Yes, you heard me right.  Beautiful weather in London.  82 degrees and blue skies. Today is a Bank Holiday and I believe the English version of Labor Day.  So many people are off work today which means the parks are full and everyone is walking around with pink sunburns.

As for school, this past week was much better than the previous one.  I am learning the personalities and teaching styles of each of the chefs. I have my favorites.   Its one thing in demo to be taught and instructed the correct way to do something, but it’s also very helpful to continue to learn in practical.  Most of the chefs will help you and explain more ( or again) a technique if you ask or they see you are really lost or about to blow the whole dish.  Some just let you fail.  I had the benefit of a couple good ones last week that really cleared a few things up for me.

This past Monday we made a Charlotte au Chocolat or a chocolate Bavarian cream encased in light chocolate biscuit sponge.

They provided the melted chocolate we used to create the top.  The chef admitted he gave some of us too much which created a thicker chocolate curl.  In the scheme of things I did the best I could with what was provide and thought it was a little overkill for decoration but he seemed to like it.  Tasted good.  Chocolate Bavarian Cream is amazing.

Tuesday was one demo class at 8am for Gateau St Honore.  With no other classes for the day that means baking at the flat for the better part of the afternoon.  I have a kitchen the size of a postage stamp.  (I have a flat the size of two postage stamps) so its cramped and gets warm super fast.  Early morning baking is really the best for me but I still attempted a lemon tart minus the meringue as I do not have a stand mixer.  I bought a hand-mixer yesterday.  We’ll see how well I do with it.  It may require more coordination than I can muster since you are usually boiling sugar or something with one hand and mixing with the other – hence a stand mixer is far more convenient and probably safer.

Wednesday we learned about exotic fruits in a Tech class and then our Practical for the Gateau St Honore.  This is big in France but I’d never seen one before.   It’s a short crust pasty with choux pastry on top, and a cream diplomat inside. The choux pastry is basically a light and delicious puff pastry.

Those little puffs each have a toasted almond or crushed lavender held with a little caramel we made as well.

We attended Le Cordon Bleu High Tea on Thursday afternoon.  The Superior Patisserie class puts on a High Tea as part of their course.  I will have to do this once I hit Superior so its important to see whats coming up. Plus I love high tea.

The sweets are on top and the variety was amazing.  They did such a good job.  They also served scones and of course clotted cream, jam and lemon curd.  All wonderful.  We had some savory dishes as well but I don’t seem to have those pictures.  Not sure why.  You’ll just have to take my word on it.  All very good! And yes you could have coffee or champagne if you wanted instead of tea.

Friday was the demo and practical back to back for Charlotte aux Cassis.  Not may favorite but I’m not a huge Cassis fan.  Our chef certainly is.  Couldn’t stop talking about it.    This is basically a black currant mousse encased in light sponge.  The glaze on top looks like chocolate but is really a Cassis glaze.  It’s a tricky one to do but fun.  One of the girls from class texted the group about 3 hours afterwards and said the smell of Cassis was stuck in her nose.  Yeah.  You take it with you.

Those are layers of sponge with blackberry jam in-between turned sideways to create the wall.  Its then filled in two layers of the blackberry mousse with an extra (smaller) sponge layer inside.   I would like this better with an alternate flavor like strawberry or even seedless raspberry.  Thats just me.

Saturday seems silly but harder than it should have been due to the heat.   We had the demo and practical for Petits-Fours (“biscuit”).  We made Sables Hollandais (checkered cookies) and almond meringue baton with chocolate down the back.   The pic below is from the chef and he “of course” made 6 different types while we only made the two kinds and got out of class early on a beautiful Saturday afternoon which meant onward to the pub for a bit!

This is Elaine from our group.  We were at the Porter House Pub in Covent Garden.  Theres 3 tables of us (Patisserie + Culinary Intensive Groups together).   In my defense, no one’s hair looks good after wearing a hair net and little hat in a really hot kitchen all afternoon.  Just saying.  And in the background Anja looks really concerned about something – or maybe its the coffee flavored Tequila talking.  I gave up Tequila after college and stuck with wine.

Sunday am I hit Hyde Park really early and loved having it almost to myself.  It is a beautiful place and basically the backyard of Kensington Palace.

I was here around 7:30am – I promise you by 10am it will begin to fill and be packed by noon and stay that way until dinner time or later.  The English really take advantage and enjoy their sunny days.  Good for them.

I on the other hand stopped at a cafe on my way home and enjoyed a lovely Sunday breakfast of eggs and salmon.

I took a day off school and cooking and did some chores and cleaning and laundry which sounds dull but since everything is small here, it goes quickly.  I walked over to Sainsbury Superstore past Portobello Market and bought a hand mixer as well.  Nice walk.  Portobello is pretty cool street with tons of little shops and on Saturdays  they have lots of tents and booths out and it’s just a big party.

Monday is a bank holiday here and so I enjoyed my own cookies for breakfast before practicing Genoise sponge with raspberry filing and buttercream top. (that is a potential exam dish that I have to know really well.)

Breakfast fit for a king.  Or me.

Talk later.

Mel