A New Class
Monday, April 26th, 2004So we’re done with bread (finally) at school and not a moment too soon. I’ve always been a big fan of bread, but after making it every day for 4 weeks I’m kinda sick of it. Next we’re doing individual pastries, petit fours, etc. We started making puff pastry today, and so far so good. I really do think that the equipment that professional chefs have access to makes it so much easier to turn out consistently good products. We have a dough sheeter in the classroom (for rolling out doughs to a consistent thickness, mainly for croissants, puff pastry and danish) that is really cool. If they weren’t 3000 dollars, I might consider buying one. It’s funny though, I’m making things in class that I’ve thought about making hundreds of times at home, but I never got around to it, thought it would be too hard or too much hassle. The practical exam for this class is going to be pretty difficult, we have to make at least 12 different kinds of buffet-sized pastries, cream puffs, baklava, petit fours, and other little yummy things. I think it will be fun to work on, but the practical exam is worth 120 of the 200 and something points for the three-week class, so it’s really important to do well. I’m more concerned that I’m actually learning the techniques than I am about my grade, but it’s always nice to get an A. Once we start actually assembling things, I’ll bring my camera in to take some pictures.