Week 10 of BP

December 12, 2012 Wednesday

12-12-12

Demo Class#19: Chef Jocelyn made Paris-Brest and Saint-Honoré.  Saint-Honoré would be a difficult cake to do, it included Pâte brisée, Pâte à choux, Crème Chiboust (Crème pâtissière+Meringue italienne), and Caramel! Good luck in practical class tomorrow!

After class, we filled up the survey, then, each single one of us received a Christmas gift bag from Student Service stuff! We certainly didn't expect that.

December 13, 2012 Thursday
Practical Class#19: Saint-Honoré is one of the most challenge cakes we have even made in class.  I think I did well.  Chef Jocelyn seemed to like the cake, he was happy with the taste and the look, the fact that I finished 10 mins earlier, just tried not to put too much cream in the piping bag.  I even cut one of my whisk for the angel hair (caramel) for the decoration.

Demo Class#20: This is our final demo class with Chef Jocelyn in Basic Pastry.  He showed us how to make Douceur chocolat (included dacqoise hazelnut, crunch, milk chocolate mousse, milk chocolate disk, glaze with cocoa, and chocolate decoration)  It was one of the best chocolate mousse cakes I ever had.  We will be doing it in Intermediate Program.

After that, we went through what would happen during the exam day.  Good luck everyone!

Want to see something/someone weird? There's this girl who always went to get changed toward the end of demo class, but came back for tasting! I thought Chef said we should have full uniform when we were in class?! Apparently, she has some attitude problem.... she also likes to take whatever left over after tasting.... WEIRD!!

December 14, 2012 Friday

There's a shooting killing many children and staff in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, USA today.  Please pray for the souls, and everyone alive.

Practical Class#20: Today, we would be doing whatever we chose from the exam list.  I chose Miroir au cassis.  It was more like a mock exam (fake exam) so that we would know what we could expect in the real exam next week.  My Miroir au cassis turned out fine.

 My Miroir au cassis

Cakes from all students

After our practical class, we took a group picture with Chef Jocelyn Bouzenard.  He's just a good chef, very helpful, kind and funny.

Then, we need to clean the table.  Group B and Group C always cleaned and sanitized the table by going around in a circle.... why? well, according to them, it's cleaner.... So I told my group what they did and I said "it's so stupid, eh? Wanna try it?" since it's our last practical class, we, Group A, decided to try it out.... all we agreed on is that... it was fun :-)

Look how Erin was posing while cleaning!

It's Jason's birthday today, Cindy, Cynthia, Dina, Tanvi, Jason and I went to celebrate it in C'est Japon À Suisha.  We had so much fun laughing.  Thanks Jason!

Cynthia made green tea macarons, it goes well with the green tea ice-cream!

During the meal, we found out a breaking news from Tanvi that one of our classmates in Basic Pastry named Adam Picard is charged as a first degree murder suspect.  We were all shocked to hear that.  It explained why we hadn't seen him in class for a week.  According to Jason, Adam seemed like a nice guy who used to serve in the military.  No one knows what's happening, we will have to wait on the news.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/12/12/ottawa-murder-suspect-appears-in-court.html

http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/29-year-old-former-soldier-charged-with-murder-1.1077870

December 15, 2012 Saturday
Holiday Desserts: I went to Holiday Desserts Workshop in school today.  I purposely arrived earlier so that I could clean up one of my 2 lockers.  As usual, Cynthia, Cindy and Jason also showed up for the demo.  All students including Andii, some other students, and us made up 50% of the whole class, but it was free for students :-) Chef Instructor today was Chef Jocelyn.  And he made 1) Bûche pabana (Christmas Log) with Crémeux pabana, Biscuit Joconde, Chantilly au chocolat au lait, Glaçage, and Décors au chocolat; 2) Pâte d'amandes (Almond paste); 3) Truffes au Rhum (Rum truffles) I really liked Bûche pabana, especially the chocolate mousse inside.  Almond paste was just sweet.  I wasn't crazy about Rum truffles.

Pray for my exam!!!

It's not easy to be a pastry student......

We are graded for water splashing performance.

Taken by renowned photographer Erin Asmus

Facial expression is crucial.
Taken by renowned photographer Erin Asmus

Week 9 of BP

Week 9

December 3, 2012 Monday
Open Lab: I paid $15 to student service last week, to book my spot for using the kitchen.  I was going to make pâte à choux for Éclairs, and Religieuses.  Cynthia was also there to practice.  It felt like having the final practical exam there.  Everyone was so busy and fast paced.  But thank God it wasn't my actual exam, 'cos my first pâte à choux didn't turn out.  They deflated...... just like in my practical class. Since it was a small quantity, Chef Eric Jaouan told me to scale the recipe again, and let him know after I had everything ready.  Then he came over and showed me how to cook the milk and combined the flour, then cooked the dough for a few minutes.  Then the most important part was adding the right amount of eggs into the dough, he was funny enough to say it was invented by Italian to have the dough cooked once on pot then baked again in oven, NOT the French invention.  LOL When it came to the right consistence, he let me pipe the dough on tray.  Guess what? It puffed up in the oven like it supposed to be! I only had enough time to bake them.  So I packed everything, then headed to the bus stop.  Derek came to visit her sister's family and me from Toronto.
I took bus #16 to Stephanie and Sean's house, I finally saw Liam and Leighton! Last time I saw Liam, he was a baby.  I don't think I have even met Leighton.  I asked Derek how the TTC was, as I former streetcar operator, I wanted to hear all the gossips! I miss driving the streetcar and I miss all my former colleagues, but never the customer service part of the job.  We had a great dinner, thanks Stephanie for the meal! Oh, I brought the puff pastries and the pastry cream I made in class.  Basically I just filled the pastry cream inside the puff pastries, then put them in the fridge to cool.  Thanks Derek for helping, even though he didn't know much what to do. :-) They all enjoyed it after dinner.  And I think they did save 2 tiny little ones for the kids.  It was always great to see them.  And we forgot to take pictures :-(

December 4, 2012 Tuesday
Tonight, Tanvi, Cindy, Jason, Geordan and I went to see Life of Pi 3D.  http://www.lifeofpimovie.com It's always fun to watch 3D movie.  I didn't read the novel, but I was told it was a great book.  I liked the movie, a bit surprised to know the ending.  Yes, I would recommend it.  I am very excited about Les Misérable movie out on Christmas Day!! I can't wait to see it!! http://www.lesmiserablesfilm.com/splashpage/

December 5, 2012 Wednesday

Some ice sculptures in from of school restaurant this morning!

I passed my written exam!! :-)

Demo Class#17: Chef Jocelyn made Pavé du Roy, Entremets Casino today, and finished the Soufflé glacé Montmorency from last week.

After class, to reward myself for passing the written exam, I got a Bear Chef.

December 6, 2012 Thursday
Practical Class#17: We made Pavé du Roy in practical class.  Mine was okay, but working with chocolate wasn't easy.  I got my apron and uniform dirty.  Chef Jocelyn suggested me to work "for away" from the table, and chocolate in the middle of the table.  Also, by the time I finished the second layer of the cake, my ganache had set so much already, that I had problem with the top of the cake.  So I needed to work even faster.  But overall, he said the biscuit was soft and good taste of chocolate.  Oh, he wanted more syrup in the cake, even though I put all the syrup in.

In the end of the class, Cindy, who stood next to me, cut her finger.  Actually she cut one of her fingers in the morning at home, and had a little cut during the class, then this final major cut that it didn't stop bleeding.  Did she swear or panic? As usual, she was calm like nothing really happened.  Chef suggested her to get it stitched in the hospital, so the stuff from Student Service came and brought her to the hospital.  We just helped her clean up her station, and pack all her stuff and cake down to the my locker (since I have 2 :-)  She eventually came back for the second half of the demo class later.

Demo Class#18: Chef Jocelyn made Charlotte aux poires, coulis de framboises in demo class.  It wasn't a good day for Chef Jocelyn.  There were not enough tools for his demo, and there was so much to do. We ended up leaving the class at least 30 mins late.

Cindy, Jason, Tanvi and I went to have Korean dinner after class, here are the pictures of her cut fingers!

December 7, 2012 Friday

Practical Class#18: Charlotte aux poires and coulis de framboises were what we made today.  My Charlotte aux poires wasn't great, piping could be better, Lady fingers over-baked, and I should whip little less heaving cream for crème Bavaroise, according to Chef Jocelyn.  He also suggested that I could make another batch of lady fingers if it happens in the exam.

December 8, 2012 Saturday
It's been a long week, and stressed out about the exam, just I slept until the afternoon.   Some of us decided to practice pâte à choux, Tanvi, Cindy and I met at the Korean restaurant near our house for dinner (Leena also joined us for dinner) , then headed to my place.  Jason came after having dinner at his place.  As we discussed, we should have cooked the dough longer on the pot before incorporating the eggs.  And it turned out pretty puffed up after baked.

See how Jason piped a little heart! And those hot dog buns looking things were creating by Tanvi.