Well it has been a while again but I have had a lot going on since the last time I blogged. I made it through my first season at The Club at Morningside. The season wrapped up for me the week after Memorial Day. Since then I have been working on my website projects, www.CulinaryRoom.com and www.HanoverRoad.com and exploring food! I have been canning and making new recipes, pictures of my projects will soon be available on www.HanoverRoad.com as well as some of my favorite recipes. In addition I will soon have homemade product available for purchase on the site. Well that is the news about what I have been working on and some things to come. Now let me tell you about the delicious vacation we just returned from.
I am not sure I have mentioned this in my blog before but I took my first trip to Oregon about 3 years ago and fell in love with it. Since then we have been back 2 more times. It is a great late summer vacation when you just can't take our heat anymore and you are pining for 70°F. weather. This year the temperatures were a little higher during the day than they had been before but would still cool down to the 50s during the nights.
The vacation was a motorhome trip. It would be a combination of eating in, visiting friends and eating out. In preparation I made several items ahead and froze them so they could be used for the eat in meals. For the out meals we would try new places and favorites from our previous trips.
We set out in the motorhome on a Friday after work and made our way to Gustine, CA (Santa Nella area). Since it was going to be hard to predict when we would get in and get set up I purchased prepared food from Bouchée Fine Foods in La Quinta. I bought their meatloaf and gorgonzola twiced baked potatoes both of which could be microwaved and accompanied them with a salad.
The next day was going to be an early start and a hard push to get to our friends in Bend. Breakfast was fast easy and we were on the road. We made it in to Bend early in the evening and after getting set up were treated to delicious tri-tip sandwiches by our friends. We would spend 3 days with our friends, getting caught up, laughing and playing games. Sunday morning we cooked up a package of bacon so we could use it over the course of the trip and had a hearty bacon and egg breakfast. Later in the day we set out to see some sights in Bend and enjoyed a late afternoon salad at Croutons. Sunday evening was spent having fun with our friends and enjoying some homemade fig bars that I had brought along. On Monday our last day in Bend I baked cinnamon rolls that I had made and frozen before baking so I could bake them off as wanted. We took another trip into Bend to check out Sparrow Bakery which I had researched online. It was a wonderful bakery in a rehabilitated area of town in a wonderful little building. We bought some delicious quiche and salad to take home for lunch. Monday night we made dinner for our friends. Appetizers were chips with roasted corn salsa that I had canned and homemade guacamole. I had made enchiladas verde and frozen them, to accompany them I made chorizo spanish rice and served both with re-fried black beans. Dessert was homemade dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.
Tuesday morning against the urging of our friends we headed west through Sisters and McKenzie Bridge ending up in Sweet Home. While town was not completely representative of it's name, we were in a beautiful RV park across from Foster Lake. Dinner was a short walk down the lakeshore to The Point Restaurant with views of the lake.
Wednesday morning I baked off croissants that I had made and froze before the trip, I served baked eggs with spinach and bread crumbs along with them. I took out a achiote marinated tri-tip to grill once we reached our next stop in Gold Beach. I baked potatoes on the grill and roasted locally grown yellow sweetcorn and made a salad with tomato and homemade vinaigrette. Dinner Thursday night was the long awaited treat of Tu Tu Tun Lodge. Just a short walk from our campground, appetizers were served on the veranda overlooking the beautiful gardens and Rogue River (image above). They consisted of fish cakes, corn fritters, crostini with mushroom remoulade and polenta cakes with aioli. The dinner bell rang at 7 and we were seated family style in the dining room. Dinner started with a beautiful mixed green salad that had bleu cheese from the Rogue Creamery in the Medford area. The main course was a whole rib eye rubbed with cumin and perfectly grilled, sliced and place on the lazy susan along with fingerling potatoes and cumin popovers. Dessert was an amazing blueberry and goat cheese tart on basil oil with blackberry couli and house made vanilla ice cream, WOW! This was definitely a highlight of our vacation. Friday was a simple breakfast and lunch, for dinner I had made homemade duxelles and chicken mousse ravioli, I made a white wine butter sauce and sauteed asparagus to serve them in and served it with a fresh green salad.
Saturday morning was time to head home so we had a simple breakfast, broke camp and took off for Gustine again. It would be another long day. We decided to take the 101 down to San Francisco and head east on the 580 back to the 5. Thanks to modern technology I was able find a highly recommended sandwich shop in Arcata, California called the Hole in the Wall. It was in a very cute old building and the sandwiches were huge and delicious. I had the hot pastrami, yum! It was a long but beautiful drive and we got in about 7:30 in the evening. I had taken out the Wild Mushroom and Sausage Lasagna with Red Pepper and Tomato sauce Friday night before going to bed. When we got in I fired up the oven put the lasagna in to bake and baked some garlic bread and made a fresh green salad to go along with it.
Sunday morning we were able to take it a little slower as the drive back home was half what we had done the day before. Once we packed up and headed out we planned on stopping at Harris Ranch for breakfast. We arrived about an hour later. I had the 8 oz. sirloin and eggs for breakfast and soon we were on our way again. We would soon be home!
It was a wonderful vacation, lots of time to unwind from daily life and spend time with friends, spend time together and with little Erin who loved playing with our friends dog Crave. It was her longest stay in the motorhome and she settled right in after we got on our way. One of the things I enjoy about vacations is the chance to find places to eat that are unique to the area you are in, going in the motorhome also allows you to have some nice homemade meals along the way.
Stay tuned for another culinary excursion soon!
So Much Fun!
You know what they say, time flies when you are having fun. I decided I had time tonight to sit down and finally blog again and saw that it has been two whole months since my last attempt to blog!
Looking back, my last blog was about the stress of making chocolate lava cake for 120 and have it lava. Since then I have tackled chocolate lava for 210! I am actually amazed at the amount of chocolate I have gone through in the two months that I have been on this job, well past my own weight I am sure.
Other items I have accomplished are individual flourless chocolate cake for 80 on Valentine's Day. 90 key lime pies in margarita glasses with graham cracker crumb rimmed glasses, trio of cheesecakes for 100 and maybe the most stressful but also most rewarding were the 15 beautiful dark chocolate soufflés I made for the Board of Governors annual dinner that they had right in the kitchen where I was making them! In addition to all of these special events I have made birthday cakes for members and 1000's of desserts for the many banquets and buffets that have been held throughout the last 2 months.
Well I just wanted to take a few minutes to get you up to speed, I am dropping some pictures in here of my work space and some of the desserts I have done since I have been on the job. I will try to get back to you sooner next time!
For 120!
Two weeks into my new job, my first job out of culinary school, I have to plate desserts for 120 honored guests at an 85 year old member of the country club's birthday party! And no, not just any dessert but chocolate lava cake!
Making chocolate lava cakes for 2 is stressful enough in the fact that you never know whether they are going to lava. Without any further baiting I will tell you that I had complete success, 120 chocolate lava cakes came cleanly out of the pan and they oozed!
So here is how I pulled it off. Immediately after arriving at work I began making the florentine cookie bowls for the ice cream to go in on the plate. While they baked I buttered the individual pans for the cakes. When I had finished the pans I started making the raspberry sauce to go on the plates for garnish. Then when all of that was done I started the batter for the cakes. First I melted the butter and chocolate, 5 pounds of each. Then cracked the 66 eggs, measured out the sugar (3 pounds, 11 oz.), flour (2 pounds, 7.5 ounces) and 2¾ teaspoons of salt. Then left the butter and chocolate mixture to cool.
I then began plating the components for the dessert, the florentine cookie cup went on first followed by the garnish of raspberry sauce and then mint tops.
Back to the kitchen to mix up the batter and portion it out into the pans and wait for the signal to bake them the short 10-12 minutes required to get the desired flowing lava affect.
Go! And in they went. I kept a watchful eye on them for just the right amount of doneness and when they were done I pulled them out of the oven to wait for time to plate them. And then it came, all hands on deck. I had help from every direction to get the cakes inverted onto the plates and the ice cream put into the florentine cookie cups.
Off they went to the tables for all to enjoy. Everyone was pleased, but none more than me as I had been nervous about this lava extravaganza from the moment I heard about it. And then it was time for me to go home and I left with the satisfaction that I had pulled off my biggest baking feat to date. I can sleep well knowing that I won't have to do anything like this again until Tuesday! Valentine's Day desserts for 140, flour less chocolate cake.
I am knee deep in chocolate, who could ask for more?
What Happened Next!
It has been a while since I last posted. And for good reason, after completing my first baking assessment I was offered the position, and I took it! I am now the pastry chef at The Club at Morningside in Rancho Mirage, CA! I interviewed with the executive chef on a Monday and did my baking assessment the next day, when I was done he offered me the job. I was to start the following Monday.
So I had time to think about the job ahead of me, preparing all pastries for the clubhouse, including menu desserts for the restaurant, desserts for special events, card club refreshments and much more. I started to worry, was I ready for all of this responsibility? The excitement about the position outweighed the worry fortunately. One exciting thing about the position is that it is seasonal, September to May. Lots of time off for R&D and R&R!
So Monday came and off I went to my new job. The first two days were stressful, but fun stress. I needed to get familiar with the working environment, the equipment, the people and the responsibilities. While I was having a blast, I didn't know how I was ever going to get myself around everything. Not only were the desserts for the restaurant low, I didn't have any recipes to stock them from so I had to come up with my own versions of them. Friday nights are bistro nights so I needed four unique desserts for dinner, so I sit here trying to recall what the four were. First I did an individual Carrot Layer Cake with Candied Walnuts and Rum Caramel sauce, Lemon Meringue Tart with Raspberry sauce, a Blonde Bombshell Brownie Sundae and since it was my first week the chef suggested that I use a Chocolate Coffee Creme Brûlée tart that was in the freezer. I am sure the look of panic on my face is what prompted him to suggest I do so. Truth is I am having an absolute blast so I would be curious to know if that shows on my face in the heat of things. With a little luck and a lot of help, I made it through bistro night, next comes steakhouse night.
For steakhouse night chef wanted traditional steakhouse desserts. Based on my favorite steakhouse and research of other top establishments I decided to do Chocolate Stout Layer Cake, Mile-Hi Cheesecake, Tiramisu and Fresh Northern Berries with Vanilla Creme Anglaise and a Tuille Cookie. All made by me! Fruit was the number one choice of the night followed by Tiramisu.
Two great days off, I did have to go in for a few hours my first day off to make sure everything was in order for the next week.
Week two has gone much more smooth. I am getting a handle on the things that need to be done regularly and planning ahead for the special events. So far this week we have had an Italian themed lunch for the men, we served Cannoli, Paula Deen's recipe, who would have thought. We also served cheesecake and tiramisu. Today was the big day, lady's guest golf, the ladies of Morningside invite the ladies from surrounding clubs to breakfast, 9 holes of golf and lunch. The theme was western and so was the lunch, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cornbread muffins and for dessert I made peach cobbler, Dutch apple pie and blueberry crumb pie and triple chocolate cookies. The peach cobbler was gone!
Tomorrow is bistro night again, this week I am making Banana Cream pies, Chocolate Brandied Mousse, Louisiana Bread Pudding and Poached Pears with Mascarpone. Saturday an 85th birthday party, Chocolate Lava Cake for 120!
Well I have more on my calendar but I don't want to wear you out with it all. I will check back in another time and get you up to date.
The Pressure is On!
I have a couple of things to discuss today. One is the process of applying for a job once you have completed your culinary education. The second is a stellar example of customer service I want to call out.
I completed my program at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Pasadena mid-December. I immediately started looking for opportunities to utilize my new education. With the holidays nearing I didn't feel too much dismay when the responses failed to come in. I continued to apply for positions that I thought would be interesting, trying not to jump at every opportunity out there if it wasn't something I could see my self enjoying. I am happy to say in the last few weeks I have started getting responses!
So starts the process that most in the culinary world are familiar with. First you have a personal interview with the chef, then you have to perform! In my case it is baking assessments. You are asked to come into a strange kitchen with some recipes you would like to make that demonstrate your abilities. You are assured that they have a well stocked kitchen and should have most of the ingredients you need, but if you are going to need an unusual ingredient you should bring it in yourself. So you pick out your recipes and then you start worrying that they won't actually have the ingredients you need. Should you bring in every ingredient? Should you bring in everything you need? Then you get into the kitchen which you have never worked in before and have to use ovens and equipment that you have never used before. Fortunately, usually everyone is extremely helpful. So off you go to do your best.
For my last assessment I picked two recipes, one that I could make with my hands tied behind my back with a blindfold on, the other one pushed me out of my comfort zone. Wouldn't you know it, the one that I could make standing on my head didn't come out right and the one that pushed me, shined!
So then you wait. Are they assessing other bakers, were they not pleased with your product or work habits? Hopefully you don't have to wait too long to hear your fate. In the meantime you keep looking for new opportunities to prove yourself and land the job. This is not a numbers game however, when you find a match for your talents you get the job! The process can cause a little anxiety. Don't let it get to you, keep plugging along.
To be continued....
Customer Service!
Last week I told you about my experience trying to make marshmallows using alcohol to flavor them. If you don't remember, the result would give Kevlar bullet-proof jackets a run for their money!
When I was in my cake formula class the chef had introduced us to some very concentrated extracts from Amoretti. I remembered that they had extracts for some of the alcohols that I was trying to use so I called them.
They graciously asked me what extracts that I would like to try and sent generous samples of each out for me to try. It is always a pleasant surprise to get this kind of customer service! Please use them.
What Makes a Cake Special?
My answer to what makes a cake special is the quality of the ingredients used when making each component of the cake, the quality of the recipe, and the finished product.
Some of you may remember my rant several months ago regarding fondant. If you don't I will give you a short reminder, I think that fondant is a waist. Yes, fondant makes it easier to construct a beautiful cake, but if you know how to properly apply buttercream to a cake; I think it makes a much nicer looking cake and displays the talents of the cake maker. I am far from perfecting my icing skills but continue to practice. Also fondant to me is inedible. Ok enough reminder.
The cake above, I started earlier this week. It was a birthday cake for a special friend. I made an orange chiffon cake with grand mariner syrup, an orange cream filling and grand mariner buttercream. Here is how I went about it.
When making a chiffon cake you mix the dry ingredient together then incorporate the wet ingredients less the egg whites. Once the mixture is smooth you then beat the egg whites to a firm peak and fold them in. In this cake I used a good flavorless vegetable oil and freshly squeezed orange juice and fresh orange zest.
Once the layers were out of the oven I cooled them, removed them from the pan and wrapped in plastic to freeze until I was ready to construct the cake later in the week.
When I was ready to construct the cake, I took the layers out of the freezer to thaw and went about making the components. I made a grand marnier simple syrup to soak the layers with, an orange cream filling by combining orange curd with whipped cream and a grand marnier buttercream to ice the cake with.
Once all of the components were complete I started constructing the cake. First I sliced the layers in half horizontally making four layers. I placed the first layer on the cake board and soaked it generously with the grand marnier simple syrup. I piped a dam of buttercream around the edge of the layer to keep the orange cream from oozing out from between the layers. I then spread the top of the layer with the orange cream.
I followed the same process for each of the next two layers and only soaked the top layer with the grand marnier simple syrup.
Once the layers were in place I then crumb coated the cake in order to secure any crumbs and keep them from getting in final layer of buttercream. I placed the cake on a presentation cake board and then piped around the bottom and top of the cake.
Just before presenting the cake to the recipient trimmed it with fresh roses. The cake was enjoyed by all!
A New Approach
Culinary IQ as originally conceived was to present you with a discussion about a certain item or items weekly. I hope the posts so far have been of some interest. I have received numerous positive comments and if you have any negative feelings, I appreciate you keeping them to yourselves, the ego is a fragile thing. I am definitely open to constructive suggestions, however. Some of the subjects I have discussed have been easier than others, I mean how can you make a post about lentils a page turner? Having said all of that, I have decided this week to revise my posts to be a reporting of my ongoing cooking and food experiences. I welcome any requests for discussion of specific items or questions regarding my posts.
Here is what I have been up to so far this week:
Mistakes, Mishaps and Regrets
Last week I had posted on CulinaryRoom that I had made wonderful fluffy strawberry marshmallows, which they were. What I regret is that the recipe called for an optional small amount of orange flower water and I added it. The flavor was not bad but it definitely overpowered the strawberry. Next time it will be pure strawberry. I have several left if anybody wants to try them.
So this week I set out to make some more marshmallows. I was trying to make some using different flavors of alcohol, Kahlua, etc. I want to stop here and say that unless you just have the recipe ingrained in you brain that you should always refer to it. When I had finished beating the marshmallows before pouring in the pan I discovered they were very rubbery, I mean you could have used them to repair flat tires! At first I thought it was the alcohol which I knew would affect the gelatin in the marshmallows. After more thought I discovered that I had used 10 tablespoons of gelatin instead of the 10 teaspoons the recipe called for. So I tried again, unfortunately the marshmallows still didn't come out light and fluffy as expected, I am sure as a result of the alcohol. For now I am left looking for away to get the flavor I want and still have fluff, any suggestions.
My last quick mistake came when I was making croissants, I just want to note that the flour in most bread recipes is a variable, which I knew, but I got a little to enthusiastic when adding the flour and ended up having to make the dough over which leads me to my successes this week.
Successes
After my first mishap with the dough for my croissants I was successful in making the most delicious flakey, buttery and beautifully browned croissants! The process for laminating the dough, incorporating and folding in the butter, is a very lengthy one if you don't have all of the tools of a professional kitchen. After the dough is made it has to rest for 30 minutes then you incorporate the butter and fold four times resting for 30 minutes after each fold, after the last fold it rests in the refrigerator overnight. All of this would be done in a blast chiller in a fraction of the time in a professional kitchen. I would have a blast chiller in my kitchen but the one I want starts around $6000 used, Ugh! The next day you take the dough out of the refrigerator, roll it out, cut it, form the croissants and let them rise and then bake. It is a lengthy process but the finished product is pure heaven. It also helps to be a multi-tasker and have other projects going on in between all of the folding and chilling.
Today I am working on a cake for a special event. So far I have made the cakes, they are chiffon and they have came out beautifully. As soon as I am done with this post I will be making the filling so it can cool before frosting this evening with an Italian Buttercream, yum.
You can see some pictures of my projects over the week as well as some of my recommendations for fine eating establishments on CulinaryRoom.
