Basic Week 6 & 7: Petit Fours, Truffles and Exams!

This is a combined post of week 6 and 7.
Week 6 started with theory cum demo lecture on Ice creams and Sorbets. Chef briefed us about the history of ice creams. Learnt about the composition of ice creams and sorbets. He demonstrated a Champagne sorbet and milk based ice cream, mmm..yummy!

Creme glacee (milk based ice cream)

Champagne Sorbet

After this, we made the third and last, potential exam recipe, Charlotte au Cassis, the most beautiful looking cake we made till date. It is a nothing but blackcurrant mousse encased in light sponge, decorated with blackcurrant glaze, fresh fruits and white chocolate piping. Per chef, I should have used less number of fruits, otherwise it’s a good presentation.

Charlotte au Cassis

Then came biscuit based Petit Fours. A petit four is a small appetiser, a small fancy french biscuit or small cake often served at the end of a meal. We made Almond Meringues and Sables Hollandais. It was a fun practical. I over-colored my sables a bit but meringues were perfect, per chef.

Sables Hollandais and Almond Meringues

Next up was the much, much awaited Macarons!
It was on my todo list for loooooong time but never got a chance to try them before in my 4yrs long baking journey. Finally I made macarons and that too successfully in the first attempt only! Yipee!!! It has got very nice crust and feet. Both the flavours, chocolate and pistachio turned out awesome. This was my best practical till date. I took so many photos of them that it was difficult to decide which one to post here, so I made a collage of best 3. :))

Macarons - Chocolate and Pistachio

Week 6 ended here on Saturday with a box full of macarons. I distributed them with friends and my housemates.

OMG! Exam is just a day away!! Monday, 15th is the theory exam and Tuesday, 16th is practical exam. You will be surprised to know that we all have been studying in-between these demos and practicals all along; and you won’t believe we have a last recipe demo lined up just before the theory exam on Monday! Grrrrr! It’s a bit weird but yes, we have last recipe after the exams (which means it’s not going to be counted for marks) :)

So, as I just told, we attended our last demo of chocolate truffles - dark, milk and white.

Immediately after that we appeared for the theory exam. It was an hour long straight forward knowledge test. The paper looked lengthy but everyone finished it approx 30 mins ahead of time.
Couldn’t believe its over!! I’ve been stuffing my brain with information for the last few days, there are a LOT of things to study and remember like, temp of fridge, freezer, sugar temperatures for all stages, temp of egg coagulation w/o dilution, with dilution, french terms used for techniques, 20+ recipes to remember with all ingredients and exact quantities and lots & lots more!

Next day was the practical exam, we will be given the name of the recipe after entering the kitchen.
So we had got Tarte au Citron/Lemon tart. We got 15 mins to write a short exam of ingredients and quantities of the tart and exact method. Got couple of mins to setup the station and started making it!

Had to finish and present the tart within 2.5 hrs including a small assignment of piping. I finished 30mins before the time and was feeling pretty good about it except the thickness of my tart. Also being it for the first time I was not sure what to expect. There were 2 chefs in the kitchen monitoring us, doing rounds of all the stations and noting down something continuously! Made me so nervous!!! Huh, too much of pressure!!! :(

Hussshhh!! Finally it’s over. Immediately after the exams, we friends went out for much deserved break, had lunch and hanged around for some time.

I had last practical next day. Made 3 types of chocolate truffles. Tempered the chocolate correctly without using thermometer, it’s very crucial to temper it to right temperature before using.
This was complete fun practical and we enjoyed it thoroughly as everyone was relaxed after the exams :)

Dark chocolate truffle, White chocolate truffle and Milk chocolate muscadines

At last, it was the results time! Yayy, I passed with 76%! Got the certificate for basic and for food safety.

Don’t you think that was fast than a bullet train!!! It’s hard to believe the Basic term is over so quickly, 6 weeks literally flew away!

Look forward to Intermediate from Tue, 23rd! :)

Basic Week 5: Cakes, Fruits, Chocolate and Wine!

A new month, Feb has started and the schedule looks easy going sessions wise, with couple of day-offs before the final exams, which is on 15th and 16th Feb. We have 4 days of holidays before the next term, Intermediate starts, and again a couple of days off after it starts.

The week started with theory lecture on Fruits. We saw and tasted a wide variety of fruits from apples to durians, and from berries to mangosteen, from mangoes to ugli fruits. I’d never heard of or seen many of these fruits. It was very interesting for me to know all of these amazing fruits from different parts of the world :)

Soursops

Rhubarb

Durian

Snake fruit

Rambutan

Ugli fruit

Then, next recipe lesson was about bavarian creams and mousses. We learnt to make Charlotte au chocolat i.e Chocolate Bavarian Mousse cake encased with light chocolate sponge with pistachios, decorated with chocolate garnish.
This is the first time I was using a ring to make cake. It was quite interesting to see how all the components involved in the recipe are assembled to construct a nicely finished, well decorated, restaurant style dessert cake.

Charlotte au Chocolat

Chef praised my presentation and garnish. :) It tastes as sinful as it looks! :P

Next up, was the Wine lecture. A different faculty member(the only Indian faculty in LCB), not a chef, conducted this lecture. He talked about not just wine, but about all types of alcoholic beverages in general including fermented drinks, spirits, liqueurs. He then explained about different types of wine production methods and tasting techniques. We tasted two types of wines, red and white. Overall, it was an interactive session.

Wine class setup

Wine tasting

I knew nothing about alcohol and was almost blank before this lecture, but after it was over, I gained some useful knowledge about this important ingredient (liqueurs/alcohol) used in patisserie. Yes, alcohol is everywhere in french pastry, it’s an integral part of it, so a pastry chef has to know all about it. :)

Then we had another interesting lecture on Chocolates! Chef showed us a short film on how the chocolate is made right from scratch. We walked thorough the entire process from how cocoa pods are harvested from theobroma cacao trees to the final product dark, milk and white chocolate made to be sold in stores. You will be shocked to know that white chocolate is not a chocolate actually…It is 50% of cocoa butter+milk and 50% of sugar!!! ;)

Cacao Pod and Beans

After this, for the last practical of the week, I made a very unusual, funky kind of looking cake, which is called Gateau St Honore!

Gateau St Honore

It is a classic french cake. The base is combination of choux pastry and shortcrust pastry. Inside is filled with pastry cream and top is decorated with caramel dipped profiteroles on edge, and herringbone piping design in the centre. It looks different but tastes good :)

Gateau St Honore

It is named after the French patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs, Saint Honore or Honoratus, bishop of Amiens.

The week ended with demo of Charlotte au Cassis, which is a potential exam dish. The other two potential exam dishes are Lemon tart and Genoise with raspberry jam. Any of these three can come for the practical exam.

Everyone is talking about the exams and studies now as it’s really close, just one week away!

Basic Week 4: Basic Pastry Cakes - Gateau & Genoise

Week 4 started with Boulangerie - introduction to breads. It was a very refreshing change for us after a tiresome last week. The aroma of freshly baked bread is so fresh, soothing and tempting. We made 2 types of breads, Irish soda bread loaf and white bread dinner rolls.
I loved this session. Next day I had bread for brekky, lunch and dinner :D

White bread dinner rolls

Irish Soda Bread

After this, we had a mid-term evaluation with our mentor chef. We had no clue about it and how it goes. We had been asked to fill some forms provided in the folder, where we’re supposed to write self-review and our study action plan till date. It was a one-to-one discussion with chef where he tells us about our performance in the term so far and the scores. He also asks if you have any difficulties or concerns regarding the study.
I scored 3.72 out of 5 for 9 recipes I made till date. Chef said you did good so far and advised a couple of things to take care of. He handed over me my report and it was over. I think it’s not so bad not so good!

Next day we learnt basic cakes - Gateau au citron and Madeleines! Umm yum yum! Both were so nice and totally irresistible!

Gateau au citron and Madeleines

Next we had two theory lectures, back to back. First was on Storeroom Dry Goods, Nuts and Spices and the second was on Dairy Products, Fats and Oils. Both were informative. We tasted different varieties of nuts used in patisserie. We made our own butter in the class and tasted it on yummy scones with jam! :)

Then came the Patisserie Cakes! Genoise with raspberry jam and Black Forest Gateau.
This was my first time of making a Genoise. The technique of making sponge, buttercream was pretty interesting and new to me…and even the covering of cakes! To my surprise, people don’t use turn-tables to decorate cakes here in the school :O. Managed to cover it with BC somehow!
As you all can guess, I did a decent job even without the turn-table and chef was impressed by it but I messed the chocolate piping because the chocolate was a bit set when I poured it in my bag and didn’t pay attention to it and went on with piping. Anyways, overall it was not bad. The cake was very yummy!

Genoise a la Confiture de Framboises

Gateau Foret Noir (Black Forest Gateau)

Even the black forest gateau making was a different experience all together.

Hah! End of another happening week and completion of ONE Month in the UK/London! :)

Now, look forward to the one and only day I get as weekend, Sunday! (singing childhood time song in my head, “Divas udyacha sawadicha, Raviwar mazya awadicha…”)

Basic Week 3: Huff and Puff!

Last week ended with legendary puff pastry demo on Saturday.

Thank god! This week is bit relaxed with a day off on Wednesday and only 3 practicals as compared to 5 in the last week!!!

Monday, it started with the lecture on "Examination Procedures". Chef Julie, the only lady chef amongst all chefs conducted this lecture and she explained us all about the exams and rules.
What?...exams? Yes, exams are coming up soon for us, the "intensive" people. We have our Final exams for Basic Level, which we'll be finishing just within one and a half months. The written Theory exam is on 15 Feb and Practical exam is on 16 Feb.
Practical exam can be on any one of the 3 - Lemon tart, Genoise with raspberry, Blackcurrant mousse cake (out of which we have learnt only lemon tart, so far).

Weightage of marks for final assessment is,
45% of the regular practicals (19 recipes) evaluation
45% of the final practical exam
10% of the theory exam
hmm..suddenly we were feeling some tension in the air!

We had another demo after this lecture, and that was of Mixed fruits puff pastry. I love puff pastry and I was waiting to try my hands on it but the practical was scheduled only on Thursday directly.

Tuesday, we had Cheese lecture. It was very interesting. I came to know so many things about cheese, making of it and history. A very experienced and knowledgeable cheese expert guy called ‘Tom' conducted it and the way he told us about it, I have no words to explain, I just loved it!
We tasted almost 15 types of cheese and there is a great story behind each one.

Cheese Lecture

I am not a cheese lover person but the lecture changed my whole perspective to look at it. If found time, I would like to dig in more about it.

After a day off, we were all ready for Puff pastry practical, but before that we had to attend another theory lecture on "Flour, Sugar & Honey" on Thursday.
Finally we were back in kitchens to make puff pastry!
It was the last slot of the day, i.e. 6:30 to 9:30pm. We were supposed to make a butter puff pastry from scratch with 6 folds, label and store it for use in the next practical. Then, make a Pear & almond cream Jalousie using a pre-made puff pastry.
It was a bit tough, my palms were sore after all of the rolling for 6 turns but overall, it was fun. I enjoyed doing the Jalousie. Buuuuttttt, in the course of making it as desired, we all actually took longer than required to finish the practical. We finished it around 9:45!! Chef was not happy with that and we again got a dose of instructions and advice! :(

Ideally, we are supposed to finish any preparation in 2.5 hours and rest 30 mins are dedicated to evaluation, cleaning up, resetting the kitchen (yes, each student has to setup the workstation with necessary equipments for the next class coming up in that kitchen).
Now only thing worrying me was, how will I get back home so late! I couldn't take a decent picture of my Jalousie because of it.

Jalousie aux poires et creme d'amandes

I reached home as late as 10:50pm that day! Thank goodness, there were few people around in train as well as on my station and my house is not too far from station!
Gobbled up an orange and hit the sack as soon as I reached as I had to be in the school next day for Fruit puff pastry practical at 7:50am, that means leaving house at 6:50am!
(We have to report in the kitchen minimum 10 mins before the time. We need extra 15 min in advance, to get dressed in the proper uniform…and I have 30 mins of travel time. So all in all, I need to leave house an hour before the class time including the walking time.)

Next day, Friday, I reached school on time for the practical. We had to make the "Fresh Fruits in Puff pastry" out of the puff pastry we made last night. Inspite of knowing that I've done it correctly, I was little worried about how will it turn out after baking, whether it will puff properly? Will it have decent amount of layers, and all.
I was relaxed to see it after baking, it turned out pretty good :) Yayy!! my first successful puff pastry!

Bande Feuilletée aux Fruits de saison

We had 3 hours gap before the next session, so we friends decided to go out for lunch to a place near Oxford Street, which is famous for its burgers. Burgers and fries were really yummy!

I went to Oxford Street for the first time and would love to go back there again in leisure time ;) We took a bus on our way back to the school and I rode a bus in London for the first time :)

We back at school for the demo of Eclairs! Another legendary dish! Chef told, this was one of the exam dishes till last batch. It's no more an exam dish for us, but I have heard that it is not easy as it looks. Let’s see it tomorrow, now looking forward to go back home and catch on some sleep!
Captured this beautiful view on my way to Holborn station at 5pm!

Darkness and full moon at 5pm! :)

Back in the kitchen on Saturday, we have to make 12 identical Coffee Eclairs. We had to take care of making correct choux dough with proper amount of eggs in it. Only then the eclairs will puff properly and will make a hollow channel inside. Everything went well for me until I started applying the fondant (this is fondant icing and not the rolled fondant we use for cakes) onto the eclairs. It was tedious and messy job to frost them. I managed it somehow, decorated them with chocolate piping and finished making them. Chef commented they are baked and filled nicely and fondant is shining well that means it is applied at the right temperature; Only thing is they are not of identical height.

All this was recorded in the journal. I think it was not so bad apart from the icing part as opposed to all the fuss I heard about it. 

Coffee Eclairs

Next we had demo of White bread - an introduction to bread making. We learnt how to make basic white bread dough, how to shape dinner rolls and how to make an Irish soda bread. The practical will be on next week Monday.
End of another happening week, now just want to relax for tomorrow and do nothing! :)

Basic Week 2: Pastry Creams, Custards and Tarts

This week was full of action!

For those who are not aware of the teaching pattern of LCB, the idea is like for all recipes or lessons involved in a module, a Chef demonstrates it to all groups in a big demo room with a big mirror on top of the Chef work counter and with 2 or more TV screens, so all can see everything properly. Students write down the method(s) in their own words as the Chef progresses, in a 3 hours long session. End of the demo session, we all get to taste the dish made by Chef (which is the best part, hehe!). Then depending on our schedules, on the given day and time slot we replicate the dish in a 3 hours practical session.

Pic Courtesy: http://www.studin.se

Last week ended with the demo of basic pastry creams and its derivatives. We started the week on Monday with making all of them - We made Basic Pastry cream, Diplomat cream, Mousseline cream, Chantilly cream and we made Swiss Meringues.
It was a novel experience for me to make all these creams at the same time, and learn different characteristics of each cream and compare them.

Swiss Meringue

Then we learnt about Custards - baked and stirred, the difference between them and how to make them correctly. Chef showed us different ways of plating them with some sugar work, and it was all awesome! I couldn't wait to try my hands on all of it. This was my favourite part as I loooove Caramel custard.
We made Creme Caramel and Creme Brûlée for our practicals, along with some basic tuile(baked wafer biscuit, generally curved) and fresh fruit coulis(pureed fruit sauce) for decorations. I've made it at home many a times before, but it was never so perfect texture and taste! Oh my god, I can still feel it's taste.

Creme Caramel

I could make both of them properly with nice decorations of fruits and sugar, and I got good comments for all components, except one, per Chef, my Cream Brûlée top was li'l over burnt at some places as the custard was directly exposed to the heat of blowtorch. Never mind! It tasted heaven :)

Creme Brûlée

We had a theory lecture by mid-week on topic - Time Management and Contribution to Effective Teamwork. It was very good and informative.

Then came the Tarts! We learnt about shortcrust and sweet pastry.
For savory, it was Lemon Tart(Tarte au Citron) and for sweet, it was Apple Tart(Tarte aux Pommes).

I enjoyed doing both. Out of which Lemon Tart was a bit tricky as we have to get the correct lemon curd consistency, correct cutting and blanching of lemon juliennes and correct sugar cooking for making Italian meringue cream to pipe on it.
It was more challenging and frustrating for many others in the group who have never done any piping. The tart top is completely covered with piping work. Chef advised them to practice piping at home as much as possible! I am actually surprised, why there is no any piping lesson included in the curriculum, as against the fact that there is no prior baking and decoration knowledge necessary to attend the course!!! :(

Tarte au Citron

Tarte aux Pommes

Chef praised my piping work and asked if I have done it before ;)
Taste-wise, I liked apple tart the most!

Wow! We learnt so many things in just one week! But we're still struggling in the kitchen :( Chefs are instructing us on organisation and efficiency, need to work hard on it. Hoping next week we'll do better! Wish me luck guys, Have a nice week ahead! :)

Basic Week 1: Food Safety and First Kitchen Encounter!

I know it's been very late to post this, but cannot help!

The very first week, immediately after the orientation day, we had a day long "Level 2 Award Food safety Certification in Catering" course of 8 hours, followed by an exam.
This course is compulsory to all and it gives a thorough grounding of food hygiene to those who wish to work in the food industry. If passed the exam successfully, one will be entitled with the valuable Certificate.
I was nervous upon hearing about the exam, initially. But as the session progressed, it seemed okay, and it turned out pretty easy actually. :)

We had a day off on Friday. It was necessary to get geared up for a very long day on Saturday, where we had 3 back to back sessions of 3 hours each, from 8 am till 6pm - First recipe demo, followed by it's practical, and then the second recipe demo! There is half an hours break between every two sessions.

It was Fruit Salad as first recipe. Chef took a roll call and started with the demo sharp on time. I was like, why one would need a recipe and a whole 3hrs demo for mere fruit salad? Isn't it something far far simple thing to teach in a school like LCB?
But I got my answers as the demo progressed..It was not just about cutting fruits!
Learning basics of sugar cooking and getting used to your tool kit, using all the knives without getting cut yourself, was the main aim of this class. One has to use correct knife for different purposes, cut the fruits correctly with precision, with less wastage and clutter is the key. Chef plated the fruit salad and a fruit plate. Now it was our turn to do it! :D

As you can guess, working in the kitchen of Cordon Bleu for the first time was an exciting, overwhelming and at the same time nervous experience. I tried to be as calm and attentive to instructions as much as possible, was worried about using those sharp knives, the most. We had to achieve all sugar cooking stages and prepare the fruit salad and plate. I finished all the tasks as explained in the demo and as briefed by the practical in-charge Chef. I was happy that I didn't cut my fingers as many other girls did, in the group.

Finally I was ready with my Fruit Salad, and Fruit Plate to be presented to the Chef and getting it evaluated.
We will get evaluated for all practicals from now onwards and 45%of these marks will be considered for the final assessment at the end of the course.

This is how the evaluation journal looks like!

It was a jittery experience. He looked at the plates, I was holding my breath and he said, "the fruits are cut nicely and evenly and good that you tried to incorporate all varieties of cuts shown, well presented!" Hush!!! I was so relieved to hear this :) :).
But as expected, this being our first encounter in the kitchen, we were all confused and disorganised. So Chef commented in general to all about being organised and implementing correct work methodology for the next practical onwards. We all (we are all ladies in our group)were like headless chickens running all around the kitchen, in Chef's words :( :P

Fruit Salad

Fruit Plate

Happy to get good comments, now look forward to the next practical and a jam packed week!

Orientation and first day at Cordon Bleu!

Today was my orientation day and the first day at Cordon Bleu. Yes, we had our first class as well after the orientation. It is not the same for regular diploma. They will have only orientation on first day and the first class after a day of the orientation.

It's mandatory to attend the orientation, without attending it one will not be allowed to start the course. So I was very anxious last night and checked thrice if I have set the right alarm on my phone.
I prepare my own food, breakfast lunch and dinner. So I had to manage it all and set the alarm accordingly. I am planning to carry a lunch box daily to the school.

Timing for today was 10:30am to 6pm. We were supposed to carry the Letter of Enrolment, passport, a pen and a notepad along with us.
I reached there at 10:15. Lady at the reception asked me to wait in the lounge where other students were sitting. There were people of different age groups approximately from 20s-50s and almost from all parts of the world. I met German, Italian, US-Australian, Irish, Brit-Shrilankan, Singaporean, Indonesian, HongKongers, Chinese, and we Indians (There are 5 Indian girls including me).... a very diverse set of nationalities. All were getting to know each other and asking about each other's work experiences in baking/cooking. All were excited and anxious at the same time, as me :)

Then we gathered in a big room on 4th floor where they handed over 2 heavy bags, one with some documents like Student Manual etc and one with uniforms. Bags were labelled with each of our names!
Orientation started with the welcome speech from the Principal, Rosemary Hume.
After the speech, schedules were distributed. It looked like a puzzle to me initially, but once they explained how to read it, it was not bad.

Monthly Schedule-scary, isn't it?

Another admin lady explained us about the pilot project of e-Learning started by the school with our batch and how to use it for our benefits.
All together, there are more than 30 people of Patisserie and Cuisine Intensive. We are divided into groups of 12. Henceforth, we will be working in this group for Basic and Intermediate level. We will be divided and mixed with other groups for Superior level.
A patisserie chef, Chef Olivier then took us for the school tour. While touring he explained us about the kitchen rules, equipments usage, washing areas, etc. We also did a mock fire drill along with the Chef.
We did fingerprint registration at the reception for security. Lockers were allocated and lock settings were explained.
Then we had been asked to do uniform trials. If they are not fitting or if any difference of size, we can get it exchanged immediately from the staff and fill in the necessary forms.

Uniform

Uniform Trial

We received Wusthof Knife Set each. It is quite heavy and loaded with dangerously sharp blade knives. Chefs suggested us not to open it for now for the safety reasons and keep it in the locker.

Wusthof Knife Set 

All this went on till 2-2:15pm. Next session or the first technical lecture was at 3pm. We got some time to eat something and get ready in uniforms for the lecture. By now, we all were half-drained by running here and there all over the campus. I grabbed an Italian sandwich and orange juice from the in-house Cafe Le Cordon Bleu. It's open for public as well as for students.  All students get 15% discount on all items.

Lecture was started on time, conducted by the popular chef Loïc. He explained us the e-learning system in detail. We recieved our folders and two reference recipe books.

The Folder

Reference Books

The folder or the course manual is quite heavy. It has Self Evaluation Journals in it for all recipes. Chef explained its importance and how to fill it properly; rules of examination and marks etc. Another chef explained the use and importance of different parts of the uniform and how to wear them correctly. He demonstrated how to tie the handkerchief around the neck. Then there was a demonstration of electrical equipments in the kitchen like KitchenAid, blender, blow torch etc.
There was a piece of word of caution on knives handling and using them correctly.
Lecture was over around 6pm. Hushh! What a day!! Overall it was an exciting but exhausting long day for us.

Tomorrow we have a Food Safety Level 2 certificate course lecture at 8am, followed by an exam! :O