Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Most Badass Spatula Ever

I saw this at Crate and Barrel the other day and just had to have it.



Sunday, October 08, 2006

Baking a Cake

My department at work is hosting a cake contest tomorrow. Any cake is fair game, as long as it is made completely from scratch. Scoring is based on presentation and taste. Since I'm in culinary school, I have a feeling that some people are expecting big things from me. What no one knows is - I'm not a baker. In fact, I'm only 1 week into my baking class at school and so far, all we've made is bread. So, in reality, I'm on the same level as all the other novice cooks at work.

I searched quite a few recipes before I settled on this one:

Thanks to Marcus Samuelsson's cookbook, Aquavit, I will be entering the contest with Soft Ginger Cake with Mascarpone Mousse.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Dookie Dough

Tonight we made three types of bread:

Pan Au Lait
Pullman Bread
French Baguettes

The Pan Au Lait dough is rolled out into ropes and then twisted into one of three shapes – knot, figure eight or “s” shape.

After some practice, my partner and I managed to perfect the knot shape. The result resembled a pile of doggie doo. As a garnish, we topped them with black sesame seeds.

The bread quickly earned the nickname of “Turd Piles with Flies.”

Poor Idiots

Last night kicked off a new class. I’m in the baking lab now and will spend the next six weeks churning out breads, cakes, pastries and all sorts of other figure un-friendly foods.

Besides the usual first day class stuff, our first assignment was to make hard rolls. It was my first time using a Kitchen Aid mixer and my first time making bread. My partner and I royally screwed up our first batch of dough by horrendously over-mixing it. Our second batch turned out much better. They looked so professional when we were done and Chef Instructor had honey butter standing by for tasting – yum!!!

I don’t know why I am continuously appalled by the behavior of some of my fellow classmates. “Idiot” is the only word that justly encompasses their immaturity, lack of respect and non-stop shenanigans.

Some of last night’s antics included:

-The glutton telling new Chef Instructor that he’s allergic to strawberries. Since we’ve been in class with him for 8 months, we are well aware of his strawberry allergy. He tells every new instructor about it, freaks out when a strawberry is within 10 feet and otherwise acts like it’s his claim to fame. Needless to say, his routine is tired – to all of us. So to be a smart ass, I decided to ask him “Hey Glutton, are you allergic to strawberries?” Oh boy. Not only did the class erupt in laughter, but he proceeded to tell me all about his strawberry allergy as if this was the first time I was hearing about it.

-Tall stick figure with no brain decided that instead of making hard rolls he’d make hot chocolate. So, he dirties up an ass load of dishes and puts them in the sink for me to clean so that he could leave the classroom to flirt with another student.

-New guy acts like he knows everything and constantly interrupts Chef Instructor to impart his knowledge. He didn’t make any friends last night. No one wanted to be know-it-all’s partner.

Poor idiots.