chiantiglace

Appologies for not posting recently, sometimes you just lose track of time. I have done and experienced countless things in the past couple weeks and I hope during this passage I will remember atleast most of them. I am starting to see what my predecessors have been telling me about how much the scheduling changes throughout your term. A lot of my friends (mainly culinary) have been pushed back for all sorts of reasons. One failed B-block, even though he got an "A" due to absences because of a car accident and legal matters. Another failed skills 1 because he missed the last two days because his mother is just went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a disease or something that I dont even remember; something about a bad colon and intenstine. A bunch of people I started with went through A Block which made things a little wierd. The Baking and Pastry program is very much messed up. The two groups ahead of us had too many people and some of them were pushed up in the rotation. Now they have joined our group which is considerably low. We started in C block with 10 students, and we gained 5 new ones which brought us up to 15. Then in D-block we lost two and gained 3, so then we were up to 16. Now in E-block we didnt lose any and have gained 3 more. For bread (E-block) we are at a solid 19, unfortunately after this block the 3 we gained we will lose again, and supposively we are to gain 5 for F block. It's a mess. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed culinary skills for bakers. The entire group we had seemed to do very well and our chef was very tolerant. The final day he let my "team" go crazy because we were so ahead of the game. I made tortellini, which I meant to fry, instead he had us boil them because he didnt think I could pull it off in time. We also received a free lobster from upstairs. They said it had just died and couldnt sell it, but if we wanted to cook it for ourselves we could. The lobster was fun for the girls in my team to throw together, but when me and Chef Klug broke it down, you could tell the meat had broken down to shit. We came to the conclusion that the lobster had died much earlier than they had told us. I just finished E block (Hearth Breads and rolls) and probably will never forget it. My German instructor Chef Temme (CMB) has many easily identifiable characteristics of a true food industry professional. He is very demanding and delegates work constantly at the same time keeping an upbeat sarcastic tone. You really wouldn't know if he was joking with you are really wanted to do what he asked. When he would go on his rants it was best for everyone to do exactly what he said even if he was blowing up just to get a rise out of us. He seemed to like me very much, but nobody else thought so. He rode me harder than I have been at school yet. The third day of class after a few verbal beatings he asked me if I have been doing this a long time because oh the way I act and work. I filled him in on a little bit of my life after which he stated to me I guess you know I'm am not being mean to you on purpose just testing your thick skin. Going home that evening I was very content with myself not aware what was waiting for me. From then on no matter what happened with the group I was to blame . I think he was trying his best to see if I would break down or lose it on him, which I never did. I, like usual with new chefs, turned everything around on him. I set myself up to burn him, and thats when the fun started. I started to get a feel for what would make him go off so I wouold deliberately stage a setting. For example, one time I knew he was going to get annoyed if I didnt have a container ready and greased for my dough once it finished mixing. So what I did was get one ready and put it on the side table just to the right of the mixer instead of on the rack infront. Sure enough he came over bellyacheing about me not having my materials ready. Once he was finished I didn't say a word and simply pointed right through him in attempt to turn is head directly behind him where my lexan awaited. He turns back around with his arms loosened across his chest, smiles and says, well done. At the end of the block, after all the serades me and the chef played with each other, a kind of kitchen folk dance, he shook my hand and told me to take care. Previously the beginning of that day he had told me infront of the entire class that I was an "interesting character" and will be missed. That reinstilled everyones disbelief that we were friends, and at the same time made myself happy. Would anyone like a pretzel? If you look close you can see some very nicely made ones and some wrecks. A sour dough loaf made from Chef Temme on day 12. In the picture you cant tell how big it is but its about 6 lbs I'd say ranging one foot and three quarters in diamter. He told us this was the first time he had made this bread at CIA. When he was young he had a job at a bakery in Germany where they made breads this big and sold them by the cut or quarter. Here is the set of overns we used, our four deck electric "deck over" and our rack roll in over. Too me I thought they were both very nice but I think the Chef thought he could have better. Here are some batards left over at the end of the day. Honey wheat, top and bottom, multigrain in the middle. Our two spiral mixers and the small 20 qt mixer on the side. Heres the chef plus me and two of my class mates rolling multigrain batards during dinner while the rest of class is away. The batards lined in the couches. By the way this is our sourdough version of the multigrain batards, its not the standard everyday. The reason we were there during dinner was because the sourdough takes so long to rise it usually extended into dinner time. Me, the group leader and the two older gentlmen in the picture above were the usual candidates that came back from dinner early to help the chef. Here is the baguette production. This is the 2nd batch for the day, after dinner. This is from a dough we practiced rolling out by hand. And if someone was absent or and extra dough hand to be kneaded, guess who the chef had do it . The bottom three are mine I believe. Baguettes were fun for me because people showed their humble sides when baguettes came around. I had plenty people ask help, and not to sound mean but some people reallly needed it. These look great by the way because its just 5 or 6 students back early from dinner (the more experienced or deidcated) and also it was the last day and everyone has had plenty of practice. Also a side note, whenever we made baguettes by hand it was much much easier to shape them then when they were kneaded in a mixer. You guys try and figure that one out and get back to me. Here is the practice with the "epi" formation. This is a nut bread, or more simply kind of like a bread coffee cake. It is very good. People had fun with these, they really had to use their brain to shape them properly do to how to cut and lay the dough. At the end of the last day, Baguettes (top), Honey wheat (second to top) Jalapeno Cheddar (Bottom left), Multigrain (bottom Right). Here is simply baguettes in the proofer lined in their couches. We made kaisers too, and at the end of final shaping I had some extra dough so I quickly made a kaiser flower. it turned out ok. I hope everyone is having fun with this. I have plenty more to post just not enough time. Bye for now.

I would just use butter. Read this article from the NY Times Welcome Back Butter Unless extreme strict guidelines I honestly think the best thing we can do in life is eat well and in moderation. Screw all these new substitutes, I keep hearing bad things about Splenda such as chronic headaches and toothaches. I still cant get over the people that are afraid to order green beans if they have been sautee'd in even the smallest amount of olive oil. By the way I dont think that liquid butter substitute is going to do to well in ANY baking procedures.

I agree with Neil. Whipping the eggs in creme anglaise is about as pointless as measuring two different flours seperately for bread, its still going to have the same result. When you temper the eggs with the cream you will probably most if not all of the air anyways. Then as Neil said, cooking it will deflate it due to the fat in the cream and constant whipping/stirring.

can always save it and use it in marinara.

Reading the dispute on RI clam chowder, if they do have a clear chowder, it's more popular than most discussing it there think. Everyone makes it sound like its losing a battle with cream and tomato, when in the south it's taking over. Just to add, March 19th comming up CIA is holding a chowder cook off, and even though I doubt I will be entering I'll be sure to take pictures and notes to post for everyone later.

Chris, what ever happened to Hatteras clam chowder? Down in Carolina country thats the popular one. It's made with a clear broth instead of tomatoes or cream.

I always thought they went well with anything orange. I do on the other hand not enjoy sesame and chocolate together. to me there is no balance with those to flavors, but thats my opinion.

I need the best sources you guys can give me of Food Grade Silicone. I am preparing a special project so if anyone has info or links please help me out.

August 2nd

Finally I am actually paying to post here, and have the Images to show it. I wonder whats the record for image usage space, I think I am close. Anyways, here are the belated images I wanted to post previously. First is of the Career fair. A couple overview shots. This is where some were sitting down for a break or even a quick interview. For me it was a full interview from the Exec. Chef of the Breakers, because they were only going one day. Here is all the booths set up. Next few slides are of the Anhiseur Busch Beer Tasting. The gentleman in the light blue shirt is returning extern Jared, President of the the brew club. This is a roasted Lamb Chop on rissoto with a "World Lager" demi, with World Lager in the glass. It was good, I had two glasses. This is a cheese bread with a cheese sauce in the cup, plus an orange chocolate ganache. The beer was Amber Rock, first time I drank it, it was pretty good, not great by far though. There was a first course with Budweiser and some Ahi Poke+ some smoke cheese. Both pretty good, but I didn't get a picture because I was hungry and thirsty. The event dragged on in the beginning about the process and warehouse capabilities at the "Bud" plants but I learned a bit from it. I must say the beer was the best I've had from AB probably because it was made that day straight from the factory, aswell as perfect chill point (42degrees) By the way I just received a call/message from The Breakers TODAY!!!! I am stoaked out of my mind right now, it took them less than a week to notify me. Tomorrow I'll call back, hopefully I got the spot, and if I do thats amazing for me. Apparently they only take like 2 or 3 during the season (which I'll be in) and had probably around 30 interviews last year. Last year they stayed both days, Michelle said it was a mistake because they were booke solid with interviews and this year wanted to shorten it up.

Yesterday we finally got our hands dirty. We started culinary skills for bakers and it seems pretty basic. Part of this class requires 2 people to work the savory station for the apple pie bakery everyday. The first two were me and our group leader Daniel. This was a good chance for me to get some one on one time with Daniel so she can be comfortable with me helping her. She seems 100% comfortable now, which is a lot more than I expected. We began the day doin basic prep work like cleaning and cutting roamaine for salads, cutting tomatoes and marinating them for panini sandwich, cutting mirepoix, cutting mushrooms. A lot of the stuff Daniel did was for the first time and she did well. She was very attentive and didnt jump into anything too fast. I helped her a slight bit breaking down a pineapple because the teachers assistant still seems a little inexperienced. Not to dimish the TA, I thought should was doing a pretty good job keeping up with everybody but she was hardly flawless. We put some extra tomatoes halved that were left over into the oven to be roasted and I had to remind her to pull them out. Things like that happen often, but it's just and observation for me. We started at 7 a.m. and were told we were done at 10:30-11, we didnt leave until 12:30. The rest of the day we threw together about 100+ sandwiches (roast beef with swiss, carmelized onions, and horsey mayo; Turkey sandwich with cranberry mayo and apple chutney on faccacia) and then cleaned for like 2 hours. Me and Daniel made sure that the kitchen was spotless and ready for our classes first day. It was a treat to be the last person to class yesterday ( and I was 10 minutes early) to see everyone had their game faces on. We have three new classmates, all older, two between 30-40 I believe and one about my age. We are set up in groups of 3, 5 groups to be exact. I am in the only group of 4 because I don't really want to get in the way. I consider myself kind of like an extra, hopefully if I get my group to finish early everytime me and Daniel can walk around and help people struggling. I noticed today some people didn't retain much from product knowledge. I had a few people hold up some items and ask me what they were. I'm glad they ask rather use the wrong thing though . Our teacher Chef Klug, who use to be the Chef at American Bounty did about 5 demos today, and for me they just seemed to drag on forever. Probably because I had been up since 6 and only had an hour and a half sleep. We prepared a chicken stock as a class and vegetable stocks in our groups. We discussed proper ways to start a stock and when and why to clean, blanch, or roast. We discussed when and why to add the mirepoix and aromatics. We prepared the coarsley cut vegetables and each group prepared a sachet of aromatics(herbs and spices) to incorporate in the stock. In one of the demos Chef Klug elaborated on the differences between a well prepared stock and "his" example of a ready made base, which was like a 20 year old Major granular chicken base. Apparently he didn't know anything about bases of today. If anyone knows me well I have mentioned my father is a Schreiber distributor and I have grown up in a spice and soup base warehouse. We had a 5 minute break in which I took the oppurtunity to have a non-affensive interesting conversation about the bases of today, apparently he was a little surprised with what is made today and didn't even know that the bases are, well, moist and paste like. A proper reduction of a real stock made in the factory. Then we had a conversation that the whole class should have heard because it was educational, the uses and acceptability of a stock or a base, when and where it should be used or avoided. I must say before I end, a tragic thing happened yesterday. Someone took my knife along with a bunch of others over to the sink to be washed. thank god I was washing the dishes, or I would have flipped even more than I actually did if it had been washed. I then proceded to explain to everyone in class they should WANT to clean and protect there own tools. Everyone in the room looked at me as if I was speaking Greek, but I think I made to point of don't touch my knife unless you ask. Speaking of knives, they have become more lenient in the kitchen on personal cuttlery. I use my own Wusthof's and I have had some bad experiences with other people and my knives, so I am a little protective. By the way, Grand Buffet ran again last thursday, sorry No pics, it was as good as last time.

where did you read about putting flour or cornstarch in your chease cake? and there are better ways to preventing cracks than putting flour or starch into the batter.

May I ask what interests you so much about The Breakers? Who's the chef in the dining room there now? Do you know what it is you wanna do when you finish school? what culinary field are you trying to reach? This may be something to consider before choosing your extern. Do you see yourself doing the big hotel thing or resort deal? or do you see doing private dining? I did my extern at the Ritz, which was maybe a good thing. After that i learned i wanted NOTHING to do with that sort of life!!! ← I've always Had an interest in Floridas Atlantic coast. I would really like to be in Miami but Palm Beach is 2nd best. The Breakers has always been interesting to me. Such history and beauty. The style they are is how I would like to live my life if that makes sense. Beautiful Italian Architecture combined with modern French fusioned food on a subtropic beach. Too me even though the Breakers is very sophisticated and upscale (5diamond AAA) it still seems rather relaxed and pleasant. Besides the images of food I have seen comming out of the kitchen on the discovery,history and foodtv channels is remarkable. I've also work with a couple chefs from Miami beach who spoke highly of it and one who actually interned there himself about 6 years ago. What I want to do when I get out of school is take up what I was doing before then. Move around and enjoy my life. I want to experience everything that food has to offer. Does that sum it up for you or do you need more specifics? I desperately want to drive the Team Pastry Competition as perfectly, if not better than Jean-Phillipe's team (Claude Escamilla, Chris Hanmer) did in '02. I would also very much get CMPC certified as soon as possible. Even though these goals are waaaay out there maybe even impossible I set for the highest. I'm not the kind of person that sets low so that when I pass I feel good about myself. I am the kind of person who, if there is no highest level I create a highest level to reach. I also don't treat the kitchen live as vigorous or intense as the majority of people. I thrive on stress, literally, so that means small nor large bothers me. I look for what I may enjoy I don't run away from what could break me. If it doesn't kill me it will only make me stronger. I just state it like that because it's the overstated and easy to understand phsychological statement that describes me. Many people find me too competitive, thats just because I'm rearing up my momentum for something intense. This could take me days to accomplish, that's why some people don't understand the sudden change without the presence of stress, I am just preparing for what lies ahead simply because I love it. So I am not concerned about a life of hotel management that will make me hate the kitchen life becuase it just won't.

I won't know anything about the Breakers for probably a couple weeks. If they don't call me I will call them. Apparently it was the biggest turn out we ever had, but because it was my first I didnt notice. Dinex corp. was there (Daniel Boulud), as well as Charlie Palmer Steakhouse. I spoke to the "Foxwood" (Indian Casino in Conneticut). Apparently it is the biggest casino/hotel in the world, But quite frankly I thought MGM Grande was. Unfrotunately for the Grande it can only expand so much, the Indian casino is obviously on reservation land and they can expand for days on end, ha. I also had a chance to speak to the executive chef at Hotel duPont. he showed me some pretty cool pictures of the lifesize duPont stock car they made out of sheet cake and the process up to it. The Hotel+cuisine looked fantastic but I dont see myself going to Wilmington, Deleware or Conneticut for that matter. Even if Per Se was in Wilmington and I was on the top of the list to extern there I still wouldn't go. That's just how I am.

Breakers Interview seemed to go very well. They interviewed me right off the bat and was clean. I filled out an application within 20 minutes, gave them my resume and we were done. I am longing for the call from them. I may not be able to wait, quite possibly I will call them before they call me. Also MGM Grande and Bellagio were there. It was very fun talking to these reps, almost like I had known them before. We discussed the sister relationships of the Casinos and how they work. We discussed Jean-Phillipe, Carlos Salazar, Claude Escamilla, and even Our own Neil (nightscottsman). It was very interesting to pull information that they may not have originally gave up unless I knew what to ask. I gave the Bellagio rep. a resume and he plans to go "refresh" Claude Escamilla's memory of me and my previous application. Very exciting news. So it may seem I have landed not only a great extern but very good grounds for future employment. There were also a few people and many restaurants I was already aware of there like the Trellis in Williamsburg, The Sanderling Inn in Sanderling NC, and Gold Key Resort [2 Hiltons (one brand new) A pasta place Pizzaros, and a Ramada, seemingly number 1 restaurant in the Hampton roads area (eastern VA) plus another resort hotel with very nice and small restaurant called Rockfish]. The F&B for Mahi Mah's (Ramada Restaurant) Pulled me aside, I didn't even realize he was there. An old friend of mine, Rob Reper, who was introduced to me by my father. He graduated CIA a few years ago and has been doing very well in VA Beach, mainly because hes a very hard worker. Anyways, I have a beer and food tasting tonight by Annheiser-Busch, in the, you guessed it, Anheiser Busch Theatre. Should be really interesting, and I will make sure and gather some pictures for that.

2 hours ago we just had a presentation from Disney. Seems theres a pretty structured plan for extern. They have full dorm set ups with living room attachments, 2 person bedrooms. Seems well layed out. They have classes right by the apartments that you can take for free which is run by FSU. You get insane discounts and meal tickets everyday of the week. Everything is paid for plus 7 dollars an hour 10.50 over time. They constantly move you around the resort for training and you can qualify for management. Upon employment you are 1 of 55,000 "cast members". This is a damm good experience for anyone, too bad it doesnt do a thing for me. Tomorrow is career fair. I spent 20 minutes today walking around the empty tables reading the placement labels. A lot of very good oppurtunities will be here. Several Ritz Carltons, a couple Casinos like Bellagio and MGM Grande. There will also be Hyatt Regency, Greenbriar, Charlie Palmer Steakhouse, and the one I am interested in currently, the Breakers. I am very lucky they are comming, of all the people that could come they will be here. I can't wait to set up an interview. Hopefully Tomorrow I will upgrade and post some pictures.

Just went to a beer tasting on wednesday nights, and I have been waiting for the pictures to come back to me. Was an awesome turn out, completely packed house in the Danny Kaye Theatre (about 200 people). Stone Brewing from San Marco California (North San Diego County) came in for a 9th Anniversary Beer tasting. They Just opened up a huge 32 ( I believe) brewery with a 1200 square foot, 350 seat restaurant. The beers were all laid out when we got there in glasses. They started off with the Pale Ale, which seemed to be easiest to drink for the crowd. Next was their IPA (Indian Pale Ale). The speaker gave a little history on how the name came out and what and why the difference is between pale ale and Indian pale ale. Next up was their smoked porter. The idea for a smoked porter was very new to me a month of two ago but already it's become boring. I infact did not like this beer too much. The typical smoked flavor used for this one reminded me of too many things I don't like, for instance oyster sauce. I wanted to keep my buzz so a dropped it down quick. Fourth commer was the "arrogant bastard". This one seemd to be the speakers favorite just in his tone while he was talking about it. Apparently the story is that the manager or owner requested a beer simply for the employees to want to drink, a strong double brewed ale. So thats what the brewer did, and on test receipt the manage/owner took a sip and replied in a gasp, thats one "arrogant bastard" of a beer. 5th was a ruination IPA, I didn't get much of what the speaker said about this one because by that time I and everyone else in the room was having a "good time". Last but not least was the 9th Anniversary Ale. A little stronger than the pale and possibly a little crisper than the IPA. All in all they were very well made beers/ales but nothing I haven't had before. Soon Stone brewing will be shipping to the east coast as the speaker said once they set up a distributorship. I may have a draft or two if I see it, but I won't go away to gather up some. I tried coaxing him into making lagers, but apparently its too difficult to brew a beautifully flavored lager . By the way, I ran out of room for pictures, so I won't be able to put anymore on until I upgrade to a donor, which being a poor college student might be a little bit.

I'm not rich, infact I am quite in debt now I have not read it, infact I am "reading" it right now. I'll get back to you on the deja vu as soon as I finish it I was hoping no one would actually ask that, but I guess I asked for it when starting this diary. My appologies for mis conception in previous bouts I am actually a whopping twenty-one years of age. Now opinions may shift, I will remain constant.

I think Godito helped me understand your question a little better, I was hesitant to answer. I do believe it's better to learn design before flavor simply because it would be a little dumb to go through all these classes learning hands on techniques and then go through a design class. Me personally I am glad to be taking this class first because from here on out when we are learning "flavor" our minds will automatically be putting a "design" to that flavor. At the end on some of these classes, or all, we have to design plates, or bread sculptures, or cakes and it would be good to already have the art and design features in our head to build on. We have already had the fight numerous times not only on egullet but constantly in life, on tv and in books about pastry's of structure and flavor, which is more important. Just because we take this art class first doesn't mean its more important to the plate, it's just a preliminary for our minds to advance upon. From here on out we are going to see things in a different aspect and it's good to go through all of these blocks changing that aspect.

I just had Principles of Form and Design yesterday from 2:00 to 8:15, boy that dragged along. But I do appreciate this class quite a bit. I think every pastry chef should take a class like this, Its inspiring and developes your mind artistically. I trully do believe if I work hard in this class I will get a lot out of it. As a culinary starter I have been trained for flavor my whole life, But now I am learning that structurism. The purpose of contrast, colors, background, foreground, all the little things that may make or break a plates appearance. Yesterday we did an excersize where we went through a bunch of pictures from Grand Finales and observed what we liked and did not like from the pictures. Then we discussed why we did not like or like and our professor, Ostwald, then explained to us the reason behind it. This class is going to give me a lot to feed off of in future years. Knowing what can be too much, and when and how I can add more. It was a little funny for me and him at first because our views clashed. I kept looking at the pictures from a culinarian point of view, and he kept looking at them from a designer's point of view. The excersize wasn't intended for the culinarian point of view, so he had to train my eye to let "flavor" and "purpose" go. (ie) He would put a picture up where he would explain why there may be too much going on, but I would rebudtle saying that the dessert needed these items for specific reason [not garnishes, big peices like sorbet, or cookies (meringue)]. There was one that was basically a strawberry plate "sampler" in which had like 10 different things relating to strawberry for one to eat. It was very beautifully displayed, and the pastry in me said leave it alone, its perfect. But my professor kept putting his hands over certain pieces and saying, "how does it look now", "better". I kept saying no, there nto getting there moneys worth . We had a good time together with that, and I think hes starting to get my mind to come around to the otherside. Which if it does I hope I will be able to turn it off and on at my disposal.

Ha, this is funny because it kind of sounds like me. I am a little older and started when I was bout 14, but not classic french restaurants. Got to start out lame and work your way up to the good stuff. I don't have a common background, I was fortunate in a lot of ways. Also there is one thing I believe in. Even a 45 year old dishwasher can teach you something.I don't care where you are from, what you have done, you can always learn something.

seems they've waived the minimal experience, but in my opinion they need more than the 6 months. The tour is only baking and pastry, not sure why. I think these guys are struggling to give us proper class days, so they just throw filler in there. But whats funny is the more my experience progresses, the more I give my professors and the administration to include in the curriculum. I think they are going to start avoiding me because they cant keep up.

Well today we just started Baking Ingredients and Equipment technology, one of two classes for this 3 weeks. We voted our group leader, which wasn't a vote because only one person ran, which surprisingly enough was the individual with the least amount of experience. I'm not sure if its nerve, guts, ignorance, or just plain old drive that made this 18 year old to want to lead a group of more experienced (some exponetially more) group around. I hope, and am banking on drive because I don't want to be picking this one up off the floor. Supposively group leader doesn't really do much until after extern which many people have stated, so no biggie. This may be a very good learning oppurtunity for her too. There apparently was a rumor going around that I was running for group leader and everyone got scared. I believe there was about 4-5 other girls running before they knew I was. Yet I never was. So come today to run there was only 1, I have no idea, and apparently I made a bunch of people mad because I didn't run against her . lol, ohwell. This one isn't comfortable with communication, she doesn't seem to be able to deal with problems on an individual level, so this might be good for her. She's going to see on a first hand level how much a managed position in this culinary world has to put up with. Since taking the role she has been more comfortable around me for one, this is good because hopefully she will trust me enough to let me steer her the right way. After a little introduction for a semi-new teacher, Professor (Mrs) Migoya, which is Chef (Mr.) Migoya's wife, has her 2nd or 3rd class with us. She's an allumni, and the only place I could remember from her resume was Bouchon Bakery. Which I do believe we have a couple Bouchon employees on egullet. We did a little equipment idea from the materials we received back in block B (our knife/equipment kits). This kit includes a bench knife, rubber spatula, regular and fluted dough cutters, parisian scoop, apple core, bowl scraper, steel, cutting wheel, chefs knife, knife stone, paring knife, big and little offset spatula + regular, serated (bread) knife, pastry brush, various pastry tips, regular and candy thermometers, wooden spoon, a whisk, decorating comb, and a filet knife (looks more like a boning knife). Knives are "Mercer corp". All the tools came with two very nice black cases. Then we did a minor excersize and took a tour. The tour consisted of all the bake shops and the "apple pie bakery". There we went over all the equipment used and received insight of what to expect from future blocks. It was comforting to see so many students having trouble with there work. It's not like you walk in and everyone is precisely moving to key. In the AP Bakery it seemed one young man was having extreme difficulty with the mini (6 inch) cakes he was preparing. I said to him as I approached, "excellent work", this being before I realized he was having a tough time. He looked at me with a blaze and went back to figuring out what he had to do. Poor thing was using an offset spatula to spread the filling layers (chocolate buttercream) inside those tiny rings. He couldnt seem to handle it. I wanted to reccomend using a bowl scraper or even a rubber spatula, but sometimes you will just increase frustration at that point . The girl giving us a demo on the dough sheeter looked she had only used it about twice, one being an illustration for herself possibly. She ran the dough about 10 times before rotating it, and before that she struggled to get it to go through the first time. One of the girls explaining to us about the hobart mixers didn't know how to turn it on reverse, in which our instructor had to jump in. Then when Migoya went looking for the brace/sleeve/bowl attatchment the same girl told her there was none, or she couldn't find it. I pointed right below the mixer, she looked and came back up with a puzzled face. I then proceeded to have Migoya pull it out. All in all I found the tour humorous. I really can't wait to get up to the production kitchens, should get really interesting then.

Hi Sarah By the way I am a current CIA student. I just wanted to pitch on the FoodTv fire. I never watch the channel unless somehow I get a report that a "real" competition is being place. Not an apple pie challenge. Sorry to sound synical, but everytime I turn it on I either see Emeril (something), Iron Chef or a goofy program. I guess the goofy programs are for the 15 - 35 year old males (which by the way I fall smack right in the middle). The reason I'm tell you this is I probably would have caught your show thus being other interesting programs on. I never payed attention, and for that I get a little frustrated for it being a channel devoted to my field it doesn't seem to provide the real culinarians with proper satisfaction. P.S. Even though we watch foodtv all the time here, most of are jokes play off of it. Sad to say. Also I love Gourmet Magazine, just to show I'm not neccessarily negative

No need to navigate, I am sure I or another eG member would be more then happy to help. If you need me to make the drive up to scoop you I would be game. ← Thats very nice of you, But I would never ask anyone to come up to Hyde Park. If anything I would atleast take the train down to gran central. I've just never been comfortable with New Jersey.