Articles by Karen H

Well, still stuck on the strip…. Saturday was spent differently than most other residents, I warrant -catchup day, getting provisions, cleanup of the unit and review of class notes. No exams, but from past cooking class experience I know the notes and addendums have to be crystal clear, best done right after the day but too tired last week!

Spare bedroom has been converted to yoga studio, and my Pilates teacher would be proud of my efforts there as well. Standing, though extremely tiring, alas does not consume calories or qualify as cardio exercise!

My concession to the area on Saturday was to walk over to Aria to view their patisserie – done after grocery procurement which saw me at TJ’s at opening, so it was only 9 a.m. when I headed over to Aria (now owned by MGM I gather). The patisserie is buried deep in the casino and so had to walk through smoking (really? nowadays???), the folk fixated on the slot machines with beer in their hands…. couldn’t get near the patisserie because of the lineup. What I could see looked nice but I bet $$$$. Most of the big hotels now have lovely patisseries, and one of our teachers was formerly executive chef at Aria, hence my curiosity.

Hmmm. The sandals I’ve worn for years in summer gave me a blister…. Still in the 30’s during the day.

Sunday saw a soul replenishing exploratory expedition to Clark County Wetlands Preserve for a short hike before the heat hit. Far from the madding crowd, it was blissful to be out walking again and have peace and quiet! Couldn’t help but think Kasha would have enjoyed the wide open spaces to run in, not too hot early in the morning – however likely she’d gallop through the desert and startle a snake, knowing her. At the least she would pick up sand and burrs from somewhere… It was promising cycling country, with a few passing by, and surprisingly few walkers. Very pretty with a nice guided tour of the POI.

Refuelled the beast – found cheaper gas at last, 4.66/gallon.

The evening saw another concession to the area as I used the proximity to see a “Cirque de Soleil” show (Ka). They are masters of stagecraft, special effects and throw in acrobatics and it was an amazing show as always. Nobody in the row in front and no child kicking the back of my seat – it was delightful. What wasn’t so much fun was the labyrinthine trek through MGM casino/entertainment area to get to the theatre, and worse, finding my way back to the same entrance afterwards. What an unhealthy environment. Dark, noisy, smoky…. ugh.

I started the day with a case of near-terminal stupid disease due to fatigue. My night included a 1:45 a.m. abrupt wakening (was deeply asleep for ONCE) by the worst and scariest alarm I’ve ever heard blasting out of the wall beside the bed. “There is a building emergency. Please proceed immediately to the exit stairs, do not use the elevator” was the repeated message from the wall speaker accompanying the strident alarm (reminiscent of “The Prisoner” series) – which more closely resembled an air raid siren. Well, okay, we’re on the 19th floor – this is going to be fun, think I as I proceed towards the staircase, especially in flip flops which I’d donned as they were the closest to the door. Having been woken abruptly from a deep sleep my heart rate is about triple normal… Happily after about 10 mins of the cacophony the alarm stopped and as we milled around looking confused we were eventually advised by the wall speaker “It has been determined that a building emergency does not exist. Sorry for any inconvenience” (!!) so all headed back to our perspective quarters to resume sleep. Ya think???!!!! Took about 1/2 hour for the heart rate to return to normal, and longer to shut the adrenalin off enough to sleep again….. The morning proved tough work to push through the fatigue but luckily I got a second wind in the afternoon after downing my thermos of coffee at lunch. Interestingly in the elevator this afternoon I was chatting with someone from the 16th floor who heard nothing…..

Another fun day, learning about “La Vie d’un Macaron” and producing different ganaches to sandwich them. Happy to report my piping was excellent today, nice uniform macarons with lovely feet which didn’t justify my usual tray label of self-identification – “Karen’s mess”. Not a huge fan of macarons usually, but these ones I could definitely happily enjoy. After completing all the ganaches in the morning, we had a ganache tasting fiesta after lunch and my tasting notes concluded that strawberry, coconut, mango/passionfruit, caramel, pistachio, coffee and citrus jelly eminently qualified for repeat attempts (and I’d like to try yuzu jelly!). Our pair was assigned chocolate ganache, but I’m not convinced it was as smooth as hand emulsified, and I would choose a different chocolate, myself, so it was relugated to “meh” along with the vanilla, apricot, red fruit and surprisingly the cassis which I normally love. Got some great decorating tips though, and valuable info re: error correction for macarons. So, ready for macaron orders now! Every table was incidentally readily linked to their respective macarons by colour stains on their jackets, so glad I’m not the only messy worker….

We covered colorants today and the school’s favourites are also mine (Chef Rubber). Interesting to learn what to use, when, and where to get advice if needed.

Madelaines just out of the oven were fabulous, but not astounding when decorated and tasted later on. These were dipped in chocolate glaze on the bottom half and topped with chocolate ganache. We learned how to mimic the just-out-of-the-oven taste, very useful indeed.

Financiers – which can be dry – were made in a shortcake mold and the centre filled with caramel when cooled with a Maldon salt sprinkle on top – yummm.

[In case you are wondering what our blood sugars are like at the end of the day, rest assured we only have tiny samples].

And that concludes the first week, “Petit fours” week, after the kitchen deep clean which was quite a workout. Opera cake is postopened until entremets, looking forward to that. I saw the same frames I use hanging up in the store room, am sure I will benefit from tips and tricks on those!

Attended my vaccine appointment in the evening for the free bivalent B4/B5 US version Covid booster and had to pay $38 for a flu shot. The lovely pharmacist was the only other person in the store sporting a mask besides myself- she was an excellent “shooter” and was doing valiant service cross covering the phone, the drive through lane, walk-ins, and vaccinations simultaneously with only one pharmtech assistant. Apparently pharmacists down here can prescribe Paxlovid (anti-virals prescribed for covid in vulnerable populations, very strictly rationed in Canada) since the latest FDA amendment….

Our homework for the weekend is to clear out our freezers as apparently we are sent home the equivalent of three different loaves of breads/breakfast bread equivalents daily during bread week next week. We have three interns acting as TA’s, the brightest students from the previous class, and they all nodded vigorously in agreement when this homework was assigned. I will miss Casey next week, my partner for week #1 – she is quite an artist on cookies and cakes in her own business in Yuma and aims to start her own bakery on return home after many years of working every holiday as a chef. We made a good team.

A solid day of learning about meringues!! TG when we went to scale the multitude of egg white portions this morning, we found a lot in the fridge left over from yesterday – courtesy of the poor yokels that had to scale egg yolks for the pate a choux yesterday…. We got away in the end with only having to crack/separate about three dozen.

Then we whipped through the rest of the day, literally, working our way through 4 different meringue types and cooked it through the Italian meringue (made with a boiling sugar syrup). The secret to avoiding sugar droplets on the side of the mixing bowl in Italian meringue was revealed, good news for my opera cake consumers! We made madelines, chocolate madelines (in the fridge for baking tomorrow), and financiers. Lots more piping practice, then progressed to practicing spreading thin layers with offset spatulas (vital for spreading thin sponge layers for entremets and layered cakes). Dishes, dishes and more dishes punctuated the fun. We ended with a couple of introductory ganaches, the start of the 14 different flavours we’re making for macaroons tomorrow. Interesting that their ganache technique employs a hand mixer which has been explicitly frowned upon by all my chocolate teachers to date (except to amalgamate butter in elastic ganache); I suspect it’s much faster than the hand mix emulsification method and production time and labour factors largely in our discussions. It will be interesting to experience the mouthfeel tomorrow, in comparison; they are using many of the same single origin chocolates that I use and a few new ones which will be nice to try.

At the end of the afternoon an interesting discussion of the whys and wherefores of meringue baking, and on the pros and cons, and uses of each type of meringue. As we efficiently cleaned up we also got an entertaining lesson to finish on hiring staff, and retaining them from the former Aria pastry chef (Belgian Michel).

35C outside today, still hot outside right now @ 7 p.m.

Today was busy, a number of different recipes and techniques; pastry cream with different flavours, two different types of sweet pastry, pate a choux to practice piping skills, craquelin and a multitude of other finishes for the pate a choux, as well as gougeres (savoury cheese choux pastry). Learned the intracacies of different oven types, when to steam and vent, as well as different options for production of pate a choux (freeze, refrigerate, bake, fill or not to fill before each)… I was pretty happy to successfully make pate a choux again as the last few attempts with my old PICA recipe have really not worked. Different approach here to gauge when the choux is ready to go.

Piping always makes me feel like I have two left hands, pretty much the same as in surgical assisting (“do you want this cut too short or too long”? was what I eventually started asking the surgeons…). There are huge variations in skill levels in the class but really good tips from the teachers and the end result wasn’t bad. We filled with pastry cream of different flavours and definitely yummm. My favourite topping is still craquelin but definitely more work. The rock sugar topping was quick and easy and very yummy for a sweet pate a choux.

Lots of stuff made and set aside for later in the week and next week. Tomorrow’s scaling for our table is egg whites – we will be cracking and separating eggs tomorrow a.m. until the cows come home as it’s meringue day and we are making four different variations.

Not just elderly me feeling tired at the end of the day… and wishing for a stool to sit on.

Off to wash slacks which today were the receiving end of the flour overflow!

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!

So thankful I was travelling north instead of south this a.m. looking at the traffic volume in the opposite direction….

I joined an ever increasing swarm of students (easily identified by black pants and shoes) outside the building and we were eventually checked in one by one to the inner sanctum and directed to the auditorium (apparently where most of the posts come from). We were sent an app to open the door contactlessly prior to arrival, either to unlock the door from our phone or by just waving the phone at the entrance lock – apparently to enhance security and reduce unwanted visitors since the fame of the school and chefs has grown and attracted more of this.

All three teachers presented leapfrog style today, following an intro and tour of the kitchens and break room (lovely kitchens and drool-worthy supply store room… everything immaculately neat and tidy). We were given freshly baked croissants made by Michel, one of the teachers and school co-owner – hands down the best I’ve ever tasted. The pics show only the plain ones left but there were almond and chocolate drizzled as well. If I leave knowing how to make those I’ll be a happy camper indeed (as will my family!).

Happily the emphasis was made on learning with a shift from the traditional culinary teaching of disrespect and slavery (much like medical school was in my day as well, I must add) to one of respect and aim to elevate skills no matter where we start from. There is a wide variety of students – a full class of 20 – from around the world with only one local. There are three working chefs, some newbies and we hail from United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, England (yacht chef), Germany, France, Guam, Bermuda, Florida, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, California and of course Canada amongst other spots. The girl from Guam is also a gardener and grows food to eat like me – she has plentiful passion fruit in her garden and a highly producing kalamansi tree!! 16 women and 4 men so the two stall bathroom has a constant queue…

We are all now nattily attired in chef jackets albeit sadly with no names embroidered on them (that would have helped my ailing memory), and when we appear in the coffee shop downstairs we get a discount. Coffee was pretty decent but they are deadly slow – the barrista looks like he’s still contemplating what he had for dinner the night before on the BBQ on the beach and each cup is squeezed out from behind the counter excruciatingly slowly so I plan to activate the thermos plan going forward.

Tomorrow the kitchen work begins and we are paired up on a table with a different partner each week which means we will all get to know one another. I suspect there will be some interesting cultural contributions and perspectives offered given the scatterings of our origins.

The first half of the day was brilliant, miles of good road through more valleys with another car going in the other direction about every ten minutes.

I hit Las Vegas about 2 p.m. and traffic wasn’t bad though the car GPS (which is hopeless and had me crossing the Fraser River near Maple Ridge for two years apparently swimming before it updated the existence of a new bridge) went wonky near Las Vegas strip and tried to direct me off some random exit. I surmise that sometime in the past few years some roadwork reconfigured the Flamingo Rd. exit and Ford hasn’t bothered to redo its mapping system…

Happily was able to check in early – temp about 32C so any grocery shopping before hand would have been at risk. No masks in sight, the parking is valet only and when I objected to unmasked individuals getting into my closed space I was offered pay parking across the street… a little persistance got me a spot in the next door building’s lot about 1/2 block away which is self-parking, much easier as well in terms of controlling time needed for the daily commute. The rest of the day was spent getting in provisions and unpacking, doing a dry run to the school and recoiling in horror at the masses of people cheek to jowl on the strip with no masking in sight (bar the three employees and one shopper at Trader Joe’s).

Another 800 km closer, now in Austin Nevada.

Easy driving today with little traffic and the interstate I got on briefly was newly paved! It never ceases to amaze me in America how many miles of roads there are with great surfaces, connecting nowhere to nowhere and with little traffic moving on them.

Pretty scenery through scrub grass and sagebrush, canyons and broad glacial carved wide flat bottomed valleys. Air quite hazy again – forest fires or pollution?

Austin looks like a ghost town with most of its main street shops and tourist services closed – ? covid victims. The “Cozy Mountain Motel” is cozy indeed – mignon – but does the job! Good to get off the road and climbed up the hill for a viewpoint of the long valley below, startling two deer. The grade of the hills must make for interesting driving when snowy and icy…

Finally heading out! Kasha handover to kind friend Annette – who is doing interim caregiver duties until Sunday – completed and I don’t think Kasha even noticed I was gone with her two buddies Rose and Koa and another favourite human there to divert her…

Quick breeze through the border with no hassle and no wait. The border guard looked surprised at my response to “what food are you taking for that long journey?” (oatcakes, cheese and boiled eggs – I guess not normal fare?) Sadly had to leave all the garden produce behind due to border restrictions. As I was congratulating myself for hitting fairly empty roads and having lots of time to stop at rest stops and stretch the knee, I hit what would be the worst traffic of the day – a crawl for miles in North Bellingham thanks to a road accident which blocked off one lane. 40 mins later, as I finally got by, the damage seemed unimpressive – and people complain about Delta police keeping the roads closed too long! Apart from a few accordions south of Tacoma and Olympia due to volume, the I5 was otherwise kind and I flew through Seattle though the folk going north sure weren’t moving fast.

Off the I5 just before Portland with a weird diversion through a part of the city to connect up with the Mt. Hood Highway. It was deadly slow at first, reminded me of going through Peachland but eventually headed into the Mt. Hood National Forest and was quite lovely with little traffic. Unlikely to be going back that way as it went up to the ski resorts and back down again so the roads in Dec. aren’t likely going to be easy there, but a pretty drive and some of that would make great cycling (wide shoulders, undulating, along a stream, not solid traffic). Suddenly though we were spit out into grasslands/prairie, all brown of course at this point and what a contrast. Crooked River Grasslands Park looks interesting and the road went up and down a couple of canyons before releasing us at Prineville, the first stop of this trip. Picked for its’ distance, it was surprisingly busy with bumper to bumper traffic along the main street for kilometers. The gas station attendant told me that deer hunting season has just opened, so these are mostly visiting hunters…. not much chance for the deer in this locale, no trees to hide in 🙁

Lots of good music to accompany the journey, and some stretching on a yoga matt in the hotel room (not a great place to walk around here) – hope to get an early start tomorrow, should be easy with my insomnia!

Did I hold the mail? Did I pull “x” in from the garden? Did I stop the auto-orders from Amazon? Is the outside water off?

and does the blog work? Testing….