French Pastry School Experience.

Whole Wheat Tarts vs Plain Flour Tarts

2011-10-27T19:11:00.001-07:00

Lately, I've been playing around with tarts made out of whole wheat flour instead of regular pastry flour or plain flour for the reasons that it will be healthier choice. As you may or may not know, whole wheat products will provide you with a source of proteins, fibers, vitamins and minerals which are always good for your body. My mom cannot consume too much white flour, so in house, we have mainly whole wheat products when it comes to baked goods such as whole wheat buns and breads. My parents are quite conscious when it comes to eating healthy, and I don't even want to get into the kind of drinks that they blend up every morning for my sister and I to drink. But that aside and back to the point, whole wheat tarts.

There are many doughs out there for tarts and pies and endless recipes to match with it. But as I have learned, the key to a strong tart/pie dough is allow to time for maturity of the dough. This means you must let your dough rest, best overnight, thus giving time for the flour in the dough to absorb any fat or moisture in the recipe. When flour is mixed in liquid, gluten is naturally developed and it helps strength the dough's ability to stretch when rolled. Same goes for tart doughs made with whole wheat flour, and it may take longer periods of resting time compared to pastry flour. This is due to the slower absorption of moisture from the whole wheat flour.

Then through a few trials, I found that whole wheat tarts tend to take a longer time to bake, and you couldn't use the same temperature used for regular tarts. The color of the tarts became too dark before it was fully baked. The whole wheat dough itself is much more dense compared to the regular flour tarts, and therefore, the release of moisture through baking took longer, and this cause the oven to steam up, and instead of baking you are now, steaming. So I had to open the oven doors to let out the steam and continue baking. Normally, the best oven for baking tarts are the convection ovens, the ovens with the built in fan to circulate the hot air better. And better this, you can buy yourself a convection oven with a vent function to let out steam when built up in the oven. It will provide your tarts with a nicer color on the crust and also giving you that crispy shell which is always desired.

I prefer to bake my tarts a little longer to evaporate more moisture. I do this because, although the tart shells will be a lot more dry, but when I add in the fillings it will soak up juice and balance out. Also, when living in humid climate, baking your shells a little longer than required will also help prevent your shells from becoming soft too fast due to the moisture in the air. Nobody likes a soggy tart shell.

Grilled peaches, Arugula Salad. Honey Grapefruit Vinaigrette.

2011-08-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

Grilled Peaches. Had a craving to want to pan grill something, and so... Peaches it was.
Grilled peaches aren't exactly my favorite type of fruit to grill, but I enjoy the appearance of beautiful grill marks on my surface of my food. There weren't much ingredients to pan grill in the house, and I wasn't going to plan on pan grilling my bread without a fragrant cheese in between.

When you grill anything, especially fruits or vegetables, some of it's moisture evaporates, thus concentrating it's flavors and natural sugars. This in case, with the peaches, they became much sweeter than prior and the feminine like scent of peaches become much more fragrant.

A few days ago, I had made using the last cup of the grapefruit juice with some EVOO, lemon juice, dijon mustard and honey. A honey grapefruit vinaigrette was made. And I decided to dress that on my salad for lunch. I I thought the grapefruit juice and honey would nicely balance out the peppery taste of the baby arugula, and the spiciness of the raw red onions.

But even so, I think I would have been just as happy with some lemon juice and olive oil whooshed together as my dressing. Sometimes I feel we tend to forget how beautifully tasting a great quality olive oil would be on the tongue, and we should be more enticed to explore these raw flavors.

Baby arugula salad
tomatoes. red onions.
and the beautifully grilled peaches
Honey grapefruit vinaigrette.

Chocolate Gift Box. All CHOCOLATE!!

2011-03-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

Okay readers, I am sorry I have abandoned you guys and this blog for more than a month. And I feel grateful that some of you still write to me and encourage me to keep on blogging about food. Especially, this one reader emailed me, screaming, " WHERE'S THE FOOOODDD PORNNN??? ". So I finally decided to get my ass off the lazy couch and put some effort back into my food blog. Hopefully, this type of motivation will last..

Well, I had taught a chocolate class a few days ago, and it was all about chocolate gift boxes. Using chocolate to make a real box with a lid and some decorations. You can use this box to fill it with more chocolate stuff, oh you know, like chocolate truffles and or chocolate bonbons. Whatever it is that you put into this box, it is going to look like it's the LV of chocolates.

I used CK luster dust to brush the colors on the chocolate once I had released it from the mold. Luster dust will give you a beautiful shiny look on your finished product. On the center of the flower pedal, I used a darker golden luster dust and on the ribbon tie, I picked a bronzed copper color. Overall, giving this chocolate gift box a beautiful antique look.

A smaller version of the chocolate gift box. Yup. It's all chocolate.
Doesn't look like it once bit, does it! Looks almost like metal !!

Pear & Lavender Ice Cream ： home style

2011-02-05T08:37:00.000-08:00

When making the prefect ice cream, there are many factors to consider and some go very in-depth to prefect the recipe. There are 4 basic categories of ice cream and they are, ice Cream based, egg based, fruit based and then finally there is the sorbet. Each category has it's standard rules of measurements of certain ingredients, which if followed, will guarantee you a unique, pallet smoothing and flavor flowing ice cream that you want. Some of these rules of measurements concerns ingredients such as the percentages of fat contain, sugar contain, dairy contain and sometimes even the % of emulsifiers used to combine fats together. But, do we really need study all this rules of measurement to make a great tasting ice cream dessert? The answer is NO. You can still make ice cream with just a few simple ingredients such as milk, cream and some kind of flavoring. And it will still be quite delicious.

In this case I'm making a simple pear and lavender ice cream with an egg base ice cream.

The Ingredients are simple. You need:

Simple ingredients for home style ice cream.

500g whole milk

200g 35% cream

100g egg yolks

60g sugar

2-3 sprigs of lavender

150g pear puree.

If you can't find pear puree, you can also buy your own pear and cook it down with simple syrup and puree with a hand blender. Or you can also buy pear jams if you can find it in your local market. Just beware if you are using Jams, consider the sweetness level of your jam, you might have to reduce the 60g of sugar if your jam is already sweet.

Start by infusing the lavender with your cream and milk, so in a heavy bottomed pot, slowly bring your whole milk, 35% cream and sprigs of lavender to a quick simmer. Turn off the heat and cover the pot with a lid to allow the lavender to further infuse. Steep for about 5 minutes or so, if you want a stronger lavender flavor, you can also steep it for 10 minutes.

Next, make a crème anglaise. So whisk your sugar and egg yolks together when your cream is finished infusing, and temper your egg yolk mixture with your cream. It' important that you keep whisking your crème anglaise while you cook and bring to a temperature of 80-82degree C. This will ensure that you pasteurize your egg yolks and leaving no trace of potential harmful bacteria.

Cooling the creme Anglaise

When your crème anglaise reaches 80-82C, take it off the heat and quickly cool it in an ice bath. Then add in your pear puree when the crème anglaise is at about 35C. Pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and follow the machine's instruction. Each ice cream machine is different, but usually it shouldn't take longer than an hour or so for your ice cream to be firm enough to scoop and eat.

After 40 minutes of spinning the ice cream. It's firm enough to scoop.

I really like to play with ice cream flavors, and the combination are endless. It's really just up to your imagination and testing to see what works, and what works better!~ I'm going to go enjoy my ice cream now!

The cure for crumble pound cakes! Why does my pound cake Crumble!

2011-02-01T03:01:00.000-08:00

When we think pound cakes, we think rich, we think butter and we think of the dense cake-like texture that is the opposite of a sponge cake. But when my friend made her pound cake the texture was quite crumbly, as if it was falling apart when she sliced the cake. Why?

This crumbly texture of pound cakes is most likely a result of over mixing your cake batter for too long. This is an common mistake for most inexperienced bakers who is unsure when the cake batter is considered "well mixed". Especially, when trying out a new cake batter recipe, the result may not come out as planned.

Table top mixers, like kitchen aids are powerful beasts when used to mix cake batters. Often we forget how fast our pedal attachment is actually spinning per minute at certain speeds. My suggestion is to be patient, do not blast your mixer on high speed to start but instead, start on a moderate low speed. Besides from creaming your butter with sugar, the rest of the ingredients just need to be incorporated until smooth. Any more mixing after your batter is well incorporated will risk the creation of air bubbles, therefore crumbly cake.

And if you are cutting your cake while it's still hot, that's another faux pas. It will also cause your cake to crumble, crack or fall apart. The cake is always at its weakest when it's fresh out of the oven, although it's body structure has been baked set, but the inners with all the moisture is still too heavy for the outer layer to withstand. Allow your cake to cool before cutting and releasing from the mold.

I started a FB page for my Profession!!

2011-01-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

So finally after long thoughts and weeks of wondering.. I finally decided I will create a fan page on facebook.
But do I really have any fans? Time will tell~

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-Lee/178032772237822?ref=sgm

For now! COME SUPPORT ME!! PLZ PLZ PLZ! haha

Cookies: Brown Sugar vs Granulated Sugar

2011-01-24T18:42:00.000-08:00

Can you replace brown sugar with regular granulated sugar in a cookie recipe? I'm sure we have bumped into this kind of situation where the brown sugar is nowhere to be found in the kitchen, or simply just out of when we need it the most. Then we look towards our white granulated sugar and ponder, "Can I do that? Can I substitute brown sugar with granulated sugar?". And the answer is YES, however this kind of substitute comes with a mixed blessing.

When you replace the need of brown sugar in a cookie with granulated sugar, the end result of your cookie will be more crisp, because there is less moisture in granulated sugar than in brown sugar. The moisture content which comes the molasses in brown sugar will also give you a nice molasses flavor in your cookie. There's molasses in both light and dark brown sugar, and they can be both used interchangeably. The darker brown sugar will have more intense molasses flavor, which is especially complimentary when baking oat meal cookies.

At the same time, cookies baked with brown sugar will contain more moisture, which will also result in a more chewy cookie than cookies made with granulated sugar.

2011-01-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

There are no secrets to making great jams besides using the best fruits or berries you can find in the market. The sweeter the fruit, the better your jam is going to taste. That is all.

For this orange marmalade, I started off with a couple of oranges and peeled the rind off without the pith. The pith is the white spongy stuff underneath your citrus fruits. Then I segmented the rest of the orange and squeezed every last drop of OJ from the left over cores. Keep the segments and juice aside for later. With the peels, I tripe blanched, once to get rid of the waxy coating on the orange, 2nd to open up spores on the surface and then lastly, I cooked the orange peels in a simple syrup which is made out of sugar and water. About half and half. I brought the syrup to a boil with the peels inside and I let it simmer very lightly for about another hour.

Then when the orange peels and syrup is cooled, blitz them in a food processor to the consistency or texture you want your jam to be. If you like it with a bit of bite from the grind, then don't blitz it for too long.

I like my jam with a bit of texture so as you can see, there's still tiny bits of pieces of the rind.

Return the pureed rind to the pot and we will continue to add the rest of the ingredients to it.

Here we have the orange juice that we squeezed, the segments from the orange and some sugar with pectin. Pectin is the setting agent for almost all jams that I know of. You can try it with gelatin or even agar agar. Although they would all work as for they are all jellifying agents, but they don't give you the same jam texture as pectin would.

Pour the orange juice into pot along with your orange segments and turn up the heat while whisking.

In this step, you should combine your sugar with the pectin and mix it all around so the pectin is disbursed into the sugar. If you dump your pectin into any liquid, you would have a high chance of creating pectin lumps which are very hard to break apart. So by mixing your pectin and sugar, this will help evenly spread the mixture around minimizing lumps. Rain in your sugar pectin mixture while stirring the jam so everything is mixed in nicely. You need to keep on stirring and heating your jam until you reach a minimum temp. of 105C-106C. Only at this temperature that it would activate the pectin and allow the agent to start jellifying.

You need to sterolize your preserving containers or jars, and you can do that by dipping them in hot bolied water for 30 seconds or so, and then drying them in the oven at about 150F. Then fill the jars with your jam and seel them tight. As longe as the containers are sterolized properly, you can store these jams in cool, dark places for up to a year or two.

Of course, before you want to try a home made jam that's 2 years old already, you might want to check out any signs of spoilage first. Don't just assume because it's a preserve that it's going to last.

Lemon Ginger Butter Cake

2011-01-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

Although you could call this a pound cake (with it's term used lightly), however, it is actually considered a "Dump Cake" or sometimes also known as "High-Ratio" cakes. They are considered high ratio because of the higher than usual proportion of sugar to flour. They are also called "Dump cake" because once the soft butter has been mixed into the dry ingredients, you will then 'dump' in all the wet ingredients and mix until they are incorporated.

The result of these kind of cakes are very rich and buttery, and very light as well. It's hard to find cake recipes with a mixing method that gives you these 3 factors together. Often if your cake is rich and buttery, then chances are it is a pretty heavy cake, not light this one.

So this recipe is a typical version of a high ratio cake or dump cake which you can try at home.

2½ cups of cake flour

1½ cups of sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon of baking powder

2 whole eggs

3 egg yolks

1½ cups of milk (You can replace half this with heavy cream to make it richer)

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature or just softened.

The version I made below has a LEMON GINGER flavor, and all you have to do is add:

3 tablespoons of lemon juice

4 tablespoons of lemon zest

3½ tablespoons of grated ginger (This is best grated with a mircoplan so you get almost mush-like texture)

1. Sift all your dry ingredients together. So that's your flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. It's important to sift your leavening agent, in this case it's the baking powder, with your flour together. This will better ensure the even distribution of the leavening process so it's not lump sided.

2. Mix together with a paddle attachment on low speed all the sifted dry ingredients with all of the soften butter. Usually if you just leave your butter out over night, you will achieve the softness required. You can always microwave your butter if it's too cold, however, you must be careful not to melt the butter. So try 30-40% power on your microwave and 15-20 seconds at a time. Cutting them into smaller pieces would also help speed things up.

3. After mixing for about 3-4 minutes, you will find your mix to be quite crumbly. This the type of consistency you want your mix to be before adding in your wet ingredients. So once it becomes crumbly, stop mixing and start preparing your wet ingredients

4. The wet ingredients are quite simple. All you have to is whisk your eggs, yolks, milk/cream, vanilla extract, lemon juice, lemon zest, and grated ginger together. In this case, because there's an acid, the lemon juice, you cannot whisk this a head of time otherwise the acid from the lemons will start to curdle your dairy. So best to make this wet mix à la minute when your dry mix is crumbly, and then pour in steady stream, down into your mix with the mixer mixing on low speed.

5. Mix until all the wet ingredients are incorporated into your dry and looking smooth. Once all the liquids have been poured into the mix, it should only take about 2-3 minutes on low speed before that batter is smooth and creamy. You don't have to over mix it, but if you still see some flour lumps, then keep on mixing for another minute or you can use a spatula and work the lumps in by hand.

6. Next you need to butter your mold so that the cake won't stick when you're trying to release it. After I coated my mold with butter, I also sprinkled grounded almond flour, but that's not necessary. Fill your cake mold about 3/4 of the way up.

7. Usually cake recipes will tell you the temperature of your oven in which your cake is baked at, and also the duration of the baking. However, that depends on the geometry of your cake mold, obviously the more shallow and wide your cake pan is, the more surface area is exposed to the heat and thus, it will bake way faster compared to the deep and bulky mold. Unless, if for SOME specific reason that you must bake at the given temperature, most of the time if you bake your cake at 350F with 15degree variance, it will work out just fine. And to check the doneness of your cake, like they say in cooking, "stick a fork in me, i'm done", this is the same concept by sticking a toothpick in. If nothing gooey sticks when you pull it out then you're done.

And for those of you who are STILL insecure about not following a given temperature and time duration, lol, just bake this cake at 350F for about 30minutes and check with toothpick. If it's gooey, give another 5 minutes and check again, and repeat until toothpick comes out clean.

Creme Brulee

2010-12-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

Creme Brulee is a classic French dessert made with just a few simple basic ingredients. Creme Brulee can be found in almost all French dessert menus and it is considered a staple of the French dessert.

My chef once told me, " If you really want to see the skill level of a pastry chef who is making your dessert, just order their creme brulee. It's such an easy dessert to make and everyone can make it. But just like an omelette, it's hard to prefect. "

2 cups heavy cream / 1 cup sugar / 6 egg yolks / Vanilla extract / Tin foil cups or ramekins

- gently bring your cream to a light simmer. Careful not to boil your cream.

- While heating up your cream to a simmer, whisk together egg yolks and sugar together.

- Pour the simmered cream in a steady stream into your yolk+sugar mixture while whisking.

- After whisking, it should look foamy on top but liquidy on the bottom.

-Use a scraper or spoon to remove the foam.

- Pour the creme brulee mixture into tin fold cups or ramekins as preferred and fill about 4/5 of the way. In this picture, you will notice that I used a small tin foil tart mold. This is really not preferred since the bottom of the tin is narrow and the top is very wide. This will give you an uneven baking time, the bottom will be cooked faster than the top. But this is just for my sister, so it's okay!!

- Pre-heat the oven to 300F.

- Place the tin cups into a tray filled 1/4 of the way up with hot water. This is called a "bain-marie" or aka 'water bath'. The moisture from the hot water will prevent the surface of your creme brulee from cracking during baking. I baked the custard for about 35 minutes, but the timing will probably be slightly different in every oven. Some ovens are more powerful than others, and some have really dangerous hot spots.

( "Hot spots" in an oven is basically an area in your oven that is hotter than the rest, due to uneven temperature distribution )

A general rule of thumb for checking the doneness of any baked custards, such as cheesecakes, flan, creme caramel and this is case the creme brulee, is to lightly tap the sides to see how much your dessert jiggles. Only the center of the dessert should giggle slightly while the edges are firm. This is the perfect doneness.

- Remove from tins from the bain-marie, dry off the bottom and let the creme brulee cool in room temperature for about 1 hour and then chill for 4 hours in the fridge.

- After it has been chilled, you will find the texture of your brulee has firmed up even more. Then sprinkle a generous amount of sugar on top of your custard. Try and spread an even amount of sugar on top, and again, be generous with the sugar.

- Use a mini torch and torch your way around the surface of the brulee. Turning and shifting your tin clock wise so the flame will melt all the sugar and caramelize them.

- Eventually this is what you will end up with. A thin and crunchy layer of caramelized sugar on top of your creamy creme brulee.

- You must serve your creme brulee as soon as it's caramelized with sugar, otherwise the sugar will start to absorb the moisture from the air and it will not be crunchy anymore.

- Creme brulee is best served with some fresh berries or fruits to balance the richness and the sweetness of the dessert.

French Macarons

2010-12-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

French Macarons. They're simply just amazing. With nothing but just a few easy ingredients; they are fairly easy to make. And the French method, much easier than the Italian method, and no need to fuss over cooking the simple syrup to 118C. And if you've never had a macaron in your life before, today would be a good start to treat yourself with these little bite size French sweets.

Now to start. You will need some basic baking tools. Mixing bowls, whisks, spatulas, pastry bag with round tip, baking tray, and parchment paper or a silpat which is a non stick silicone pad.

Crank your oven to 320F. You don't need a high temperature to bake the macaron shells. Most ovens is best at 320F, but if you have a really powerful oven, perhaps 310F is good enough. For convection ovens with fans blowing to better circulate the hot air, 300F is prefect.

Now. Ingredients. Simple and fast. You will need almond flour which you can usually find in your local pastry ingredient shops or high end grocery stores. And if you cannot finding, don't worry, just buy almond slivers and blitz them in the food processor until course. If they tend to clump up because of their natural oils being released, just add some icing sugar and that will absorb all the oil. Next, you will need more icing sugar along with good quality cocoa powder. And like always, I shouldn't have to remind you to don't skimp out on the good stuff. Always pay a little extra for that better quality.

Whisk all dry ingredients together, or if you are lazy and smart like me, just blitz them all in the food processor. Like so.

Moving on to our wet ingredients. Having your egg whites already aged for a day in room temperature allowing some moisture to evaporate and the proteins to relax. In the mixing bowl, whisk together your egg whites, meringue powder and sugar until stiff peak. The addition of meringue powder will help strength your meringue since you are just adding in dried up egg whites. And they will always help with the absorption of moisture. Kitchen Aid comes in really handy in whisking this up.

Next. Fold in your meringue gently into your dry mixture and careful not to whisk the mixture. It's tempting to just want to whisk it all together, but if you do so, you will end up destorying all the little air bubbles in your meringue and you will end up with a very runny batter. I would say 4/5 of the time over mixing is the cause of most failures in macaron shell making.

So to properly fold your mixture, start from 11o'clock direction, scoop down to 4 and glide across to 7 and lift up to bring over to 2.

After when your batter has been mixed to this point above. As you can see it's quite shiny and almost pudding like surface. Very glossy. The consistancy of the batter is still quite thick, but it should resemble the viscosity of a milkshake, where it should only juuuusttt slightly hold it's ripples before merging back into it's puddle. If it's too runny, and it doesn't hold it's shape, you have over mixed it.

With your macaron batter, fill it into your pastry bag with a round tip. If you are using a Wilton brand pastry tip, a size #8-9 would be good. You want to pipe out small even circles about the size of a quarter and half. And. here's a trick, if you are right handed, always start piping your rows from the left to the right. Always start from top left and pipe across to the right, and shift 1 row down after or start from the top left and pipe down, then shift 1 collum over. Making sure you stagger the spaces so they are not all the rows are right above each other or beside. Pipe each shell in between the space gap of two top shells or two side shells. This way the heat will distribute even through out the baking process.

Then we need to let these macaron batter rest. Allowing them to form a skin on the surface so when it rises in the oven, it will create a nice dome shaped shell. Also, this will help with the proper development of the "feet" which is a signature symbol of macarons. As you can tell from the picture above and the pictures below, there's a difference on the surface of the shells. The ones below have been rested for about 20 minutes in room temperature and they have formed a skin. They don't feel sticky to the touch, and they are still quite soft on the insides.

After resting, you are ready to bake. So in a 320F oven, place your macarons and bake for about 16-20 minutes depending on your oven. In convection ovens, it only takes a quick 10-11 minutes with the fan on. Another trick for normal ovens, you can preheat another tray in the oven and simply place your macaron tray onto of the hot tray already in the oven. That extra heated tray will give you an extra boost in heat temperature and also help insolate more heat.

Trust me. No matter how many times I've baked a cake, a bread or even small petits four desserts like these macaron shells, everytime when I peak in the oven to see if they have risen correctly and they have~ I get so excited and kiddish. I do a little fist pump in my mind and I smile and say to myself, "whew~ good job Jack".

These macaron shells came out prefectly with a nice even rise and very well developed "feet" on the bottom. If you end up with TOO much feet, it means you have under mixed your batter or your oven temperature is too high. If you don't have much of any feet, chances are you have over mixed and or your oven temperature is not high enough.

Allow your shells to cool to room temperature before piping your filling. Especially if you are using a buttercream filling or a ganache in this case, you don't want your macaron shells to be warm when you are filling it. It will obviously start melting your buttercream and ganache. So rearrange your macaron shells and play match maker with similiar sized shells. Then have 1 roll top facing up and 1 roll top facing down so this way you can pipe your filling in an organized manner and also assamble'em without confusion.

For this chocolate macaron, we are filling it with a chocolate ganache that is a mixture of 70% dark chocolate and 30% milk chocolate in ratio. I find this will tone down the bitterness of the dark chocolate, but still giving you a nice richness of the cocoa flavor, but not too much of the sweetness.

Macarons. The 2 Methods of Making.

2010-12-05T23:43:00.000-08:00

When it comes to macarons, there are two methods of making them: the French method and the Italian method. Some chefs will tell you, they swear by the French method, and another will not hear of anything than the other. And knowing how chefs or pastry chefs are, once they have their mind set on their own philosophy, it is then a one way street. Personally, I don't have much of a preference, however if I were to choose to make macarons, I would most likely choose the Italian method over the French. *Only because you have less of a chance to over mix your batter.

In this post, I will explain the differences between the two methods.

Although there are two methods of making the macaron, and each method will require you to do things a bit differently, the general idea is the same. To incorporate your meringue into your mixture of almond flour and confectioner sugar.
1) THE MERINGUE: The French method of making the macaron requires you to start whipping your egg whites with a large amount of sugar into a stiff peak. What you will end up with is classically called, "French Meringue". The Italian method of making the macaron is similar, but instead of making the French meringue, you are now making the "Italian Meringue". And this is done by boiling a mixture of water and sugar to a temperature of 118C - 121C and then adding it to your lightly frothed egg whites.

THE MIXTURE OF SUGAR AND WATER: SIMPLE SYRUP

BOILING THE SYRUP TO 118C OR 121C.
2) THE MIXING: During the incorporation of meringues into the dry mixture, I find it harder to fold in the French meringue into to dry mix compared to the Italian meringue. Although it is harder to fold in the French meringue into your dry mix, at the same time, the border line between a nicely incorporated and an over mixed is just a matter of 2-3 extra stirs away. Once you have over mixed your batter, you will start to release the water content that was once trapped by the stiff meringue, resulting in a very runny batter that will not hold its dome shape when piped. You will have an easier time folding in the Italian meringue and the chance of over mixing the macaron batter is smaller. Since the egg whites are partially cooked by the hot syrup, therefore making the proteins bonds stronger.
THE FRENCH METHOD - FOLDING IN THE FRENCH MERINGUE

THE ITALIAN METHOD - FOLDING IN THE ITALIAN MERINGUE

3) THE RESTING: There is also a difference between the period of resting time prior to baking your macarons. Resting time is one of the many important factors for the proper rise of the macarons during baking. Resting will allow a thin layer of skin to form on the surface of your piped macaron, and is also one of the contributors to producing the famous "feet" on the bottom of your baked shells. The French method will contain more moisture content and thus, will require you to rest your piped shells for at least 15-30 minutes depending on the humidity of the room. The Italian method, on the other hand, only requires you to rest your piped macaron batter for approximately 10-15 minutes. The reason for this shorter time of rest is due to the evaporation of moisture already happening when you were adding the hot syrup into your egg whites and whipping it to cool.

BEFORE RESTING

AFTER RESTING

Aging or Maturing Your Egg Whites! Loosen those coiled Proteins!

2010-12-02T01:24:00.000-08:00

As strange as this extra but crucial step of aging your egg whites is, the result of it is actually quite beneficial to your success of whipping up a strong meringue. Aging or "maturing" in regards to egg whites is simply just a process of evaporating some of it's moisture content in the whites, and also allowing the coiled proteins to relax over time.

And to further understand the whole "coiled" proteins and how it works, just picture a slinky and how it is all coiled up like a spring. ( But okay, I'm sure under the microscope, the coiled proteins doesn't actually look like that! But you get the idea! ) It's hard to get it to stretch out without it springing back at you, so therefore, we age/mature the egg whites in room temperature or slightly warmer to allow the proteins to loosen up. Simple as that. When the coiled proteins in the egg whites are relaxed, they become much more easier to whisk up compared to egg whites straight out of the refrigerator, which have a stiffer coiled proteins. Although, both will eventually achieve the same volume when whisked, but one will take a longer time and the other, less.

Although some of pastry chefs in France will age their egg whites for days, weeks and sometimes even months! But you don't have to go to the extreme like that. They are most likely aging their egg whites for a different and specific purpose, like evaporating moisture content- and we will get to that in the later posts. But aging your egg whites for moisture evaporation is VERY important in making macarons, and yes, we will also talk about that later.

2010-12-01T02:12:00.000-08:00

Often, too many people are not aware of the lengthy time required to make a proper macaron from scratch. Although, macaron can be whipped up in just under 30 minutes or so if made by a skilled pastry chef. However, a proper macaron is sadly not a 30 minute recipe, nor is it an hour or two or three, or a full day. The proper macaron production time is actually a minimal of three to four days. Yup! Surprised? Betcha' didn't know that! Did ya~ Haha. I know I speak like I am an "know-it-all" for macarons, but really.. I'm just as surprised as you are right now when I found out this fact just a few days ago.

Lately I've been doing a lot of researching, and practice on the arts of macarons, and I've been obessed with it's traditional ways of production. Along with also knowing the differences between a French method and the Italian method, which both certainly bring forth a different texture, density and perhaps even a different range of shelf life.
In the past, I've been taught to make it the French method, hence the restaurant that I worked at was a French one, Auberge du Pommier. But I've come quick to learn about the Italian method and in the next 2 or 3 posts, I will sharing them with you what I've discovered about macarons!. And even perhaps.. a recipe or two =D

French Bread. It's the Soul of the French Bakers.

2010-11-13T17:49:00.000-08:00

Making French bread is quite the thrill!!.. HA.. no.. not really. It's actually quite boring. The only fun part of it is the shaping aspect. The dough is so soft and easy on the hand to play with. I started yesterday with a poolish, which in simple terms is just a starter dough that will give you a boost of flavor in your bread with early fermentation. What is interesting about the Poolish or starter dough is that, it is actually ALIVE! Yup, it's alive. Like frankenstein alive. And just like all living organisms, you need to feed it food to keep it alive and healthy. As for the Poolish, it eats flour, so every morning you feed it with some flour and it's happy. There are stories of crazy bakers, mostly frenchies, where they would bring their poolish around as they travel. This way they can feed it everyday and also make delicious bread where ever they go. It's pretty neat. I think.

As boring as making bread is for me, I still admire the process of making it. It makes me happy to see perfectly shaped dough, ready to be scored and baked. The feel of working with lots amount of flour, eggs, yeast and salt.. getting messy with your hands, sometimes it's annoying but there are times, where you just feel so relaxed with kneading all the ingredients together into a soft dough. The feel of your hands and finger tips, crusty with the bits and pieces of dried dough, yes.. it's quite annoying also but hey! It's well worth the effort and the mess.

So sometimes we would make up to 40-50 loaves a day of french bread or other types of breads, pastries and desserts, but by the time I get home, I only have 1 loaf of bread in my hand. Yes, I give them all away to people I see. People who I don't even know that I bump into, people who happen to sit next to me on the train, or neighbors that just happen to walk in the elevator when I'm in it.

Final note. People are always so surprised when I offer food to them, and although I'm shy and I don't really like confrontation of such behavior from strangers. I know this loaf of bread, cake, or pastry will make the rest of their night a more positive one. They will go home and say, " Hey honey! guess what.. some asian kid just gave me a free loaf of bread ! " .. lol. strange.. but is it? Should it be? It makes me wonder.. what has this world become to when the thought of giving without asking for anything in return is a suspicious motive. But I'm not going to let that thought stop me from sharing what I love the most. Making YOU happy by doing what I love to do. Sharing the food that i make DUH!!!

My favorite Lemon Cream !!

2010-10-19T00:15:00.000-07:00

There's this recipe from our French Pastry School text book that teaches us how to make the best lemon cream for a filling on a tart or inside a cake, or for your cream puff filling. The possibility of usage for this lemon cream is endless! And I LOVE a good lemony dessert.

Before when I made any sort of lemon tart or lemon filling for a cake, I never would have thought about adding butter to the lemon curd to make it a lemon cream. This is just SO French, adding butter to everything that they get their hands on. Being Taiwanese, (Chinese) we tend to stay away from butter, we think it is very unhealthy to the heart so maybe that's why butter never popped up in my mind to add it to my lemon curd. However, it's ironic, because Asian food are known for it's hot oil flash fry or deep fried foods, and here we are saying No to butter? HA!

So here we have your basic lemon curd ingredients and with the addition of butter to make it a lemon cream. Notice the container of butter? That's A LOT of butter to be emulsifying into your curd. Delicious!
You would go about making your lemon curd by adding sugar to your eggs and lemon juice and then combining the two mixture together then zest your lemon rind into the mix. Then over a hot
water bath, you would cook the mixture to 85degree C to pasteurize your eggs. This is important to do so, if you don't hit 85C, you will run the risk bacteria growth and someone may get seriously ill from food poisoning!

With a digital thermometer measuring the lemon curd that's being cooked over a hot water bath. It's important to keep on whisking as the curd cooks, or else the eggs will end up cooking at the bottom and you will end up getting scrambled lemon eggs. Not very pleasant to eat at all! Keep that whisk going!

When it's time, you add the butter into your curd and by using a hand blender, you will need to emulsify the butter into your curd. This will give you a real smooth, creamy and thick texture that is packed with richness and flavor! I am in love.

Lemon Cream Tart with French Meringue!

My Classmates at the French Pastry School.

2010-10-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 4 months or so since I've attended the French Pastry School in early July and time is sure flying by fast. I still remember back in February when I was still in Taiwan, pondering if I should spend $22,000USD on attending the French Pastry School to further my pastry knowledge. And I can tell you with a proud mind set that, I've made a right decision.

Here at the French Pastry School, I met some of the best Pastry Chefs from around the world. From Chef Della, who was the Head Pastry Chef at 'Charlie Trottors' for many many years to World Pastry Champions like Chef Dimitri, who've just recently returned from competing at the MOF semi-finals in France. We have Chef Josh, who is super talented at everything to anything chocolate, and he has an awesome chocolate milk drink that he made for us at the end of the chocolate class. Chef En-Ming, who is another World Champion, competed for Team USA and won 1st place. And many, many more passionate Chefs, like Chef John and Chef Pierre who will be soon teaching us the the art of artisan bread making!

I enjoyed meeting everyone in my class, 4 months together have really brought all of us from strangers to almost a family-like relationship. We look forward to seeing each other everyday, look forward to making French pastries together and most of all, we are always looking forward to tasting our delicious desserts at the end of class!

Every table at school has a Kitchen Aid Stand mixer and an induction burner, along with multiple baking trays of different sizes, and stainless steel bowls and plastic bowls for mixing. There are always tons of tools and equipment for all the students to use, so none of us would have to really wait for major appliances to mix our cake batters or cook our pastry cream.

The French Pastry School does a really great job of making sure that each and every one of their students are getting the chance to use tools best suited for the task. They spend thousands of dollars on kitchen appliances, like the blast freezers that will freeze anything into a solid within a matter of minutes! And this will assure the best quality is of our work is preserved for the next day or to take home to eat. They buy the best ice cream making machines, and deck ovens that will bake anything from tarts to breads with the most prefect condition top and bottom.

There are 18 students per class, 2 students per table and at the end of each day, all 18 of us will do a thorough clean up of the kitchen classroom. We are all assigned a duty or task to go about our cleaning, from sweeping the floors, to mopping. All the fridges are wiped down with special polishing material, and all the tables are scrubbed and sanitized with the proper sanitizing solution. Every table gets reset at the end of class, meaning all the trays of different sizes are restocked, all the plastic containers and stainless steel bowls are neatly placed underneath the table. All is prepared and ready for the next day!

We have tons of kitchen aid mixer bowls, and stainless steel rings and plastic containers to scale our ingredients in. And at the end of class, they are all washed through a 3 sink dish compartment, 1st rinsed out with hot water, then it's scrubbed with soap, and it's rinsed again in hot water and then finally it's soaked in a sanitizing solution. Afterwards, we place them on the racks and hand dry them! It's a really fun job! I promise! =D

What is "Pastry Chicago" ?

2010-10-18T23:03:00.000-07:00

Mission Statement of Pastry Chicago.

" Pastry Chicago is a group of passionate people who love and enjoy all forms of pastries. Pastry Chicago is made up of professional pastry chefs, students of the art of pastry and people who enjoy eating and the visual art of pastry. The goal of our group is to experience the Art of Pastry in all its glory at educational fun events across the city of Chicago and at the same time promote the fantastic talents of all the Artisans who work at the craft of producing beautiful delicious pastries "

Kind of like how in Taiwan or Japan, we have the 'Gateaux Association', and here in Chicago we have 'Pastry Chicago'. I truly enjoy these types of events which are all for the love of pastries and culinary. These organizations bring the community closer together by the means of sharing delicious pastries and food, and friendly competitions with awesome prizes!

The previous event hosted Pastry Chicago was pie contest and sponsored by California Raisins. I had the opportunity to volunteer for this wonderful event and got to witness the judging of the pies by Pastry Chefs through out Chicago and also got to test the winning pie!

Pastry Chicago Cupcake Competition!!

2010-10-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

I decided to attend the cupcake competition hosted by Pastry Chicago and the French Pastry School that will take place on October 23rd, which is this coming Saturday. The winners will receive awesome prices from Kitchen Aid products, and I believe the 1st place winner will get a Kitchen Aid Mixer!! How exciting is that! So far I believe there are already 35 competitors signed up, and judging from last year's winners, it's looks like I am going up against some tough, highly skilled cupcake masters!

For this competition, I cannot reveal too much of what I have planned for my cupcake, but what I can tell you is that, I am experimenting with pumpkin seeds as my flour. That is why in my previous post I wrote about using my Kitchen Aid hand blender with the food processor attachment to turn my pumpkin seeds into a flour-like ingredient. And use the pumpkin seed flour as part of my flour mixture in my cupcake. I am hoping this will bring some kind of unique flavor and texture into my cupcake base.

One of a challenge for me would be finding time to practice my recipes since both of my roommates are also in French Pastry School, and one of them is also competing! So we have to be real cautious of each other, not to reveal our ideas or secret recipes. After school, I head towards the gym for a 2 hour work out, it's a must, since every day I consume a brick load of butter, sugar, and other fattening French pastries. When I get home and shower, it's roughly about 11PM and that's when I start my practice cupcakes.

I cannot reveal any recipes for these cupcakes yet, but if I win the competition, I will surely post up the winning recipe! On this tray of cupcakes, there are 3 different types of flavors, methods and textures. As you can clearly tell, there's an obvious difference in the color, height, and shape of the 3 rows of cupcakes. But all of them have one thing in common, they all have the pumpkin seed flour that I've made earlier incorporated into the cupcake batter.

As for the frosting for the cupcake. I'm still not sure what flavors I'm reaching for, but I do have ginger and honey on my mind. So perhaps a 'Ginger Honey Cream Cheese Frosting' ? That does sound very delicious, but we will see how the flavors bind with cream cheese as a frosting. I hope I win! I want that Kitchen Aid!!

Pumpkin Seed Flour Test!

2010-10-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

So this whole concept of using pumpkin seeds as part of my flour mixture for my cupcake base is only just a theory, and it needs to be tested to see how it holds up.

First, making the pumpkin seed flour is not as simple as it sounds. There's a lot of factors they may become a problem to consider when blitzing nuts or seeds. An good example is the natural oils in the nuts or seeds itself may cause the mixture to clump up into a semi paste if your blade is generating too much heat from spinning. So you might have to think about doing this in a 2 step or 3 step process, giving time to allow the nuts to cool down and dry off a bit before continuing to blitz the nuts into a finer consistency.

Just some simple tools. Hand blender with the food processor attachment.

Luckily, my kitchen aid hand blender comes with 10 speeds. The blender is a roaring beast. But even at it's highest speed, it is unable to slice the seeds into a finer, flour-like consistency.

I had to stop the machine eventually because the cup was getting warm and I knew if I had let it continue spinning, it would create too much moisture and clump up into a semi-paste.

Then I sifted out the pumpkin seed flour and there were still some bigger nibblets that I had to go through again with my blender. However, the pumpkin seed flour is still too big for me to use, so tomorrow I will have to blend it again, hoping it will become finer.

The end result of today's trial for pumpkin seed flour. As you can tell, it looks alright but it's still a bit too gritty. If all else fails and I cannot get it to be like powder then I'll just tell the judges that "I did it on purpose to add the gritty texture". YUP! all part of the master plan.

Dark Chocolate Rhum Truffle Part 2.

2010-10-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

So you've managed to emulsify the chocolate and cream, and now it is a 'ganache'. It should be still quite fluid, however thick like milkshake, but smooth like pastry cream. Let that chill and cool for about 20-30 minutes, and eventually you will be able to either fill it in a pastry bag and pipe out little balls, OR you can wait until it's firmer and use a spoon to scoop into balls. I did the scoop with spoon method and rolled it in my hand to make it into a more sphere shape. You need to have a bowl of tempered chocolate to enrobe your truffle balls and create a protection shell that will mostly prolong the shelf life of these truffles, and also give you a thin layer of crunch.

Working with chocolate is always a challenge to stay clean, and it takes lots of good cleaning habits to prevent a chocolate messy. Once, you feel like you are getting chocolate on areas where you're not suppose to have chocolate. STOP! Stop what you are doing and clean up the mess before continuing or else you will surely end up with chocolate on your clothing and on your shoe and everywhere else besides the truffles.

You need to prepare yourself a big enough of a bowl or tray to roll your enrobbed truffles in. The bigger the bowl, the wider the surface area for your coco powder to spread, therefore easier for your truffle balls to roll around in and not bump into each other. You need to roll your truffles in coco powder as soon as each one is enrobbed, because you will need the help of the tempered chocolate to glue the coco powder on. If you allow the enrobbed truffles to dry out before you roll them in the powder, they will not coat at all. And DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING CHEAP COCO POWDER...

Until they are all nicely coated, you should use a mesh sift and sift out the excess coco powder. You just want a even light coat, not a ball of cocaine shot in your mouth. Be gentle with the sifting, you don't want too much force being appliced, or else you might break the chocolate shell. These truffles will store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, given the condition that your cream and other ingredients are fresh. Chocolate by itself will last up to 2 years in dark, cool and dry places. If you decide to freeze them, they will store up to 3 months, but defrost them over night in the fridge. If you leave them out in the open, room temperature to defrost, the drastic change in temperature will most likely create some condensation on your truffles and that's where the sugar bloom, fat bloom and spoilage comes into play.
ANYWAYS, why store them? Make'em and EAT them right away or give them away to strangers. That's what I do all the time. The homeless people that lives just down the street, underneath the train tracks, they get all the delicious desserts from me. =D

Dark Chocolate Rhum Truffle. Part 1.

2010-10-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Perhaps one of the most misunderstood chocolate bonbon is the "Truffle". Yes, the truffle is a mushroom that will cost you fortune, and NO, the chocolate 'truffle' is NOT made out of the truffle mushroom. The only reason why we call this chocolate bonbon, "Truffle", is because of it's round, rugged shaped that can almost resemble the black truffle mushroom. And you know the French, they always like to name their food creations with some fancy name, when all a chocolate truffle really is, just a mixture of cream and chocolate emulsified together.

Anyways, to make this EASY luxury chocolate treat, all you need are some simple ingredients that you can find at pretty much any grocery store.
1. Heavy Whipping Cream

2. Good Couverture Chocolate

3. Excellent Quality Coco Powder

4. Rum or any other flavorings.
You don't really want to skimp out on buying quality chocolate when you're making truffles. Since a truffle is pretty much combination of chocolate and cream, it's important that you buy a great quality chocolate that is consider couvertures chocolates. And again, don't be intimidated by the word 'couverture', it simply just means that the chocolate contains 31% or higher of cocao butter. Cocao butter is what makes the chocolate rich, smooth and melts heavenly in your mouth. Most cheap chocolates that you buy are not couverture, they don't contain cocao butter, or they contain very little amount. Other types of fats and oils are used in replacement of the cocao butter, and sadly, they don't provide the same result. If you really want to a clear defined understanding of the differences here, just compare shortening and butter. Which one melts easier in your mouth. Try it! =D

Melt your chocolate in the microwave in intervals of 15-20 seconds on med-high power, and stir well everytime until it's 80% melted. Do not try and mircowave your chocolate for 40 seconds at once, thinking 20 seconds strength + 20 seconds strength = 40 seconds strength. It's NOT! You will end up burning your chocolate. Chocolate does not have a very high melting point, they melt in your mouth and that's not very hot at all compared to 40 seconds in the mircowave. Chocolate can only withstand a temperature of about 45C before all it's characteristics and flavors starts to be compromised.

When the chocolates are melted, you can heat up your cream to a light simmer, roughly about 68-70C, and pour the warm cream into the melted chocolate. Let that sit for about 15-20 seconds to allow the warm cream to melt the rest of the 20% of chocolate before stirring it. I prefer to use a whisk in begining to create a swirl of the two mixtures, and that will eventually emulsify together, becoming a "Ganache".

Start your swirl of emulsion either towards the side of the bowl or dead center, and slowly work in small circles bring everything together before moving out into larger circles. If you start whisking in large circles before you start an emulsion, you risk breaking the ganache, and you will end up with a layer of coco butter floating to the top. Then it's pretty much a down hill battle from there on, unless you know how to fix a broken ganache.

Continue Part 2.

Sugar Sculpture. Using Isomalt.

2010-10-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

Carrying this thing around with me on the train attracts so much attention. Everyone looks and stares with a confused face. You can hear people whispering and talking about it, wondering if that's made out of sugar or if it's a cake. These girls who were next to me asked what I was going to do with it, and I told her I'm probably going to throw it out in a few days. And she insisted that I shouldn't because it's so beautiful and it would be a waste.
Anyways, so this is my final piece of sugar art, it's mostly made out of sugar and isomalt (a type of sugar). There's blown sugar involved, the dragon-like bird is a part of blown sugar and so is the hidden apple in the back. Blown sugar is a lot like glass blowing, and it's quite an interesting art. I am thinking of taking up glass blowing classes and pottery classes as well. Everything here is made by hand, some are pressed onto a patterned mold to achieve the imprints, but mostly they are all hand pulled and molded.

Hope you guys like it.

Sugar Art. How to Make a Rose out of Pulled Sugar.

2010-09-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Finished Sugar Rose. Pulled and Molded by hand. One petal at at time.

Working with sugar isn't as easy as it sounds, and especially when the sugar is HAWWTTT.. I have blisters on my thumbs from pulling hot sugar 3 hours a day for the last 3 days. Basically, you boil sugar and water to 165degree C and pour the scorching hot syrup onto a nonstick silpat.

Boiling the sugar and water mixture until 140 degree C.

Add the water soluble color and keep boiling the sugar until 165degree C.

Pour the hot syrup onto the silpat, and work as fast as you can to cool the down the sugar evenly.

Wearing gloves will somewhat help with the hot sugar and reduce the pain. Just a tad....

Knead and pull the sugar blob until it's firm enough, but yet still applicable to pulling and molding.

For the first petal, pull out a long stretch until it's long enough and cut it.

If you don't work quick enough, the sugar will cool down and become brittle. It will crack and shatter.

Quickly mold the petals with your finger tips while shaping it to look more natural.

Gluing the petals together by heating up the ends of the leaf.

Work each petal pretty much the same way as you would the first ones.

You will achieve a glossy shine if you just pulling during it's colder stages, but it will be harder to pull.

Finished. 11 petal rose This will be one of my componets on my final sugar art show piece.

Chocolate Show Piece

2010-09-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been quite busy working with a lot of chocolaty stuff so I haven't been updating as frequently as before. I've been making a ton of chocolate bonbons, chocolate desserts, chocolate ganache and I finished my chocolate show piece. It was made with about 20 pounds of chocolate, and it took about 8 hours over the span of 3-4 days. The first day I had to cast all my bases with plastic molds and allow sufficent time for the chocolate to crystalize and harden.

Then day 2 and 3 were mostly hand making little componets for the chocolate sculpture, like the rose petals, the white curled tusks, the daisy center, daisy petals, and the round green leaves. Making these little thin petals and leaves were a bit of a pain in the ass, since you had to work quick or else they will start to melt on your hand. If you have really warm hands, like me, you could try wearing latex gloves and that will buy you a few more seconds to work with the chocolate in your hand without melting it.

Day 4, the final day was contruction of all the chocoalte componets and gluing them onto the chocolate base. There was nothing complicated about this chocolate show piece, and 8 hours over the span of 3-4 days was plenty of time.

I am really looking forward to making another chocolate show piece if I have the time, because now I will be making a SUGAR show piece within the next few days.

Chocolate Cremeux? What?

2010-09-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

Chocolate Cremeux? What? When you venture into the world of French pastries and desserts, one thing you will notice is that, the French have a lot of fancy names to their food that you might find intimidating to eat or to make. For example, "Chocolate Cremeux", What the hell is that? That's right. That was also my reaction when I had asked the Head Pastry Chef of Sepia Restaurant in Chicago while she stirred a pot of rich, chocolaty, sauce-like mixture.

"Cremeux" is simply just a French word that means "Creamy", and so in translation 'chocolate cremeux' is "just chocolate creamy". But what is it excatly? Well, the chocolate cremeux is not really a chocolate sauce nor is it a mousse but it's sort of in between both. I guess you can say it's almost like chocolate pudding that you buy in the western grocery stores but this is a lot better, obviously.

To make the chocolate cremeux it's very easy. What you need are your basic ingredients to make a simple creme anglaise, which in translation is 'English cream' sauce. Egg yolks, Sugar, Milk and flavoring, which vanilla is the most common.

Heat up the milk with half the sugar and whisk the other half of the sugar with your egg yolks. It is important you don't add your sugar to your egg yolks before your milk mixture is hot and ready. The reason for it is that, sugar is very hygroscopic and it will absorb the moisture content of your egg yolks, thus leaving you with grainy spots of yolks that you will have to strain out. If you don't, you will end up with little bits of sand-like specs in your chocolate cremeux, and it's very unpleasant. So if you are planning to make this, just be warned, do not rush the sugar + egg yolk mixture until your milk is hot and ready to be tempered.

Being organized is important and also one of the many keys to success. Have all your ingredients laid out in front of you, and even run through a mental play by play with you have to. Therefore, when you freak out during the process, you have a better chance of knowing how to react and fix the situation if ever needed to. I have my 70% chocolate from Cacao Berry, my yolks, flavoring, and my gelatin at the top. It goes in last.

When the milk comes to a medium simmer, turn off the heat and stream line in the egg yolk + sugar mixture while quickly whisking. This whisking step is important due to the fact that if you don't whisk the mixture fast enough, the heat from the milk and pot might end up cooking the yolks, and you will end up with some kind of scrambled eggs gone horribly wrong. This process of preventing the egg yolks from cooking is all about temperature control, and in the world of baking/pastries, it's refereed as "Tempering". You will often hear this term, 'tempering' in the use of making a lot of butter emulsified sauces, chocolate art making and many dessert making involving the use of egg yolks.

Now, when making sauces or desserts with the usage of raw eggs, it is important and recommended that we bring the temperature of the sauce with the eggs in it to a pasteurized stage. Killing most of harmful bacteria that might be lurking in your sauce. Bring the sauce to a temperature of 85C and holding it for about 10-15 seconds will do the trick, but be sure to keep on whisking it or else you will get scrambled eggs.

I use Cacao Berry chocolate, it's just the brand of what I'm used to, (and plus they are my sponsors in Taiwan) but you can use any other brands of chocolate to your liking. Some people enjoy chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa, and of course, the higher % of cocoa the more bitter the chocolate will be. I, on the other hand, enjoy all types of chocolates.. I don't discriminate. It just depends on the type of mood that I am in. However, after spending some time playing with all sorts chocolates with various percentages and from various regions of the world, I guess it's like coffee, you will slowly learn to lean towards the higher purity of taste. In this recipe, I am using 70% dark chocolate, it's not too bitter, not too sweet and has just about the right amount of cocoa aroma needed for the chocolate cremeux.

So once your cream anglais has hit 85C for 10-15 seconds, pour the sauce over a fine mesh strainer to filter out any curdled egg yolks at the bottom of the pan. And this will also filter out any of the burned egg yolks that your sugar might have caused. Let the mixture sit with the chocolate for about 30 seconds, allowing the heat from the sauce to soften your chocolate callets, it's easier to emulsify the mixture this way.

Then bloom your gelatin over cold water until it's soft and jelly like, add that into your warm chocolate mixture. Using a whisk, start from the center of the bowl and whisk to bind the gelatin, warm creme anglais and partially melted chocolate into an emulsification. Then slowly whisk your way out with bigger circular motion until the over all mixture is fully emulsified and you're done.

The end result is a really creamy, full bodied chocolate mousse-like sauce. You can use it as a cake filler or a sauce for your ice cream, and or let it sit in the fridge until the gelatin sets and eat it like pudding. I would suggest you make yourself some chocolate crumbles, and layer it with the chocolate cremeux and chocolate sponge cake to make a really delicious chocolate trifle. You would have the crunch texture from the crumbles, the rich 70% chocolate cremeux for sauce and the chocolate sponge cake for body. It's a prefect dessert for a lady friend who loves chocolate.

Almond Panna Cotta with Raspberry Sauce

2010-09-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

So this dessert, an almond panna cotta with steeped raspberry sauce, is quite an amazing dessert. Although, to be honest, as beautiful as this dessert is- texture wise, color wise, and flavor wise, it's great.. but it's not really one of my most favorite desserts. I am not sure why excatly this dessert doesn't intrique my culinary excitments, but.. My guess is that, I've had way too many pudding-like desserts since I was a kid. All those cheap chinese puddings my parents or grandparents would buy for me to eat.. they're starting to take it's negative toll on me.

Anyways, panna cottas are real easy to make and although this one is made with roasted sliced almonds and a few drops of bitter almond concentrate, you can pretty much make any other flavors of panna cotta. You can make a dark chocolate panna cotta, you can make an orange citrus panna cotta or even just a regular vanilla panna cotta with vanilla beans from mexico or something. But my opinion of panna cotta desserts are based on simplicity and purity. Panna cottas are not meant to be complicated in flavors or in texture -nor do they need to be dull- All I am saying is that, it IS what IT is, so keep it that way.

Poaching Bosc Pears. 低溫煮Bosc Pears

2010-08-19T00:57:00.000-07:00

•Poaching.. is the process of gently simmering food in liquid, generally water, milk, stock or wine

I still remember the first time in my earlier years of French cooking; that my Chef had came up to me one morning with a filet of salmon and told me to "Poach" it. "Poach.... it?", I replied with a confused expression. I was still a very young cook then, and I had much to learn about all the different types of cooking methods.

My Chef had introduced to me the world of poaching, and when I had tasted the salmon, it was nothing like I had ever tried. It was so tender, super moist and the meat of the salmon became so delicate that if you hadn't picked it up with a flat spatula, it would have broken into pieces.

It's been many years since my first experience of poaching, and throughout these years, I've poached much more than just the salmon. I've explored and poached all sorts of meats, seafoods and also fruits. One of my favorites and also a French classic, are the poached pears.

Poaching is a great way to soften under ripe fruits and also infused tons of flavors into it. And in this case, we're poaching "Bosc Pears". They are great for poaching due to their firmness and their ability to hold their shape after many hours of cooking.
In this poaching solution for the pear, it's just a simple syrup which is 1 : 1 - sugar to water, and flavors such as vanilla, cinnamon, rosemary, thyme, black peppercorns and you can also add in white wine if you wish. Then the liquid is brought up to a boil and the heat is turned down so that the liquid will just gently simmer for about 30 minutes. And the great thing about these poached pears is that, if you keep them in the syrup, not only will all the flavors infuse deeper into the pears but also the pears will have a shelf life of 10-11 days.
Poaching is real simple and besides the pears, you can also try with peaches and or apples.

fruit en papillote ( Fruit wrapped in Paper )

2010-08-11T23:37:00.000-07:00

This wonderful and summery dessert is one that comes to me as fresh and seasonal. The idea of this dessert falls simply on beautiful fruits and or berries being wrapped in baking paper and then baked in the oven. I first learnt this method of cooking through my early years of culinary, although i remember it was done with fish wrapped on the inside but fruits and berries work just as well.

You don't need very much for this simple and inspiring fruity dessert, besides your favorite fruits and berries, you just need a sheet of baking paper and an oven. You slowly roast the fruit and berries in the oven and let all the juice marinate together. After 10-15 minutes of roasting, you should be able to lightly detect the beautiful and aromatic scent of your ingredients. Then you peel the package open to reveal all the delicious fruits and berries, nicely roasted, soaking in it's own sweet juice and it's soft and tender.

To finish off this dish, you can add an scoop of vanilla ice cream or sorbet and for a nice crunchy texture, you can sprinkle cookie crumbles on top. We finished our fruit en papillote with a quenelle of fresh strawberry sorbet and two almond sugar cookies.

Being Inspired.

2010-08-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

Being Inspired can difficult at times.

There's so much repetition happening from our day to day routines, sometimes it's just hard to think out side of the box or be inspired by a new thought. Being a savoury chef and a pastry chef in training, I am always working with my hands in the kitchen to create beautiful dishes, and always looking onwards for the next idea or concept to advance on. For me, an ingredient such as lamb chop can be prepared in many different ways with much more varieties of flavors. And just like chocolate, an ingredient that is filled with endless directions of possibilities, sometimes the best direction is one that is lead by an inspiration.

To Find Inspiration can Be a Costly one at times.

With the world filled with corner restaurants, street food venders, and specialty cuisine eateries, if I am not in the kitchen working, there are only two other possibilities that I could be doing. 1) Sleeping. 2) Eating Out. And Yes, I do eat out quite often, and I spent a heck load of money on food. Sometimes I know I need to control myself with the spending, but that's a totally different subject. However, the reason why I eat out so often is because of my curiosity to want to taste new flavors, to see new ways of cooking an ingredient, and also, this is my way of being inspired.

Of course, there are cheaper ways to be inspired, like reading cook books or food magazines, but you can only read so much, because in the end you still have to taste it to really feel the connection with the food.

The Spark and Simplicity of an Inspiration

The spark of an inspiration does not always come at you with fireworks or a big bang. They are usually not complicated or confusing to understand, in fact, most inspiration comes from an idea of simplicity. You don't need 8 flavors on a plate of a dessert to please someone's taste buds or intrigue the sensitive tongue. If you can find inspiration in simplicity, you will find yourself being more in touch with the purity of your ingredients.

One word. " Souffles "

2010-08-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

Most people when they hear the word “Soufflé ", their faces brighten, their eyes widen and they ask, "WHERE?" Soufflé is a well known dessert in the French culinary world. The word itself is French and it refers to a light, fluffy and puffed up dish usually made with beaten eggs. Soufflés, although widely known to be a sweeten dessert, it can however, be savoury. (Savoury soufflés are usually made with a béchamel sauce).

One thing for sure, soufflés are meant to be soft and fluffy. It is almost as light as bubbles that soften in your mouth. This is what's highly regarded for in a perfect soufflé dish, and also what it's best known for.

(Everything is precisely measured, re-measured and labelled to insure there are no mistakes)

Believe it or not, there is more than 1 way of making a mouth watering soufflé, and each one will provide you with a different texture that serves a different purpose. There are methods that will give you a soufflé with a texture that is worthy of a competition, and other methods that will guarantee you the stability to serve in a restaurant.

I, being the fortunate one, had the opportunity to be taught a 4th method of making a soufflé by a world pastry champion, Chef En-Ming. Chef En-Ming was the Team Captain of the United States Pastry Team that won the Gold Medal at the World Pastry Cup in Lyon, France in 2001. She later returned to serve as the President of International Jury for the World Pastry Cup in 2003, 2005 and 2007, which she was also the manager for Team USA. She continued to manage TEAM USA until last year, 2009.

One key point about making soufflés is actually in the process of preparing your soufflé molds. You must butter your molds with the right and even amount of butter, preferably with a upward stroke of the brush. This will help the rise of the soufflé when being baked in the oven. Although, some say this upward stroke method is a myth, but I, for one, am not curious enough to risk a failure in my delicious soufflé. So for me it is always upward strokes! Better safe than Sorry, right?

And another key point that is largely overlooked in the world of pastries is sifting your flour! This little extra step sifting out all the lumps in your flour that has formed due to excess moisture in the environment will really help with incorporating your mixture evenly. No one wants to be surprised by the taste of a lump of uncooked flour in any dessert, I promise you that. And it is also this simple step of sifting your ingredients, like flour, icing sugar and etc, will separate you from the amateurs to the professionals. The boys and the men.

And lastly, having some confidence in yourself and in your soufflé will also help with the outcome. Because once you put that soufflé into the oven, it is completely out of your hands and you must surrender all control of the outcome. You can only lean over and watch patiently through the little glass window of your oven, and pray for that soufflé to rise even higher, and higher.

And the moment of truth when you take your soufflé out of the oven, there could be either one of two moments and both of which are to the extreme. One, your soufflé will collapse immediately because... a) You have over baked the soufflé or b) it is under cooked, and in which you might cry and cry some more, then you start all over again. OR... You take out your soufflé and it is still standing high, all puffed up and looking delicious, then you start it all over again. Because it was so good.

2010-08-06T01:27:00.000-07:00

Chiboust is French dessert made with pastry cream combined with italian meringue and served frozen.

Although it is served frozen, the texture of Chiboust is much more like a cross between light mousse and soft serve ice cream. The fruity and citrus sauce balances the sweetness and richness of the chisboust, and the crisp ginger essenced tuile brings another dimenson to the overall dessert. You can make the Chiboust in any flavor such as hazelnut, chocolate almonds and etc.

The Secrets to Sorbets and Ice Cream "Unrevealed".

2010-07-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

It's the 4th week of school and things have been picking up speed. This week our focuses were on ice creams and sorbets. To start, we have learned acknowledge that to make a proper sorbet, you cannot use a universal sorbet syrup. This, of course, doesn't mean the universal sorbet syrup is ineffective in sorbet makings. But to achieve the proper texture, richness and creaminess of a fruit sorbet, there is a specific formula for each individual fruit or flavour. And this rule also happens to apply to ice creams and gelatos.

What is this magical formula to achieve the perfect sorbet or ice cream to you might wonder? But all I can say is... Keep on wondering! Because it's a secret. I have sworn secrecy to the master who has passed on this knowledge onto me. However, I will give you a hint, what this formula will help you achieve in your sorbet or ice cream making, is your prefect balance of fats, sugars, flavours, milk and other ingredients you might have in your mix. Why is this important? Well, for one example, too much fat in your ice cream will inhibit flavour notes to be detected by your tongue, since it will be covered by icy cold fat.

So throughout the week we've spent our time carefully weighing out each of the components for our various ice cream cakes and sorbet cakes. Understanding how much solids, liquids, and fats are in each ingredient then inputting the numbers into our formulas to create proper mixture to freeze. We also got to use and understand the difference between natural stabilizers and emulsifiers, which are crucial in making these frozen desserts.

We've made an Ice Cream Bombe that was comprised of extra fine sable dough, vanilla parfait and raspberry coulis. All in cased with a rich chocolate ice cream with the creamiest consistency. Then it was 'Vacherin Glace', which in simple terms, is a cake with apricot and raspberry sorbet layered in the middle. And lastly, we made chocolate-caramel ice cream cake with caramelized hazelnuts and wood grain chocolate rim.

Hazelnut Dacquoise, chocolate ice cream with caramelized hazelnuts in the center, caramel ice cream on the outside and dark chocolate spray

Next is the Sorbet cake, also known as 'Vacherin Glace'. In our filling, we have a raspberry sorbet ontop and apricot sorbet on the bottom.

As decor. We made italian meringue and whipped cream. So much sugar and so fattening!! .. But so good? Check out the color of the apricot sorbet. It's so gorgeous! So vibrant!

The very last cake. One of my most favorite ice cream cake of all. Chocolate ice cream on the outside, vanilla parfait on the inside and raspberry coulis to balance all the sweetness. A vanilla parfait is much like a frozen mousse, but perhaps a bit denser. This particular cake was a 3 day work progress. First we had to make the raspberry coulis and allow it to set it in a half stainless steel sphere mold in the fridge, then we made the vanilla parfait. When the raspberry coulis was solidified, in goes the vailla parfait then it was off to the freezer. Then we made the chocolate ice cream mixture, cooled it down quickly and allowed it to set over night in the fridge for better flavor development. The last day, we spun the ice cream in a $30,000 ice cream maker and assembled the cake. It was quite the effort and very time consuming, however, all the hard work and patience had finally paid off when we got to dig into our glorious frozen desserts. It made everything we had done through out the week while worth it.

Special Catering @ "Be Primitive" Asian Art Gallery.

2010-07-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we worked a special catering dinner for a party of 75 guests at a very unique art gallery called, "Be Primitive". This particular art gallery was quite an expensive one, with price tags ranging from the hundreds to the thousands of dollars. The owners have a collection of all sorts of weird, intriguing, ancient and cultural art pieces from around the world, but with most of its focuses on the theme of Asia. There must of have been hundreds of pieces of wooden to metal statues, paintings and furniture. And if you point at anyone of the art work, the owner would tell you where it's from and the fascinating story behind it.

When we arrived at the art gallery, I was looking for a kitchen to drop off my knives and belongings, but to my surprise... There wasn't one! Chef Daniel had failed to mention to me that we had to setup our own kitchen inside the art gallery with plastic tables and portable induction burners. Ohhh Boy....

Setting up the our kitchen from scratch.

We first had to unload bags after bags of ingredients out of the car.

After an hour and a half later, we finally started preparing our foods.

Because we were behind schedule, I didn't have time to take out my camera to take some pictures during our earlier preparations. But just a quick short summary, we had 4 h'ordeuvres to prep ranging from vegeterian spring rolls, to hamachi tartar wrapped with rice paper, and a skirt steak grilled with a cumin rub. Then I had to butcher a fairly large piece of fresh tuna, then I had to cut them into small cubes (brunoise) for our tuna tartar course.

After about an hour and a half later, we were pumping out our first course of the night.

All plates were set, wiped and ready for our first course.
Soup of Corn with basil, ginger, lemon grass infused and shrimp garnish.

Cream of Asparagus, Leek and Potato Soup was the althernative option.

Next up was the tuna tartar that I had prepared.

Tuna Tartar with brunoise melons, cucumbers, avocadoes and Tomato Water

Right before the waiters picks up the plate, we lift off the white pipe to reveal the layers of color.

As we follow with the main course, it was lamb racks with roasted bok choy and spicy vegetable fried rice. I couldn't take any picture of this dish because it was a hot plate and we had to be fast with our serve to keep it as hot as possible for our diners. So following on to desserts.

There are two dessert courses. The first dessert course was strawberries coated with sugar, sprinkled with raspberry infused semolina crumble and a scoop of white chocolate lime sorbet. It was served in a beautiful martini glass and it was delicious. The idea of a semolina crumble with infusion of fruits or berries was brilliant.

Macerated strawberries with raspberry infused semolina crumble and white chocolate lime sorbet

The desserts are inspected again for any finger prints or imperfections. Everything needs to be prefect. And as you can tell, we've already set up plates for the last dessert course that will be following shortly after.

The last dessert course consisted of a complex layering of different types of flavorings, textures and techniques. I couldn't remember all that was in it but I remember it had a layer of green tea mousse, peanut butter crunch, chocolate pound cake, vanilla sponge and etc. It was just heaven on a plate. I have never seen dessert like it.

Chef Daniel plating this master piece of dessert.

I don't know what this dessert is called, so I am just going to name it "Heaven"

And to finish off the night, we had plates of varies types of chocolates for our guests to try.

Chef Daniel is amazing with his chocolate work and in the next few months, when the weather is colder, I will be working with him doing some chocolate work. That is something I am looking forward to and I know I'll get to see where he draws his ideas and inspirations.

After all the guests are served and happy, it is time for us to relax and enjoy a few drinks on the host.

Cheers everyone! (Btw, I'm just drinking water... in a fancy class. )

Cooking Vs Baking

2010-07-23T01:46:00.000-07:00

The constant battle between cooks and bakers have been raging since the dawn of the kitchen. There have been rumors shouting back and fourth between the two sides. The cooks would yell at the bakers, ' those who do cannot cook.. ~BAKE! '. And the bakers will yell back, ' those who cannot bake.. ~COOK! '.

But really, it is not a matter of who can or who can't, but rather who is willing and who must. As cooks, we have a habit of gauging everything with just the tips of our fingers, and that includes checking the color of our meats, whether it's rare, medium rare, and etc, to the grains of sea salt that we season our foods with. It is never about measurements with an instrument that tells us what degree of temperature a meat is at, or how many grams of salt we measure on a electronic scale to sprinkle into a Caesar salad. We just use our finger tips and our senses as tools of measurement. To bakers, we, cooks, may seem like wild, untamed beasts that chaotically throw around ingredients into a pot or pan and pray for it to taste right, but keep in mind, even in chaos there is some kind of order and most of all beauty.

However, the story is much different with the world of bakers. With baking, it is all about precise measurements and patience. For a baker to be successful in his career, he or she must master and love the arts of measuring everything single little ingredient to the gram. Not because there's a law that states you must, but if you don't, the outcome may be a disastrous one. Since baking is a form of science and balancing equations. Math. I hate it. But bakers must know it and understand it. The difference between balancing an acid to sucrose(sugar) will give you the right kind of invert sugar that you require. That balance can only be done properly be all means of precise measurements. It takes a lot of patience out of bakers to carefully knee, roll and sometimes even refrigerate and wait for the dough for whatever reason over and over again. Often, the process can be not rushed and the steps not must be skipped. But like people say, " Good things come to those who wait ".

We scale and label every single ingredient to the gram before we start a recipe.

The great culinary experience ..

2010-07-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

" The great culinary experience is all but selfish. It is an experience that will drive you out of this world, and bring you the utmost high of a life time. It is also an experience that will pound you down to the core, where weren’t it not for true love and passion of the culinary arts, one would most definitely have thrown in the towel. Whichever the case may be, the culinary experience often leads to the humbling acknowledgement that food and cooking were meant to be shared. To be enjoyed amongst the company of friends and loved ones. " - Jack Lee

Pate de Fruits (水果沙軟唐)

2010-07-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Today, we finally got to start the first week in the art of candy making. We will be responsible for making 4-5 candies a day. They vary from caramels(焦糖奶糖) to French nougats(法國牛軋糖), Pate de fruits(水果沙軟唐) to lollipops(棒棒糖) and marshmallows(棉花糖). It is going to be an exciting week with Chef Della.

In Taiwan, 水果沙軟唐 is very popular and they come in an assortment of flavors and colors. Today, one of the candies we made was a 'Passionfruit & Apricot pate de fruit' which in translation is "百香果&杏桃水果沙軟唐". We used the passion fruit puree and apricot puree from a brand called "Capfruit", as they are one of the many sponsors of the French Pastry School.

Although the main focus flavor was passion fruit, apricot puree was added to balance out the sourness of the passion fruit puree. When it comes to making candy, balance in flavor is very important, too sweet or too sour is not pleasant.

The school is fortunate to have all the right equipments to work with candy. We got to use guitar cutters to cut our pate de fruit into prefect little squares. It would be very difficult to achieve the prefect shape if you were to use a knife to cut the sticky candy. Believe me, I've tried and I almost wanted to kill myself because it was sticking to my knife and the shapes were not prefect squares. This just goes to show, having the right tools for the right job is a forward step toward perfection.

The Best Candy Caramel I've Ever Had.

2010-07-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

These caramel candy made by the French Pastry School are the best caramel candy ever. Unlike most caramel candy that are too hard or too chewy and they stick to your teeth, these don't. They are the complete opposite. These caramel candies are soft to the chew, compacted with milky caramel flavors, and they don't stick to the side of your teeth. In fact, they pretty much melt away in your mouth after a couple of minutes. -That is if you even managed to keep it in your mouth that long before you chew it all away.

A close up of the caramel candy.. Don't you just want to eat it?

A sneak peak at Chef Scott working with sugar.

2010-07-14T22:56:00.000-07:00

It's always fascinating to watch a chef work with hot sugar to create beautiful pieces of delicate art. Pulled sugar is type of confectionery art that is practiced by many all around the world, and it's technicals theories and hands on skills takes years to master.

I had the opportunity to catch Chef Scott working with pulled sugar one morning before my class started. Chef Scott was kind enough to allow me to observe by his side while he boiled the sugar solution and then proceeded to add the color dye into the boiling sugar. He was testing a new coloring agent to see how it would turn out.

(Chef Scott working pouring hot sugar onto Silpat)

I noticed all the brand of equipment he was using, like the SILPAT made in France. Silpats are very durable when it comes to working with hot substances.Like the green colored hot sugar that Chef Scott is pouring onto the mat. Silpat are 100% non-stick and can withstand a maximum temperature of 480F/248C degree, and they are also freezer safe as well.

If you happen to buy a Silpat or already own one, there are a couple of pointers you need to watch out for in order to prolong the usage of these wonderful, non-stick, heat resistant silicone mats.

1. Silpats should always be stored flat! Not folded.

2. Never use knives, or anything sharp to cut or clean on the Silpat. You will damage the surface.

3. Do not use Silpat over direct flame, stove tops or even on the grill.

4. Always use a soft sponge with a light soap detergent to clean the Silpat, and rinse with water. Then wipe dry with clothe.

5. Never cut up the Silpat into little pieces. Don't ask why. Just don't it!!

Cocktail party on a Saturday Night.

2010-07-11T22:23:00.000-07:00

So I had the opportunity to work with Chef Daniel on a private cocktail function last Saturday night. We catered to a crowd of VIPs who were too rich for my understanding of richness. Long story short, here are the pictures of the food we made and served. My favorite was the lamb chop and the lemon tart made with a recipe by Pierre herme. Butter, butter, and more butter. It's good though- that's until it gets to your heart, that is.

Okay starting with my favorite. Mini Lemon Tart with the biggest black berry I've ever seen.

Tomato Water with brunoise of cucumber and watermelon. Served in shot glass.

Classic French Macarons. We had a few different flavors, but they were all gone before I could take a picture.

Chocolate BonBons. Each with a different unique flavour inside. My favourite was the Cilantro Hazelnut praline filling.

Another winner dish of the night. Southeast Asian Lamb rack with sweet chili plum sauce.

The lamb racks were cooked perfectly and so moist and tender, I had to take a close up shot.

A simple self serve line with beet cured smoke salmon, 4 types of cheeses, dips and sauces.

Pickled yellow and red beets with goat cheese spread and toasty crustini. Chive garnish.

Another Southeast Asian influenced dish. Chicken lollipop with special sauce. It's a secret to me.

There were two other dishes that I didn't get pictures of, but one of them was another winner of the night. It was a tuna tartare tossed in a spiced mayo and wrapped with rice paper and basil or mint, I think. It was served like a maki roll and it was delicous.

2010-07-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

There's just something about wearing a chef uniform, clean whites, blue aprons and kitchen shoes that makes me smile. With every sparkle of an idea, followed by notes of harmonic flavors, and onto the sizzling pan. I am my own creations in the kitchen I dominate. I am free.

Cocktail party night. The Homies.

2010-07-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

Chef Daniel from Mayana Chocolate. @ http://www.mayanachocolate.net/
Me in the middle from the French PS. @ http://www.facebook.com/JackLee85
Two veterens from Charlie Trotters. @ http://www.charlietrotters.com/
Our super nice dish washer dressed in black and always had a smile on his face.
It was a fun saturday cocktail party night. Lots of good music, open kitchen operation and we were rocking out sexy Southeast Asian platters one plate after another. We had spicy tuna wrapped with rice paper, chicken lollipop with sweet chili plum sauce, cumin spiced skirt steak burgers, and much more! Not to mention the desserts, classic french macarons, lemon tart with the BEST lemon cream filling I've ever had and some of Chef Daniel's specialty chocolate Bonbons. Will update with the pitures soon.

French Pastry School Experience.: THE PELAGO RISTORANTE - Chicago

2010-07-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

French Pastry School Experience.: THE PELAGO RISTORANTE - Chicago

THE PELAGO RISTORANTE - Chicago

2010-07-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

A SHORT COURSE IN HUMAN RELATIONS

2010-07-07T21:26:00.001-07:00

A SHORT COURSE IN HUMAN RELATIONS

The SEVEN Most Important Words:
"HOW CAN WE WORK TOGETHER MORE EFFECTIVELY?"

The SIX Most Important Words:
"I ADMIT I MADE A MISTAKE"

The FIVE Most Important Words:
"YOU DID A GOOD JOB"

The FOUR Most Important Words:
"WHAT IS YOUR OPINION?"

The THREE Most Important Words:
"IF YOU PLEASE"

The TWO Most Important Words:
"THANK YOU"

The ONE Most Important Word:
"WE"

The LEAST Important Word:
"I"

The first day of French Pastry School & Orgasmic Croissants.

2010-07-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

First day of Friday Pastry School…. And here it goes…

One of the things I knew I’d have to get adjusted to before even attending this program was waking up early enough to attend school. And yes, I made it on time today. Thank you every much, I think I deserve some kind of treat for today's effort. =D

OKAY! So the first day of school was beyond awesome. First, we had the director of operations, Franco Pacini, speaking to us about the school and their goals. I swear this guy, Mr. Pacini, is something alright. There’s just something about the way he presents himself in front of a crowd of some 70 odd students that just captures your attention to the fullest. He’s quite a witty joker combined with the personality of a motivational speaker, almost like Tony Robbins, except he isn’t as buff and is the French Pastry School version.
I have to say, reading these master chef’s profiles on a piece of paper or online on some website is totally different from meeting them in person. They are way better than I had expected. Being in their presence and hearing them speak of their experiences, and listening to their advices on the first day of school, I already felt honored to be there. (But then again, I did pay about $22,000+ on tuitions) BUT that’s not the point!! It kind of hit me in the midst of our introductions that, sitting in front of me, or even just in the room next to us, are some of the world’s BEST master pastry chefs and world pastry champions.

Note the key words “MASTER” and “WORLD PASTRY CHAMPS”. You dig??

Alright, so cut to the good stuff. We were told that there were croissants baked for us at the end of the class, and that we wouldn’t find any other croissants that tasted as divine as these. Sure. I get that from almost every baker, chef and store owner I’ve been in contact with or worked for. And most of the time, they’re just alright, nothing orgasmic or firework-like. However...These croissants baked at the FPS were something else...

When I picked up the first croissant with my fingers, IT FLAKED! No jokes. It was so flaky on the outside, IT FLAKED. Picture this: It’s as delicate as freshly fallen snow, yah, try picking that up off the ground. This was a great first indication of a good croissant. As I proceeded to guide the finger delicate croissant into my mouth, I felt the outer layers of crispiness crumbling in my mouth and if I had exhaled, flakes of perfectly baked croissants would fly out like gentle snow flakes. And as I began to chew, I discovered layers and layers of soft, moist, buttery richness and right then, before I could finish my first bite, I was hit with a moment of silence.

“Awws shiiett...” I thought quietly to myself. By having THIS particular croissant, this wonderful, perfect, godly created piece of mastery, I knew the FPS instructors were right. And I had hated them for it. I was never going to enjoy another piece of croissant any where in the world that would come close to matching this orgasmic mouth & brain F--K. If I somehow died at a young age, *knock on wood* I hope to die with a mouthful of these croissants. Yes, I have no shame. They are just that good. Hell, I’d even make love to it...But seriously, that’s another story.

BACK OFF! Get your own sandwich!

2010-07-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

This commercial never fails to amuse. It's just THAT great.
Practice it! you might need it one day

Charcoal grilled chicken capraese with Cilentro Mayo

2010-07-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

Another beautiful Sunday evening with some welcoming breeze blowing through our balcony padio. On a day like this, espeically on a Sunday, I want to end the last day of the week off with a light and easy supper.

With the left over charcoal grilled chicken breast that I bought from Whole Foods the other day, I used it to make a simple grilled chicken capraese. Along side with a cilentro mayo, which was made with the cilentro & lime pesto sauce mixed with a spoonful of mayo. Then pieces of toasted ciabatta bread would top everything off.

School starts tomorrow and having to just finished off this delicious dinner, I feel excited and happy. It's going to be great. I can just feel it.

I'll show you mine, you show me yours!

2010-07-05T14:27:00.002-07:00

My knife set and other kitchen tools. Sexy sexy! I used some of these knives for years, and as you can tell one of the longer knives has a shorter width compare to the knife beside it because it has been sharpened enough times. Sooner or later, it is going to become a sushi grade knife.

Lockwood Restaurant at The Palmer House Hilton, Chicago

2010-07-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

Great food, great atmosphere and a price that won’t burn your wallet.

Had the Wild Mushroom soup, the lobster dog with saffron & ginger sauce, and the Sous chef came out to have a nice little chat with us and treated us to his signature dish. Fresh Ahi Tuna, with spiced aioli and Japanese riced tempura! Then followed by a tour of the kitchen.

Amazing stuff ! Thanks Chef ~

italian ciabatta bread with olive tapenade, and caprese salad

2010-07-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

We had no plates and no real utensils, except plastic forks from the restaurants. This is a italian ciabatta bread with olive tapenade served on a paper napkin, and caprese salad in stainless steel mixing bowl. A comedian once made a joke about how he was raped by the prices of this grocery store called, "Whole Foods". I thought it was pretty funnny at first, until tonight... I shopped at Whole Foods and I GOT RAPED.

I bought just a handful of goods, and the bill was nearly hitting $40s !!! #&#*^$ GRR
I could have gotten the same amount of stuff at Food Basics in Toronto for 20 dollars or less.

Anyways!! Anger aside.. here's my version of the caprese salad.

Fresh buffalo mozzo cheese.
Plum tomatoes
English cucumbers
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
Pesto made with cilentro & lime juice.
Basil

The spin off of this classical italian dish, if you haven't noticed, is that I used pesto made from cilentro and lime. The basil was just chiffonade into the final salad to heighten the freshness.

Cilentro & Lime pesto. Brilliant or what?!

Metric conversions, metric conversion chart & table - online converter for US customary & metric system unit measurement conversions, plus currency converter & fractions to decimals

2010-07-03T20:14:00.000-07:00

Metric conversions, metric conversion chart & table - online converter for US customary & metric system unit measurement conversions, plus currency converter & fractions to decimals

NIIIICEEEE... GOOO MATTHH!

180 days in Chicago & 24 weeks of French Pastry School

2010-07-03T01:29:00.000-07:00

What an amazing view of the city of Chicago. I secretly snapped a shot while our plane was circling the sky to get low enough to land. After 2-3 shots, I heard a strange, unfamiliar beeping sound and I looked up only to see a sign lid up.
“Turn of all electronics” Oh crap, they were onto me for sure. lol.

Today marks the first day of my 180 days in Chicago, and the begining of my 24 weeks of enrollment for the Chicago French Pastry School. Am I excited?? Yeah sure, but just not about the $30,000 USD that I will be spending over the next 6 months.

I wish myself LUCK! =D

Back in the Kitchen. Tomorrow, that is.

2010-04-20T18:57:00.001-07:00

So I spoke with Chef the other about my application to the French Pastry School in Chicago, and that before I attend, I would like to return to the kitchen for a couple of weeks to train in the dessert section. Chef was kind enough to allow me to do to, and he welcomed me back with a hand shake. He, then, quickly introduced me to the new pastry chef, Laura, and we chatted for a bit about my experiences in Asia and what my plans are for the next few weeks.

Now, I find myself realizing in nervousness that I am actually returning to the kitchen scene after all these years of OFF scene. I'm worried that, what if I am not as good as I used to be, and that I become an embarrassment at work. I don't know. Maybe I worry too much?

In any case, I start my first day of training in the kitchen tomorrow, and I have no idea what to expect. I hope everything will be able, and I'll be able to manage and pull through. I'm sure if I get through the first week of the training, the rest will be just fine.

Chicago French Pastry School

2010-04-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

I might as well blog it and keep it in the books?

Who would have thought that, I'd be spending $30,000USD on a culinary school.

Yup, that's approximately how big of a hole it would burn through my wallet if I was to attend this school. And attending I am. Although, $30,000USD is surely a hefty sum of money to be investing in a school for only 6 months, (oh, btw, did I mention it was only for 6 months, ops?) I don't particularly feel the burden as yet. Perhaps, I am just that confident in this 6 month investment, and that it will provide me with the proper credentials to earn it all back in the future. Who knows? Everyone's bound to make 1 big mistake in their life time, right? I doubt this would be THE mistake, but if it is, then O well~ I'll just think of it as gambling money that I've saved up over the years for not going to the casinos with friends.

On the other hand, I'm curious as to who would actually be reading this, and who would be the first to comment. Just curious.