That note aside, things here have been interesting to say the least. Just in case you don't know me, my life seems to have a bunch of drama in it-most of it I'm ok with-but I never seem to be short of a good story! I also enjoy putting in every detail of my life, even though most people don't care about all the details so here is your forewarning:
-----This may be quite a novel-like post about my first two weeks of class and what not. Only start this if you have the time because there's no telling how long it may take you to read it!-----
Also, I will be changing names of people in my blog, because I haven't gotten permission from them to mention them here and I feel this is the best option for everyone! I will give you a character reference so you have some idea as to who these people are!
- Samantha, Sierra, and Natalie are some of the girls from my class I hang out with quite a bit
- Aidan is my best friend and a great guy for letting me stay with him for a while!
- Lily and Maria are two of my new best friends and I'll be living with Maria for a bit this month...Maria, Kent and their son are being gracious enough to let me stay in their guest room until Aidan gets back!
First off let me tell you about my classes-the number one reason I'm here! To give you an idea of how things work, my schedule is like this: I have Technical Demonstrations where we sit in a class room and learn about random things like Fire safety, the history of flour, why ice cream was first made, etc. So far those classes have been a bit...boring but only because we've just covered fire safety! Then I have Demonstrations where we are shown how to make the items for the day from our notebook. The notebooks contain recipes with ingredients on it, but no instructions so we write that down during the demo.
Later on in the day after our demo's, we have Practical classes where we are required to replicate what was made in the demonstration class. Our practical class has 10 students and a chef to help guide us through the process as well as answer any questions we might have. I've had 4 of the 5 chefs from the Patisserie department in my practical classes and have learned little differences between each of the chefs and how they teach! All that being said, I have one technical demo, 2 demo's and 2 practicals each week...it doesn't seem like it's a lot, but once you get going-usually at 8am-and don't leave till around 5:30 it takes a toll!
The first week in class we worked on knife skills and making syrups (simple syrups and working with cooking sugar to different stages), and making fruit salad. It sounds easy, but you have to start somewhere and it helps break bad habits, or form good ones depending on what experience you've had already. Getting into the practical for the first time and not knowing where to find things in the kitchen, or what exactly to do when starting a practical was scary and nerve wracking to say the least! Good thing a couple people in my group had already taken the cuisine part of LCB and knew how to set up their work station...the rest of us followed suit and the day went smoothly from there. We also learned how to make pastry cream, meringues, and the different variations of the two. We worked on our piping skills with Swiss meringue, and I learned my skills are lacking more than I would like to admit! I have since been working on them with mashed potatoes, but the process is slow going! I can't seem to make my hand follow and make what my brain sees!
---Things I learned my first week: 1) Cutting fruit is easy and even easier when you have a fantastic knife set of the highest quality with your initials engraved on it! 2) Sticking my hand into a pot of boiling sugar to test what stage of cooking it's at is some of the most fun I've had in a kitchen...and the scariest experience in one! 3) When working in teams, make sure you choose someone who has a brain, first of all, and stick up for yourself or you'll end up paying for their mistakes. :( 4) Pastry cream isn't my favorite unless it has whipping cream added to it...but that means it's harder to make! 5) Piping=not my strong suit...and I will keep working at it until I have perfected it! and 6) Making friends in another country requires nothing more than a nice smile and a good southern hospitality mentality!
This last week was a bit more challenging! We have started getting into the scientific process of making desserts; it's not about what ingredients you add together, it's how you add them and when you add them that makes it work! We had our technical over how to take notes during a demo (very helpful actually) and how to work as a team in class...pretty boring but necessary for those out there with no common sense or social skills. In demo, the topic was baked and stirred custards. I don't think I'll ever get over how easy the chef's make our demo's look! They whip something up and you're writing furiously trying to take it all in and thinking, "That looked so easy, surely I can do that!" Then you get to class and you realize they've had help making it look that easy-experience and someone behind the scenes measuring out their ingredients for them before hand...and it's just them in a workspace so they can take up as much room as they need!
So, in practical, we made Creme Brulee, Creme Caramel, Creme Anglaise, Fruit Coulis, and Tuile batter. It was a lot to do in one class but we had the head pastry chef as our guide that practical and she was a blessing! She walks around and makes sure you understand what you're doing, as well as stops you from making a mistake that you couldn't come back from! I was nervous to be with her in the kitchen, but she is an amazing teacher-and I would know!! We didn't get to take anything home that day because we were going to decorate and present it all the next day! Those decorations the next day consisted of piping out our Tuile (btw pronounced twill...strange, I know) and I was actually a bit proud of how well some of my designs came out. The hard part is shaping them to give them a 3D effect because you have to do it straight out of the oven and those puppies are hot!!
Next on the agenda was working with sugar to make baskets, abstract designs, and actual shapes to decorate items. This was more to get used to working with sugar-it's harder than it looks-but I am feeling more confident with my skills the more I practice. Then we finished our creme brulee's by toasting the sugar and decorating it with sugar, our finished tuile shapes, and sugar shapes. We plated our creme caramel's next, adding piped chocolate, decorations with our creme angliase, fruit coulis, tuile shapes, and sugar shapes. If I can figure out how to add photos from my phone onto my computer I will show you my finished designs! I was proud of them and so was the chef of the day! Overall a great week!
I have found, since I've been here, I don't like London until I'm there going to class or hanging out with the people from school. I love leaving the city and living with Maria and her family in Mildenhall, going to the country side and a slower pace of life! Don't get me wrong, London is great and has it's charms, but there's something missing that makes me dread having to be there...that is till I get there! It's all very confusing, but I'm trying to stay positive and really can't complain about much of anything at this point! I've got some of the best friends anyone could ask for-new and old-and the most supportive family that helped make this all possible!
I've got a four day weekend at least once a month, this weekend being the first, and plan to get caught up on sleep, and get things done (laundry, shopping, cooking, Christmas decoration shopping with Maria!!!) I am setting some goals for myself, kind of like new year's resolutions, and you all are responsible for making sure I follow through with some of these! I will work on piping skills every day till I am more competent in my skills. I will blog every weekend about my class experience and what's been happening in my life. I will get out and do things that most people don't get to experience because this is the only life I have, and I will make the most out of this amazing experience!
Until next time, I hope you all got through this massive blog and I promise they won't all be like this...!! I feel the need to say thanks for reading this, even though it was a conscious choice for all of you-I just don't want anyone to feel the need to read it out of obligation! So if you did happen to read this out of obligation, you have my sincerest gratitude for making it to the end!
Love from London!! <3
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