Day 5. The first week is done!

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.