Pomp and Circumstance

This has been the most amazing journey. I can't describe how awesome it was! Everyday I was learning and doing something new. Every morning I felt so proud to don my chef whites and put on my apron. The time really flew by in a blur. Here is a picture of some of my classmates. This experience will forever make me smile.

My Big Fat Wedding Cake

So this is the last project before the final test and practical. We were given a scenario for the wedding. The couple is young and fun. The brides dress is pink and yellow and the bridesmaids dresses are pink. The wedding is going to be in Fiji and the couple would like their cake to be made of macadamia nut sponge soaked in coconut malibu rum simple syrup, mango curd with mango brunoise, coconut daqcuoise, and passion fruit mousse. That's a whole lotta stuff in a cake!

Each one of my butterflies was hand made and painted out of pastillage and luster dust. I tried to paint them each a little different so that no two would be alike. The entire cake was covered in fondant.

Surprisingly this cake was able to survive all the way home! Even with my crazy driving. People thought I was crazy carrying a three tiered wedding cake through the streets of Manhattan. Now I've been eating wedding cake for the past 4 days. Anyone want to come over for some?

I'm So Over You Pastillage and My Mom Never Liked You Anyway

The theme for this week's project is to make a cake stand out of pastillage in the theme of something that represents your the first letter of your first name. I have no idea how they come up with such silly themes. My theme I chose was Gorillas. I think thus far this is my worst project. Good thing it was a solo project. I would have hated to disappoint my group. There was only two airbrush machines to be shared by 25 students within 4 hours. I knew it was going to be crazy just getting on the machine so I decided to paint the pastillage instead. I don't know why the chef assistant told me to mix lemon extract with food coloring as paint because it never dried! Not even after two days. I was so pissed but there wasn't anything I could do. I just had to wipe some of it off. You could see in the pictures my finger prints all over it. I should have mixed the paint with vodka. While I was gluing the pieces together the paint was wet and slippery and the glue wouldn't stick together. It was a nightmare. But I did what I could. Sometimes you have to understand the medium you are using and work with it. Sometimes making it work for you just doesn't cut it because this pastillage was not working for me....it was whipping my ass. However I do like the bananas I piped on the side of the boxes with royal icing.

My Friend had a Crush on The Little Mermaid

The project this week was to create a cake stand sugar piece in the theme of our choice. My sketch was of an underwater seascape. My sketch was chosen out of a hat to be made and thus making me team leader again! We used numerous techniques in making this. The color and texture of sugar really reminded me of the blue water in the carribean with all the coral, rocks, and tropical fish. I think the piece came out beautiful and I was really proud of my team because we all worked well together.


I made the lobster myself!

I Bet Dali Didn't Do It Like This

The project for this week was to design a sugar show piece that is based on a famous artwork or sculptor . I did a sketch up of Salvatore Dali's "The Persistence of Memory". This was a group effort and mine was the one chosen by my team members to be made. We used a number of techniques to get the final effect of the piece. The clocks are made of blown glass, the back wall was made with bubble sugar, the tree and dead horse looking thing was made of pulled sugar, the floor and supporting piece are all made of poured sugar except that the floor was poured on a silicon mat to give it that texture, and even the rocks are made o

Chocolate Show in NYC

A team of us in school designed and built a chocolate showpiece for the 9th annual Chocolate Show in New York City. We had four teams each working on their own side of the chocolate shrine. Our side was modeled after the Chichen Itza in Mexico. It is fitting because the mayans are the ones who are credited for discovering chocolate. The picture doesn't do it justice. There's so much detail in the textures and figurines that my camera didn't pick up. It was a great experience to be part of a team and design something and then see it come to life on display with hundreds of people looking at it. I think it came out really amazing.


The "front door" of the shrine was made by our instructor. I couldn't get a good picture of it but you can see it here.

Other two sides:

We Are...

I know this picture is all wrong. You can't wear uggs in the kitchen.

The plated desserts section of the curriculum was really interesting. Cooking is not only about making beautiful items, it is also about presentation. We are artists. If you want to see amazing styles of plating just look at the Alinea or El Bulli websites. The amazing chefs there create art that I can only imagine in my wildest dreams.

In this section we took it one step further then just "cooking". We learned how to design plates, sort of like fashion designing with sauces as fabrics and tuiles as buttons. Thought goes into texture, taste, height, color, lines and shapes. We are designers. Before a chef plates anything up he builds the plate, deciding what to put on it, where, and how. We are sculptors. He then draws a diagram that is an exact blueprint of the plate. We are architects.

Throughout the whole curriculum we've been writing production lists for each days duty. Everything is organized and planned. There's a lot of paper work involved. In the field, cooks will check their inventory at the end of the day and write out a production list for the next day. So it really is a lot more then just cooking or baking.

Before plating a chef must "sell" the item. The words on the menu have to make the customer conjure up thoughts of exstacy. It's easy to sell a product if it "looks" tasty but it is much more difficult to make it "sound" tasty. We are writers and poets. During this section our chef had us make a list of 20 words that describe: flavor, action, texture, and style. Using these words we had to name all the plated desserts that we made and describe them. Here are some of the words I really liked;

FLAVOR: effervescent, full bodied, umami (look it up!), pungent, subtle, briny, along with the usual words like caramelized, crunchy, zesty, nutty, etc

ACTION: sizzling, infused, candy coated, sous vide, enrobed, fermented, flambeed, molded, along with the usual words like broiled, sauteed, barbecued, reduced, baked, etc

TEXTURE: moist, flaky, soft, tender, foamy, stickprovocative, silky, velvety (fashion and food are the same thing I'm telling you!)

STYLE: old fashioned, home-made, eclectic, seasonal, rustic, artisanal, avante garde, French, cutting edge

The menu wording assignment was harder then I thought it would be. I wanted to be descriptive and creative while not using the same words over and over again. I also didn't want to use too many words because customers want to eat not read. People get bored easily.

I'm starting to work on my next project which is designing and making up my own menu and restaurant. Things are getting busy!

Move over Kirstie Alley. There's a new fatso in town.

Here's the plated dessert that I made for my test. I stole the idea from the place I am currently staging at. It is a chocolate genoise cake with chocolate cremeux and peanut butter ganache topped with chocolate and cocoa nibs. This was served with a caramelized banana ice cream that was f*cking out of this world.

Plated Desserts made me call Jenny Craig

So we've entered the second course of plated desserts. That's 21 days of 2-3 plated desserts I've been eating! I know none of you feel bad for me. I think my face is getting rounder. The Ligurian Lemon Cake shown here is one of the most photogenic that we've made. Ligurian, Italy is known for their lemons and olive oil which is what this cake consists of along with raspberries. After baking the cake, it is topped with a swiss meringue and then bruleed. Accompanying it is an orange pomegranate salad in brandy syrup dressing, honey almond gelato and an almond tuile. The plating reminds me of autumn when the leaves turn brown, orange, and red and start to fall to the ground.

Banana Macadamia Nut Financier

Food XXX Alert: I am about to tear off my clothes, crawl up on my desk, and lick the luscious caramel off this screen!

The Jalousie Wife

The word Jalousie means "jealousy" in French. It also is the word for slatted window blinds. This dessert is also called Jalousie. It is named that because it resembles the slatted window blinds a jealous wife is peeping through to catch her cheating husband! Oooooooh how I love the French! Especially when they smoke that crack and come up with crazy names for desserts.

The pastry is made out of puff pastry and usually filled with a fruit jam. The one shown here however, is not a dessert. Puff pastry can be used in both sweet and savory foods. This jalousie is filled with sauteed mushrooms and escarole with a bechamel sauce.

Sweet and Salty

Oh this was awesome and it was a nice break from eating sugary sweets. The tart was layered with figs and goat cheese (which I love!) on top of puff pastry (which I also love!). It was served with hazelnut creme anglaise and a red wine reduction and then topped with hazelnut fiq swirl ice cream. The goat cheese adds a nice hint of savory to this sweet dish. Talk about yuuuu-may!

A Fish Out of Water

Is it a little masochistic that I like the feeling of pulling hot sugar with my naked hands? If you love the look of poured sugar you will love pulled sugar. Pulling sugar creates this iridescent opaque color. It is thin and very fragile. I really love how the scales came out on my fish. I added orange color to it but after I pulled the scales it turned a lovely shiny copper color.

Meet My Fish Azul

I love working with sugar. It was little scary having hot molten sugar lava so close to my hands. Once the sugar hardens it is translucent, shiny, and smooth. The light makes the vibrant jewel tones look like stained glass. Tomorrow I'll be adding on some pulled sugar scales so stay tuned folks!

When Life Gives You Lemons or Limes....

Juice them and freeze it!

Lemon and lime juice is the secret to adding life and dimension to a savory or sweet dish. It really adds that wow factor! Adding a little lemon juice to a fruit compote or even uncooked fruit adds vibrance and freshness to the flavor. I also love sour in my savory food because it makes me more hungry. It's great to have a little acid in marinades because it makes meat tender. I like to spritz a little in my soup, especially thai soups! I try to always have lemon and limes around but sometimes they go bad and I have to throw them away. What a shame. Just recently I made two loaves of lemon pound cake and I had a bunch of leftover lemons so I juiced them and froze the juice in ice cube trays. It's perfect because now I always have lemon/lime juice on hand for an impromptu sauce or marinade and I can use as little or much as I want without wasting a whole lemon/lime. It's also perfect when you need the zest for something but don't need the juice. I feel bad when I zest my citrus fruit and they sit on the counter all naked. In the above picture I used the zest to brighten up pineapple chunks that I was using in a coconut mousse cake. The juice is waiting in the freezer ready to add some zing to my next dish!

Sugarpaste Flowers with Chef Ron Ben Israel

Adult version of Play-Doh. This one is really edible!

Making marzipan fruit brought me back to the old days when we played with Play Doh. The marzipan fruit was airbrushed to give it that life like look and then nestled in an almond nougatine basket. It's a shame that arts & crafts isn't scheduled into our day anymore, right between milk and cookies and nap time.

Confessions of an Inner Fatso

I think fast food is kind of gross. Don't get me wrong. I have been caught a few times leaving these establishments stuffing my face with a burger and fries like a dog in heat. Good food is so easily accessible in NY, why would you want to eat greasy chemical enhanced slop. But father I have to confess that I LOVE Taco Bell! As we speak now I am licking the sour cream off my pants from a plate of Nachos Bell Grande. I love tex-mex. Too bad there aren't any good tex mex places around me. Oh what I wouldn't do for a chimichanga. I don't think that Taco Bell has high quality food. I wouldn't go there if I was craving real meat. But man that ground beef slop they serve sure hits the spot. I only eat crunchy taco supremes. It's perfect. I think they put crack in it. And it just so happens that my local taco bell is located right next to my gym. It's a taco bell/kfc joint so I go and pick up 2 crunchy taco supremes and an extra crunchy drumstick with cole slaw. I always go with the FIRE hot sauce. For some weird reason my taco bell doesn't put it out. You have to ask for it and they take it out from behind the counter. I guess they have to ration the sauce for the crackheads. I do wish taco bell would use high quality meat and start making some high quality tex mex food. Wouldn't it be awesome if they had some decent gauc too?!

Creme Brulee

We have moved onto plated desserts. Everyday I eat 2-3 plates of sweets. It's crazy!

Creme brulee is one of my favorite desserts. It's simple yet very delicious. Burning the sugar on the top is also very fun. Here is my recipe for creme brulee:

1 qt cream
1 vanilla bean
110g sugar
200g yolks

1. Boil cream, vanilla bean, and sugar in a pot.
2. Cool over icebath.
3. When cooled strain and whisk in yolks.
4. Pour into shallow dishes and place in a pan.
5. Place in a 250 degree Farenheit oven. Pour hot water half way up.
6. Bake until just set.
7. Refrigerate. When ready to eat sprinkle granulated sugar on top and brulee.

Where I Am From

For our final chocolate showpiece we were given the theme "where I am from". Since being born and raised in NYC I had to pick something that was a New York landmark. Thoughts of doing a memorial for the World Trade Towers swirled through my head. I even drew up blueprints for a piece depicting a carriage ride through Central Park in autumn. How about the unisphere globe in Flushing Meadow Park? No, it has to be something that represents New York City in all of its nitty gritty. It has to be something that I live with everyday, something that really truly defines living in New York for me. And it hit me. I was on my way to school stuck in traffic. Being the procrastinator that I am I hadn't done my drawings that was due that day. I quickly sketched this piece in the locker room and handed it in. After all was said and done I think my piece came out great! Who says something that reminds me of home has to be a big monument of some sort? I sit in traffic everyday and it pisses me off. But it is what I go through if I want to live in this great city. My chocolate showpiece comes with a three car pile up and profanities (kept PG for young audiences).

Choco Loco

We've been working on truffles and bonbons in class. I know I said I love chocolate. But now I am so sick of it. I feel like the smell is imbedded in my skin. The smell follows me around like a ghost. I can't stand to eat another piece of chocolate. Is this an occupational hazard? Am I destined to never want to eat a piece of chocolate again? I wonder how many pastry chefs actually eat pastries?

Craving Anchovies

So I just got back from the gym and I am sooo craving anchovies! I love them, salty and fishy they are deeeeeeeeelicious! I love them on pizza, in sandwiches, in my salad, in a Caesar dressing, in dips, in pasta sauces, and straight up on a cracker! I just made an awesome impromptu pasta with the things I have in my fridge. It totally hit the spot!

Anchovy Pasta for one

1 clove of garlic sliced
5 anchovy filets
3 tablespoons olive oil.
1 tablespoon lemon juice
black pepper
parmesan reggiano

1. On low heat sautee one clove sliced garlic and 5 anchovies in 3 Tbspn olive oil. Break up anchovies slightly with spatula. Once the anchovies have slight softened and melted into the olive oil turn off heat. Don't brown the garlic!
2. Drizzle in 1 Tbspn lemon juice and a couple of grinds of black pepper. (none of that pre ground black pepper in a bottle business!)
3. When the pasta is al dente ( I prefer the toothyness of linguine) toss it right in the same pan with the sauce.

Soooooo good! It would have been better if I had some freshly shaved parmesan reggiano. You don't need to add any salt to this dish because the anchovies are already salty. Let me know how you like your anchovies!

My Stripper Name is Cocoa Bomb

How kick ass is chocolate! The first day we learned how to temper it looked like a chocolate cocoa bomb went off on me. Being a pastry cook is not only about baking and frosting. It's about being an artist, a sculptor, a painter, an architect. The first half of pastry school is about being precise, being able to duplicate what your chef makes and being consistent every time. *I remember the chef measuring our eclairs with rulers to see if it was exactly 4 inches. This half is about creativity and showing off what school can't teach you, talent and thinking outside the box. Everyone can bake an apple pie, but who can make that apple pie into a new mind blowing experience?

Our first project was to design a chocolate showpiece that can be used as a candy bowl. I decided to use a chess motif because we had chess chocolate molds at school. Shit buying your own equipment is expensive! My piece is a three dimensional and can be seen from all sides. I was afraid the steps wouldn't hold but it did. The entire structure with the staircase reminds me a lot of M.C. Escher's works of art (shown here, Escher's House of Stairs). You can see in the picture my paper model behind the actual piece.