are we really already halfway through the semester?? advanced pastry shop has been such a joy, seriously. my chef is wonderful – it’s the same guy i had for fundamentals of baking [see here and here for pictures from that class]. and then since i love baking [always have], that makes it even more fun.
i’ve found the comparison of people who love cooking vs. people who love baking to be very interesting – while it’s definitely possible to become good at both, i’ve learned that almost everyone has natural tendencies towards one or the other. culinary arts classes are very different from baking/pastry classes – everything from the overall feel of the class to how they operate and the way they teach you to do things. i think which one a person likes better really says a lot about a person’s work style and personality.
here’s what i mean: culinary arts classes are noisy and chaotic, with a million things going on at one time. it is a very fast-paced work environment with lots of yelling over the banging around of pans and the sounds of sizzling on the stovetop, and it can be very stressful at times [granted, this is coming from someone who tends more toward the baking side]. :) in culinary arts classes, the chefs encourage you not to follow a recipe exactly, but instead to taste the dish as you cook and add whatever you think is needed in whatever quantities you think are needed, whether or not it’s listed in the recipe. you’re essentially experimenting, throwing stuff in as you go, trying to come out with the best resulting dish possible.
on the other hand, baking/pastry classes are very calm, quiet, and orderly compared to culinary arts classes [and probably a bit boring for people who tend towards the culinary arts side!]. everything is very methodical, and even though there’s still a sense of urgency, it’s much less pronounced in baking classes because precision is key. it’s important to follow a recipe exactly, down to every 10th of an ounce, or the product may not turn out the way it’s supposed to. baking is a much more exact science. in general, everyone is following the same process in baking class – scaling ingredients, combining them, and then baking or assembling. many times, how well you follow instructions in baking class determines how well your product comes out.
while there is lots of creativity involved for both cooking and baking, the creativity needed in cooking is fearless, risk-taking, spontaneous, off-the-cuff creativity, and you must have lots of confidence in your palette. on the flip side, the creativity needed for baking needs to be much more well-thought out and planned, much more design-oriented, and much more careful. you’re relying more on the confidence of your hands.
anyway, one’s not better than the other, but i just enjoy seeing who the cooks are and who the bakers are. i’m totallyyyyyy a baker at heart so i’m thoroughly enjoying pastry class. here is the first half of our semester in photos:
{to be completely honest, i was nottttttttt too excited to start school back up in august [i was loving having free time!], but after the first day, i was in much better spirits about it. we did this little chocolate tasting and i decided that the semester was going to be fun after all.}
{chef doing a demo of tempering chocolate using the tabling method.}
{tabling chocolate and making chocolate cylinders}
{chocolate cylinders}
{making chocolate bowls using balloons!}
{making chocolate cigarettes}
{chocolate truffles}
{more chocolate truffles + peanut butter cups}
{the bottoms of the peanut butter cups were so smooth and shiny and perfect. and because they were made with darker, good quality chocolate, they were ahhhhmazing.}
{my first and my second chocolate roses made with a type of chocolate called “plastic chocolate.” modeling chocolate is not easy!}
{i also made my first chocolate cigarettes, and these + my chocolate roses + a chocolate base became my chocolate centerpiece.}
{my first chocolate centerpiece! still a little wet with the tempered chocolate “glue.”}
{these were easily the best chocolate centerpieces in the class… i was in awe of how good they were.}
{puff pastry pinwheels with apricot jam}
{palmiers! these were my very favorite thing that we made in funbake and i was pumped to get to make them again.}
{gateau st-honore.}
{crepes were probably my favorite thing that we’ve made this semester, besides palmiers. they’re so easy and yummy. here we learned three different types of folds: the blintz, the fold-ver, and the crepes suzette fold. or, to our class, the burrito, the enchilada, and the quesadilla.} :)
{crepes filled with chocolate mousse and drizzled with fresh raspberry sauce. and little cheesecakes!}
{amaretto souffles! we were pretty proud of how tall and symmetrical ours were. the best in the class, chef said. and trust me – he doesn’t say that too often to our group!!} ;)
{…and then we stuck a spoon in them and poured in some raspberry sauce and white chocolate sauce.}
{chef taught us how to make some great plate designs with sauces.}
{chocolate bread pudding + tiny little “shots” of orange panna cotta. the bread pudding was surprisingly not my favorite [it was too eggy for me], and the panna cotta was surprisingly really delicious and refreshing and tasted nothing like “milk gelatin,” which is basically what it is!}
{creme brûlée. [with fresh vanilla beans.] totally to die for.}
{i had to miss one class for a work trip, and i was glad that i was missing the class where we were making lava cakes and NOT the day before, when we were making ice cream and sorbets. six different flavors of ice cream and six different flavors of sorbet to be exact, and that included caramel pecan ice cream, coconut ice cream, and champagne sorbet. BUT it totally backfired on me because we ended up just making the bases the day that i was there and all the freezing/tasting happened the next day, the day i had to miss. luckily my class was nice enough to save me some mango sorbet [along with a few bites of champagne sorbet mixed in there] so i wasn’t completely SOL!}
{lemon pudding cakes + the making of charlottes – the sides and bottom are made from a sheet of homemade ladyfingers and they’re filled with orange bavarian cream. i believe the charlottes are actually still in the freezer, waiting on us to decorate them.}
{…and it wouldn’t be culinary school without a ton of goodies to snack on that come from the other classes!}
{we made soufflés again for our midterm practical. mine didn’t turn out as tall or symmetrical as the first time, but that’s murphy’s law of culinary practical exams for ya. they still turned out decent so yay soufflé.}
and we’ll see what the second half of the semester brings… i have a feeling it will be something good!
xoxo