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 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! :)

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

New Year, New Beginning!

Hello London & 2016!!!
Yes, I landed in London on New Year's Eve and I welcomed new year from here, from the UK and from the City of London....new year, a new beginning, a new journey has started for me.

@Heathrow Lounge

As you know by now, I am here for a patisserie course at Le Cordon Bleu, I will share my experiences with you throughout this journey of 6 months. It's an intensive course, with classes scheduled from 8am to 9:30pm (yes, you read it right!), aaaaaannnd from Mon to SAT!!! I don't know how I will be able to keep up with the pace of posts, but whenever I get time, I will post all updates of a week at one go, may be. Until today I was in two minds whether I should write a blog or not, but finally I am writing it.
Please note, this schedule is only for intensive courses, Patisserie or Cuisine. The regular 9 months diploma students have classes only 3 days a week.

Well, this is the first time for me in London and weather here is not so good, not at least for me. As it's winter here, it's super cold with winds, all grey and dull sky with no sunlight and it's raining almost everyday! Very few times God Sun shows up only for few 10-20 minutes in the early morning and it darkens by 3:30-4pm :( (Now you can guess, why this site's background picture is so!)
I am struggling hard to keep myself warm from head to toe. I am staying in a shared accommodation in East Ham, an area with many "Desi"s and asians around, many Indian restaurants like Chennai Dosa and Saravaana Bhavan etc around. We actually have a few Chaat stalls as well...so yes I haven't yet started missing India much ;) It took me 4-5 days to settle in the room and getting adjusted to the surroundings.

East Ham underground station

My house lane in East Ham 

The school, Le Cordon Bleu is in central London, nearest station is Holborn and 30 mins by tube from my place. I visited it on weekend before it starts, so I can get an idea of the distance and travel. I started from East Ham and it was pretty much a convenient journey...it reminded me of days in Japan, it's very similar to Japanese rail system, only difference is of the language.
Holborn seemed to be quite busy station, with all working and business people rushing towards their work places. There were many high end restaurants and shops around the station including a Wasabi Sushi Bento restaurant (quickly I took a snap and sent it to hubby dear who is a Sushi lover. He would have been jumped over joy if he was here).
I started walking towards the school, and I could see the Bloomsbury Square Garden within 2 mins....and there I saw the white flag of school in the air, on a red bricked wall just behind the garden.
In another couple of minutes I reached my dream destination! Got myself clicked in front of the school. Orientation & first day at school is on 6th Jan...getting ready for it, feeling nervous...fingers crossed! :)

Finally at the dream destination!

From there, I went on to purchasing the safety shoes we require to buy as part of the uniform (and is not included in the kit provided by the school) to the given shop, Nisbets in Shaftesbury Avenue area. It was 15 mins walk from the school. We need to carry them for the orientation day on Wednesday.