One Semester Down, Four To Go

I officially completed my first semester of culinary school!

The first semester has been tons of fun. I have become friends with amazing people. Yoga is now a part of my weekly schedule and I can temper chocolate like a boss!


Everything I have learned throughout the Baking and Pastry Techniques course is applied in the end of the semester project, the Commis Challenge. The challenge takes place the last two days of the semester. I worked with a team member to create a buffet conssting of soft rolls, chocolate truffles, Bavarian creams with mirror glaze, two buttercream cakes with chocolate decorations and éclairs.

To apply what we have learned throughout the semester, we also had to alter the recipes given to us to make a specific amount of product, create an order form for the ingredients needed, cost each recipe and create a timeline for two days.

Of course everything that could go wrong went wrong, but we persevered to complete our buffet on time. The pastry cream and crème angalise did not want to thicken, the chocolate fondant was too thick, the Italian buttercream was too thick and the cake was a bitch to decorate.

Working with so much product in such a short amount of time led to some mistakes, but we learned a lot: second boil the pastry cream to make it thick (stir like crazy!), do not add chunks of chocolate to the fondant (melt it first, silly!) and just make the buttercream in small batches (it worked the second two times. Thanks Lee!).

Our Buffet: Big thanks to Lee's wife for the ideas and the decorations

 



 

 

 

 Second semester officially began Tuesday morning. For the next 3 weeks I am taking Design and Introduction to Management. Nothing too exciting happening in Management. I am one of the few who is enjoying design. Drawing in class has been relaxing. Yesterday the class practiced shading and we made collage style cakes with images cut out from magazines. Today, I practiced contour and gestural drawing. I also practiced drawing ellipses and wedding cakes.

Class Assignment: Gestural drawing of leaves in a bucket in charcoal with a

contour drawing of leaves in permanent maker.

 

Second semester supplies

I am patiently waiting for first semester grades to be posted and I am working on sending out letters for externship. I have 14 weeks left before I apply my skills!