Well here I am in the final stag of this adventure.

I was exhausted after the Intermediate course and entering Superior I started to feel the same loss of confidence that I had at times experienced in my last job, but now that classes are underway, I feel much better about it.   There is a lot of homework in Superior now that we are working on cost and waste of product.  A lot of math.  Ugh.

However, we are still baking but now are concentrating on “modern classics”.  So a spin on what we have already covered in Basic and Intermediate.

A popular thing now is to have an eclair with crazy color fondant and decoration.   In our first class we made modern eclairs. Bob said the color frightened him.  We work in pairs and I was lucky enough to be in the same class as Anja so we teamed and we do as we are told.  So that’s the color and the chef was happy with it.

This is a Wild Strawberry, Basil and Mascarpone Eclair.  This is all the rage now, wild colors but at least the flavors are nice.

Next we had Petit Gateau and Anja and I partnered again and made Calamansi and Chocolate Petit Gateau.  This was a really nice one except I struggled with tempering the milk chocolate decoration.  We tried 3 times and the chef helped us and had to do it twice himself.  The room was super warm and that most likely was our challenge.   But we finally had it tempered and got our piece done just in time.

You can tell I was down to the wire for presentation based on the gold painted dust on top. I wasn’t going to add it but the recipe called for it and you do whats called for.   I brushed some on fast.  Normally I would have made that look nice.  The last picture on the right was one I bought home for dessert and you can see the Szechuan pepper chocolate cremeux and Calamansi gel inside.

Next up was a modern twist on a Tart au Citron.   This one was nice and clean and fun to make but I wasn’t thrilled with the mousse flavor.  They add a little lemongrass oil to the mousse and it really alters the flavor away from lemon.

  This has a Wholemeal biscuit base with lemon cream on top and then a Cardamom crisp.  Meringue on top of that with a pulled sugar loop.  Lime gel for decoration.   The wholemeal biscuit is really nice.  I took some of the leftover home to eat by itself as a cookie.

Next was a Black Forest Gateau – very modern version.   I messed up my phone pictures and for some reason they were not saving to my phone so I will have to use the Chef’s picture from the Demo class to illustrate this one.  Mine was not as nice but similar except I didn’t use any edible flowers.  Don’t care for them that much and they were optional.

 This is a biscuit brownie with a chocolate mousse and cherry compote.  Cocoa and Kirsch gel with Cocoa soil and Cherry tuile.   The chocolate dirt is made with melted dark chocolate and boiled sugar and water to a certain degree.  Once cooled you pulverize it in a food processor.    The mousse and brownie biscuit was my favorite part of this one.  I felt there was too much going on the plate.  But I was sad I somehow deleted my photos of my piece.

Next we worked with blown sugar for the first time.   It’s difficult because the sugar is so fragile and you can be so close to having a really cool design and then bam… it can break so easily and you simply must start again.

So this is our version of modern Apple Tart:

This starts with a compressed apple mille-feuille for the base with a Linzer cookie top and apple confit.  the apple is blown sugar (looks kind of like a real apple huh?) filled with Manzana foam.  Then a little Caramel for plate decoration.   You eat this by taking a spoon and breaking the apple allowing the foam to pour out.

So with all these small versions of modern classics under our belt its only natural the next thing would be the Afternoon Tea.  There are 4 Superior classes and they have 2 of us prepare an Afternoon Tea in July (I was in this group) and two classes prepare one in August.  Each of the classes were split up into groups of 3-4 and are assigned 4 to 5 items to prepare for the Tea.   At least one savory and 3-4 sweet.  We have 2 days of 6 hours of class back to back to complete our assignments. It’s a ton of work since you are preparing 30-40 of each item and these are restaurant quality.  You have a chef with you in class the whole time to make sure you don’t screw it up.   Temperatures must be met and hygiene is critical.  You are serving these to the public so no mistakes. They also watch your food waste because they apply a cost to all this.

Its a lot of work and stress but very rewarding to have paying customers compliment the work and food.  Here are some shots from High Tea:

Far left is a shot of what one of the tables looks like as guests come into the room.  The sweets are plated and waiting.  The second picture is all the teams pieces for presentation to the chef for grading.  (our team’s are on the right side – tray 3 and 4 back). 3rd picture is all the savory ready to be brought out and served by the students to the guests.

Finally the video is a pan of the main table with full size versions of some of the individual sweet offerings.   So much food.  Such great flavors.

After High Tea we concentrated on Chocolate and Confectionaries.   Again, they are teaching us how to produce in quantity.  The hardest part of these couple of days is 1. keeping clean as you are expected to when you are up to your elbows in chocolate.  2. We produced these on two really hot days here with one breaking records for the hottest day in UK since 1976.  So the Air conditioners can not come close to keeping up.  You temper chocolate that should sit at 27 degrees Celsius and the room is 30 degrees so trying to keep the chocolate in temper so you can dip the bonbons into it is a chore in itself.

Here they split us up into teams of 3 and each team produced 6 items with 30+ for each item.

This first picture (on its side) is our team’s presentation to the chef for grading.  Couple of problems but nothing too horrible.  The small tray with sugar work on the end was a quick 90 minute – end of the day – on the hottest day for the UK when you are trying to keep your chocolates from melting…. lesson on how to boil sugar for color, flavoring and pulling.  (Ours was cola flavored.)  It was an exercise to get us familiar since we have a couple of classes coming up where we will create our own sugar show piece.  (I’m fairly certain I lost about 2 lbs of water that day.) The middle shot is our class’s spread of chocolate and confectionary with Chef Nick in the background.  He’s a great instructor.  Never stops teaching.  Years of experience in the industry.  Last shot is our Superior class – Group C.  I lucked out again as this is a really great group of people to go through the last portion of my time at Le Cordon Bleu with.    And yes, after this shot we all took our containers and hand selected chocolates to bring home.   There were still so many left over at the end.

I’m still getting around London and seeing some sites.  Bob was in town the week before Superior started and we ate, saw Motown, traveled to Bath, saw Stonehenge and ate some more.  So nice to relax with him.  Honestly can’t wait to return home.    Here are some pics from our week together:

From top left:  Our hotel, Pub food at The Raven, Bob the tourist, tapas, church, a common street in Bath, banner in front of college that really could use a better marketing company, several shots of Stonehenge from front and back, Goats watching us look at Stonehenge, and a Key of which rocks are what.  This was a really cool trip.  Fascinating.

I could write more but am sweating at my table and need to move on with my day which includes a shower and laundry. Have to wash a little chocolate and food coloring out of my uniforms.  We are already preparing for our final exam so most of my weekend will be practicing my Entremets and chocolate design.   We also have to create a plated dessert in the same exam but the first things first.   Plus the amount of paperwork that accompanies your Entremets is incredible and I have a lot of computer work ahead of me too … oh and math.  Ugh.

Next in class we are going to be creating chocolate show pieces.  That should be fun.  I hope.

Talk later.

Mel