Test of Tarts

Yesterday I had my first culinary test. It was everything tests in college were not... fun, exciting, scary, crazy and rewarding. The tests are divided into two sections: written and practical.

The written part is about 40 minutes and goes by way, way, way to fast. I had studied, knew all the material and still almost ran out of time. I was scribbling like a mad person up to the last second. There was multiple choice, matching, T/F, conversion problems and essay questions. I know for sure I got one conversion wrong because I didn't know how many fluid oz. are in a cup, and I got another question wrong- wasn't sure what creme patisserie mixed with creme Chantilly makes. But aside from those two I feel I got everything right.

The practical is two and half hours, but it feel like it's 30 minutes long! It's open book, open note. Ever receipt is fair game and you draw out of a mixing bowl to see you're doing. Every student must present Chef with one large 8" tart, 2 tartlettes and 5 cookies. However if you're smart and fast, it's better to make extra and then only present Chef with the best.

The first and most important thing is to have well organized station initially. This is my drawer full of tools. I have a TON of tools (and these aren't even all of them). I totally love my tools. I think during robotics I was told "With the right tool you can do anything" and that's exactly how I feel about my tools. They each have a very specific use and I'm trying to keep very good care of them. In case you're wondering, the purple and silver tape on all my tools is an identifying mark in case they get mixed up with someone else's tools.

Anyway back to the test. I was really happy with the 3 items I choose;

• 8" Tarte aux Pommes (traditional apple tart). It was the first thing recipe made in class.

• 2 Clafouti tartlettes. (a baked custard tart) Usually made with cherries but any berry can be substituted.

• 5 Spritzkakor (spritz cookies) A piped cookie with a chocolate, jam or nut topping.

Ready for Chef's examination and tasting.

To do well on the practical test you must have good planning and timing skills. Tasks need to be completed in the correct manner, at the correct time and in the correct sequence. You need to have good knife and tool skills. Cleanliness and organization are critical. You must follow the directions perfectly and the final product must be pretty, appetizing and of course taste GREAT.

Here's how I did:

Spritz cookies (pictured left)- almost perfectly. The one mistake I made was in the piping of the cookies. I didn't tuck the end of the piping tail into the center of the cookie, I tucked it toward the bottom. Not a big mistake but one I will never make again. I only lost a point for that mistake : )

Apple Tart (picture above)- my weakest product. I made several mistakes, they are kinda technical so I'm just gonna briefly describe them. First I sliced my apples and didn't keep the apple as a unit. I allowed the apple pieces to fall apart. This mistake did not affect my final product but just made it hard and slower to assemble.

The second mistake I made was I forgot to file down my tart crust, silly me. I remember when I did my tartlettes but forgot for my apple tart. Oh well... mistakes were made.

The largest mistake I made was I forgot to glaze the apples with butter and dust with sugar BEFORE baking. This causes the apples to burn, and get a more grainy texture : ( Not a single person baked this tart remembered to do this though. We all forgot and scrambled to get a glaze on the apples after they were half baked.

Raspberry Clafouti (pictured left)- Awesome. Basically kick ass. Chef could only think of one suggestion, make the sides of the crust slightly thinner. But she said "the custard is perfect". I was sooooo happy!


I have another test in ten days so I should probs go study : ) yah right.

Sharon's Tour

So my friend Sharon was in NYC with her family and spent 24 hours with me. She was at my mercy and I forced her to go all over NYC with me.

We went to Time Square
(which is the hardest spot to get to in Manhattan from my house)

Drank some beer at a bar in Korean Town, made friends with the bar tender. Sharon proved to me once and for all that she really does know how to speak Korean : )

We rode the subway (A LOT).



Walked around Central Park. There is a wonderful garden on the north east corner of the park, right by my house. Had a nice little picnic there.

Almost got in trouble.... a couple times.

She got to see my school and the wall of fame.

Her hands are as big as Jacque Pepin!

I walked the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time and saw the city.

We ate my favorite soft serve ice cream... tasty delight and hung out at Union Square.

Totally the highlight of my week!

The End Of Tarts

Today was the last day on our tart unit. I'm having my first exam in two days and I'm crazy nervous, but in a good way. The kinda nervous that forces me to study my butt off and get super organized. So right after I'm done with this blog I'm gonna go organize a bagillion flash cards... a typical fun filled Saturday night for me : )

So here are a few more things I've done in class since my last posting.

My Tarte Bavaroise au Chocolat.

The decoration is a cre'me chantilly which is piped on using a conique- a cone you make out of folded parchment paper. using a conique is about a billion times harder then a traditional piping bag and my 'thumbs up' is covering a monstrous decorative disaster in the middle : )

Look how lovely Chef Toni's Tartelettes looked.

I've also made a yummy Quiche Loraine with real bacon, not something that came out of a package, but honest to goodness smoked bacon that came in huge strips as big as your forearm!

We made Tartelettes Tatin Facon Rapide, aka apple tartlettes with carmel turned upside down. It is assembled with carmel on the bottom layer, then raw apples slices and pastry dough on top, bake it and when it comes out of the oven, while it's still hot, flip the little bugger upside down to plate it. Sound good right? Carmels and apples you're thinking... yummy. Chef was excited for this, she described it as a simple but classic dish. But I was completely unimpressed. It's the first tart we've done where I've been disappointed. The taste was just blah and it looked like a hot little mess. It's cool in theory, the flipping of a carmel tart, instead of applying a carmel glaze, but it needs some work.

And Finally for the big finish... my Linzer Torte. A wonderful raspberry compote tarte. The raspberry compote is very labor intensive and the lattice needs to be treated with tender love and care. It's the perfect raspberry tart in my opinion.
I was so completely looking to taking this home and getting a slice. To bad the side walk ate it first.

Before

After

Time Flies When You're Having Fun (or when your just really busy).

Hey there, so quick little anecdote - a couple days ago I was trying to hurry around town. I ran out of my apartment, down 117th street, into the subway, had my metro card in hand, went to swipe into the turn style and my metro card didn't work. Meaning.... my card had expired and I've been here for over a MONTH! Had it not been for the fact I had to buy new metro card, I probably would have completely forgotten. Many times I still feel like I'm completely lost and have just moved here. For now I am taking it one day at a time and the days are whizzing past! Jealous right? hahah jk

So I haven't written in a couple days but that's mostly because I've been CRAZY CRAZY BUSY!!!! Seriously, busy! my schedule is work for 6 or 7 hours, have a 2 hour break (during which I study), go to school for 7 hours, come home, try to sleep for 5 hours. Wake up and repeat. Today is actually the beginning of a short break for me : ) I have 2 days off from work... HOLLAH! Which gives me just enough time to study for my first exam on Monday.. Yikes

Sorry I feel like this blog is really scattered but I have a lot of random crap to tell about. But this is it for now... I passed my servsafe exam! Servsafe is a national exam for food handlers. I think most every manager has to be Servsafe certified and most chefs do to. It was a pretty easy, mostly about how to properly store, handle, process, heat, reheat, and cool food, how to cross contamination and how to clean a kitchen.

In perparation for the test we watched a lot of video's on food safetly, some really lame but a few pretty gross. Here is one to share... enjoy : )

Crazy for Thai

I love pad thai... that's the most important thing you need to know.

• Vegetable with tofu

• Extra peanuts

• Medium plus spicy
  

Since coming to NYC I've been hesitant to eat out much and nervous to find a good, cheap thai restaurant that can fulfill my love of pad thai. However, yesterday I found the restaurant that will likely become my pad thai place, they serve an almost perfect pad thai dish.

I stumbled upon this restaurant by complete accident. I had intended to return some books to the library but the library was closed and didn't have a drop box. That failed. I was gonna try to study at a park near NYU but couldn't keep my mind focused. That failed. So I just started to wander around the area aimlessly. I walked by this restaurant and the ONLY reason I even gave it a second look was because it had something very very few restaurants in NYC have.... outdoor seating.

It's really very disappointing... all I want to do most of the time is get a good light meal outdoors, it's not that hard. But it just doesn't happen here for whatever reason. So anyway I see it, think "finally someone from michigan decided to open a restaurant with outdoor seating" and go look at the menu. I was happy to realize that yummm it's thai food and wow their pad thai is only $11 and because I was there before 7pm I get an extra 30% of my entire meal. No way was I gonna pass this by.

So I sat outside and had the most wonderful, simple pad thai.





It's amazing... the peanuts and spices were on the side and so were the sprouts! This has to make it so much easier on the patrons and chef. There is no guessing about how spicy, spicy is, just do it yourself. The presentation was beautiful, food delicious, portion was just right, waiter was really friendly and the price was excellent, including tip under $12. It was one of the best meals I've had in a while.

Nothing But Taste Buds and Me

Ok so it's official, if it wasn't official before I'm making it completely official now: my life revolves completely around food. I'm either at work (being paid to work with food), at school (paying to work with food) or at home figuring out how I can get more involved in the NYC food culture.

To do the math

Work + Food = $$
- $$$$ + School = food
$ + Food = (0 * social life) + building a career


Ok so granted today I did have time play the guitar for about an hour and go for a run in central park, but basically it's food all the time!

Also: You can note the changes to my link bar... I've included a few new food blogs, which I need to start reading religiously, along with the new york times food section. I'm half way through The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman and my reading list has exploded since I now have access to the FCI's wonderful library. It's the only library I know of where you check out material and return it just whenever you're done. There is no due date, no late fees. Total honors system.

I have Friday off for the holiday but in my normal fashion... here is what I accomplished yesterday in class.

Almond Meringue Cake

An almond meringue tart with raspberry jam and toasted almond layers with 10x powdered sugar dusting.

Not the most beautiful tart to be sure. I'm not crazy about the deep brown color of the tart. Also, my powdered sugar design, while appropriately simple, wasn't executed properly. The sugar dusting was the very last thing I did in class and Chef was on our asses to get out of the kitchen before 11pm. But despite the sad exterior it tastes really great! I took it to work and it was devoured by my co-workers.

The cake is made from French meringue folded into what amounts to almond cake mix (almond flour, hazelnut flour, sugar, salt). This strange brown cake mix is put atop the tart crust, jam and toasted almonds. The whole thing is then baked. The air bubbles in the meringue expand from the heat of the oven which causes the cake to rise almost double it's original size. The cake is much lighter in density then it may appear.

Lemon Tartles

Cutest little things ever. Lemon curd filling, Swiss Meringue is piped on top, caramelized with a torch and candied lemon peel to garnish A very very long process with a bazillion steps, but the finished product is so adorable.


Also I love to practice my piping skills! Pipping might be one of my favorite activities to do/learn to improve on. I can't wait to start doing cakes!!!! It's all piping all the time : )

A Demo of Cool Kitchen Tricks.

Part of my voluntary education at FCI includes attending chef demos. Chef demos happen all the time. There are two just this week alone! There is a huge amount of variety in the type of chefs who give the demos, some are current teachers, graduates, celebrity chefs, as well as the topic of the demo.

Today I went to my first demo! It was awesome. The auditorium is small, holds about 40 people and you have to get there early if you want a seat otherwise there is some standing room. I went straight from work and was able to get a close spot in the second row.

The demo was given by Master Chef Nils Norén, Vice President of Culinary Arts at FCI with his very enthusiastic sous chef who's name I forgot. But anywho , Chef Nils has been on Top Chef. See Video He had a lot of fun stuff for the demo some of which I will briefly show you here.

Champagne Saber. (take a knife and open up a champagne bottle, the top of the bottle is sliced off but if you have skill there is no shattering of the glass and very very little bubbling... observe)

Here is the video I took at the demo. That's me going 'oooooohhhh' in the background. It was completely impressive and now i'm gonna practice at home until I can do it too.


We learned about the cutting edge techniques which involved using a centrifuges to separate nut oils and nut paste. I tasted the most delicious, clean, flavorful pistachio nut oil and hazelnut butter. It put everything else to shame!!!


Sorry this next picture is off in color and doesn't look to appetizing but I wanted to post it anyway to show you another part of the demo. There is a specific type of enzyme, humans have it in their bodies, and when used in cooking, it can bind together ANY two types of protein. So Chef Nils made us "fake bacon". It was strips of veil with strips of scallops so the veil looked like the meat of bacon and the scallops looked like the fat in bacon.

Here is another not so appetizing picture while it was being cooked, but at least you can clearly see the strips I'm trying (and failing) to describe. I wish I could remember the name of that protein he used. Starts with an A something... anyway it gets kinda technical and boring so enough. Tasted DELICIOUS!

He spent some time using a vacuum, yeah like a vacuum that sucks air out. But obvs it looks a lot different then your normal Hoover Vac. The vacuum in conjunction with the centrifuge is used to make clarified sauces such as clarified strawberry sauce. Normally making a clarified fruit sauce is very time consuming and has a low product yield percentage. However this method is much faster and uses nearly 99 percent of each berry. I think it will be a while though before many restaurant kitchens have a centrifuge.

But back to the food... Chef Nils took the clarified strawberry sauce, mixed it with some champagne, gave it a little extra carbonation and served it to us in champagne glasses which he had chilled using liquid nitrogen.

Finally he made us an arrowroot sauce, with scalliots infused with fresh apple juice and an urchin pate served with some pork tenderloin. Just your run of the mill boring stuff

Oh yeah and for dessert... I almost forgot. Onion ice cream, eh I could live without it but still a pleasant surprise considering it was onions. And the most delicious, herb ice cream with more clarified strawberry sauce (pictured below). The herbs were chopped up and then pureed with liquid nitrogen before being folded into the ice cream. Heaven might exist.


A final note: I promise to learn how to use my camera so that these pictures stop looking off color. just keep in mind the plates the food is served on are white so everything is kinda rosey, but not in a good way. Anyway sorry I will do better.

Tartlets to Hell

Up to this point in my training I've been pretty confident and happy with my performance in the kitchen and with my final products. I have to work on my knife skills, speed and some technical skills but most of it seems within my grasp. I'm not struggling at least not until these stupid mini tartlets.

Mini Tarts are so much harder then you might think. The platting and arranging of the fruit is a pain in the butt. No matter how many times you try to re-arrange the fruit, it still looks off. I was not to pleased with the outcome, although they tasted yummy and I learned some really great knife skills. I've learned the proper way to cut a mango, kiwi, orange and even strawberry, I'd been doing it all wrong! Side Note: Can't wait to show my mom how awesome I am at cutting a mango. When I'm done I basically have two perfect mango boobs. hahahA close up of more ugly tarts. And as Chef Toni says "I don't serve ugly food"

That's Christopher, he's oustanding! He's holding our tray of our oh so yummy fig bars. When you chop them up, you have a fig puree surrounded by a sweet and crumbling shortbread dough, they complement each other perfectly! I wasn't about to let those tartlets ruin my day! I went home and nearly ate the entire half log of fig nuten. The fig nuiten is at the top of my list of favorite things I've made so far.

And finally our first savory tart. It has onions which were sweated, then carmalized with a small amout of Saki, chopped walnuts, sliced tomatoes and blue cheese. OMG just thinking about it I'm getting hungry.
Good thing I have some left over in my fridge! Hello breakfast. : )