Alright!!!
On with the next class!!!
Intro to Baking
This class really excites me! It's about the science behind baking! Yeah!!! So basically we read from the book and the teacher lectures in class.... not much to really talk about.... but all I can say is that while I find the reading interesting, it's also hard to get into...
I'm excited to learn the basics so I'll know how to create and alter recipes based on the percentages of ingredients in certain recipes and to know the characteristics of ingredients and know how to put them together to get the kind of outcome I want.
Retail Pastry Production
The best of the best!!! This class I will have every term, every Saturday from 6am-11pm! I LOVE this class! I love it so much that having to wake up at 430 on Saturday mornings for it, isn't a bother to me!
So, this class is sort of like working in a kitchen at a bakery... there are 6 stations in the kitchen and there are actually 2 kitchens for this production class. The two kitchens are separated by The Finishing Room... pretty self explanatory. So we will be rotated throughout our time at school, 3 weeks at each station. Anyways!! Let me fill you in on what the 6 stations are!
1. Bread Station - Also pretty self explanatory, like the many others I'll mention. So at this station we make dough for baguettes, boules batards, sourdoughs, focaccia etc., do inventory on the pastries and doughs made the days before, set trays up of said pastries made the day before so they can proof, shape the dough into baguettes, boules and batards or whatever shape chef asks us to put them on trays to proof and send them to the oven station.
2. Cookie Station - This is where cookie dough is made, where they are set up on trays to be baked. Also they set up the baked cookies nicely on trays to be sold in the pastry shop or for events at the school.
3. Steward Station- This is where the breakfast trays are prepared.... mostly for events that are being held in the morning at the school... I'm not quite sure what else they do when there aren't events going on in the morning. I guess I have yet to find out!
4. Oven Station - This is where breads are baked! This is where cookies are baked!!! I'm not sure if the cakes are baked here too, because the Cakes are mixed and prepped in Kitchen 2.
5. Restaurant Station- This is where plated desserts are prepared and put together. Plated desserts for the restaurant and what not :)
6. Cake Station- Where cake is made!!! I thought it would be where it was decorated as well, but according to what I overheard the other day, the cakes aren't decorated here!!! dun dun dun!
So!!! When I started school I was soo looking forward to bread making... and well, I bet you couldn't guess what station I got assigned to could ya!? THE BREAD STATION!!!!!! Soooo!!!! Excited! The advanced students have been telling me that the bread station is the best one, so its good I got it, but at the same time it kinda sucks because it's downhill from here! boo!
Anyways! My first production class was amazing! All the other freshmen were so nervous because this was their first hands-on class.... and there I was with my inflated ego thinking to myself "yeah, ha! well, I've experienced a hands-on class before, I got this!" Haha. But seriously, I think I did really well. See, what I learned was that this school kinda just throws you into these hands-on classes and you just gotta learn by doing and by observation.
So, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but this production class is filled with all of the part time pastry arts students so there are new students, advanced students. So at the bread station there were 2 advanced and 2 new (me being one of them) so I paired up with the advanced student that's in my cooking techniques class. He's a great teacher! I'm glad that I got put with him for the first few weeks!
My first pastry production class he taught me how to set up the trays of yesterdays pastries to proof and to take inventory of the others we have in the freezer. Then when the other 2 got done making dough and waiting for it to rise I was taught how to shape dough! Hahaha! So, in the kitchen there is a special baguette rolling machine... someone scales the dough so we have even amounts/weights of dough and for all breads we have to put the dough through a process to get all the air out... so what the baguette rolling machine does is that it simplifies it, cuts out the steps of having to special roll it to get the air pockets out so you plop the dough in and it goes through rollers to flatten it and then it sort of rolls it so when it comes out you just have to roll it again for a min to get the size you want. It's pretty simple! Like my chef said "It's not rocket science" ...... Who fucked it up??
I did!!
How many times???
Twice!!
Thus prolonging the bread dough shaping. eeep!! So, I guess I wasn't a pro after all, hu?
It was a pretty exciting class though!! I love having to work with the dough, getting my hands dirty, working in a fast paced environment! It's really awesome!!!!
Well!! I think I've written a lot in here!!!! I should try and incorporate pictures next time! I can't take pics in class, and I don't even have time to!! But! I'll try and search on the web for some relating to the posts I write!
Until next time!!! Enjoy your food!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Week 1
Woo!
I am finally actualizing my dream! Pastry school here I am!!! Wrap me up around your pretty little finger and I'll wrap you up in my flabby arms!
It has been a dream of mine for the past 10 years to go to Culinary school! When I was a senior in high school I applied to culinary programs and got into a few of them. I was sort of talked out of it, and I was also too scared to go for it. I guess I wasn't ready.... NOW I AM!!!
So, after gathering up all of my courage, I found a school... I applied... I got accepted.... and here I am! In school for Pastry Arts!
It's a part time program at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia. So, this term I have 3 classes. I've got Intro to Cooking Techniques, Intro to Baking, and Retail Pastry Production...
I guess I'll start off with a little intro of each class and write about my first week at school!
Intro to Cooking Techniques
Well, when I signed up for this class I thought it'd be a basic intro class to knife skills and other culinary basics. It turns out that it's a class on basic cooking techniques.... okay... I'm not doing a good job describing this class.. I guess I'll just tell you how the first class went!
So, this class was my first class ever in culinary school!! I was told that I would be the only freshman in the course, stuck with 3-5 term students (there are 3, 10 week terms per year), you can imagine how nervous I was! In this class I was going in circles.
Chef started the class out with introducing himself and telling us what we'd be learning in class. Going over the syllabus and what not. Then, bam! Chef went into what we were going to cook that night. I was terrified! Well, no, at first I was just really nervous and excited! I couldn't wait to learn all that I was going to learn this term! So he does a quick demo of what we were going to cook that night. Our main lesson that night was to learn Dry Cooking Methods.
Once he was done his demo he left it to us to do the same! There are only 6 of us in the class so we paired up... I automatically felt bad for the person I was paired up with because I was terrified for real and had no idea what to do, where things were, how things went, what the process was. I was turning in circles!
So, my partner and I made Pork Loins (well I made the pork, she doesn't eat pork, so she used the same recipe and substituted Pork with eggplant), Cornish Hen, and Apple Beignets! So, while I was turning in circles and freaking out in my head I also tried to remain calm and asked Chef some questions. This one classmate was really nice and told me that I'd be okay and my partner was really nice and patient with me!
This class was a 3 hr class from 7-10pm... my did it go by fast!! After this class I was ecstatic! I was on a natural high! It was amazing!! Oh! I forgot to mention how I sliced my thumb! This knive set I got at school is amazing!!! So the knife I used was super sharp but so super smoooth!!! I sliced my thumb and didn't even feel it until the blood came gushing out! :) haha
So next class we learn Wet cooking methods! Can't wait to share with you how that class went! And! By the way! The best thing about this class is that we get to eat what we cook! So I've got kick ass dinner on Wednesday nights in this term!
I've written a lot in this post! Hopefully tomorrow I'll write about Intro to Baking and Retail Pastry Production!
Until next time! Enjoy your food!!!
I am finally actualizing my dream! Pastry school here I am!!! Wrap me up around your pretty little finger and I'll wrap you up in my flabby arms!
It has been a dream of mine for the past 10 years to go to Culinary school! When I was a senior in high school I applied to culinary programs and got into a few of them. I was sort of talked out of it, and I was also too scared to go for it. I guess I wasn't ready.... NOW I AM!!!
So, after gathering up all of my courage, I found a school... I applied... I got accepted.... and here I am! In school for Pastry Arts!
It's a part time program at The Restaurant School in Philadelphia. So, this term I have 3 classes. I've got Intro to Cooking Techniques, Intro to Baking, and Retail Pastry Production...
I guess I'll start off with a little intro of each class and write about my first week at school!
Intro to Cooking Techniques
Well, when I signed up for this class I thought it'd be a basic intro class to knife skills and other culinary basics. It turns out that it's a class on basic cooking techniques.... okay... I'm not doing a good job describing this class.. I guess I'll just tell you how the first class went!
So, this class was my first class ever in culinary school!! I was told that I would be the only freshman in the course, stuck with 3-5 term students (there are 3, 10 week terms per year), you can imagine how nervous I was! In this class I was going in circles.
Chef started the class out with introducing himself and telling us what we'd be learning in class. Going over the syllabus and what not. Then, bam! Chef went into what we were going to cook that night. I was terrified! Well, no, at first I was just really nervous and excited! I couldn't wait to learn all that I was going to learn this term! So he does a quick demo of what we were going to cook that night. Our main lesson that night was to learn Dry Cooking Methods.
Once he was done his demo he left it to us to do the same! There are only 6 of us in the class so we paired up... I automatically felt bad for the person I was paired up with because I was terrified for real and had no idea what to do, where things were, how things went, what the process was. I was turning in circles!
So, my partner and I made Pork Loins (well I made the pork, she doesn't eat pork, so she used the same recipe and substituted Pork with eggplant), Cornish Hen, and Apple Beignets! So, while I was turning in circles and freaking out in my head I also tried to remain calm and asked Chef some questions. This one classmate was really nice and told me that I'd be okay and my partner was really nice and patient with me!
This class was a 3 hr class from 7-10pm... my did it go by fast!! After this class I was ecstatic! I was on a natural high! It was amazing!! Oh! I forgot to mention how I sliced my thumb! This knive set I got at school is amazing!!! So the knife I used was super sharp but so super smoooth!!! I sliced my thumb and didn't even feel it until the blood came gushing out! :) haha
So next class we learn Wet cooking methods! Can't wait to share with you how that class went! And! By the way! The best thing about this class is that we get to eat what we cook! So I've got kick ass dinner on Wednesday nights in this term!
I've written a lot in this post! Hopefully tomorrow I'll write about Intro to Baking and Retail Pastry Production!
Until next time! Enjoy your food!!!
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