Day 2 – In which we get our hands (and chef jackets) dirty…

After a hair raising race to the school due to late departure and the every-red-light traffic syndrome – boy are the lights ever long in LV – I scrambled into the lecture hall buckling up my jacket and sporting untied shoes. One minute to spare! We get docked 1/2 day for being 3 mins late so didn’t want to lose so early in the game! Note to self, fewer word games in the morning tomorrow…

A fascinating discussion of eggs – no, really! before we headed into the baking kitchen for orientation of morning chores & prep. followed by knifework practice and the chopped apple results made into compote for next week. Waste not want not, the apple peelings and cores are covered with water to ferment for the next few days to become the starter for sourdough next week. We made noisette and clarified butter, and learned about the intracicies of different vanilla beans and the world market. Next came chocolate writing practice – Francois, one of the teachers, was amazing to watch – pure artistry. Making the paper cone to pipe with was hard enough for handless me, but I concluded proper construction was the crucial step in the process. We dove into our tool kits which seem pretty basic to me albeit excellent quality – the piping tips are an extensive collection, looking forward to what we can do with those! Also appreciate the excellent quality breadknife. The kit is headed home tonight for initialling with sharpie. Itching to angle the chocolate fork which is currently in horizontal form…. We also were given instruction on how to use the kitchen equipment – robocoupe (food processor with an astronomical pricetag), ovens, freezers, induction elements amongst others; all of which we will be using daily – and where to put and get supplies. There are some very fancy pieces and I now suspect part of the beauty of the croissants yesterday was thanks to the dough roller. Large kitchens have these but of course I’ll never see one again after this, so sadly will revert to more practice hand rolling croissant dough… I look forward for interest’s sake to watching the water cutter at work. It’s quite a thought how much investment is needed setting up a culinary school.

Chef’s jacket (white of course) is now inaugurated with first chocolate smears – first of many I expect. I am paired this week with a working chef so that’s quite helpful – not necessarily a baker but good kitchen skills so we should get through the week alright. The day ended with total kitchen cleanup – we are divided into teams and tasks and rotate every week (as do our partners) – and learning the process of scaling for the following days’ baking which is ramping up. Tomorrow we make Breton, crumble topping for next week’s Brioche, pate a choux, and pastry cream amongst others and take home our first products, filled pate a choux. I am on rum scaling duties tomorrow prior to class start – every pair is assigned ingredients to scale, the worst off being the butter scalers 🙂 Haven’t figured out yet what to do with the products – I suspect I’ll befriend some neighbours in the apt. complex I move to next with some sweet offerings but not sure what to do with the baking results for the next two weeks. After PICA classes I used to do drop off rounds but alas don’t know anyone here yet.

Half the class headed out to Target after class to get large containers but happily I had foreseen this and brought my own so I headed towards a dollar store to forage for salt (none in my kitchen at home) and then into heavier traffic going south than yesterday (half an hour apparently makes a big difference). Lots of construction signs, pylons and loss of lanes but no action yet seen – perhaps they work at night?

34C today but the school is kept at chocolate working temps so we all escape at lunch outside to warm up!