Hot side Chef tries hand at Pastry

[simdelish]

Did anyone happen to see this last night? It was funny and tragic at the same time. The show is apparently called "Your Reality Check" and features granting wishes to people who want to try a different job. A gal who apparently is "a successful chef" says she has always wanted to do pastry. They send her to a very large bakery called Porto's (location unknown), and give her 3 or 4 afternoons, training her, and seeing if she has the right stuff. (It's not as easy as she thinks it is, of course!) I spent much of the 30 minute show shaking my head in amazement.

She is horribly unsuccessful, and I mean that in a surprising way, considering she is supposedly already skilled in the kitchen as a regular chef. As we all know, baking and pastry is science, chemistry, patience, a sure and steady hand, being a perfectionist, and speed (the last with practice). It was tragic to watch her ruin cake after cake by her piping, spraying too much glaze, slopping mousse over the rim of rings, and never bothering to clean up her mess! Her final "assignment" on the last day was to make an opera cake...something she had already practiced. She fouled it up in numerous ways, but the worst was how she never even bothered to trim the cake layer edges (from the sheet pan), and couldn't figure out why in the world the layers wouldn't fit into the pan extender. She just crammed the layers in anyway, leaving the edges all curling up and crumbling around the whole perimeter. Of course they couldn't sell the finished cakes as individuals, so she cut out the middle two patches and they supposedly were sold as whole large cakes.

I certainly know speed comes with practice, but she was inordinately slow, not even appearing to try to be faster. I could not picture her behind the stove with orders, work stacking up. Most chefs I know would at least try to be faster, and would recognize how sloppy you can't be, and would at least try to clean up the goop running over the edges of the pan, etc.

What I wondered in the end... was if Porto's was compensated for all she screwed up? Or if they just wrote it off for good publicity and laughs. If you have the chance to catch a repeat of this show... watch it!

[simdelish]

I checked, it will re-air on this Wed Sept 15 at both 8pm and 11pm EST

Here's a link to Fine Dining's listing of it ...(sorry can't figure out how to lmake it words not all the slash stuff )

http://www.fineliving.com/fine/your_realit...7_34901,00.html

[chefpeon]

I really should show some restraint....but.......

BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

We PC's know how special we are. More PC's can cook than savory guys can bake. I might

get flamed for this, but in my experience, it's the truth.

I understand it though. I went to culinary school for two years. My first year I did pastry and baking because that's my passion. After I completed that, I figured, why stop there? I should

know all there is to know about the kitchen....not just dessert. So I enrolled in the hospitality

and culinary arts program. It was that program that made me realize that working on the hot line and slamming out multiple covers as fast as you could while sweating like a pig was NOT my cup 'o tea. I learned a lot in culinary arts, and it made me more valuable as a kitchen employee, because I can step into any aspect of food prep. But I couldn't be a full time savory person, no way. I think it takes two distinct personalities to excel at either savory or pastry. So as much as my hearty laugh above pokes fun at savory people, I have just as much respect for them!

If they thrive on high-pressure, high volume, hot as hell, stressful, chef-knife wielding, hot saute pan, kind of environment and do it well......then my toque is off to them. I couldn't do it, and I admit it.

I am deliberate, artistic, methodical, anal-retentive and a perfectionist. These traits are well suited for a PC, but not for the savory side. The constant "chaos" on the savory side really messes with my brains' need for perfect order.

So the tragedy of that person's experience doesn't surprise me in the least, because I've seen it....a lot. On the rare days I've been ill, there have been phone calls to me at home from the savory guy saying, "help! How do you do this?"

One time, during the holiday season, I came down with the flu. I was working at a busy bakery/deli at the time, and we were doing holiday deli and dessert platters out our butts. A lot of these dessert platters included, yes, decorated holiday sugar cookies. Before I got sick, I had decorated dozens of cookies, so I wasn't too worried they'd run out. But, lo and behold, we got a HUGE order from a large company who wanted a lot of platters for their in-house Xmas party.

Of course, they ran short on cookies and I wasn't there.

So I get this phone call at home. They knew I used a bucket of meringue powder to create my icing for the cookies, and there were a couple of recipes on the side of it for icings and such.

They figured they'd use the recipe for meringue. So they pipe out the MERINGUE on the cookies

and wondered why it didn't set. They decorated (or tried to) 200 cookies with MERINGUE.

Unbelievable. I was both amazed and amused and their bone-headedness, and laughed when I told them it was the ROYAL ICING recipe they needed to follow. Then they had the balls to ask

if I could come in and get them off the hook. I almost did it.......but I was too sick even to become a martyr, so I delined and they had to run over to Safeway and buy some of their cookies.........

so again I say.......

BWA-HA-HA-HA!

[simdelish]

so true, so true, so true....

Anne, I love your laugh!

"More PC's can cook than savory guys can bake. "

Yes, I too believe that. Every chef I know always has a story about the time they tried to make choc mousse when the pc was away, and they ended up with choc chip mousse.

The amazing thing about this woman on tv was her general ineptitude... her messy ways ... not paying attention to which layer goes when on an Opera torte ... pouring cake batter from a big hobart bowl into a pitcher on the counter, and missing the pitcher letting the batter run all over the place ... scraping stencil paste right off the table onto the floor, and then stepping in it... I am sure the editing made her look bad, and maybe she did have her good moments, but I was flabbergasted at someone who actually WANTED to learn this stuff, and still she was so inept! It's not like they pulled her off the street.

Yes, it made me feel pretty damn good...

You have to catch it on Wed nite. I might even watch it again!

[chefpeon]

You know, one wonders how "real" reality TV is anyway.........I mean, can you imagine

if this girl just breezed through it all? It wouldn't have been half as entertaining.....I think TV

producers KNOW that people just love to watch other people fail.....it makes us feel better about ourselves.....and our lives.

I'm willing to bet that part of it was staged and they encouraged to her be a little inept for the sake of watchability.

I have a hard time believing people on reality TV can really be so annoying and stupid naturally. It could very well be true, but I think producers egg people on and push some buttons to get a little action and conflict going.

I wish I could watch it....... Unfortunately, I don't get Fine Dining OR the Food Network up here in li'l ol Tinytown!!!!

Edited September 14, 2004 by chefpeon (log)

[mkfradin]

I'm willing to bet that part of it was staged and they encouraged to her be a little inept for the sake of watchability.

Oh God, I don't know......

Today I spent part of the day in my kitchen with a recent graduate of a very fine culinary school (2 year pastry program). Notwithstanding the fact that I had given this person checklists with every single step to do (i.e. "fit 20 quart mixer with whip"), the person attempted to make meringue with a paddle mixer. This is in addition to numerous other things that I won't go into now.......

I also bake with someone who's heart is on the line, and have had to sit down with her to explain that you just can't take 30 percent of the water out of a formula and expect it to work--and you definitely shouldn't experiment with this when you're baking 200 pieces.

Although the film editors can be creative with the raw footage, I'm guessing that a lot of it is real (of course, not having seen it--it's past my bedtime!). If you think about it, there are plenty of "not so bright" folks in this world that we see every day, and not just on reality TV shows.

[chefpeon]

I had given this person checklists with every single step to do (i.e. "fit 20 quart mixer with whip"), the person attempted to make meringue with a paddle mixer.

Oh Lord! A graduate of a 2 year pastry program has to be told to use a whip to mix meringue??

Have I underestimated the general stupidity of the public yet again????

I have always held out hope that most people are smarter than they look, myself included.

Sheeeeeeeeeeesh. What next.

I've always gotten myself in trouble by giving people the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe I should stop doing that........

No wonder you're all paranoid about being out with your surgery!!!

Wish I could come give you a hand!

Uh, er, pardon the pun......

[simdelish]

We had a guy come in last year, Dead Fred, we called him, out of a 2 yr program followed by a job at a steakhouse for a year. He was clearly not working out, so Exec sent him my way (gee thanks, Chef) as he knows I am much more patient. I asked him to break 32 eggs for me into a bowl. Thirty minutes later, he asks me for a "strainer" -- I point him to the pot room and said, "lots of chinois' in there." Blank look. "China caps, in THERE" Still a blank look on his face. Then I had to drag him in and pick one up and say slowly, "strain-er". The thought suddenly occurred to me, so I asked why does he need this....???

He showed me the bowl. There had to have been more than 100 bits of broken shell in there.

Needless to say, Dead Fred was asked not to come back the next day.

[chefpeon]

He showed me the bowl. There had to have been more than 100 bits of broken shell in there.

Needless to say, Dead Fred was asked not to come back the next day.

BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

Damn that's funny!!!

Shall we turn this into the "Best of Stupid Co-Workers" thread????

[simdelish]

BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

Damn that's funny!!!

Shall we turn this into the "Best of Stupid Co-Workers" thread????

←

I've got LOTS of those...

Now we're having fun....

Wendy, is a thread like that allowed?

(we could change the names to protect the stup... I mean innocent...)

[nightscotsman]

I really should show some restraint....but.......

BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!!

We PC's know how special we are. More PC's can cook than savory guys can bake. I might

get flamed for this, but in my experience, it's the truth.

←

That was my reaction EXACTLY. Oh, how I wish I got that channel so I could see this for myself!

I also completely agree with the two completely different personality types in the kitchen. I don't want to perpetuate the us-vs-them situation, but It's amazing how you can tell after watching a person work for a just short time where they belong.

[confiseur]

Simdelish........a very amusing story.....! ........ but there is a quasi-tragic side to this with regards to PC's.

How many times have you seen a picture of Exec. Chefs with 'their' creations in a magazine when you know for a fact that the guy/gal couldnt bake to save his/her life and there was no mention or crediting of the pastry chef anywhere in the article.

An unfortunate fact is that I have never heard (Switzerland being the notable exception) of a PC earning more than an Exec Chef so I suspect that at the end of the day the savoury guys have the last laugh.

[jgarner53]

We must all remember that "average" intelligence (of whatever kind) is just that - middle of the road. It all has to balance out somehow. Though how I wind up driving behind the below average ones 90% of the time is a mystery to me!

But not knowing (after 2 years of pastry school? ) that you need a whip to mix a meringue? How did this person even pass? Or not being able even to crack eggs without getting shells in them? I'm flabbergasted. Again, I wonder how these people even passed their courses.

[herbacidal]

We must all remember that "average" intelligence (of whatever kind) is just that - middle of the road. It all has to balance out somehow. Though how I wind up driving behind the below average ones 90% of the time is a mystery to me! 

But not knowing (after 2 years of pastry school?      ) that you need a whip to mix a meringue? How did this person even pass? Or not being able even to crack eggs without getting shells in them? I'm flabbergasted. Again, I wonder how these people even passed their courses.

←

I like to think that I have above-average intelligence, yet I didn't know that you needed a whip to mix a meringue. Hell, I don't even know the difference between the whip and the paddle mixer.

Of course, I rarely cook. Nor did I go to culinary school.

But I did know about keeping the shell pieces from the liquid parts of the egg.

Edited September 14, 2004 by herbacidal (log)

[bkeith]

I was working at a busy bakery/deli at the time, and we were doing holiday deli and dessert platters out our butts.

Wow. You ARE talented. So why does the thought of a little hand surgery bother you?

Edited September 14, 2004 by bkeith (log)

[chefpeon]

Wow. You ARE talented. So why does the thought of a little hand surgery bother you?

Ha ha ha!

Keith, I must say......

Touche!

[tan319]

I must have missed something...

The Fine Dining Channel???

Tell me more, PPPLLEEEAASSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[simdelish]

I must have missed something...

The Fine Dining Channel???

Tell me more, PPPLLEEEAASSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

←

Oops. Fine LIVING Channel. Sorry.

Living... Dining.... same thing to me

http://fineliving.com/

Edited September 15, 2004 by simdelish (log)

[chromedome]

I think it takes two distinct personalities to excel at either savory or pastry.

←

We don't think we have two personalities, and we're doing all right...[twitch, twitch]

[dano1]

I caught the show a couple of days ago also. I can tell you for a fact that-although she called herself a chef and graduated from cooking school-she has never set foot in a real kitchen doing real production. It's all in the moves, or lack of.

Just watching her trying to get past the plastic flaps in the walkin was amusing :).

danny