First Week In Pastry Training.

Sorry it's taken me a couple extra days for a new post. I didn't want to let it slide but things have been crazy here in nyc. I'm learning to juggle a whole new time table which is exciting and straining. Sorry without further a due....

I am officially (as some of my facebook friends may have noticed) a culinary pastry student. I have typical chef's whites with my name embroidered on them, super 80's plaid paints and a very sexy tool kit (more to come on that). So there is no denying the fact that I'm on the wagon and on my way.

The kitchen is set up much like a science lab, everyone at a work station with a partner and lot of tools. Typically there is a short lecture explaining the science behind what we are doing, followed by a demo and then we are sent to do our best to replicate what chef showed us. It's very straight forward and when everyone is on their A game, the class works like a well oiled machine.

The first day of class we hit the ground running, Chef Toni (the head chef) gave us some basic instructions and then we were off to make our first dough, a french dough called Patee Sucree which translates to 'sand dough'. It's an ever so slight sweet dough that is crumbly not flaky. It's used for a lot of basic sweet tarts. Which leads me to our first big project which was making an Tarte aux Pommes, apple tart.

This tart spanned the course of two classes and was relatively easy to make for yours truly although as a whole we had two causalities. The first being that an older gentleman in our class has already dropped out. I can't lie... I saw this coming from a mile away. He is a police detective with the NYPD and baking was something he "liked to do".

The second causality was one of the ovens was 'accidentally' turned up to 500 degrees while the tarts were baking. So about half of the classes' tarts were burnt. It was generally agreed it was an accident but I suspect it was a vicious crime committed by the same apple trees that threw apples at Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz.







However, I was lucky because I put my tart in the other oven. Yeah maybe I sabotaged the other oven but you can't prove anything!

My tart came out wonderfully perfect! (or at least not uber burnt). I was able to take it home on the subway and shared it with my friend Ariella (shout out!) and my roomie.

Even just through this first, relatively simple recipe I have already learned so many new techniques and tricks that a normal cook book (even the most detailed) could supply. My bench in right up at the very front of the room, right next to Chef's table to I get a great view of what she's doing and can ask her a billion questions all the time.

My Tarte aux Pommes with apricot nappage