Week 2 of Basic Pastry

Just finished my week 2 of school, and feeling great about it!

Wednesday:
Demo Class#3: This week on demo class, Chef Jocelyn Bouzenard had done 8 crémes, including Créme Chantilly, Créme Patissiére, Créme Anglaise, Créme Bavaroise, Créme D'amandes, Meringue (française, suisse, italienne), Créme au beurre, Ganache.

Thursday:
Practical Class#3: We had Chef Hervé Chabert for this class.  We just did Meringue Italienne, Créme Patissiére, Créme Anglaise, and Créme D'amandes.  We did the meringue twice.  Everything I did was good.  Chef was happy with it.  The only problem I had tonight was that I kept using the wrong size of tools (e.g. sauce pans and bowls)

Demo Class#4: I was so happy to know that we would be making tarts 'cos I love tarts.  Chef Jocelyn Bouzenard showed us how to make Tarte au citron, Tarte aux fraises, and Tarte aux pommes.

Friday:
Practical#4: Before the class, we heard that some students in other group didn't finish their Lemon Meringue Tarts, mainly because of the failing Italian meringue.  It seemed easy to just do one tart in practical class, just do a sweet dough, lemon cream, and Italian meringue (almond cream was done in last practical class).  Most students who finished the tart dough and lemon cream started whipping the egg whites and cooking the sugar for Italian meringue, but the tart was still in the even baking.  Quinn, Cindy and I knew the meringue would deflate if we did it too soon, despite everyone had already started it.  Well, in the end, Cindy and I only did the Italian meringue once.  Hers turned out perfect, and mine was so so.  But I managed to pipe on the tart fast and put it in the oven and baked!  It might deflate a little bit, so what! Poor Quinn did her, I think, twice, but in the end, it was too loose to pipe.  And some of the students did it 3 times.  I heard in other group, someone did it 5 times! I admired how fast he finished everything else and had time to do the meringue 5 times.  I was the first one to finish the tart and got graded by Chef.  He cut my tart and tasted it, he said everything was good, and well done.  The only problem was the meringue, it deflated a bit.  He told me to watch out the temperature of the sugar and stopped whipping once it became room temperature.  Oh, also, Chef kinda gave me little shit for closing the fridge door with my foot :-P

Seminar#2: Chef Phillippe Guiet (from Cuisine) was teaching us HACCP, it stands for Hazard Analyze Critical Control Point.  That's all you need to know.  Don't ask.

So, after the seminar, Tanvi, Cindy, Jason and I went to have an amazing Indian dinner at Haveli Indian Restaurant.  http://www.haveli.com I loved the food, and Tanvi taught me how to use my index finger to tear naan on the plate.  I loved eating with my hand! Oh, I had the most delicious vegetarian dishes I ever had.

Saturday:
I finally reunited with a long lost friend here in Ottawa-Nicole who used to work at COBS Bread with me in Toronto.  We didn't work together for long, but we always reminded close.  And I had visited her before in Ottawa.  But somehow, we lost touch with each others.  Because of this blog, we reconnected.  Nicole and Deb came to pick me up at my place, and they bought me to this amazing bakery near Chinatown.  It's called Art Is In Boulangerie. http://www.artisinbakery.com We had so much fun chatting and enjoyed the food very much.

Deb told the chef owner Kevin Mathleson http://www.artisinbakery.com/meet-kevin that I now study in LCB, if he could show me around his shop.  He was kind enough to say 'no problem, come with me'! :-) Thanks Deb! :-) I'm looking forward to visiting this place again.
After breakfast, we went to Westboro Market.  I bought some broccoli and doughnuts there.

All of a sudden, I remembered that I had a workshop to go to at 1pm.  Nicole was so nice, and drove me to school with my broccoli and doughnut :-)  Once again, thanks Nicole and Deb for the wonderful reunion.
It's a free workshop called Rice and Walnut Workshop by Chef John Placko http://www.johnplacko.com Basically, he showed us how we could cook some fabulous dishes and desserts with rice and walnut.

We got to taste 4 dishes and 1 dessert! Nice.

After the workshop, Cindy, Cynthia and I walked up to Rideau Street and took some pictures of the Parliament area.  Then walked down to Bank Street and had Pho in Saigon Pho.

The food wasn't that great, expensive and small portion.  I guess it's because it's on Bank Street.  We should try the ones in Chinatown instead.

Sunday:
Slept until 3pm.  Cleaned up the place, and did laundry :-)

Monday:
Just had dinner with Jason, Cindy, Cynthia and Tanvi at Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot.  And we all smelled like hot pot afterwards.

Tuesday:
Today, Cindy, Tanvi and Jason came to my place for practice.  Since we all liked the strawberry tart, we decided to do that.  Basically, I was busy posting pictures on Facebook and working on my blog, I didn't really do much on the tart besides eating it.  And I did a great job eating it.  I think they did a great job too.  Well, I provided the place and the tools, so I should have credits as well.

Then, Tanvi needed to be demo assistant in school.  The rest of us went to eat at So Good Restaurant in Chinatown, and it wasn't "So Good".  Then we did some grocery in Kowloon Supermarket.  I was disappointed to find almost nothing that I liked.  Oh well.

The durians in this supermarket were small..... looked sad too.

That's about it..... I am so tired now.  See you guys next week! :-) Oh, you can also check out more pictures on my Facebook account! :-)

Ottawa Tour

I finally got a chance to check out Ottawa today with some of my classmates from LCB.  Since I got up late, I had to meet Cindy, Tanvi and Jason in Chinatown.  I didn't know where to catch the #2 bus, but got on the #12 bus on rue Rideau and asked the driver.  He dropped me off at Rideau Centre and waited for #2 bus.  I saw it coming and stopped behind two articulated buses, so I waited for it to pull up.  Guess what happened? It took off! I thought TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) was bad!! And I didn't want to wait for 30 mins for another one, it was cold.  So I hopped on a taxi to get to Chinatown.

After dim sum, we walked away Chinatown.  We found that there were more phở (Vietnamese noodle soup) restaurants than Chinese restaurants!  Then we walked down to Little Italy, yes, it's "little!"

There was not much to see in Little Italy, then we decided to go to ByWard Market.  I loved the market, you could find cheese, fish, pastry, fruit and vegetable.  I bought some white beans.

We saw that BeaverTails shop in the market, and apparently it's quite famous in Ottawa, so we got a half chocolate and half pumpkin BeaverTails to try, it was so so.

We also walked around to see what's nearby.  We checked out a bakery called Le Boulanger Français http://frenchbaker.ca/bakery/ and I bought an almond croissant.  And also checked out a very nice cookware shop called Ma Cuisine.

Then we went to Rideau Centre for a bit.  Finally decided to have dinner in Dunn's Famous http://dunnsfamous.com Poor Tanvi ordered a coffee, and half way finishing her glass and found two bugs inside.  But overall, it was a happy day for all of us.

Survived the First Week of School

DAY ONE

October 9 was the orientation day.  We started at 10am, the chefs and staffs were introduced, and they talked about classes, the history of the building and school, the schedule, events....etc. And I thought it was gonna be a 2-hour thing, but it turned out that we, the students in Pâtisserie de Base would have a Seminar#1 at 3:30pm!

As a "shy" person myself, quickly met some friends in school.  A few of us went to grab a sandwich in Subway nearby, and chatted about where we were from and where we went to school.

It was a very looooong 3 hours seminar about ingredients that we will be using.  That's the orientation day.

DAY TWO

The next day we had our first Demo#1 class (3 hours) at 8:15am and Practical#1 class (3 hours) at 3:30pm on the same day!!!!!!! Really? Seriously? Chef Jocelyn Bouzenard showed us how to do Pâte Sablé (short cake dough for tart and cookie), Pâte Brisée (shortcrust dough for salty pie), Pâte Sucrée (sweet dough for tartlet), Pâte à Foncer (pie dough), Petits Sablés Nantais (small shortbread cookies), and Damier (chocolate and vanilla shortcake)  I learned some French terms and some techniques.  Oh, forget to mention that there will be no KitchenAid mixer needed for Pâtisserie de Base.  We will do everything by hands.

Group A today, we had Chef Hervé Chabert in the kitchen helping us in Practical#2.  We only needed to do Pâte Sablé, Pâte Brisée, and Pâte Sucrée, and when we had time, we would do Petits Sablés Nantais from Pâte Sablé.  Guess what? I cut my finger already! I cut my finger on my first day of culinary class in George Brown College! It always happen on the first day in kitchen!! It is my luck or what? Well, those knives were sharp I must tell you! Anyway, I was calling Chef Chabert, and said "First cut, Chef"! He was nice enough to sanitize my finger AND put the bandage on while I was mixing the dough with my right hand! In the end, we all finished those 3 doughs and the cookies.  No bad for the first class.  And the cookies were yummy.

DAY THREE

We only had Demo#2 today at 3:30pm.  Cindy, Cynthia and I went to Canadian Tire to get cake box, and had lunch at Shawarma Palace before class.  Today, Chef Jocelyn Bouzenard demonstrated us Génoise (Genoese sponge cake), Biscuits à la Cuillère (Lady Fingers), Biscuit Roulé (rolled biscuit), and Daquoise (nut cake) He whipped the eggs like an maniac.  Well, I was sure that I had to do the same thing in the practical too.

After the Demo class, Tanvi, Cindy, Jason and I went to get spatula in Dollarama.  By the time we got there, it was closed.  So we went to Metro and Loblaws, but no luck.  What's up with Ottawa? Don't they bake? We ended up having dinner in a bubble tea place... Cindy suggested to go there, but she didn't order bubble tea.  Poor Tanvi ordered a veggie dumpling disc, but disappointed with the small portion.  I think Jason was okay with the food.  I ordered a bubble tea and poutine, and surprisingly, Tanvi and Jason never had nor had seen a poutine before.  They both went to university in the States.  One thing I had to mention here (with the permission from Tanvi), well, Tanvi told us that in her practical class, she went to the chef and asked quietly "Chef, how do I crack an egg?" SERIOUSLY! I tried to hold my laugh.  Well, to be fair, she is a vegetarian.  She had never touched meats, chickens, and eggs.  But there's always a first time, especially if you signed up for culinary school.  I told her she was lucky that I wasn't in her class, 'cos I would LOL very hard.

DAY FOUR

Some people hated to have a practical class from 7 to 10pm on Friday, but I didn't mind it.  I just organized my notes and studied the recipes before class.  Practical#2 Chef Eric Jaouan was monitoring, and we were using a different kitchen tonight.  A lot of whipping for Génoise and Biscuits à la Cuillère! I didn't cut myself tonight, in case you wanted to know.  My piping of the lady fingers were not great.... needed more practice.  Oh, I pulled the baked lady fingers out of the oven then put on top of the stove (the oven is right below the stove), I turned around and did whatever I was doing, then I smelt something burnt... yes, my lady fingers! Apparently, the stove was hot on top of the oven, DUH?! Oh I forgot to mention that we "perler", put icing sugar on top of the lady fingers twice, before baking.  So there was caramelization going on on the tray! LOL Chef came and saw my burned lady fingers, and said "well, I guess after tonight, you will never put the tray on top of the stove, 'cos you will not forget tonight." Indeed! After Chef saw our products, then he told us what to repeat, either Génoise or Biscuits à la Cuillère.  He told me that I could do either one, but preferably what I felt most weak.  So I picked Biscuits à la Cuillère 'cos my piping sucked.  Plus, I could whip the egg whites faster then the egg yolks.  I must say, the second time piping was better than the first.  But no near perfect lah!

A Brief Update of Moi

• resigned from the TTC last October to be with my dying mom in Hong Kong
• stayed for the Chinese New Year 2012 after my mom's passing
• went to Japan with families in January, and reunited with a long lost Japanese friend--Yatto in Tokyo
• my grandma also passed away in February
• stayed longer in HK to be with my dad, went swimming and dim sun with him every morning
• applied Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute in end of March
• accepted by LCB in April
• took a French basic class in Alliance Française, and met some amazing friends in class 
• went to a cruise trip in June with families, flew to Beijing, boarded the ship in Tianjin, and travelled to Nagasaki 長崎, Miyazaki 宮崎, Kobe 神戶, Fukuoka 福岡, Busan 釜山, and The Great Wall
• went to Taiwan with families in July, met Catherine who became friends in French class
• went to Europe (Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and France) with my nephews, and I stayed behind in Paris for a week, spent a joyful time with Muriel who now works in a famous bakery called Arnaud Larher (Meilleur Ouvrier de France), and another friend from French class, Michell bought me to a fantastic crêperie called Crêperie Saint Eustache
• had swum 204 days in Hong Kong
• came back to Toronto in September
• found a bachelor unit in Ottawa
• now moved to Ottawa
• started Pâtisserie de Base in LCB last week

My Crib!