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! :)

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.