Ritz-Carlton

Very, very cool. Dad and I made gazpacho, babaganoush, white truffle bean salad, and chix stock. The third person who was supposed to be there never showed, but we were still cool. It was originally nine to noon, but we stayed until two to finish up. Oh, and we got food. Nice little perk for the day. No pictures, but the chef promised some from the actual event. Which features our dips in one part of the meal. Woo! Not a bad day. Except that I have work now.

Phyllo dough day

Today we practiced tarts again and made phyllo dough...things. I made baklava, so did one other group, and three did strudels. One apple, one pear, and one mushroom. Pretty good actually. Pics aren't anything special today, but if you want to see them, check Picasa. With the tarts, we all looked at each other's tarts, tasted, and peer graded them. It was interesting getting feedback from everyone about the tarts, and some of it was extremely helpful.

Next week, I'm the team chef for my group, so wish me luck. Oh, and I'm going to go work at the Ritz-Carlton doing a little prep work for a banquet tomorrow along with Dad, so that should be cool. I'll either get a post about it tomorrow or you can check on it Monday.

Aaaand we're back.

Sorry about that. My computer had some major issues, but I'm good now. I will be backdating with dates in the titles and pictures all around. The full picture list is on Picasa right now as well. For today, we're in pastry week, so we made buttercream frostin (NOT what you buy in stores, bleh) and finished cakes. I have a four layer cake with two Grand Marnier pastry cream layers, and one raspberry Grand Marnier layer, topped with buttercream and piped roses. And I got to bring it home. Dad's is a bronco cake, see pic plz. I was VERY happy with mine today. Not a bad day overall.

Wow.

So...Computer wasn't playing nice for a while. I have to mess around with some network/computer issues, but I assure you I will have three days summed up for you on Friday. Thanks for your patience. Oh, and I'll have pictures.

Pastry day 2

Finished the tarts today. They looked pretty, but I still feel like we aren't finishing fast enough. Is it the demos? Is it the fact that we're watching the entire process and then doing the entire process? I just don't know, but I still don't feel good about how it went. I don't feel like it was a complete disaster, but...the whole day felt a little off.

Menu

Finish tarts

Puff pastry (we're finishing up with them tomorrow)

Pate a choux (it's what eclairs and cream puffs are made out of) that we are also finishing tomorrow