care and step up to the plate.

So now I add one more thing to my list of "things to do in my lifetime" - learn cpr - so faced with a situation like the one above I can atleast take someone's pulse correctly!

baking & pastry... 1st day!

I think I'm in for some long long days... especially on Mondays, Wednesdays & Thursdays!

I started my first day of baking and pastry at a seminar at school where Toba Garrett - a cake master - discussed techniques of decorating wedding cakes. It was pretty cool. The first time I've ever seen rolled fondant put on a cake and learned about the proper techniques for using it. She also demonstrated a brushed piping technique that is quite unique to her style, although I'm sure it's been done before. She made roses and leaves out of white chocolate "modeling" paste. And we got to sample her chocolate layer cake with ganache and chocolate buttercream. It was a real informative seminar. I can't wait to see her for our wedding cake module in class! To see Chef Garrett's work check out the "Embroidered Roses" cake.

Today was basically an introduction day for the baking & pastry class. The director of student affairs talked for about 2 hours about all the rules, regulations, policies and perks at the school. Most of which I heard at the first day of culinary management... the newest thing was about our externships. And that was just mostly rules of what you can and can not do.

The most exciting thing was getting a locker, a few new books (only 2 though!?!?) and all my supplies. The supplies are included in the cost of tuition, so I get to keep everything they give me... a giant tool box full of Wusthof knives (paring knife, chef's knife, serrated knife, scissors, sharpening steel) and a knife roll, microplane, digital scale, 2 different thermometers, measuring spoons and cups, offset spatulas, cake decorating tips and much more! It was like Christmas! Other than that, we talked briefly about what is important about dessert, flavor combinations and measurement conversions. We're told by our instructor that by the end of this module (about 25 lessons) we will be pros at all the conversions in our heads. Right now, I'm sticking to writing them down and multiplying and dividing on paper (or using my calculator). So who knows how many teaspoons are in 5 cups? See, not that easy huh?

I'm not sure when we'll get to start actually baking anything. It seems like for the initial lessons we'll be learning about culinary math, sanitiation (oh joy, in both my classes right now!), properly making cornets (tiny little piping bags), practicing piping techniques and possibly knife skills. We'll see what happens tomorrow...

I was sitting in class and just thinking how cool it was to be in there... in my uniform and my little commis cap. Yeah, I'm a total nerd and I love it. The majority of the people in this class are all older, career changers or college kids who have studied for some amount of time and still haven't found their way yet. Some people have worked in bakeries and there is at least one older woman who seems to be doing this just for the sheer joy of learning and solidifying some techniques. Our Module 1 instructor is Michelle Tampakis. I like her already. She seems tough, but not yelling, insulting tough, more like she expects a lot out of us and that will definitely drive me to be a good student! She also knows alot about chocolate and I'm excited about that, because I love chocolate and want to learn as much as possible about it.

I'm off to Napa for Kim's wedding this weekend, so I'm not sure if I'll have the opportunity to update before I go, but I'll have something for you when I get back! Ciao... until next time!

what have i been doing?

jeez... i realize i haven't written in a while... i have a few blogs i check in on pretty frequently and when i don't see a new addition i feel a little let down... and so why did it take me so long to figure it out about my own blog???

so i'm going to go backward in time until i can't remember any more because i think all the beer drinking at ssa really killed a few precious brain cells... or i'm just getting old...

friday night... some how i managed to catch the last train home (12:50am)... but as i sat on the path checking my phone every 2 minutes for the time i imagine i turned green and felt like i was going to puke... and it wasn't the 2 drinks i just had at the bar... as i was rushing down 6th ave to 33rd and just past radio city music hall an attractive man stuck his head and upper body out of the passenger side window, reached out his hand and absolutely flattered me with compliments and as i was holding his hand and smiling, i was thinking how familiar he was and as i said thank you all i could think was "is it saturday night?" and as the light changed and the van turned right onto 6th and i waved, i realized i was just being hit on by tracy morgan... is that possible? yes... anything is possible, it's new york city... it's also possible that he has a wife & 3 kids... i love men?!?!
but what brought me into the city friday night was Fall For Dance, a series of dance performances from companies all over the world going on for 10 days... despite being sold out, a limited number of tickets (only $10) were available at the box office 1.5 hours before the show... the ticket agent i had spoken to recommended getting to the theater early to stand in line... i stood in line for 40 minutes and got an amazing seat in the first row center of the first balcony... there were 5 different companies performing on this night... the first company were more traditional/ballet dance style, but with a fun, flirty flair... the second guy performed what i could only call interpretive dance set to portuguese music that was somewhat sorrowful and lamenting... his hands were painted red and when he touched his bare chest or face the red paint transferred and a slight hue of pink suddenly appeared... like blood... like he was fighting for something... it was a short piece, and i'm not sure if i could have handled another performance by him... the third act was modern dance oriented... there were probably about 9 people in this performance - one more woman than men... they all wore white "wife beaters" and black brief underwear style "shorts," the women had faux white fur mini cavewoman skirts on over these... they opened up to opera sounding music... they twisted and turned their bodies in hyperextended, exaggerated weird movements... there was some very interesting music after the opera, one piece which was like severe ringing in the ears which made it hard for me to concentrate because i hate the sound of ringing in the ears... the next company used a movie projector as part of the performance, and basically the 2 performers projected images of themselves onto themselves and at times smaller images of themselves onto pieces of their wardrobe to make it look like 1/3 sized people were running around on the stage... it reminded me of an art installation that i had seen in siena, italy back in 2002... i was slightly disturbed by that installation, so it brought back feelings of nervousness and fear... the last performance was a flamenco dancer - farruco - from spain... he even brought 2 guitarists and live singers on the stage with him and there was lots of energy... he had long long hair and slightly curly too and when he spun around really fast his hair was like a helicopter propellor... it was a sight...
after i got my ticket and before the doors opened, i wandered a few blocks away to time warner center to see the shops... per se and bouchon bakery by thomas keller as well as a restaurants by michael lomonaco, gray kunz, and others are here... i'm fascinated by thomas keller - he's the chef behind the french laundry in napa... i did not however like the almond brioche on offer at bouchon bakery... it tasted like it had been soaked in some kind of cleaning solution... yuck...

thursday... my obsession... grey's anatomy was on and i can't miss that... for anyone who saw the opening scene, you'll know what i'm talking about here... my mcvet it garret dutton (aka g.love) and my mcdreamy is tom brady and i would not go to work!!! and before that i spent maybe an hour wandering around a craft store waiting to be inspired because i'm working on a little project for my friend kim who is getting married in napa next sunday... i'm going to be in her wedding... it is going to be so fun... after class i had a walk and dessert with a guy from class - Cristobal... he's from venezuela and he's so nice... i said i was going to take a walk to a bakery i heard about and he insisted on bringing me to tisserie, a little venezualan coffee shop in union square... he bought my tiger's eye (an oval almond sponge cake with an indent filled with ganache) and he got a cup of coffee and we had a great discussion about the "real" culinary world... he's a great resource because a few years ago he completed the culinary arts program at ICE and he's worked in the city and is now in the culinary management program with hopes to some day open up a small restaurant in nyc... i hope he's wildly successful... i think he has the potential to be... earlier in class, i got to present "the news" and i talked for about 45 minutes on articles from that week's times dining in and other food related articles i'd read...

wednesday... i'm not sure i did anything wildly fun or remarkable... obviously...

tuesday... i went into the city to the cooper hewitt design museum to listen to a panel discussion by 3 pastry chefs about "Pastry: Form Follows Flavor" - the panel was Gina DePalma of Babbo, Bill Yosses, consultant/educator, and Nick Malgieri, educator/cookbook writer... the discussion was enlightening... some of the things i got out of it were... people can be successful pastry chefs no matter their "dessert past" as long as they work for or hone their skills in a way that highlights their strengths and goes along with their food/ingredient values... these panelists aren't fans of the new science techniques like those of ferran & albert adria or sam mason, although they understand there is a demand for those things... they don't like the idea of culinary students or recent grads thinking they are a shoe-in for being the next food tv star or being an executive pastry chef with less than 2 years experience... they think desserts shouldn't be overly architectural, just composed of simple, true flavors...
i'm loving these events... it's like hearing a language that i love and can understand and appreciate... i only wish that i could understand it if it were spoken in italian or spanish... i have to get on that - relearning italian or learning spanish...

that is all i think i can ramble on about now... i think i'd like to go to sleep now...

i start baking & pastry on tuesday & i'll probably be posting more when that starts, because let's face it, while i do need to learn about sanitation and marketing in culinary management, it just isn't something you want to hear about... although i should take some time to tell more about my concept... maybe in a few days...