Wendy DeBord

oops, I meant to hit the preview post button and missed. I had some problems loading photos and it used up my time this morning. I'll be back and show you todays diet.........including the cappuccino I've already drank.

Forgive me, I'm still not awake. In the mean time I'll post more photos. These are from this years Easter. We had 530 people and I was a runner for the Chefs food.........so what I could do, HAD to be a buffet that didn't need to be refilled at all, because I couldn't while running hot entree's for my Chef. I had exactly 1 week to do this. Normally I'd take 2 and even 3 weeks to work toward feeding so many for a holiday buffet.....but we were too busy and that's all the time I could squeeze out. I'm not proud of this work. The skill level is very low, but I had to spend my time on volume. Normally I wouldn't want anyone to see these but I want to show you all the realities of this job. This large sugar egg I did make in advance.....thanks to always working ahead as much as possible:

Tea kettle is on, as I try to wake up my brain this morning I'll post some photos. These don't need much explaination. I will admit I had to show close ups because as a pc I know other pc's would want to see the titles. Also I have very few magazines on my book cases because I don't leave them whole. I cut out all the recipes I'm interested in and put them in my files.

I'd be happy to. I have a brunch on Sunday that will require breakfast pastries so I'll make some Bear Claws (I love them too). Napoleons..........I was thinking of making this Thursday for my ladies luncheon. So unless something interfers with that you'll see both in a couple days.

This is quite possibly the most eGullet sentence anyone has ever written. I am excited to see a pastry chef in action. So is it true you guys are very precise? ← Gee, thanks! And yes we are precise, but that's because our products demand it, literally. We have tempetures and proceedures that we must hit or our product flops. Our products don't wait for us, we have to be ready when the product is at the right stage. I have heard people refer to us in less kind words then "precise"..........so if that has any deeper meaning..........yeah it's probably true. We are very different in nature then hot side chefs.

Every new recipe. I love to constantly be making new items. Some weeks I get to try as many as 20 new recipes. The educational aspect of trying some famous chef or authors recipe is very exciting to me. I love learning.

I'm most proud of the sweet tables I put together. Because they involve so much detail in so little time and I can use some artistic skills making them. I 'think' there aren't alot of pc's that do sweet tables quite like mine.........in the regard that I try to follow a tight theme with visuals. I may make a very fancy torte but usually it's hidden under the themed decorative nature of the item. Verses pc's that put out fancy pastries. For me, fancy pastries are really the norm, so I 'try' to create more of a fantasy. I never acheive perfection like what you'd see in a pastry competition! But I'm proud to be able to feed 500 plus people something visually different. If I run out of things to post on, I'll post more sweet table photos in my blog.

I really do love making anything to do with baking. The only think I don't like to make is something repetively. My favorite dessert is probably a napoleon and I'm not sure why.........oh I also could kill for a great cannoli! The thing that I make the most that's sort of annoying to me is danish. It does get repetitive after a while.

Yes, tons and tons. I don't quite have enough time in my schedule right this minute to go into detail on this, but I'd be more then happy to talk about that topic in The Pastry & Baking Forum at a later date.

Well that's hard to answer, lots of factors go into when we're slow and busy. All golf season were crazy busy. It doesn't stop until we close January 1st for the month. Then it's slowish until golf season re-opens. BUT it's all depends upon what you consider slow. We are actually the busiest CC I've ever worked at. We average about 150 covers every night in golf season and for holidays we do anywhere between 250 to 600 people on top of daily banquets. Some days we have as many as 6 banquets, somedays they are small 25 people or so some days they're over 200. Slow for us is probably closer to busy for other private CC's. WHY, I attribute it to my Chef. We are the best dining in the county, in my opinion....and we're very inexpensive as far as private clubs go.

Wow, I can't believe how many times you all made me smile reading your comments......THANK-YOU! I'll try to answer some of the previously posted questions: The other cats are........Dukie (he's the brown cat reaching for my pecan roll).........his name stems from the fact that he was so darn cute as a kitten we used to call him "oh you cute little shit" and we worked out a name that fit him. He's the MOST auesome cat in the WORLD! He goes outside with me walking freely on his red leash, that's quite a site. He's really a dog trapped in a cats body. Our world revolves around that animal. Alice, as I call her (she came from my step granddaughter who named her alley cat) is the nut on the chair. She's totally my husbands mistress. Hawkeye beats her up when ever she comes near me so she stays by hubby. Hum.........I think I might have the best pecan rolls in the world. I can't say that about everything I make but I've never tasted any better. I won't be making them again for several weeks..........gosh I have so many other goodies I need to get out of my system before repeating.........We can talk about them and the recipe in the Pastry & Baking Forum when I complete this weeks blog, please come and visit!

To continue.......... My camera didn't transfer the photo of the peanut butter mousse in the graham cracker crust on top of the ganche..........I'll complete that tommarrow as my new menu goes into effect for tommarrows lunch. I also have a item on my menu titled "On The Lighter Side". Orginially when I planned my menu out, yesterday.........I wanted to make a mango fruit plate topped with a gingered pineapple sauce. But when I arrived at work this morning we didn't have any mangos, which we usually do. My back up thought was to make a recipe from eGullets' Michael Laiskonis. It's a yogurt panna cotta. I'm following his recipe exactly...except that I'm using no fat yogurt in place of whole milk yogurt. The recipe can be found here: http://www.egullet.com/index.php?showtopic=34919 I'm using the second recipe he offered that creates a firmer texture so my guys won't stuggle to unmold these, when they plate them. This is a terrific panna cotta..........just what you'd expect from Michael!!! The rest of this dessert will be finished when plated, and consist of fruit since it's a lower cal. dessert. Next up I made "Savannah Cream Torte". This recipe came from an older Chocolatier magazine. It's basicly angelfood cake suspended in a mousse. The original recipe calls for the mousse to be Sherry spiked. But I replace the sherry with h20 and kick up the vanilla with Nelson Massey's vanilla bean paste. Unforunately I don't have photos of this being made today, but I'll show you it tommarrow when I finish it. Hey, it's lunch time and I was good. Our pantry man made me an auesome tuna wrap. It's comes with a side of basalmic dressing (which I can't spell) and I drank a peach flavored fruit2o: I ask him not to waste ingredients dressing up my plate with garnishes. I was so proud of myself for stopping and sitting down to a decent lunch. I looked at the clock when I sat and it was 1:00 on the dot. After my relaxing lunch I looked back up at the clock and was shocked that this is what it read: O.k. wait, I did only eat half, so I did come up for air once or twice. I then made my "Brownie Torte" (which I did take photos of but they didn't load right). The concept from this stems from Oriol Balaguer's book "Dessert Cuisine", page 226. I use the Scott Wooley recipe that's posted in Recipegullet for my base. Those of you from the P & B Forum will remember it as the cake I offered in the search for the perfect chocolate cake. To that cake I make a chocolate mousse recipe from "L'Art des Entremets de France" by Bellouet and Perruchon, page 132. I like this particular mousse because of it's smooth texture......it's more like a chocolate cream then a mousse. I'll post photos of this tommarrow also. Last ala carte item I had to make today was my Key Lime Cake (no photos untill tommarrow on this one too, sorry). I'll describe this tommarrow when I actually make it. I ran out of time today to begin this. Because we have a lunch party tommarrow for 100 people and I had to make that today as well. It's called "Lemon Mist Cake". It's a cake my Chef used to buy in before I came aboard. I've never tasted it and I make this as instructed from my Chefs memory. Basicly it's a yellow cake with lemon mousse layers and frosted in plain butter cream. I use a cake mix for the yellow cake, Dawn brand. I've run out of pans and I had to use two different sizes, how embarrassing! Oh, I made extra because I need some cakes for Sundays brunch. This is the whipping cream for the lemon mousse: I enhance this lemon mousse recipe with lemon oil and lemon compound. I think they round out the lemon flavor that is missing from just lemon juice and peel: Other happenings..........Ralphy came in to use the mixer (although he refers to it as MY mixer) and made some (as he calls them) kick ass twice baked potatoes. After I drooled over the smell he handed me a bowl. Darn it, lost photos of that shot too. You can trust me, they really were "kick ass"! They sell like crazy here! After coming home from work I did eat dinner, at 7:00 pm which I'm hoping won't activate my heart burn. If it does I suppose I'll post on this thread all night..... Oh, what I ate.........the other half of that tuna wrap followed by a handful of M & M's (my nightly chocolate fix).

Sorry it took me so long to get back. Today was a longer then usual day for me. I started at 9:00 am and left at 7:00 pm. I tried to take photos of most of what I was up to..........my lovely camera or it's software aren't being good (naturally when you need it) and I had several photos that wouldn't transfer. Oh well, here's how today went: My stomach is always needyyyyyyyyyy at the time I arrive at work. I drink Fruit2o all day, everyday and to go with my f.2o I snacked on some anise shortbread cookies. The recipe comes from Claudia Flemmings pastry book (which is a great book). I'm not so sure grape and anise are a great flavor combo........but oh well the drink was aready open and I'm not that picky. Today I needed to change over my ala carte menu. I used to change my ala carte menu once a week, but just recently I made some changes in the whole dessert department (well, I'm a one person department) and now I only change my menu every other week. Here's my menu as I write it out to work on. I used to write more details about my components, but I no longer do that. I do have some notes about what recipe I'm thinking about and or what I could make it it's place if that item fails or stinks. I am one of those chefs who believes in tasting everything as I work. Most of the time the item doesn't need adjustment (because I work from very good recipes from very good chefs). Sometimes I'm totally winging the recipe and I'm working like a cook so I'm tasting and working out from there, then other times the recipes "seasoning" or "flavors" are more timid then I want so I add additional flavorings to taste. Then the worst thing happens and something stinks and you have to build on what you've got or pitch it and start over. I NEVER rely completely on a written recipe with-out tasting what I'm serving to know that I can stand behind that product if ever questioned. I do understand chefs that don't taste everything they make, their tired of an item or bored. But I think it's a huge mistake and your looking for trouble by not checking your work. Enough preaching..........sorry. Here's how my day went and most of the items I made: First up was a Tiramisu Tart. This is based off Dorie Greenspans book, Paris Sweets (a terrific book as always from her), page 88 "Coffee Tart" she adapted from Pierre Herme'. I make several changes, but the end product does closely resemble Herme's intent. I use my own sweet tart dough and coat it thinnly with chocolate to protect the shell from absorbing moisture. Then I fill it with the coffee ganche as published, top that with purchased ladyfingers soaked in amaretto, hazelnut liqueur and coffee. Dories' recipe tops the ladyfingers with a coffee cream thats more or less stablized coffee infused whip cream. In it's place I put my regular tiramisu filling. I'll finish this dessert tomarrown before service. Next up is a peanut butter pie. The recipe comes from an older magazine, but I don't recall which one off hand. This is my "Chefs Special" until the weekend.

Ted just hit on something I think if VERY important. Hiring a skilled worker right this second IS the investment you MUST take if your really serious about making it. Rarely is this done........"we can't afford it"! I personally think that's the death of most Mom & Pop bakeries. The facts are, this is the time to put your VERY VERY BEST out there. If you blow it will kill your future business and not continue your growth and success. Your best investment isn't your equipment it's your employees using the equipment. One professional can do the work of MANY! I'd much rather pay one professional then pay 3 completely unskilled workers. If worse came to worse I'd offer them some sort of incentive in addition to wages up front. This isn't about stretching a non-existant budget.........NO.........it's equal to making your first investment into you business. It will make or break your business and you personally!

Ugh, I got so busy over the weekend I forgot to go to the hardware store.......... Can anyone show a photo of that masker in action on a cake?.....please?

I work at a private country club. They hadn't planned on hiring a pastry chef when they designed the kitchen so my work space is an after thought. My Chef generously gave up half of his prep room to accommodate me. This is the most work space I've ever had at any job. In fact I have more area then anyone else!! This hallway leads to my work area: Here's my room, thru the magic plastic curtain: Now a look around it: If you are observant you might notice that theres a couple things very important to my job that's not in my room. Like an oven and refridgerators......... I'm off to check out the P & B Forum before I get in the shower. See you after work today with photos of everything I ate.

If I wasn't a chef I'd definitely be into cooking. Well I used to be into cooking......and I'm actually not a bad cook but it just doesn't fit into my life style anymore. I suppose that sounds weird so I better explain myself. I spend all day everyday preparing food for other people that when it comes to thinking about what I'm going to eat and preparing my meals, I'm totally spent. So I've fallen into the habit of eating whatever requires the least effort to aquire. So I'm guessing most of you would think, "o.k. so she eats alot of easy meals, like sliced fruits and vegetables, quality cheeses and breads, simple pasta dishes etc...." but you would be wrong! That type of eating requires effort, typically more effort then I attempt on working days. I'm a Pastry Chef and well what's effortless around me to eat, is: pastries. I feel like I need to post this. Warning: I apologize to all of you in advance, because this blog will probably scare you. The following eating has been done by a professional and shouldn't be attempted by non-professionals. I'm not writing that as a cute ploy (cause it's not cute, it seems pretty stupid right now) but it's true. I have a feeling I might been seen as the poster person for horrible eating habits. My eating habits are extreme and so I'm highly embarrassed to expose this to you all. But my love for all things pastry and desire to share override my embarrassment. My days off of work are Sunday and Monday. That's when I do eat more normal/healthy meals. Although, I've been panicking and thinking I better actually prepare "meals" during this week......so I won't be embarrassed.........well, we'll see.... that depends upon what's happening at work and how much time I have after work. I do sort of start my day off like everyone else, so I'll start my blog off like others too. Bear witness to this, my daily breakfast: Technically the container it comes from says it's "Gourmet Cappuccino, French Vanilla".........but I don't know of any real cappuccino drinkers that would let this mixture pass thru their lips. O.k. soooooo it's sort of like a hot chocolate/coffee mix and nothing like a real cappuccino. I used to drink real coffee, but my system can't take it anymore and it definitely can not be consumed by me when my stomach is empty. I tried to very hard to switch to becoming a tea drinker, but it just didn't take. I never prepare breakfast at home. If I'm starving I might grab a couple cookies or whatever is fully prepared laying around and instantly ready to eat. When my husband is home we do always eat breakfast, he can't live with-out it (that means he gets really cranky with-out it). But then it's rarely prepared in our kitchen but sometimes he likes to cook. We normally go out for breakfast every weekend. This weekend we were busy gardening so we ate what was available 'instantly' at home.......because I actually had something at home to eat. Here's what our breakfast this past Sunday consisted of: (I hope it's o.k. to talk about past meals too?) I took the photo of the rolls that were left and then I proceeded to finish them off while typing. I had made too many of these at work for a brunch party we had. They didn't all fit on the serving platter so I snook the extras home for my hubby. He really likes these! As we ate, he talked about how we should open a store selling only pecan sticky buns, blah, blah, blah. Of course he's thought up the easy to imagine name of the company and what our sales literature would look like. "Let's call it, Sticky Bunns and have a photo of two buns looking like a "back" shot." That's cleaver..........I teased him. Knowing full well we'd never actually start another business.....but we had a little chuckle over the whole concept. I have to leave for work and I'm not certain when I will return online. So I'm going to pack in as much info. as possible so you can barely get thru these opening posts before I return. This is me, exactly like how I work, when I'm at work (I'm preparing these posts in advance, on Monday and I've got my photos all loaded and ready to go in advance). I hate getting caught short so I ALWAYS work as much in advance as humanly possible..........and I always seem to go over board!! I'm shaking my legs as I type unconsciously (until now)......that's me too, always got to be in motion, ready, ready, ready. Wait, I suppose I should get this out of the way. I wouldn't want to break tradition and not post a animal member of my family right off the bat (I think thats the 'hook' to these blogs. We're are more then mear foodies, we are also a bunch of animal lovers.). It's very rare that I sit at the computer by myself. Just like everyone else I too have a cat that is certain he must accompany me at all times when I'm on the computer. That's his job and he does it to excess just like me...well he is just like me, too much. He's certain I'm his sole mate (cause he treats me like another cat not a human) and he's always at my side when I'm home. When I sleep he checks me all night to make sure I'm still alive (he drives me crazy! and sometimes he bites me). This is Hawkeye: He isn't a cute cat, his legs are far too short for his long body with his front two legs being shorter then his back two. Nor is he sweet, we often refer to him as "the devil cat" and our other cats definitely agree. He was the last kitten of his litter sold at the animal shelter....well the last kitten from all of their adoptive cat litters. We're certain there was a reason for that (but, I love him dearly anyway). I believe what our whole family eats is fair game for blogs so I thought I'd mention Hawkie only eats to survive. Sometimes when he's laying in front of me at my computer I hear his stomach growling. He forgets there is always food out to eat or he just hasn't linked the feeling of an empty stomach can be solved by eating. I have two other cats who live to eat and if I can't think of anything else to write about I'll drag them into this blog too. Hum.........what else. Oh I remember, I was going to show you where I work, the kitchen, my ingredients etc... in my intro. to welcome you into my work life. I took photos already (just to be prepared) so I'll post a whole bunch of them so you can get the lay out. If things go slow at work I'd be happy to make anything pastry wise anyone wants to watch me eat. Most of my eating takes place at work, heck I eat all day long at work so I believe that makes most of my work fair topic to post about according to the blogging rules. I was sort of hoping to focus on my work as a pastry chef throughout this blog. I'm open for requests. Any requests, like: do you want to see my actual work/pastries (which I do eat, all day everyday) and what items: petite fours, breakfast pastries, cookies, cakes, wedding cakes, novelty cakes sweet tables, candys, anything about the savory side at my work (I eat their food too), photos of what I've made previously (I certainly tasted all of that), photos of what my day consists of as a pc (I eat constantly thru that), requests for recipes or techniques I can show (before I eat it)????? ...............Oh, maybe I should mention that I live about 1 1/2 hours drive from Chicago in the Northwest suburbs. I could take you on a tour eating my way across Chicago-land bakeries on my day off, if that interests anyone (besides me)? Wait, while I was typing the other two cats desided they needed to be included. I promise no more photos of pets........maybe a cutie kid photo thrown in later....... if you all begin to fall asleep.

What you've just pointed out Sebastin is very logical, can you actually ask them why they did choose to sell 3 chocolates that are so similar?....with-out insulting them of course......... Their answer seems to be the key to me, based on what you've written. I've avoided responding to this thread because I don't have the luxury of working with multiple lines of chocolate. Unfortunately I buy chocolate based equally on price and taste. I can talk my chef into NOT buying the cheapest line but I couldn't begin to be lucky enough to have multiple boxes of the same type of chocolate in different percentages to play with, yet alone from multiple manufactors. I'm probably the ideal pc that they want to sell to. I still get confused by percentages of which and what. Oh I've read enough on chocolate (by now) that I should have a decent handle on this.........but then I really think that I'm attracted to the cocoa butter content or at least the liquidity of a chocolate in how it melts in my mouth or it's handling properties more then the solids when I'm choosing chocolates that I like. I'm buying chocolate that's 1. going to mixed in with other ingredients that are going to greatly effect the over all taste. Or 2. I'm buying chocolate for candys or coating items and there I really want handling/liquidity and I figure I can season my ganches or other product well enough for that to be the dominate flavor over my chocolate. Now if I was making solid chocolate candy bars.........well then that might be a different story. But I would never buy the same line/brand of chocolate all being under 60%...........it's not logical in my head. If I had chocolates in different percentages laying around to work with I'd want a much more variation.........and several different brands. So I can't understand why this company would market such similar chocolates.

I've made pistachio buttercream before, I like it alot. I do use pistachio paste to flavor the buttercream and you can add it "to taste" with-out hurting your frostings texture. I've also used finely chopped pistachios in my butter cream........but it's taste isn't as pronounced as the paste makes it. The one thing I can think of that you want to pay close attention to is the type/brand of p. 'paste' you use. Some are clearly imiation and have a funky/fake green color to them (usually with a blue/green hue), check the label before buying to make sure it's made from nuts. Good pistachio paste is naturally green (a warm green shade like the real nuts) in tone and doesn't look like they've intentionally added food dyes. I really love pistachio paste it's great in lots of other pastries too. If you need help using up what you bought come back and we can talk further about that.

Is there any chance I could persuade you all to include photos of these cheesecakes? Living in Chicago and working as a pastry chef........I'm always seeking perfection in my version of an authentic NY cheesecake. I do have recipes and have baked all the "major" contendors for the perfect NY cheesecake I've ever seen mentioned on the internet. BUT in the end, I wind up with what I make (my attempt at Juniors, my attempt at whatever), so I never see how "the best" look, or taste.........other then some ad. If any of your buy a piece of this said "best NY cheesecake" a close up shot would be very helpful and educational. I still don't know if a almost crustless cheesecake (like recipes I've gotten from magazines) or a heavily crusted Juniors is the quentsencial NY cheesecake......... ..........me, I like them all......

I wanted to share this thread: here. I found it amazing and I hope you all do too.

Over the years many people have come to the Pastry & Baking Forum to ask about doing their own wedding cakes and the food at their own wedding. I've always tried to talk people out of doing their own food at their wedding. Because, at the time I got married my family owned a somewhat successful catering business..........so of course we/I catered my own wedding. I've always had TONS of regrets about doing so because I worked at my wedding and didn't enjoy the experience like I wish I would have. So I'm reading this thread and gosh I couldn't begin to remember what we served.........so I went to my photo albums to remember. I haven't looked at my wedding pictures in at least 10 years and supprisingly I think they sort of hold up to the test of time. I got crazy (hubbys at work so I'm bored) and I took some digital photos of pictures from my album to share with you all. I hope this isn't too boring........ This table had tenderloin and smoked turkey to make into sandwiches (or not) on one end, then a salad bar on the other. We had other tables of savories, but I don't seem to have photos of them. One had a seafood table with crab claws and mustard sauce, shrimp and coctail sauce, oysters on the half shell and condiments, smoked fish. Another table was a fondue station. I had bowls and baskets of items to dip into the fondue, like: baby potatoes, bread cubes......oh I can't recall what else. I had another station........but for the life of me I can't recall what was on it, hum.........Then we had passed HD's of baby lamb chops (they were outragously good), crab wontons, beef wontons............and again I'm blanking out, sorry. Last I did my own wedding cake and sweet table. If I didn't have a photo of this I wouldn't recall anything. Here's a view of that: I only made the truffles in this chocolate box. I bought the box from Cora Lee candyshop. My husbands Uncle still talks about those truffles, over the years I've mailed him more to keep my one fan happy. I forgot to mention that this was 16 years ago, just when Martha Stewarts first book hit the scene and I was heavily influenced by her. I even bought depression glass dishes in different colors (no rented stuff for me)........the cake was a basketweave design (ala Martha).

Thanks for sharing. I'll have to make a stop at the hardware store this weekend and find one of those things. I'll begin a seperate thread on this asap. Sorry, I was the one who got things off track.

Wow, that is stunning! Please thank your husband for taking them. This thread is fasinating, I find myself rushing to the computor to see more of Japan and your life there. And the photos of your food have left my mouth watering this morning.....yum. I can't wait to see more.

"Did you dip them in powder first before piping the outlines?" I actually use as little xxxsugar and cornstarch as possible. On the bottom of my pans I only spray them I don't powder the pan. You don't really have to use powder at all on the top or bottom, the only part that remains sticky is the sides....so I dust them a little so if they bump together they won't stick. If you have excess powder it would prevent the chocolate from adhearing well. Thanks for reporting back how the dark corn syrup worked!