The Porky Gourmand

Week 2 pastry started with us looking at a lemon pound cake & genoise almond sponge cake(pain de genes). We baked the pain de genes during our practical session. The cake is niiiiiiice but very sweet. We also got to play with marzipan, we had to do a rose flower & some leaves. It was quite difficult, the marzipan can’t be too cool, too warm, too thick, too thin…. you have to find that right balance & then after that you have to make it look beatiful.

During the demonstrations, the chef works with lots of ease, giving you the impression the task looks easy. During the practical, reality of the tasks sets in, then you realise you still have alot to learn & practise……

Next demo, we looked at sweet short pastry(pate sucree) and then various apple tarts. During the practical we made pate sucree then used it to make a tarte aux pommes(classic french apple tart).

In class you can watch the chef from three perspectives, watch him directly, the large mirror above his work surface, or the video screens. The translator also doubles up as video operator. The video captures amazing close-up views from the three cameras(which can rotatate and zoom) installed around the class.

Cuisine week 2 we looked at stocks, chef demonstrated a white chicken stock, brown stock & a fish fumet(stock). We also looked at sauce thickening methods.

We got to cook a cheese souffle, whiting fillets with bercy sauce(pictured above). For the fish we had to prepare & fillet our own fish from scratch, it was not that hard. Having a super sharp filleting knife really helps.

Chef also demonstrated poached chicken with supreme sauce( french khao mun gai or hainan chicken rice), pasta dough preparation & spinach stuffed cannelloni with tomato sauce.

To end the cuisine week, we baked a pissalidiere, which is kinda like a pizza made from a rich yeast dough topped with onions sweated in olive oil, anchovies, tomatoes, capers & olives.

That was week 2, we started to get used to the school routine, 18 hours in class & 18 hours in the kitchen.