Wendy DeBord

You won't believe this but I actually live with-in walking distance to my job too. It's like winning the lottery! But theres a big reason for all this good fortune, seriously. I've spent years working jobs where I had 1 1/2 hour drive each way, spent time where I never thought anyone would offer me a job because there aren't many pastry chef jobs out in the world, worked with people that I knew stole from me, I've worked with people that I wouldn't cross the street to say hello to with-out fear. I've worked in places where I was discriminated against for being a female, discriminated against for being caucasin (see I can't even spell that! that's a curse if ever there was one) worked for chefs that had no business running a kitchen, etc... So the Karma gods have finally made up for all the torture they put me thru in previous jobs! I do appreciate every single day how lucky I am, but I'm always scared the rug will be pulled out from under me.

I make lollipops in many flavors. I use (spelling problemmmmmmm) Boiran (i think) a brand of natural fruit oils that's outstanding and they make far better suckers then the Lorrann oils. I have lemon, orange, tangerine and key lime, but they come in more flavors then that. Marshmellos, yes I use a cookie cutter and yes I spray it heavily frequently with pan spray. I need a laptop too! But then you'd all suffer............from my excessive blabber mouth.

Before my honey gets home from work I thought I'd try to upload some more photos. I'll keep doing so until he arrives, it will keep me away from the M & M's that have been calling my name.........then I'm off to cook dinner. I had mentioned previously that I made butterflies out of piped chocolate, I found a photo for you to see how I do them. Even though the color of the butterflie is purple it's good white chocolate and not coating chocolate. Here it is on last years Easter buffet. This next shot illustrates another use for the joconde cake we've been talking about. The pink pattern is a stenciled pattern on my cake. I then "attempted" to make them look like purses to fit into that Mothers Day buffet I showed you all earilier. Here's what it looked like inside. I think someone asked me about what these items were several photos ago? Think about those cookie bouquets you can buy..........I took that concept and stretched it on the whole length of my last two Easter Buffets. I did purple marshmellow tulips (nightscotsman's recipes), brownie flowers, butterscotch brownie flowers and yellow suckers. This years buffet had orange flavored marshmellows shaped like carrots, and white chocolate popcorn wrapped in celephand to look like carrots too, plus some suckers. I think the rest of what I uploaded now is just more random stuff......that I ate and served people. I make all sorts of candies too: These are from another sweet table I did on the theme of the nutcracker.

I'm back from my run to the bookstore.........and I'm a very happy person, even though I now have $30.00 less dollars in my purse. I bought: Brides Receptions, they have some wedding cakes that interested me, Culinary Trends, ohhhhhh the front cover shows some pastries from the World Pastry Team Championship (I live for these kind of issues), Everyday Food's May edition, BBC's Olive, because they show a black and white twist on meringue cookies (something I haven't ever thought of and now must try) and last of all............I've gone to 3 book stores searching for this one.........Food & Wine, May issue. Why?.........the very last page highlights one of our members here! Melmek, who is Melissa McKinney had her bakery written up in a NATIONAL magazine. She offers a recipe for raspberry shortbread bars that I can't wait to try............I'm very very proud to be involved in a forum that has such incredible members.

Ah you know darn well I posted my photo sometime or another in the p & b forum........(hint, it was in photos from last Easters sweet table). I showed you inside my crazy life and brain and thats far more personal then my mug shot. Did you not see my lovely hand in a couple shots? I'm a real person. I gotta run for a little while today, it's beautiful outside and I haven't been to the book stores yet today. I'm planning on cooking dinner tonight (don't fall off you seats guys). Hubby requested beef and brocoli stirfry..........I'll post the recipe too, it's really very good.

Of course I have more photos to show you all............ These guys wouldn't turn and smile for me, but that won't stop me from sharing this anyway. Everyone has to perform............ This first person does the evening salad station and is responsible for plating my desserts. He works two full time jobs 6 days a week! Everyone is lazy compared to him. In between his earily job and his night job he jogs and lifts weights. His day begins at 5:30 am and ends anywhere from 10:00 to 12:00 everyday. Don't think this is some temporary situation, he's been doing this for eleven years now. He's buildt himself and mother a home in Mexico and hopes to retire there soon. But I keep teasing him that he'd never know how to retire. This guy is our night shift grill man. If you follow music happenings in the Chicagoland area you might see him. He's got a band and is in the middle of a area wide competition to find the best band. He's the lead singer and of course he is always rocking out at work. He's been known to get the whole line singing together with the radio........it's quite a hoot. He used to always have purple or blue hair and black painted fingernails.............but for some reason he thinks he can no longer wear that look. Recently he confided in me the fact that he was student council president thru high school............but I'm sworn to secretcy so you didn't learn that from me. I forget if that was supposed to be his phone number for me to post over the internet or if it was his mug shot: The waitress on the left of this photo is working her way thru nursing school and won a scholarship grant thru the club. The women on the right is our club assistant manager.........she and I are the only left wingers (politics) in the whole building and she provides me with the funniest info. off the net regarding politics. And I've saved the most important person for last. This is my Chef (notice how young he is too! oh and look at where his head is in relation to the ceiling.....he's a tall guy). His wife works at the club too and she brought by their son to say hi to Daddy......since he works so much sometimes they have visits at work between parties/events.

I wanted to show you all around my work a little more. The following are photos of our upstairs/main kitchen and the best co-workers you can imagine working with!!! You can't believe how much they make me laugh each and everyday, they're all a bunch of comedians. I haven't been able to capture scale of things in my photographs. This is really true in the photos in our kitchen. The kitchen is actually very small.........and for the amount of volume we do it's unbelievably small. If you look for little details from one kitchen to the next you'll see that my Chef has used successfully every square inch of the kitchen, even up the walls. He's always moving things to perfect where things are located so it's the most efficiant we all can be in such a tight area. I really like that fact, he's always thinking and studing! This first shot is of our newly anounced sous chef (he was our saute person but just this week he was promoted). As you can see he's pretty young (like 23)..........but he's packed with talent! oh..........I wanted to add that he apprenticed at Jean Banchets restaurant in Wheeling IL and that he's generously desided to take on the mentorship of a highschool student who wants to enter our profession. Soooooooohe gives back and really gives most of his spare time to others. (I'm really proud to work with and know him) In a couple weeks this area becomes our snack shop area to service the pool. In about5 square feet we jam two snack bar attendees into the tight little kitchen. The attendees make most of the items that they sell, like: pizza and milk shakes and the hardest part is they have to figure out how to work in zero space. We can be doing a party for 300 people 1 foot away from them sharing the same oven their heating their pizzas in.

While I was writing that last post I was snacking on this: left over lox (actually it's NOVA) and bagels I had to photograph this tomato, it actually smells like a tomato and I was really excited over having it, turned out the taste wasn't as good as the smell..........oh well. I bought this package of nova yesterday at our new grocery store. It was aprox. $10.00 and it's a huge amount of fish. I'll be purchasing this again! Compared to the smoked salmon you buy at the bagel chain store, it's $5.00 and there isn't enough for two bagels.

Of course I don't think the ideas are all hers (after her first couple books I doubt much of the ideas were hers, she turned her focus to running a very successful coporation)......when I talk about "her" it's "her" name on the magazines and books I'm refering to.........I couldn't care less who did the work and ideas, who gets credit or not. I don't care if she steals the lime light or doesn't give enough credit to employees or not. I'm not into judging that aspect at all, I'm simply looking at the content and telling you all the title of the magazine in which it can be found. AND I should add, sometimes the magazine falls way short and is boring as heck to me. I'm referring to a body of work that I've studied since it hit the bookstores in the earily 80's. I'm not even actually talking about specific recipes from her stuff........In the earily 80's the cooking books and baking books in the stores were nothing like they are now. I think her book impacted everyone writing cookbooks because from then on they all embrased the art of presentation (and other things), etc........ Her coconut cake is o.k. I voiced my opinion on who's recipe I believe is the BEST coconut cake.You can find it in the coconut cake thread in The Pastry & Baking Forum.

My very favorite place is the bookstore. I visit 2 local bookstores every Monday on my day off. I really like magazines because they come out monthly (usually) and so theres just sooooo much information every month to catch up with. I look thru every cooking and baking magazine there and at the grocery store. I also like to look at the ladies home magazines because they also feature desserts. Then on a daily basis I look thru my book collection. I've got a great deal of them memoried (that word being used loosely) from studing them so much. I REALLY LOVE anything Martha Stewarts put out.!!!!!!!!!! She's had a tremenous influence on me. Looking at her first books showed me making food could involve the visual arts. She was ground breaking when her first books came out. No one what displaying food in baskets, with themes, not on mirrors or silver trays. I believe she's has as much, if not MORE impact on the food industry and home cooks then Julia Child or James Beard. I think she's constantly showing the most creative work that's not in the "elite" pastry books. Her wedding cakes have become the standard for the industry. Brides everywhere bring us photos of the cakes shes published begging us to reproduce them. I feel bad that people judge her magazines and her personality and crimes and can't get past that to really take a good look at how she's impacted Cooking and Baking. I don't care any which way about her personal life or if she is or isn't arrogant. I get soooo much creative imput and ideas out of each of her magazines...they're the most exciting thing that arrives in my mailbox. Sometimes I can't wait for my subscription to arrive at home and I buy the copy at the bookstore because I have to go home and devour the info. imediately.

Here's some photos of the "toys" I create and like to use at work. I've recently posted photos of some of the cookie cutters I've made in the baking forum, so I won't repost those. I've talked about cutting my own stencils also in Forum but never showed any photos. So I'll try to make up for that here. I like to buy stencils because they're time consuming to cut. But just this spring I purchased a hot knive that cuts thru plastic like butter. In this next photo I've used the hot knive to cut the leaf stencil and an exacto knive to cut the clovers stencil. I've cut other stencils, but will spare you the details for now. I've been looking for the perfect media to use as a stencil that's the size of one full sheet pan, so I can create more with less repeat effort. I found this thin plastic at The Container Store. They sell it to be used as something you line your kitchen shelfs with. The rest of my photo's are of purchased items. The white stencils here are thicker then most. They are used to create tuile cookies. Using gold dust to stencil thru this pattern onto chocolate plastic, which I will shape into a bow later. This next photo shows the little containers of gold dust I've mentioned. This photo shows the cocoa butter food colors I use to spray thru my badger airbrush.

I've attempted to merge with an existing bakery but found that we clashed personality wise and I baled out. I've thought many many times about opening my own place, long and hard. But I've got enough experience in all aspects of the business that I know what I'd be getting into and it means too many compromises. The second you own a business your a business owner not a pastry chef. You spend more time running the business and the people you have working for you, you don't have time to bake. If I could run the kitchen and not the business, then I'd seriously consider that, but my husband doesn't have any business experience outside of construction. I've had offers to take "front of the house" positions too, and turned them down. Why take yourself out of your strongest area into something your not as interested in or enjoy as much? I had one caterer stick his nose up to me when I rejected a job offer of running his kitchen. I'm not ready to stop baking (I've only just begun) and no amount of money or prestege in a title will change that. Also one of the really great aspects of being a country club pastry chef is the variety of items I get to make. In bakeries you have a product line and make those items over and over and over. When you finish a cake, everytime you make that cake you have to decorate it just like the first one, boring! People mainly go to bakeries to buy b-day cakes and celebration cakes. I could never want to decorate cakes all day everyday, I like to bake and do every aspect of the pastry arts. The clientele in the Chicagoland burbs dictates the product that you must make to be successful. The more educated pastry lovers tend to live in areas where I couldn't begin to pay the monthly rent. I don't know what my next 'venture' may be. Theres soooo many thing's I'd love to learn and get better at (in baking) the jobs or work that attracts me is working in a place where I can learn and grow. Your last question: I sort of float on the wind.........I'll get into something someone might be talking about in The Pastry & Baking Forum.........I might see a new product being sold by a company and just have to buy it and master how to use it. I copy ideas and skills shown in books and magazines and sometimes along the way I think about how I can use that technique in a different application. Next up on my work schedule we have our "welcome back" huge club party and I'll focus on what to do for that. Then Mothers Day and my Chef requested I do those chocolate shoes..........so I'll be dreaming about ways to further explore making 3D shoes in baking ingredients. I'll start visualizing a sweet table and then figure out how to make the items I'm thinking about in pastry.

Oh man, have you been listening in at my home? Yes, he sure does!!! He doesn't understand why I like the internet, why I spend so much time here, why I work when I'm not at work, why I can't just watch tv with-out having my head in 4 books. But then, he's an engineer type so there's lots about me that is foriegn to him. Ahhhhhhhhh but he also doesn't understand how females can carry on a conversation about 3 topics all at the same time. I always believe the best treat is one you make well. The biggest impression you can make on people is the taste of your food. They'll remember a simple brownie that's auesome for years more then that tart you fussed over for 4 hours. Now that our RecipeGullet is back up if I was you, I'd choose something from it that everyone raved about, and make that.

I'm drinking my newer fake cappuccino right now. Ahhhhh it's o.k., more coffee like and less hot chocolate like. I'm guessing the calorie content is less because it's less sweet then the American brands I've tried. I'll finish the whole package, but I'll go back to the cheaper Sam's club version when it's done. Here's a french knive: I do use serrated knives also, alot. I use a straight edged knive to cut thru smooth items (like, chocolate mousse cake, brownies, cheesecake) and a serrate knive when I have to cut thru something very difficult that likes to crumble or break apart, like: meringues, carrot cake (nut laden), pie crusts. Remember that I'm usually cutting thru partically frozen items so I don't have to be afraid to put some real pressure on my knive.

They give you 10 tubes per order. Each tube is aprox. 23 " long. So your yield depends upon how tall you cut each mini. I cut mine at about 1".....so that's roughly 23 mini's per tube. 23 X 10 tubes is 230 mini's. When you see them all cut and on full sized sheet pans it really doesn't look like alot. It's two sheet pans worth, aprox.. I keep hoping Brian will report back on how his trials are going. He's using the tubes you can buy at your local hardware store...........I'm not certain, but I'm guessing the price is cheaper then importing from PCB.

No way,........... man you've brought tears to my eyes. I'm not a writer like all our other bloggers.......as you've seen words are hard for me and spelling is impossible. That's part of the deficit I got in exchange for the ability to draw. I'm certain I'll look back on this and regret not using spell check. It's embarrassing that I can say words I can't spell. I hope that in the long run people will look past my deficits and see that my heart is good. I love eG because it and the people that particapate here have given soooooo much to me. Thank all of you!! Now that I've gotten all sentimental............I'll straighten up...........sorry. Let's pretend that I wrote this as my very last post on my blog.

Today, Monday is my day off of work when I tend to be clued to my computor catching up on the weeks posts here at The Society. If anyone has any specific questions or would like to know specific details about pastry or my work in pastry I'd be happy to back track and detail anything I've shown or talked about. It's also my last day of blogging and if I happened to miss anyones questions, please remind me and I'll address them asap. If theres something I haven't shown you and your really curious also don't hestitate to inquire. I'll be sitting here in 8 hours, drinking my newest version of fake cappuccino and eating my left-over lox and bagels.

I find the best way is to take the whole item out of the pan, set it on a raised surface (I like to use the back of my sheet pan). Then use a knive that's as long or longer then the object to be cut. As you place the knive into the item as your cutting check both sides of your item. Is the knive an equal distance on both sides to the edge or your last cut? Having the item raised off the counter (on the back of a tray or tall cutting board) means you don't bang your knuckles into the counter as you bring your knives force down. I can't cut anything straight while it's still in the pan.........and the bigger/longer your knive the better.....oh, also thin knive work best for cutting pastry work. Cutting round cakes I've really just perfected. I used to cut round cakes like I cut full sheet pans of cake, as I described above. That method isn't as successful when you've got a tall, round cake. What I do: I take my longest knive and cut the cake into quarters. Put that knive down, away and grab a french knive. I use a french knive for all the rest of the slices cutting one slice at a time. When ever I attempted to cut the length of the round cake the pressure coming downward never would turn out straight and I'd get uneven slices. But using the french knive and cutting one slice at a time lets you control your pressure and straightness the whole way thru the cut. I also cut all my cakes or messy items on my cake turntable placed next to my sink. I dip my knive in hot water between every slice to clean the blade off and in some cases having a hot knive makes the cutting easier. Like when your cutting thru chocolate, the hot knive partically melts the chocolate so you barely have to cut it. On fragile items I find it best to cut the cake while it's partically frozen. I will freeze a fresh cake just so I can slice it properly. I've never experienced any loss of flavor due to this brief freezing. It's a method most professional PC's use.

Let me breifly say that Chefette is a genious with gum paste! Go check out the California Forum, she posted a photo of a sculpture she did of two planes while flying, out of gum paste. It was displayed in a pastry show at the airport. It's incrediable! You can really trust her advice, you won't find better. Flavoring fondant: you need to choose flavoring agents that don't require alot of wet volume to flavor. I really love natural fruit oils for flavorings. Other then oils choose strong extracts like lemon or almond........of course don't add enough to make your fondant strongly flavored. A little of either or a combo of several flavors changes the rolled fondants taste into something pleasant.

Beautiful photos and documantion Ellencho. Thie thread should be published into a book.

I think you'll find alot of help if you read this thread.. Since the date of that thread I have been baking wonderful creme brulee's again with-out using a water bath at all. That has totally solved the problems I was having. They now bake at 300 in my convectionoven for 20 minutes or less. I posted a photo of a partically eaten creme brulee I made the other day for work on my currently running blog (in the General Foods Forum), I had to make 191 of them. That should prove to you how creamy they still are with-out the water bath.

I've never owned a surface read thermo. but as I understand it can be off in temp. because your getting the top surface temp. and not necessarily what's further down in your pot. Caramel continues to cook after the flame is turned off. The residual heat can turn a light colored caramel into a dark caramel in a minute. You have to know when to stop cooking you caramel so after the residual heat has worn off, you've got the right degree of doneness. This would be exactly like cooking a steak or a roast. They don't stop coming up the second you take the heat off them. The thing about making caramel is, it isn't about cooking the sugar to the caramel stage. Caramel happens at such a high heat that the next step is burned black colored sugar. Therefore to make caramel you absolutely don't need a thermometer at all. Plain sugar cooked to caramel cools off to be hard, very darn hard. So the thing your looking to achieve is how to get the caramel to the texture, softness that you want. That softness is determined by how much of what you add to the cooked sugar, completely......no other factor. So for a caramel sauce you will add more liquids, be it water or cream then one would add to create a thicker denser caramel like a candy center. You have to find the right recipe/proportions for what texture your trying to achieve with your caramel. That is the "trick' to making caramels. You don't need a good thermometer or any thermometer at all, to make caramel.

Ah Kevin, my night time web freind...........welcome. The ghosts were cupcakes covered in rolled fondant. The skulls are white coating chocolate covered apples with licorice hair. I got both ideas out of books.

Oops, I forgot to mention that I posted the recipe for joconde cake and cigarette paste on the same thread where we talk about how to do this. Look here. If your cake has a lot of pattern to it, it probably will negatively effect what you can do with it. It probably won't roll as tight as you want and fit in smaller circumfernce tubes.

Have you looked at the thread I posted that leads to a more detailed discussion on this in the Pastry & Baking Forum? That explains it pretty well, I think. But I'm happy to talk more about it. I'm not sure I would be crazy for filling the centers with frosting. That would be auefully rich and maybe too much frosting to cake ratios. But you certainly can do that if you like it. You can fill the centers with almost any filling. From creme brulee's/custards............oh many any sort of non cake filling, frosting, mousses you can think of. Theres more things that you can fill it with then not. If you don't want to make seperate cookies to place each one on you can dip the bottoms in melted chocolate to 'seal' the bottom creating a 'foot'. All the recipes I use for mousse are freeze stable, no probelms there. You can make mousses too. They're not any harder then making buttercream. If you need help please don't hesitate to ask.