A Diary Of A Life At CIA

FabulousFoodBabe · April 2, 2006

What you and Carlos said.

Remember this, too: Grand Achatz (sp?) was not the best CIA student, by his own admission.

FabulousFoodBabe · April 2, 2006

I did a fair deal of dishwashing during my externship. It wasn't fun but it was a great learning experience.
←

Me too. And I pursued and insisted on a very controversial "unpaid" Externship. Guess what -- I approached it like a paid job and very soon, it *was* a paid Externship. The Executive chefs, sous, cooks, all cleaned up after themselves, including the big cleanings twice a week. I had my own stuff to do to that end, but the only people who ever left garbage around and expected Externs to clean up after them, had an attitude (and arrogance, and lack of competence) to go along with it and none of them lasted long. Only one of them were CIA grads!

It's going fast, isn't it, Anthony?

chiantiglace · May 26, 2006

Time has been going way too fast...

The reason I haven't posted in a while is not because there has been nothing to talk about, but simply I have been submerged in so much activity I haven't had enough time to simply upload images. And without images there is no reason to talk about this stuff.

When I last left off I was in breads class, a mere 9 weeks ago. Since then I have traveled through Bake Techniques with Francisco Migoya (recent French Laundry Pastry chef, new instructor here), Pastry Techniques with the notorious Dieter Schorner (if you dont know who he is, he is one of the fathers of the pastry industry here in America. Given credit for bringing "creme brulee" to America), And just recently ended a block with Marc Haymon for Cookies, Tarts, and Mignardise.

It has been an interesting ride the past 9 weeks. Chef Migoya did the majority of the "breaking in" for the students. I enjoyed his class the most because he reminded me of the majority of the "kitchen folk" I have been emersed with, probably because hes the "freshest" instructor on the block. We had a bittersweet relationship that I enjoy with people at work. The best thing about a bittersweet relationship is you can yell and be mean and not affend someone. There were many times we were bitter towards each other, but in the end neither one of us held anything against the other. Chef Migoya did not care much for my partner (an 18 year old goof off with basically no experience). I always found it humerous when Chef would come up to me and say something like "what the hell is wrong with your partner chef", shaking his head in subtle frustration and confusion. That class so far has probably given us the greatest freedom for creativity. We had a station rotation, Chef gave us what we were to make and how to make it, we decided what we wanted to do with it. I did some off the wall things like orange confit and chocolate beignets and chocolate banana cream pie with raspberry gelee. I took every advantage to go off on a tangent, I guess just to learn what I typically wouldn't get out of his class. I think Chef Migoya enjoyed that himself.

I only took a few images in this class, so here are a few.

Here is the "final product table". This is where every team puts there stuff on display for the chef where he will taste and critique later. There is an almond currant J'asoulie(sp) (the long strip of puff pastry), Vol Au Vent diamonds, and D'artoise (the other puff pastry in the middle with the round lattice top and square base). Also on the table are 3" eclairs, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, blueberry (left) and cherry (right) pies. The fruit pies were underbaked as you can tell. There is chocolate angel food cake, pastry cream in the 2 oz souffle cup and creme caramel in the ramekin. On the top right is a buttermilk biscuit and a "boston cream" doughnut.

Here are a bunch of "breakfast breads". Theres an almond filling "wreath", braided loaves, and honey pecan buns/rolls.

Boston Cream Doughnuts

Coconut and Coffee Cream I believe.

Chef Schorners class was very relaxed compared to Chef Migoya's. We probably had half the work and twice the lecture. I learned quite a bit in both classes but I appeal more to a fast paced stress situation.

There were three days I took pictures in Chef Schorners. The first day was a demonstration on Croquem Bouche and pulled sugar.

The beginning assembly with the nougatine as the base. There is a ring with a platform to be put on top. On the egdes will be line with the little triangular pieces pointing up and outward kind of like a spiked collar.

Here a couple students taking care of the caramel, while the profiteroles are laid out ready to go into the china cap on the left.

Chef carefully assembling the tree upside down

Releasing the foil lining

Re-pulling already made pink sugar

Starting to layer the ribbon

Stretching and shaping

A little warmth from the oven and bend a few for the ribbon cruls.

Assembling the curls

Finished with a marzipan rose on top (Mine, haha)

The second day was of some nice plating of the custards we made in class. These go down to the dining hall for the other students.

First up are some creme brulee with chocolate hazelnut Biscotti.

Next is Pot De Creme with whipped cream and chocolate ciggarettes.

Finally Panna Cotta with fruit coulis

The last day is probably the best. A lot of these images have already been posted when I was in B-Block during my adventure at the "Grande Buffet". This is the class that we basically ran the pastry part of grand buffet. Here are just some quick images with no description, it was awesome to be in the classroom with so much pastry work.

If you are looking at the images and thinking that two different pictures were in the same area or table, you are correct. The whole time (2 hours) everything that left was replaced by something else from all the bakeshops. Everytime two people left to the buffet with trays of food, two more students from another bakeshop came in with something different. It was a lot of fun, if I could do that for the rest of my life I would.

The class I just got out of I took no pictures mainly because I took no pride in that class. Personally I thought the mood of that class was the most dissapointing thing I have experienced. Everyday I became more and more emotionally stressed and or depressed. There was no liveliness from the shef, he was very pessemistic (sp). He didn't like our class from the beginning and he hated me. Everyday I tried my best to be optimistic and push hard, sometimes making humor with the chef, but by the end of the day I just wanted to take a dive off of anton plaza. It's ok though, I appear to not be alone in the Haymon struggle, and feel I dealt with him maturely. I did fight back as much as I usually do, very little infact.

Next block will be much different. I already love the instructor very much. She even came to my demo I hosted with Richard Leach. She has given me some advice on how to make things even better, so the next class (which contains my baking practical) should be very easy on the mind.

I have much more to say and post, but this has taken me 3 hours, if not more counting offline editing.

Enjoy,

~Anthony.

Edited May 26, 2006 by chiantiglace (log)

chiantiglace · May 27, 2006

Finally pushing forth in the activities of the school I convinced chef Migoya to open up our demonstrations with Pastry Chefs of plated desserts. He did a sensational job I must say.

There was no demonstration exactly during this session, more or less a lecture. He had about 22 slides of his desserts through his career and how he has changed. The students/public ate it up, in more ways than one. He did an excellent job describing the latter he has climbed reaching the French Laundry and how he coped there. Believe me, mention the French Laundry and students ask questions. Me and Chef did all the prep work the morning before the event. When Chef Migoya ran out of basil gelee for the first 30 or so glasses he looked at me and discouragingly said, "Anthony do you really think I should make another batch because I think only 20 or so people will show up tonight". I quickly responded optimistic as possibly explaining to him that more people are excited about this event than you anticipate. He calmly said fine and we continued to make 72 portions.

Once we were set up and ready to go around 8:50 p.m. Chef Migoya was sitting in his stool at the bottom of the theater in discontent, awaiting 20 some students with an unshared passion for the event as him and I had.about 25 minutes, 96+ students and a closed door later he began to smile. I literally turned away 20+ students at the door just because we were over fire code. It hurt me because I begged some of the students I turned away to come that night just to fill the room. But once I turned around and saw the crowd that we had formed, I didn't hurt so much. Students were literally sitting in the aisle and standing in the balcony.

Once we started, Francisco Migoya turned into a different man. He was on fire with drive and a yearn to talk about his life. There was no shaking him, it was fantastic. He had a way of describing himself and his desserts not only to keep the students interested but also to make them want to ask questions. And boy did they ask questions. I think all the time in class that students dont ask him questions, this lecture made up for it.

Unfortunately when you are hosting an event there is so much to take care of, I didn't get much of a chance to really observe and here what Francisco had to say. I do remember one piece that got everyone excited. A little after he began his term at the French Laundry Thomas Keller was losing interest in his skill or "creativity". Apparently Chef Keller appraoched him and basically demanded better from him. Out of "fear", says Migoya, he began to create his own style and ability.

About half way through I ran down to his bakeshop to pull out the coconut sorbet we had in the freezer because in the A.B. theater there is no freezer, go figure.

Here I am with three other guys helping out. I am showing them how to put the finaly pieces together for the composed glasses and what we are going to do with them.

The basil gelee gives them a wicked green glow. I thought it came out incredible.

The two guys on the right are scooping out the coconut sorbet, while me (on the end) and another are laying down coconut nougatine discs as a base for the sorbet.

A nice close up...

Another one...

Was such a great picture I had to post it. I want a poster made out of this.

Here we are putting on chiffonade basil to garnish...

Laying it down with some kind of precision.....

Stephan, the photographer and president of an imaging club, took some incredible pictures not only of production but also of the crowd and their reactions. I wish I could post all the images (and there was a lot), but that is not practical. So here are some close up and personal ones for you to guage reaction.

A couple of guys at the front asked to pose with it...

A couple of girls taking pictures of there own. They found many chances to get a photo oppurtunity during this event.

If you didnt do the math before, I said we prepared 72 glasses because there are 72 seats in the A.B theater. Then later I explained 96+ students were in the theater during the event, so many people were sharing their tasting experience with possibly a stranger. I thought it brought the people together and there are many images to prove my point such as this one.....

and this one....

Me and Andrea (vice president and president of the B&P club) on the far left with the three gentlemen assisting us during the event.

Thanks to Chef Francisco Migoya for doing an excellent lecture and helping us bring the club back from the dead to what might be number 1 or 2 on campus right now.

Basil Gelee

Coconut Tapioca

Passion Fruit Curd

Basil Gelee

Coconut Nougatine

Coconut Sorbet

Basil Chiffonade

~Anthony

Edited May 27, 2006 by chiantiglace (log)

chiantiglace · May 29, 2006

Moving on with the Baking and Pastry club I had Richard Leach come up and do a demonstration. He was extremely easy to work with, almost like he does this everyday. I didn't have to persaude him, I didn't have to chase him down, I didn't have to keep reminding him, everything went just as you would think it would.

A funny thing is, he told me numerous times he wasn't good in front of a lot of people. When I first asked him to make an appearance at CIA i told him to expect about 50 people at the max, because at that time our club was a nobody and noone seemed interested in a bakers club :raz: . But as the weeks went by I started to get worried I underestemated the student body. Especially after Francisco Migoya's unbelievable turn out I had to call him the next day and warn him. The bigger problem was Danny Kaye Theater seats exactly twice as many people as the A.B. theater. I had to call him and tell him to expect anywhere between 140-150 students. His mood changed instantly on the phone. I could feel a small amount of concern on his end. But as professional as Chef Leach is he responded after a pause, thats no problem.

The day of the event, as I stroll into the theater, as fast as I could from class, around 8:30 there were already students saving seats for friends to come. The event was not to start for another 45 minutes. I went down to the prep. kitchen to check how things were going, and of course, they were going smoothly. Andrea was taking care of all the audio/visual production. Apparently the Administration wanted us to video tape this event, so that was a little bit exciting. As I walk into the prep. kitchen it was a very relaxed feeling, I feeling I wish I had in any kitchen I have worked in. Nick was piping thick raspberry coulis on top of the miniature cakes and caleb was setting up to fill the tuile rings with goat cheese mousse. And of course Chef Leach was finishing up what he needed for the demonstration.

Basically the thick raspberry coulis being piped on the half baked semolina cake would eventually sink/seep into the cake some what during the final bake, thus being a "warm raspberry cake". It looked neat, and I had not expected it to be put together as it was.

There was quite the heavy crowd during this event. Chef Mcloughlin, Chef Schorner, and even Dean Vaccarro came out to observe the event. It's not often to have faculty spectators so that was a treat. We even had a few continuing education people in the crowd which is also highly unusual.

Here is Dean Vaccarro and Chef Schorner with a woman I had just met that night but I do not remember her name. I am not sure if she is a teaching assistant or and new instructor, or what.

They seemed to enjoy the event very much. All three of them came down during crunch time to finish plating and serving to the observers in the theater. That was a humbling experience for me when my superiors came down, and instead of telling us what to do, all they did was grab a spoon, grab a tray and helped out.

Here is chef Leach at the beginning of the demo preparing the thick raspberry coulis to be piped.

Here is Caleb (left), a current culinary student with a new found passion for pastry, and Nick (right), a recent Park Avenue Cafe extern, filling the tuile rings with goat cheese mousse.

They both did a fantastic job with the prep. work all evening. Both hard workers with great personalities.

Heres a picture of the miniature raspberry semolina cakes about to make there final bake.

A close up of Nick filling the tuile...

Chef Leach is about half way through his demo where he is piping on the raspberry coulis and placing the cakes back in the oven.

Caleb Lays down some crushed raspberry mix for the tasting portions.

Chef Leach demonstrates how to make tuiles, spreading over a stencil onto a silpat.

The finished tuiles being shaped..

Now for the sugar garnish. This may look strikingly similar to the pictures in his book...

Afterwards he curls them up into balls.

Now he lays down the foundation of crushed raspberry mix in a ring form.

He fills a tuile ring with goat cheese mousse.

He stacks and presents his piece...

Everyone Applauds, and now they get to taste.

The final assembly, and we all grab trays and head out approximately the same time chef Leach is finishing his plating.

Later me and Chef Leach go over some of his desserts from Sweet Seasons. They are on a powerpoint presentation that shows on 3 huge screens right above us for the viewing audience.

At the end Chef Leach is greeted with numerous fans wanting autographs from books too the pamphlets we provided.

Crushed Berries

Goat Cheese Mousse

Tuile Tubes

Warm Raspberry/Semolina Cake

Caramelized Sugar

Mint

Even though I asked him not too, Chef Leach stayed late with us cleaning dishes. Unfortunately the people in the back room were unaware that people come in after the event to take care of the dishes.

It was a great experience and look forward to possibly doing it again next year.

~Anthony

FabulousFoodBabe · May 30, 2006

Nice photos, Anthony. Sounds like you're about ready for that Externship semester to hurry up and get here!

It is pretty great to see our chefs working, instead of teaching us to work. Humbling is right.

chiantiglace · May 30, 2006

To everyone who asked about Chef Andreini, I have become friends with him since he took over Mediterranean a couple months ago.

I think the guy is a fantastic teacher and seems to have a very good reputation on campus. People think he is hard but everyone seems to love him just the same. I've seen him in action numerous times while waiting to get my food and he seems very patient. It did feel for a few moments that he was reading my mind. As I stood there infront of the students I would (as most cooks) re-direct the rythym in my head. Especially if someone is slow, as these students were, I was imagining every little thing I would be doing differently, or in addition to as opposed to what they were doing. The funny thing is it seem a second or two after I thought it, Chef Andreini yelled the action out to them. Start another pan of shrimp, your 4 orders deep. Move that pan back you dont have your spinach in yet and your shrimp is going to over cook. Put your sauce up on the right side of you to get it in faster.

People seem to listen when he speaks, and he doesn't seem to fluster people. I just came from a chef that did more bitching that instructing. They are the definition of what the difference is between a manager and a leader.

FabulousFoodBabe · May 30, 2006

To everyone who asked about Chef Andreini, I have become friends with him since he took over Mediterranean a couple months ago.
I think the guy is a fantastic teacher and seems to have a very good reputation on campus. People think he is hard but everyone seems to love him just the same. I've seen him in action numerous times while waiting to get my food and he seems very patient. It did feel for a few moments that he was reading my mind. As I stood there infront of the students I would (as most cooks) re-direct the rythym in my head. Especially if someone is slow, as these students were, I was imagining every little thing I would be doing differently, or in addition to as opposed to what they were doing. The funny thing is it seem a second or two after I thought it, Chef Andreini yelled the action out to them. Start another pan of shrimp, your 4 orders deep. Move that pan back you dont have your spinach in yet and your shrimp is going to over cook. Put your sauce up on the right side of you to get it in faster.
People seem to listen when he speaks, and he doesn't seem to fluster people. I just came from a chef that did more bitching that instructing. They are the definition of what the difference is between a manager and a leader.
←

Chef Andreini is a good person, tough, fair, and an awful lot of fun. And, an amazing chef and mentor-type for me. Ask him about his cool kitchen at home ...

What you described made me smile a little, Chianti, especially because most of the people whose work you're criticizing and improving, have never done line cooking before (even during Externships). As a matter of fact, that's what stunk the most about people being able to walk into the kitchen to get their food: the customers, who seem to think that they know your business better. Annoying as hell!

That said, we Culinaries had quite a bit to say about what you-all did, as well. :laugh: :laugh: We just don't get the chance to stand there as you were actually doing it!

chiantiglace · May 30, 2006

I never tell someone how to do something while they are making my meal. I only think it in my head.

And no one has more to say about what WE do more than ME currently. Even though it seems my speech is legitimate, there is nothing that can be done about it. Oh well, time to step up to the plate and push them harder I suppose. Or at least show them whats out there, thats what I've been trying to do with these events.

johnsmith45678 · May 30, 2006

This is a great thread!

I don't think anybody has asked - about how much does it cost to complete one of CIA's two-year programs? Isn't tuition alone about $25K per year? Can students live off campus, and what's rent like in Hyde Park? Are there a lot of other expenses, such as tools, equipment, books, etc.?

chiantiglace · June 4, 2006

its about 29K a year, approximately 60K for the associates degree. The new tool/knive kits are amazing, unfortunately I came a couple blocks before they started issueing them.

It is much better to live off campus I DONT CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS!!!!!!!!! If you disagree you are either an RA, or you failed general math. You can find an apartment for as low as $700 a month (2 bedroom). The average a person pays a month is $450-500 a month off campus. Considering a 3-1/2-4 month TRIPLE occupancy dorm room is $2000, I think living on campus is BS. Unfortunately admissions talked me into living on campus even after I had a couple apartments squared away into consideration. Now I am in a triple, I have been here for 6-7 months and have had 6 roomates. My first two roomates didnt get along and one of my roomates moved into a double with his friend. Next my new roomate never slept here because he had top bunk, so after a couple blocks he moved out. After that one of my roomates got an RA position and moved out. Then the one that replaced him vanished in the middle of a friday. Apparently sources tell me he said the curriculum wasn't challenging enough. He had only been here 3 blocks, no wonder it wasn't challenging. I think he had financial problems. Right now I have a roomate from Kentucky, and one from Colorado. I have been with a Pensylvanian, a New Yorker, a Californian, and one from Oregon and I am from North Carolina, what a mix. Soon I will be leaving in 5 weeks and there will be another new face in this room.

There aren't too many other expenses. Occasioanlly a chef reccomends you purchasing a tool for class or a book to read. You can usually find the reading material in the library though. The tools are necesary for you to get for later in life so the cost is weighted well.

Unfortunately I don't think financial aid will be very strong in the near future. I receieved a decent amount, but I think it will be cut soon. That is just what I was told.

Look into scholarships if you have time :wacko: . There is plenty of money out there. One day I will get around to it, but I probably cause too many problems for an organization to want to donate money to me.

chiantiglace · June 19, 2006

Well, I am finally done with all my practicals. Last thursday and friday was the baking practical, and I have to say I rather enjoyed it. I feel very good, I scored very high and I wish it went into my g.p.a. but unfortunately practicals do not.

The 2nd term baking practical consisted of two 8" sponge cakes, one cut into three 3/8" layers and iced with vanilla Italian Buttercream, with a base layer flavored with raspberry jam. The cake had to be cut into 10 slices evenly with pearls piped ontop and tempered chocolate stencils (#3 fluted cutter) that has a waved pattern ontop use with the decorative comb.

We also had to prepare 24 3" eclairs, 12 glazed with chocolate fondant and filled with vanilla pastry cream. The best 12 were on display of their own so that the chef could get a thorough look at the bake a preparation.

Also there was a 20" x 5" apple strip made from puff pastry. The apples are sliced very thin and carefully overlapped ontop. It is baked with cinnamon sugar and egwashed borders. The finished apple strip is then glazed with an apricot glaze.

The only things we did not have to prerpare for the duration of the practical was simple syrup for the cake layers and fondant, apricot glaze for the apple strip, egg wash for the apple strip and eclairs, melted butter for the apples, and no we did not have to make the fondant thank god.

I breezed through the first day preparing just about everything for day two. We had 3 and 1/2 hours to get as much as we could done the first day. I went as so...

Mixed the puff dough and the butter block; placed it in the reach in with plastic over the puff dough. Next I prepared my sponge cake which was a warm foaming method of whole eggs, flour, sugar and fat/butter; a simple genoise.

Everyone else besides me used the 9 egg recipe we were constantly given because 9 eggs fits perfectly in the kitche aid 5 qt bowl while 30 fits in the 20 qt hobart. Most of our recipes are in coordinates with a set of similar facts such as these.

I on the other hand used the 12 quart mixer which is easier to control over a water bath than both the 5 qt and the 20 qt, and I used a 10 egg recipe. I did this because I noticed a lot of people not getting enough sponge for their layers of cake, they are always comming very close but just a tiny bit short and I didn't want to over whip my eggs just to make sure I had enough volume with lesser texture. My sponges cam out perfect quantity but they were just slightly over whipped. I actually folded a few extra times just to make sure I lost enough air. I am starting to think the methods we use here are in prediction to the students because I might be too confortable with folding and my sponges continuously come out over aerated, even when I go by the exact calculations the chef(s) give me for mixing time. So for my practical I prejudged it and folded a few extra times. The cakes came up just a hair above the rim of the cake pans, exactly what I wanted, gave me plenty of room to work with while cutting the layers.

Next I still had 15 minutes left to make pate a choux, well acutally 20 because when I put the eggs on the mixer I just let them go and prepared the pate a choux during (duh, multitask). So once I was done with the pate a choux, I wrapped it and put it on top of the oven to rest. I was right on time to pull my eggs on the mixer and start folding.

Once the cakes were in the oven I pulled my puff dough out, made my lock in of my butter and made my first 4 fold. I only made about 20oz so it is a considerably small amount of dough.

Placed the 4 fold back in the reach in and started piping my eclairs. By this time I was playing a pyschologic game with myself self because I was about 1 1/2 steps ahead of everyone and I didn't want to give myself any reason to slow down. Though I must say I took my time on the piping of the eclairs because I had only piped a few dozen eclairs before, so even though I have made and piped a lot of pate a choux before, it just wasn't a 3 inch log that had to rised evenly. I also made my pate a choux stiffer than my instructors had been telling me too just because I have noticed a better outcome with my own handling and experience. I haven't trusted my own judgement the entire time I've been here (except for culinary skills and breads classes) simply because I am tired of being told I am wrong, or implied. So basically I have been asking why and how constantly, annoying the chefs, but they don't get it. If I do it how I think it should be done, I am going to make you more angry because its not how they do it. Thats all fine, it's been important to learn all the movements of the chefs, it will be excellent training for future use. But aside all of that I just wanted to say that during the practical it was my time and I did eveyrthing I was comfortable with. I had a fantastic time because no one was hanging over my shoulder telling me, no not like that, or wait for the chef, or the chef told us to do it this way. No, nobody fussing at me, I performed as if it were a job in the real world and I was without worry. It's funny, everyone has been calm this whole time, now they were all concerned, I am the opposite.

So the pate a choux was a little stiffer than I had been told, and I rested them differently. I had found early on (by accident) that if you create a skin on the eclairs for about a half an hour before you put the egg wash on they create a very pleasing look. It's also easier to put the egg wash on after they have created their protective barrier; the pate a choux doesn't stretch/displace. You have to put the pate a choux in the oven right away after the egg wash though, or it won't have the multi-ple cracking ontop. Instead if you let the egg wash get a skin like the instructors told me to, you get lesser cracks but much larger and deeper cracks. With the small cracks on top it allows the choux to spread in multiple places more evenly I noticed, as opposed to one big gapping split down the middle or on the side. This is only my observation.

So while the pate a choux was resting under my station creating a skin I made a quick batch of pastry cream. It was then spread out on a half sheet pan wrapped in plastic, then covered in another piece of plastic to keep from creating a skin. It cooled at room temp and I placed it in the reach in to wait for the next day. Though I dont want to forget to mention, I forgot, as usual, to put the butter into the pastry cream before spreading. I had to scrap it back into a bowl and stir in the butter. I wasn't nervous, just have a bad memory.

Soon after that was done, it was time for my 2nd fold. It was a three fold, and I quickly got it back into the reach in.

Next up, since I was looking at an easy hour and forty minutes, I rolled out a quick batch of italian buttercream. This is probably the easiest thing to make during the practical, I think everyone agrees with that. I also was the only one (to my knowledge) to do buttercream on the first day. Everyone was afraid to re-emulsify it for their cake, but if they kept it at room temp overnight like I did they wouldn't have that problem.

After, what seems to be the majority of the work finished, I took the remaining time to temper my chocolate. Fortunately for me I feel very confident with tempering my chocolate so I wasn't doing it for long. I had atleast an hour and fifteen minutes to play with it, and Got it done in a mere twenty. All I needed was 10 perfect stencils. I only tempered the chocolate once (seeding method) and laid one strip of chcolate down to be combed and cut. I got about 18 very nice pieces out of it. My combing was right on target with the chcolate setting up, and my cutting came soon after. I had no bloom, and my test piece set up very very fast, abotu one and a half minutes on top of the marble. I broke a couple taking them off and transferring to a parchment lined sheet pan. I came out with 15 very nice pieces to choose from on day 2. Since I had so much time left, and with my sponges still too warm to cut, I felt like making some more. Unfortunately I had to make my 3rd fold of puff pastry right in the middle. I didn't want to rush through the fold so I just let the chocolate set up with out combing and got rid of the chocolate. I had 15 pieces and only needed 10, they were all in pristeen shape so I wasn't stressing it, I just wanted to pass the time efficiently. I spent the remaining time cleaning up and organizing for day 2.

By the end of the day, after the fourth fold in the puff dough, I was still up 1 project above everyone else, the italian buttercream.

The next day I took my time with everything. I drew the projects down to the 2nd to last minute of the 3 hours we had. It was a stressful day, I just wanted to take my time and keep focused. I crumb coated my sponge cake, filled my eclairs and then I was on to the apple strip. This was proabably the most intense part of day two. I had to cut everything perfectly, which I believe I did. Rolled my 14 and 7/8 oz dough to 21" x 7". I chilled it in the freezer and trimmed the edges to match 6 1/2" x 20". After that I chilled it again and trimmed the borders, 3/4".

The borders were inverted on top the sides and I used the straightedge quides to make sure they were flush with the base. I then place 7 rows of thinlly sliced granny smitth apples on top (1/4 an apple to a row). I then chilled it again in the freezer. After it was stiff I used a fork to vent the borders after eggwashing. I used the parchment paper to cover the borders while I sprinkled on the cinnamon sugar so there was any unnecessary darkness after baking. I place it in the over and it took about 50 minutes I would say.

While the apple strip was baking I finished my cake and then glazed my eclairs. I new the fondant was a little too thick but keeping it at an optimum 100degrees was a pain enough and at this point I was drained of mental energy. I felt it was good enough (my mistake). If I had treated the glaze properly I would have just the amount of points I would have needed for a high pass, I was so close too.

Anyways, heres a couple visuals:

There is the apple strip with one slice cut, the 24 eclairs, a 4 oz cup with pastrycream in it, a 4 oz cup with butter cream in it, the buttercream cake with one slice cut out on the plate facing 7oclock, a piece of uncooked puff pastry, and the 2nd sponge with only the top trimmed off.

~Anthony

chiantiglace · June 19, 2006