You Are Only As Good As Your Waitstaff

Conversation between me and a male waiter in the elevator going to the high end restuarant:

Waiter: "Hey what's that you got there?"

Me: "Oh gooseberries. We got a lot of them for a tasting so we have been putting them on the brulee."

Waiter: "No way. Really? We had no idea what those were. We've been telling the guests that they were DINGLEBERRIES all week."

WHAT!? Dingleberries? I'll have you know that if you type in Dingleberries into Wikipedia.org it redirects you to FECES! To POOPS! To be honest when he said it that is all I could picture in my head...you have just told the guest that there are "feces" on your brulee.

I shouldn't be surprised though. These are the same people that said that duck was a seafood because it can swim.

Working Smarter Not Harder

In the last few weeks, I have changed stations at work. I am no longer producing thirty pies at a time or baking off a hundred pounds of cake batter. I am working on a restaurant station doing small parties and detail work within several different restaurants. This has also included a change in shifts, no longer am I able to sleep in until nine or ten, but I am up and moving by four or five. I actually enjoy getting up and getting the work part out of the way as the first thing of the day.

The only thing I miss is working with the other person on second shift. She is a very organized person and after working with eachother for more than a year we have gotten to the point where things just get done and very quickly. We either split tasks or split up a recipe depending on the size of the batch and what needs to be done that day. On first shift, however, it is every man for himself. Literally. The idea of sharing does not exist. If we were all on a sinking boat I have no delusions about what would happen. They would all scrabble for the most available spot on the life raft and claim that there isn't anymore room for anyone else.

They not only do not work well together, but they are unorganized and dirty. When you point out that one didn't clean up after themselves they will quickly point fingers at another and claim that it wasn't them. While annoying this is not the thing that actually irritates me the most. It is the time wasting.

One of the girls put a sheet pan of tuille in the oven, set a timer, and stood there. Now this is a busy day, so when I point out that tuille takes at least seven minutes to bake she through me a dirty look. Really?? You are just going to stand there and wait for it to bake? Why not just watch paint dry? Seven minutes is a hell of a long time. I could get a ton of stuff done in seven minutes. Even when I check something in the oven and put a two minute timer on it, I am finding something else to do in that two minutes. I can't believe that people get away with this stuff and get paid for it. No wonder it takes people two hours to cut two sheet pans of carrot cake. If you just stand there is doesn't magically cut itself.

I'll admit that at the end of the day I have to kick myself in the ass to keep moving at a fast clip, after all I have been standing on my feet and moving all day, but at least I am moving, CONSTANTLY! In my opinion, if you are standing still...you aren't working. Sometimes it is probably a good thing I am not in charge, because if it were MY money I were paying these people for a paycheck. They would find themselves quickly without a job.

In our recipe book from school there is a quote from Charlie Trotter: "Always ask yourself these two questions: Am I working good enough and fast enough? The answer to both questions should always be no." The idea in this industry is to get better, to be faster, to be more experienced and more educated, to discover new trends, and to try new things. If you are in this industry and you are happy to do the minimum everyday...you don't belong in this industry. Period. Leap higher, run faster, fly farther and all of that...sheesh.

Oh, PS: When making french macarons (the non-italian meringue way), you can take out the almond meal and replace it with dessicated coconut. Not only does it turn out beautifully they taste amazing with a little raspberry jam. (perhaps I should try the next batch with some passionfruit curd)...YUM.

Another Good Reason I Should Look for New Employment

We have a new kid at work. When I say kid I mean, barely 18, so he's little to me. He's doesn't know a lot, he went to a skill center and is looking at going to culinary school in the fall. He makes stuff around the bakeshop that is easy. Apple filling, pastry cream, and cookies. The other day he messed up a batch of sugar cookies. Instead of using baking soda he used cream of tartar. The bottles look the same, not an excuse since he clearly should have read the label. Stinks for him, since he messed up a 100lb batch of cookies.

What is worse however is the fact that first shift has been serving said cookies for more than two weeks without noticing several small differences: they don't rise, they barely brown, they smell almost yeasty, and they have a COMPLETELY acrid taste that is incredibly offensive. I notice the first time I am working this station, how can you not, they didn't brown after 25 minutes in the rotorack!

Worse than this (yes it actually can get worse), guests never complained (great now they think we have shitty cookies), and my boss wants to save them (yes, save them) to feed to the employees. FREAKIN' GROSS. The smell is unreal and I know I have a sensitive sniffer, more than most, but the taste is vile. Everyone else thinks it tastes like lemon. LEMON? I know its an acid, but not tasty. Not even close. The search continues for future employment and I am avoiding employee cafeteria desserts from here on out. *sigh*

Making time to bake bread.

I am not sure how as a society we have gotten to the point where we no longer make bread at home. We buy the pasty white bread that has been so popular for years and slather it with mayonnaise and top it with cheap bologna. For many of us this was a childhood lunch. The tradition of making bread at home has been dwindled down to a small group of devotees. No longer are recipes and methods taught to the younger generation by the one before.

I have only tried to make bread at home a few times. I can remember each incident with perfect clarity as they were each an unmitigated disaster. The first attempt was when I was about 10-12 and I tried to bake white bread. The final product came out dense and hard with no real spongy interior. The second attempt was about a year into my marriage and I was trying to make chocolate bread (I think for my little sister). This time it only rose half way and tasted like burned chocolate cardboard.

I love a good challenge, but this one is incredibly frustrating for me. I spent the first few months of this past year on the "bread side" at work while one of the employees recovered from a broken arm. We make almost all of our own bread for each banquet and for four restaurant outlets. Each bread batch is close to 50-75lbs of dough each. There are about twenty different varieties: bun dough for rolls, sourdough, spelt bread, cherry bread, wheat rolls, foccacia, grissini, ect... Each one, under the direction of the head bread baker, came out a beautiful golden brown, nicely formed and risen properly.

After tasting my results from my last attempt it seems that those few months of working with it day after day paid off. The bread came out perfect! Finally! My days off will soon be filled with kneading dough, allowing the dough to rise, punching it down, resting, shaping, proofing again, and finally baking to that golden brown sweet smelling perfection. There is something about the taste of the bread that was made by hand. It's better. I can't quite describe it without completely sounding soulful, like I am able to nourish my body by something that my own hands have made. Those first few slices hot out of the oven are like little slices of heaven!

It must be time...

It must be time for everyone in the Pastry World to get a new job. There are several people in my current shop (me included) and others I know who are either looking or leaving. So if that is the case: everyone stand up and shift to the left. I think that would help us all immensely. It would be something new and exciting.

Here's how you know it is time to leave (or just a really funny story): This week we had to make "creme fraiche" gelato. What this really means is....take ice cream base and add sour cream. Yup, SOUR CREAM! Which I have never understood, because purchasing actually has creme fraiche available. But whatever, I am not the Pastry Chef, so we do it.

One of the girls in the shop is...how to put this politely, not lazy, she is a SHORT CUT sort of person. If there is a way to cheat the system she is on top of it. I explain to her to take the ice cream base and burr mix a specific amount of sour cream into the base. About ten minutes later as I am about to take a trip up to purchasing I happen to catch her at the ice cream machine. She is SHOVING spoonfuls of sour cream into the top of the machine.

I stop her and ask her why she didn't burr mix it in to the base like I had asked her. She said, "I forgot and I thought this would work." Um. NO! I tell her to take it out of the machine (which was already spinning the base) and to mix it together. I think I got the eye roll. I can't quite tell what is worse. The fact that she didn't stop the machine the SECOND that she realized she forgot the sour cream, the face that she forgot it in the first place, or the fact that she was shoving utensils into the top of the machine while it was spinning.

Thank God we still have the grate across the top or oops, no utensil or perhaps no fingertips. She will be leaving within a few weeks, but I will always picture her shoving sour cream into the machine with it all over her hands and having it bubble out the top and down the side of the machine. Classic.

Brainstorming new ideas

I have become obsessed with Pate de Fruit. Obsessed. I think about all of the flavors I want to do when I am at work. Unfortunately, we are going through a slow season so I get kicked out before I can play around. I love these little jellies because it is like a kick in the tastebuds. You eat one and WHAM! you get this amazing fruit sensation.

Current ideas I am kicking around:
Strawberry, basalmic (white?), thyme
Carrot, orange, thyme
Blueberry with pineapple sage
Coconut and lime
Chocolate and Raspberry (without burning the chocolate)
Peach and Muscat
ect...

My list is extremely long...

Also brainstorming ideas for height on a plated dessert when the humidity is at 98%, it has been incredibly hot lately and the rain is unreal. The final product turns limp or melts depending on what I am using.

-sugar, on top of limestone...bubble? Pulling creates a product that melts easier.
-chocolate
-tuille has been falling limp(perhaps a butter sugar tuille would be more resistant)
-fruit paste rollup
-brittles
-nougatines
-plaquettes
-streusel

Still need ideas....

A little south of the border....

For some reason today it seemed like a good idea to make Cilantro Lime Pate de Fruit. I have a stock pile of ideas that I would love to try when I am at work and I think actually what I was going to do was lime and cumin, but when I talked to my boss about it...cilantro came out. Either way, in my opinion, as long as it is not the usual one flavor stuff that the current girl on this station usually does. Which really comes down to a lot of mango and strawberry, because that is the easiest and doesn't require actually thawing out frozen fruit or making your own puree.

The end result is quite piquant. The flavor of cilantro hits your tongue first, followed by the sour of lime, followed by more cilantro. All in all I think it kind of reminds me of ceviche or something else I can't quite put my finger on. It is interesting, because it is so incredibly powerful, the two flavors are together yet separate. I highly recommend trying it at least once. I think I will put this in my back pocket for later, perhaps for use in chocolate candies with something else, or even as a complement to an appetizer.

Cilantro Lime Pate de Fruit
Key Lime Juice 1K
Cilantro 57g
Sugar 1450g
Pectin 26g
Glucose 150g
Citric Acid 8g

Take 400g of puree and the cilantro and put in a robocoup or blender and blend until cilantro starts to break up. Strain and add this plus the remaining liquid into a large heavy bottom pot. Combine 1/2 of the sugar with the pectin, mix well (if this is not mixed well the pectin will form balls that do not dissolve when it hits the liquid).

Put the puree on medium heat and with a thermometer (I use digital) cook until it registers 40C. Slowly whisk in the sugar and pectin. Bring the puree to a boil and add the glucose and the remaining amount of sugar. Continue cooking while stirring continuously until the thermometer reaches 106C. Take this mixture off of the heat and add the citric acid.

At this point you can either pour this into a small metal disposable baking container, usually 9X9, or you can pipe this, using a sauce gun into flexipans. Let cool until set. Cut or unmold your pate de fruit and coat with white sugar.

*Sorry no photos today, I didn't get a chance to bring my camera to work.

Pictures from Chocolate Competition

I have posted these other places: facebook, myspace, ect. I thought to include them here, because I am working on an upcoming showpiece for Mother's day and I am looking for inspiration. Since it is spring that usually means flowers, hearts, and all things girly. Shoes, lipstick, and hats seems to be other things that pop up. I am leaning toward flowers.


I think this was the first time that I have ever made a chocolate flower so intense. I used the airbrush at the shop and it has a tendancy to spray a little more coarse than I would prefer. I am looking for the base to mine in order to start practicing at home. I will also have to order some decent cocoa butter colors. Different brands seem to spray a little better than others. It was a good experience. I have learned that I need to wear about five layers of gloves to properly work with tempered chocolate because my hands seem to be too warm (or I sit with a bowl of ice water next to me).

We did rolled chocolate last year for the competition, which involves chopping couverture through the robocoupe and rolling it out with your hands and smoothed out with a piece of cardboard or something with a smooth clean surface. My job was simply to warm the chocolate up with my hands so that it created a cohesive ball. Someone else had to roll it out because it kept melting whenever I touched it.


Every year it is something new. I was thinking this time for Mother's day about doing a pastillage bird house with sugar flowers and ribbon. Practice, practice, practice.

Constant Cycle

Does this ever happen to you? I made the Devil Dog cake and have two yolks left over. They sit together in a plastic container. Two little yellow round buddies just waiting to be useful. (The husband can't stand it. "You never use those." he exclaims. "Let's just have scrambled eggs.") Perhaps leaving those yolks in the refridgerator to dry out and mold was the old me. However, I am starting to try to be better about creating new things. Those two little yolks are like a promise of things to come. It's like sunrise and flowers in spring! (the round yellow ones anyway)



I am now pouring over recipes. What to make? A curd? A tequila lime pound cake? Better yet...ICE CREAM!? I have just come across a wonderful recipe for butterscotch pudding. I have made pudding before at the last job I had and it was amazing. Better than amazing...superb, fantastic, phenominal! It was gone before I knew it, with people asking for more.

What is better than making butterscotch pudding? The fact that it calls for four yolks and I have only two! Which means that there is a possibility of something tomorrow with two whites....a constant cycle of wonderment. WHAT TO MAKE?!

All Things Brunch

Brunch is served every Sunday from September to May in one of the restaurants at my hotel. The product list is generally the same.

1. Cheesecake (any choice either a white or a chocolate).
2. White Cake (if cheesecake is white only one of these.)
3. Chocolate Cake (if cheesecake is chocolate, we only do flourless).
4. Flourless Cake (constant).
5. Baked Item (doesn't matter what it is but it must be baked).
6. Brulee (white or "dark")
7. Pannacotta (white or "dark")
8. Petit Fours (two types, almost always a version of an opera)
9. Cookies, chocolate dipped strawberries, toffee, white/dark truffles.

What bothers me about the list? This week I made a guinness stout cake, it's brown, but does not contain any form of chocolate. However, because it is brown it goes in the chocolate category...because it's brown.

The same goes for brulee and pannacotta. It has to be white or dark? What is that? Why not just make something that is tasty and in season? No, white or dark. Which limits me greatly on the number of flavors that I can make dark: chocolate, nut, coffee, tea (which he hates and ridicules me everytime I pick this, as I have a love for chocolate and earl grey together.) Yeah, I'm still trying to find more "dark" stuff.

I would love to come up with items that are new and different for this list and I try every week. This becomes a problem though, because the person who works production with me has decided that they don't want to make stuff that they don't "like to eat." Which to me is the stupidest most limiting thing you can do to yourself when you are a chef or a cook.

This holds true especially when you aren't even going to get to eat any of the product you make! For example: Bananas make me physically ill, I love them, but they make me vomit, quite literally. That does not stop me from producing a cake that includes them as a carmelized layer between a peanut butter cremeux and a chocolate bavarian. The combination is so incredibly phenominal! How can I keep someone else from enjoying something so lovely?

My brain is overloaded with ideas and the desire to make something that will better my skills. I would like to at least attempt things at work, even if they do not turn out, the process of learning about flavors and techniques are important. This week, for example, I learned that when you forget to put the baking soda in a guinness stout cake (because the phone will not stop ringing), the cake will still rise and the texture is completely soft and without the gummy texture of the proper recipe.

This week while attempting to branch out and do things that I haven't done for an age, I made raspberry mousse coated in chocolate glaze on vanilla short dough. The mousse was extremely tasty, strong raspberry flavor not masked by the addition of too much sugar. It could use an extra sheet or two of gelatin to make sure that it will last for a few hours at room temperature for next time. I could also use a little more practice placing the mousse on the cookie so that it looks a little cleaner, but all in all I think that it turned out alright.

I also made a sliced apple tart. Short dough on the bottom, almond cream, and sliced apples with a liberal shake of cinnamon sugar. I like the look of the apple tart. I find the tart elegant and it looks like it took a good amount of time to make even though it really does not.

Perhaps I need to press my hand a little when it comes to making things that would be better than what we normally serve. I think that I sometimes take a back seat to the other people in the shop, because my ideas have been pushed aside as too complicated or something out of the ordinary for the people who live here. I would not only like the opportunity to "play" and practice my skills, but to push people to try things that are more elegant and taste better than the product that we inevitably serve every Sunday.

Devil Dog Cake

I have been wanting to make a dark cake that is incredibly rich. I found the recipe for this cake on Epicurious. I have never heard of a devil dog cake but it sounded and looked intriguing.

The batter for this cake was extremely dense, so much so that I had to force it to the edges of the pan. It took awhile for the cake to bake, but it came out moist and absolutely amazing straight from the oven. I couldn't help but sneak a small smackerel.

The frosting is a simple swiss meringue and for the first time I didn't actually use my own power to form the meringue itself. I found an electic hand mixer in the back of one of my cupboards and after dusting it off will probably not go back to doing much without it ever again.

All in all, I think that the cake is best served while still warm and I would add a little fleur de sel in some fashion either as a salted caramel sauce or a salted caramel ice cream. The meringue was a little too sweet for my taste, but did compliment the cake's bitterness.

The beauty of Tequila and Lime

At Easter brunch last weekend the former pastry chef of the hotel came up to me and asked me about the pound cake that was at the flambe station. A lemon pound cake with the texture of crumbly sand and the color of the sun on a brilliant summer's day. 'Surely you don't make this,' came the questioning look on his face. I shrugged, clearly embarrassed by the fact that the nicest hotel in town serves a neon yellow pound cake that smells so strongly of lemon that it could be mistaken for the smell of floor cleaner.

"We buy that in." I say, as I shake my head sadly. It is one of the only things we don't make at the hotel. It isn't the first time that a chef has made a comment about the sad state of pound cake at the hotel. Why don't we make our own? We make almost everything else.

I have a wonderful recipe for a lemon cake. Simple in it's texture; it is moist and carries a hint of natural lemon zest and juice. The outside glazed with a sugary lemon mixture. I love the elegance of simple. I decided to take this one step further and played around with the flavoring of the cake. Lemon is wonderful, but limes are so often overlooked when it comes to cake.



I omitted the lemon zest in my recipe and added lime. This combined with the heady delight of real vanilla bean is incredibly lovely. By brushing the outside with a combination of tequila and sugar it soaks in to the outer layer of the cake and is reminiscent of a margarita. It is perfect for dreaming of sunny days when the outside world is dreary and damp with the prospect of spring right around the corner.