Le Cordon Bleu intermediate patisserie week 9 - time flies when you're cooking up a storm

It feels as though months have passed since my last blog post. I do apologies to those of you who read my posts regularly each week for the radio silence, exams and a number of wonderful opportunities came all at once and they got the better of me! This blog post is therefore going to go back, back to week 9 - my path to patissiere has been full of twists and turns and I'm looking forward to getting them all written down. Here goes...

My last blog post was a tiny taster of the plated desserts module that I completed on week 8. Although a cake lady through and through I found plating desserts to be incredibly enjoyable and a great way to channel my inner creativity. This module covered a variety of new and interesting techniques, from pulling sugar to using textured matts in order to create coloured and textured sponges. A friend of mine, in fact a very wonderful chef friend of mine once told me that for inspiration when plating food, its best to look to mother nature for guidance and for my last dessert, I did just that. 

Whilst fussing around with the white wine vinegar, scrubbing my plate to remove any marks with as much vigour as I could muster my mind drifted off and I began to wonder where this all began. When did we start dressing our plates with food to create edible art rather than just plonking in on? When did food become something to be looked upon first before devoured and when did we stop eating food simply for the purposes of fuel. How did we go from eating meat off the bone like Fred Flintstone to creating the edible wonderlands you'd find at restaurants such as Noma and The Fat Duck? Naturally I had to find out. 

In the middle ages, plating up food was as simple as tearing out the centre of a loaf of bread and filling this trench with a ladle full of home made strew. I'm sure if I was to walk the streets of London for a day that I'd be able to find someone, somewhere be it at a restaurant or a street food vendor serving food in exactly the same way. Of course the wealthy and royals at the time would enjoy much better service and food presentation, and as mentioned before on my blog in the past when discussing the origins of the entremet, the lines between the meal and entertainment became hugely blurred around this time. 

Looking into the subject further it seems that, once again its Catherine de Medici of Italy that we have to thank. If ever asked again who I'd invite, dead or alive, to a dinner at my house I would choose her. She was responsible for a great deal of change when she married Henry II, the King of France. Like me, Catherine De Medici had a sweet tooth so when the time came for her to move from Italy to France to marry Henry II, she refused to do so without being accompanied by her pastry team. Yes, team. The macaron was created by her team in approximately 1533 along with many other favourites of mine. But it wasn't just sweet treats that she brought with her, she also introduced dining innovations such as forks and topless waitresses, which essentially signifies the beginning of our shift from food for fuel to food for enjoyment. 

A century later and it was Louis XIV who really sealed cuisines place as an integral part of French culture, both for its flavour and aesthetics, with meals so lavish that you'd never be able to re create them in your own home. 

The change from large portions of food to smaller, more delicately plated meals can be pin pointed to the work of Marie-Antoine Careme, a wonderful man who's work I've mentioned in the past. Titled the worlds first 'celebrity' chef, Careme is responsible for bringing plating to the modern world. Creme was an avid amateur student of architecture - he considered pastry making to be an art form and often presented his dishes (made for Napoleon Bonaparte) in the shapes of famous waterfalls, pyramids, ships and monuments. He was also believed to have invented the croquembouche, a dish who's name translates to 'crunch in the mouth' and a dish which is still served around the world today and at a large number of weddings in France. 

Creme reduced the portion sizes whilst working within Napoleon Bonaparte's team. He did this as his main focus was the creation of hugely lavish, multiple course meals - he felt that the plates of food individually shouldn't fill the stomaches of the guests, but rather they should enjoy the food from a visual point of view first, then they should enjoy the taste and flavours. He emphasised complimentary flavours and pairings in presentations.  

During Creme's time, it was still only royals and the elite who were seeing and benefitting from these changes to the way we ate and presented our food. It wasn't until two years after his death in 1835 that Auguste Escoffier was born, a man who would see these changes and a much higher appreciation for our food be brought to the masses. Escoffier was born into the industrial revolution. This was a wonderful time of discovery, a rich time. We saw the worlds first millionaires, people began to travel for pleasure and the railroad was introduced making travel much more accessible. 

Escoffier secured his place in the history books for introducing 'a la carte' service to the world. His creations were still served on large trays featuring multiples dishes but the food was decorated beautifully and the portion sizes were still small, as Creme has intended. It was at this time that fine dining was born and became a profitable business. Escoffier was working at a time when chefs were still cooking over wood and charcoal fires. The food would be cooked in a separate building and then carried, sometime relatively long distances, to the dining room. He experimented with techniques which would allow the waiters to finish the cookery process in front of guests, adding a little theatre but also ensuring that their food would be hot when it arrived before them. 

At the turn of the last century, Fernand Point, a French chef and restauranteur considered to be the father of modern French cuisine, introduced elements that would become signitures of nouvelle cuisine. Point stressed the importance of cooking with seasonal ingredients, he focused upon flavours, simplicity, elegance, hospitality and service. Point also saw the importance of accessibility and therefore introduced a lighter fare. Point founded the restaurant La Pyeamide in Vienne near Lyon at the young age of 24 years old. The restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars and proved to be a great success. It was point who made the now ubiquitous baby vegetables a regular addition to the plate.

Sadly Point died when he was just 57 years old in 1955 and It wasn't until the 1960s when his famous protege, Paul Bocuse, solidified his techniques. Bocuse's neat and tidy food presentation became rather iconic and lead the way for nouvelle cuisine. Charlie Trotter and Alice Waters, the next generation of chefs took this minimalist style even further. Portions sizes reduced once again and theatre was added via edible finishing touches. 

Sergio Remolina, a professor at the Culinary Institute of America, when speaking to Bon Appetit said "in the late 1800s, the sauce was used to hide some of the defects in the meat of the smells because of the treatment of the protein, which could be a little bizarre. Today the goal is to feature the ingredients as close as possible to the source. if we have very fresh microgrees, or a fresh fish, we put in right at the centre of the presentation. The freshness of the ingredients guides the arrangement of the food". 

So there you have it, from Kings and Queens to the chefs of Kings, Queens and the common people - those are the names and faces we should be thanking and that is exactly how our food went from slop served in a stale loaf of bread to what we now know as fine dining and me, being stood in a kitchen at Le Cordon Bleu playing around with the positioning of the last red current I deemed fit enough to feature on my plate. What a journey! 

With the plated desserts module complete it was time to shift my focus to my practical and written intermediate patisserie exams. Urgh. I may have covered the course breakdown last term, but in case I didn't... as students at Le Cordon Bleu, our exams are broken down as such;

45% - class practical scores

45% - exam practical 

10% - theory paper

My first exam was at 7:40am on a Thursday. A completely unnecessary time to hold an examination. With sleep still in my eyes I dragged myself to Holborn and into the kitchen I went with the cleanest and best pressed uniform I'd sported all term, all thanks for my presentation scores goes to my Mum. She's got skills like no other when it comes to working magic with an iron so yes, at the age of 31 I asked my Mum to wash and press my uniform. I wanted the extra points, don't judge me. 

As I entered the room all I could think was which of the three dishes would be mine... would it be the Alhambra? My favourite of the three dishes to make due to its robustness and as it features a marzipan rose which I'd be able to whip up in no time and make look beautiful thus scoring more marks for presentation? Nope. Of course not! Of course I wouldn't be tested on my favourite. I wasn't last term so why should I be now? Ok, how about my second favourite? The Fraisier? The pink strawberry filled delight which features a genoise sponge - the sponge I dreaded in basic but actually scored very highly on when it came to my exam? Nope! Of course it would have to be my least favourite of the three - the dreaded OPERA.

They do say that life throws us challenges to try us and well, when myself and my class turned our papers to discover our fate, the title Gateau Opera was met with a chorus of groans and sighs. Why the Gateau Opera? Anything but the Gateau Opera! Thankfully I'd practised this dish only a matter of days before the exam and given that I'd made the cake at home, using only the equipment in my Mothers baking cupboard and ingredients from Waitrose it hadn't gone too badly. I kept reminding myself that during the exam I'd have everything I need to achieve perfection so at least I was safe in that knowledge. 

After 15 minutes spent writing up our ingredients list and method from memory we were asked to prepare to bake. Then as the clock ticked and tocked its way to the hour, at 8'o'clock our marking chef shouted the words we love to hear on the Great British Bake Off but dream under exam conditions...ready, steady, BAKE! 

The beloved Gateau Opera, as discussed at great length in a previous post, is a world wide favourite made up of 6 key elements; a bisuit joconde, a chocolate ganache, a creme au beurre cafe, a coffee flavoured soaking syrup, a chocolate glacace and piped chocolate decoration work. I began by baking my sponge, I prepare my baking tray and the mix then spread the mix over the tray thinly - I knew at this point that something had gone wrong. I'd overworked the mix. There was no time to dwell upon this so I flashed baked what I had and got on with the next task which was to make my ganache and creme au beurre cafe. The kitchen was hot, all ovens were on high and the there was a great deal of noise coming from the cafe kitchen just around the corner. The pot was team were slow meaning we had to wait a relatively long time for the equipment that we needed and I was certain my butter cream was going to split to to this. It didn't. Many others did but mine didn't and goodness only knows why. My ganache was perfect, my soaking syrup was delicious and so I began to assemble my dish. 

As my sponge had been overworked it was tight in texture and didn't have the rise I was hoping for which resulted in my Opera being considerably shorter than intended. When I say considerable, I'm talking millimetres but to me the difference was considerable. Everything ran smoothly and then it was time to decorate the cake. It was at this point that I began to panic. I was tired, my hand wouldn't stop shaking, we had ten minutes to go until time would be called to stop so I just went for it. I'm actually gutted that we weren't able to take pictures of our end results as I was so very impressed with mine! It was hands down the best piping I'd done during my time at Le Cordon Bleu and all you have is my word for it. With one exam down it was time to get a little rest before the theory paper the following day.   

Like my practical exam, my theory paper began at the ridiculously early time of 8am on the Friday morning. I flicked over the cover and was delighted to see questions to which I knew the answers. A few multiple choice questions, recipe writing and plate drawing questions later I was back in the big wide world with a whole day ahead of me. A day which lasted 23 hours and which felt like three days in one! 

Immediately after my exam, a skipped down to Radio Hair in Shoreditch for a trim. I wouldn't normally mention such things on my patisserie blog but they did a fab job and the team was lovely. So why not. Radio Hair are great, go there! I then walked over to Southbank where I did a 6 hour shift for the lovely Crosstown Doughnut team. I can't get enough of these doughnuts which is leading to the size of my bottom increasing...but just look at them! Tell me how am I supposed to resist such temptations?! 

At the end of my very long day I met a friend from the bus stop - that friend is the man responsible for the name of my blog, Path to Patissiere. He's a wonderful words smith and our weekend in London was so varied, in terms of food, that it deserves its very own blog post. So I'm going to give it just that. If you love wild foods and Japanese / Peruvian food fusion keep an eye out. I'll be covering both next week along with letting you know how I got on with my exams and finishing off my last intermediate project, an Easter themed celebration cake! 

*Please note that the views I express are mine alone and do not reflect the views of my place of study*

Le Cordon Bleu Week 1 - Plop!

Plop! That is the sound of me being thrown in at the deep end (or the sound of me falling into the canal on my walk to school under the weight of my new course books - either one!)

What a roller coster of a week its been, beginning with the suspense and anticipation of my first technical class, followed by the excitement of receiving my class literature. This excitement was soon replaced with dread when I felt the weight of the collective group of books and saw how thick they are / how many pages there are to read! 

Our first technical class went over the basics such as the names of the Patisserie Chefs who'd be teaching us over the course of our time at Le Cordon Bleu, their backgrounds, what we will be learning over next 3 months (which in true GBBO style, I'm not going to be telling you until the week before - to build suspense obviously), how to read and navigate our student course manuals and basic kitchen rules. 

Our chefs, Chef Ian and Chef Mathew were a hoot - and there was me thinking that I'd left an office of 'lads' full to the brim with banter for a refined establishment. Simple kitchen rules such as making it known vocally if you are moving from your work station to the sink with sharp knifes or hot pans by calling out as such, were quickly altered to shouting out "hot pants" and various other whitty adaptions. 

The weeks excitement then continued into my first demo class on Thursday morning with the very entertaining duo Chef Ian and Chef Mathew. Lesson 1 - the humble fruit salad. 

"Fruit salad?!" I hear you scoff, but yes you read correctly. When learning the basics of French cooking, you really must 'master' the basics. This wasn't just any fruit salad, this was a fruit salad worthy of a place at a royals dining table. I watched Chef Mathew's every move intently, noting down both his actions and words. At the end of the demo session I had my 50 step plan to creating the worlds most delightful and delicious fruit salad. 50 STEPS!!! A week ago my fruit salad consisted of three simple steps: 

Step 1: collect or purchase fruit 
Step 2: wash fruit 
Step 3: cut up fruit 

Oh and then the all important step 4 - eat the fruit! 

Worried about the extensive nature of my notes (those who know me well won't be surprised to hear that my notes were extensive), I spent the three hour break before our first practical class buying hair nets and cutting back my 50 step plan to a more digestible 10. And then it was time to enter the kitchen - or in this case, the boulangerie. This was our first chance to shine at Le Cordon Bleu, to prove our capabilities to the chefs and to put all that we'd learnt during the day to practice, and I was pretty happy with my results! 

Chef Nicholas oversaw the practical, helping us to navigate the kitchen and our new knife set which in demo had been likened to Harry Potters wand due to its power for both good and bad. We were then asked to recreate the fruit salad we'd seen come to life before our eyes in demo, and prepare a tray showing the 5 stages of sugar cooking: 

Stage 1 - thread (105 degrees - 110)
Stage 2 - soft ball (116 degrees - 122)
Stage 3 - hard ball (126 degrees - 130)
Stage 4 - crack  (144 degrees - 150)
Stage 5 - caramel (150 degrees - 190)

It was requested that in order to demonstrate and present the results of these stages, that we boil our sugar and hold an ice cube at the same time. Then, when we thought the sugar was at the correct temperature and consistency, put our fingers into the hot pan (and when I say hot, boiling sugar can reach up to 190 degrees, water boils at 100), pinch the sugar and return it swiftly to the ice water to form a tread, hard or soft ball, cracked sugar or caramel. Don't even think about trying this at home. Luckily no burns for me.

Following this rather exciting and daredevil task, it was back to prepping the fruit salad and accompanying spiced sugar syrup. Working in pairs, we decided upon winter classic for our spice combination - cinnamon, cloves and vanilla. We could have added cardamon and star anise also as all 5 were available to us but we thought best to keep it simple and instead opted for adding orange and lemon peel. The room soon smelt like Christmas. 

An hour or so later and it was time to 'plate up'. Chef Mathew had done so in his own style during demo but had encouraged us to find our own creative style. Music to my ears!

I spent minutes polishing my bowl with white wine vinegar, ensuring not a finger or thumb print could be found. Then using my solid silver spoon, I carefully placed some of the fruit into the bowl, topping it with boiled and infused orange and lemon peel which I'd delicately sliced and curled, a fan of orange segments and a 1/4 vanilla pod, which was there to both add a polar opposite colour to the stark white bowl and show the decadence of the dish. Vanilla is up there amongst the most expensive of kitchen commodities so best to show the 'customer' it's been used so that they can associate the value of the dish with the ingredients used to create it. 

One by one, we were then asked to present our dish to Chef Nicholas. I went first as I was stationed at the front of the class. I'm a geek and I don't care who knows it. Chef turned my bowl this way, and then that making remarks such as "fantastic attention to detail", "wonderful fruit uniformity", "great cutting and lines", "excellent taste", and the remark most important to me as a wanna be food stylist..."fantastic presentation"! Yay! First practical and top marks for me. 

Thursday saw a repeat of Wednesdays schedule, a demo in the morning and practical in the evening. Demo 2 - meringues. Italian, French and Swiss OH MY! And more types of creme patisserie than I even knew existed! 

The demo was confusing to say the least. Chef talked us through each of the steps for the three different types of meringue and the cremes:

Creme patissiere (a starch thicken vanilla custard)
Creme Diplomat (a creme patissiere base with the addition of an orange liqueur)
Creme Mousseline (a creme patissiere base with the addition of butter. And lots of it)
Creme Chibouste (a creme patissiere base with the addition of Italian meringue)
Creme Chantilly (a creme patissiere base with the addition of whipped creme)

Yup - bet you didn't know you could have your creme 5 ways! My group spent a couple of hours following the demo re writing our jumbled methods and then came the practical. This session was very very different to the first. Firstly the Chef took an instant dislike to me. I'm not sure why - I was wearing my uniform correctly, I was on time, I had my knife set, I had my equipment out and ready to go...perhaps it was because I was being annoyingly keen, who knows, all I know is that every question I asked seemed to be wrong and every attempt I made to stand out for the right reasons ended in disaster. 

The pace of this demo was different also. More frantic and chaotic. I could see that this was the main source of Chefs frustration so Natalie and I did our best to stay ahead of our work plan in order to create our practical plate on time. The plate needed to consist of mini meringues piped 4 ways (a shell and rosette being compulsory), Chantilly cream piped two ways (shell and rosette) and a bowl of Creme Diplomat. This is where, in Chefs eyes, I made my biggest error. When it came to plating up for presentation, which if you imagine, is just like the bit on GBBO where each baker has to take their bakes to be judged by Paul and Mary at the front of the tent. It's just like that except Chef was much taller than Mary, French and angry. 

Unlike Chef Nicholas, this Chef, who's name escapes me, took one look at my plate and asked (yelled in a Gordon Ramsey style) "what have you done to the creme!???" Now, I don't have a picture of my Creme Diplomat, but what I'd done was to polish a serving bowl and pipe the creme neatly in waved lines, it basically looked like the top of a fancy fish or cottage pie. Not wanting to sound rude, I asked Chef if there was problem. He yelled that I'd wasted precious time piping when all he asked was that the creme was served in a bowl. BUT the saving grace here was that my Creme Diplomat was bloody perfect. He couldn't fault it, not even a little bit. It was the right consistency, it held its shape and it tasted fantastic. Top marks for the Diplomat, not top marks for my meringue piping. This he referred to as hideous and inconsistent. So I have piping homework to do over the course of the next few days so as not to disappoint when our paths next cross. 

My first week at school ended with a 6 hour lecture starting at 8am on Saturday morning, followed by an exam. The exam was to assess my knowledge of health and hygiene in the kitchen in order to be issued with a health and hygiene certificate. The exam lasted about 15 minutes and was quite possibly the most common sense filled exam I've ever sat. I won't get my results back for 2 weeks but I'll be very surprised if I've failed. 

Finally, my homework has been an adventure in itself. An adventure deep into the history of the subject that is so close to my heart and it would seem that we have an Italian lady to thank for the patisserie we know and love today. 

When Catherine De Medici of Italy married Henri II of France in 1533, she brought with her her cooks, patissiers and ice cream makers... not to mention forks and high heels! And there was me thinking that it was the French we had to thank for such things. Catherine De Medici, not willing to leave her sweet treats behind her in Italy, introduced her staff and cane sugar (which wasn't cultivated in France at the time) to the French court and as a result, the food in France fell under the influence of the Italians. 

This Italian / French patisserie battle is still present on the streets of Paris today. Now half way through Patisseries of Paris by Jamie Cahill, a book gifted to me a few weeks ago by a friend, I've read extensively of the glace vs. gelato battles and the delicacies on sale in the French capital heavily influenced by the Italians. My advise to both nations is battle on - this is a war that can only end in sweet success and culinary delights for all! 

Next week on my Path to Patissiere: baked and stirred custards 1 (there can't possibly be any more cremes in my life) and what's that??? Baked and stirred custards lesson 2. I really must introduce them to Bird's ;o)

*Please note that the views I express are mine alone and do not reflect the views of my place of study*