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 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!