Menus, Projects, And Menu Projects!

Hello again, everyone. This entry is going to concern the projects we put together for our plated dessert unit, as well as our wedding cake project. Our class put a lot of effort into our projects, and I think they came out really well.
First, to end our second plated dessert unit, we held an event called Evening of Desserts. We came up with a dessert menu, as a class, and then we were all able to invite some of our friends and family to come and try our items. We all had a great time doing this project, and we loved being able to share with our guests. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get a picture of the dish I made, which was an amuse bouche consisting of a plum consomme topped with a Thai spiced sherbert. I thought it was really good, and the sherbert was delicious!

Here's the menu:

Here's me being all super serious about plating the semifreddo

Laura and Sirisha are working to plate the mendiant

The chocolate hazelnut mendiant.

The panna cotta

Pistachio Semifreddo. This is the one I helped plate with Nicole.

Next up we have our big menu project. This was a very intense, but still kinda fun project to work on. We were given the assignment to invent our own establishment (restaurant, dessert bar, truck, etc) and to develop an 8 item dessert menu for the place. We had to define a style to the establishment and a story to go on. Like I said, it was a lot of work, but it was really fun to get to be so creative. I invented a restaurant, named Patterson, which would be in Astoria. It's a sort of new American style, neighborhood spot, that emphasized seasonality and pulled influence from the neighborhood. Here's my back story, as well as a copy of the menu!

So yeah, it was really exciting and fun! And thanks to my brother, Todd, for helping me out with the logo and layout...a lifesaver, as usual. Our chef picked two items from the menu that we had to make. We had two days to get everything done, which was busy, but enough time. I made the sticky toffee pudding and the strawberry rhubarb compote.

Sticky toffee pudding with a bourbon salted toffee sauce and espresso granita. I threw in a few espresso beans for decoration. Although, looking at this, perhaps a color other than brown would've been a nice touch to perk up the plate.

Strawberry rhubarb crostata with basil ice cream and a strawberry rhubarb reduction. The crostata opened up a little, but it tasted great, especially with the basil ice cream! Too bad it was so hot in the kitchen, and ice cream started melting instantly...it ruined the look of my plate!! Bastard!

They turned out very well. My chef made some constructive critiques, but overall, she really liked it.

Finally, we have our penultimate project...the wedding cake. We were given a theme by another class, which was Ancient Rome, and it was a same sex wedding on Cypress. The colors were royal purple, orange, and gold. Yes, that's not a lot to go on, and the colors are really gross. And yes, Cypress is more Greek than Roman. But we got what we got, and we made our cakes accordingly, although I don't think anyone was too thrilled with it. Anyway, here's my cake. For the record, it's a white cake with honey buttercream, covered in fondant, decorated with sugar paste laurel leaves. Cake decorating has never been my forte, but I think I pulled it off decently.

Phew, that was a lot to tell you all about, but we're almost there. The end is nigh!!!!

Next up....the final project. 5 days of intense work to prove that I've actually learned something in 9 months. Crazy!

Sugar...Aw, Honey Honey!

Hey everyone! It's been a crazy few months. I finished up my internship just as things at school began to heat up....literally! It's been ridiculously hot in the kitchens, and it certainly didn't help when you're working with intensely hot sugar! That being said, I loved working with the stuff. I was so much fun to be able to pour, pull, and blow sugar. Part of the point of this unit was to begin desensitizing our hands to heat, and boy did we ever! We were cooking sugar to well over 300 degrees and then working with it with our hands, wearing only some regular old latex gloves.

We started with poured sugar, which is pretty straightforward. You cook sugar until it's super hot, and then pour it into the shape you want! We made owls. Here's mine!

In our next class, we began learning to pull sugar. You have to set up heat lamps that keep the sugar hot and pliable in order to pull the shapes you need. It's hot hot hot, let me tell you, and my fingers were tingling until the next morning! We added different kinds of feathers, and well, I don't think mine came out quite right. He looks rather, um, different. Oh well, with the heat and humidity at school, the whole thing melted into a sugary mess almost immediately, so my shame didn't last too long.

However, we also learned to pull sugar ribbons and make bows, and I think mine looks pretty nice!

After pulled sugar, we moved on to blown sugar, which was really cool, even if it often ended in explosions. Basically, you take a piece of pulled sugar and attach it to an air pump. You then carefully pump air into it to form a ball, or whatever shape you're aiming for. It's fun, but if the sugar cools too much, or you pump too hard, the whole thing explodes with a loud pop, almost like glass. Here's a generic ball I made...it could almost be a Christmas ornament, no?

After we had learned these techniques, we began our sugar project, which was a group showpiece. Our theme was the Rainforest, and I took part in pouring the base (which probably took 20lbs of sugar on its own) as well as making trees, some ponds and a river. Other people took care of the waterfall, animals, plants, and rocks, and it came out really well!

And that's sugar! Sadly, it's not very likely that I will get to do this much sugar work again, since it's not something that's done very often. Hopefully, something will come along, though!

Extravaganza Of Plated Desserts!

What? Huh? What's going on? Where am I? Oh...is this a blog? I vaguely remember that I was writing one, but I guess I haven't been keeping up with it. Um...sorry...my bad. Well, now that I have less than one week of school until graduation, I guess it's a good time to catch you all up on what I've been doing. I'll start with plated desserts. I believe this should cover almost everything from the second and third plated desserts units There's a lot of ground to cover here, so you'll forgive me for being brief.

Chocolate mint parfait on  creme anglaise with blackberry "salad" and a white chocolate "cigarette."

Yogurt panna cotta with apricots and a riesling granita

 Warm chocolate cake with tamarind ice cream

Tropical tasting plate. This was pretty uninteresting to me, except for the coconut cous cous "risotto" that was awesome!

Apple beignets with cider caramel sauce and caramel ice cream. Drooooool.

Fried bomboloni filled with coffee, vanilla, nutella, and chocolate pastry cream. Oh my!

Cheese souffle...imagine the lightest omelet you've ever tasted.

Chocolate Hazelnut mendiant with cherry compote.

Chocolate souffle 

Citrus parfait with strawberries and candied thyme.

Tropical fruit fritters with, I think, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

Gianduja souffle

Pistachio semifreddo with gratinee of apricots.

Raspberry souffle

Tiramisu with espresso granita and whipped cream, in a chocolate teacup.