New Year, New Quarter

Fresh new year, and a fresh new quarter. I am optimistic about this quarter for two reasons: first, we no longer work in teams on our bake shop rotations, so we each are responsible for planning and completing our own baking; and second, the French chef is back (he was out on the injured list last quarter). He is very strict, very knowledgeable, and enormously patient in teaching and demonstrating (as long as he knows you are paying attention and trying to get it right... otherwise, look out!). I can already tell that the bake shop is less chaotic and also is cleaner than last quarter, even though we have more students that ever (16 in second quarter and 17 in first quarter). No fires yet! There were two last quarter, so you can perhaps see why it's an improvement having him back.

Eight of my original nine fellow third quarter students have returned, and we are joined by two other women who were once a quarter ahead of us, but who decided to take a quarter off. So there are ten of us, still all women. The Gang of Ten! I have some good academic classes this quarter: sustainability, nutrition "for culinary professionals" and a baking theory class that's all about chocolate. We again have five, two-week long rotations. My schedule (order of rotation) is:

Plated desserts
Cakes
Tarts
Bread
Doughs

I've completed the plated dessert rotation and am happy to say it went well. For third quarter, we make two desserts each week, and if they are good enough ("good" means both tasty and beautiful) then they are served in the One World restaurant (the higher-end restaurant of the two the school runs). Here are two of the desserts I made, so you can get an idea of their nature. This is a mini version of a classic French cake called Le Fraisier (The Strawberry). The little cake includes pistachio sponge cake, fresh strawberries and vanilla mousse. I finished it with fresh strawberries and a strawberry-balsamic semi-pris (a lightly jelled sauce).



This next one isn't as pretty but was very tasty. It's mocha panna cotta, with whipped cream made a bit tart with creme fraiche, and a caramel rum sauce. Dark chocolate curls for decor, plus a little cocoa powder to make it fancy-schmancy.



My other two desserts were a sort of deconstructed Black Forest cake, and a cassis cake with frozen vanilla cream, coated in thin caramel. Neither of those photographed well (I blame the photographer) so you'll have to use your imagination.

Last week and this week I'm making European-style cakes (lots of thin layers of cake, mousse, cream and/or jam or jelly). Also we made four kinds of chocolate ganache in theory class, and will be making chocolates this week. Fun!

Summer Quarter

It's summer! The pastry program runs for five quarters. You can start the program in any quarter... except summer. That's because summer quarter has the same class schedule and program for all students, no matter which quarter they just finished. This year we have nine first quarters (my fellow students), nine second quarters, and 12 third quarters. It's a pretty easy (and easy-going) schedule for summer: there is a theory class Monday through Wednesday from 7:30 to 8:20, and bake shop rotations Monday through Thursday from 7:30 until 1:50. Classes run for 8 weeks.

Once again, the bake shop work is done in rotations. They are: Wedding and Celebration cakes; Sandwich bread, sandwich making, and preserving; Rustic desserts (like pies and cobblers) and ice cream; and Petits Fours (both sweet and savory). We also have one field trip to the Skagit farm, which happens on the Monday of one's Sandwich rotation. Each rotation is six days, and we always work with at least one (and up to three) partners.

Unlike the Culinary students, who spent the whole first week in the classroom, we started working in the bake shop right away, though our formal rotations didn't start until Wednesday. On Tuesday, we made a huge batch of Royal Icing (egg whites, powdered sugar, and an acid (we use lemon juice) to make the icing whiter) and practiced various kinds of decoration by piping onto cake pans:



My first rotation is Petits Fours. I have one partner, a second quarter student. We're both pretty quiet and serious so are getting along very well. On Wednesday and Thursday we did prep work for two kinds of sweet petits fours: Pistachio petits fours for which we made pistachio sponge cake, pistachio pasty cream, and butter cream (into which the pastry cream is incorporated); and a fancy little cake called "Rising Sun" that involves black tea and blood orange infused sponge cake, black tea mousse, and a fancy candied orange lace decor. We'll put the cakes together on Monday, then I hope we will have time to make some macarons. For this rotation we spend three days on sweet PF, and three days on savory ones.

I have no finished cakes to show yet, so in the meantime, here is a view of the Chocolate Room in the bakeshop (yes! a whole ROOM for chocolate work):



This photo is looking into the chocolate room from the main baking kitchen. There are stainless steel counters and to the right, out of view, another long steel counter, the cool/dry storage for chocolate, and a blast freezer, among other specialized bits of equipment.

A very good place to start

After months of preparation and anticipation, I'm ready to begin the process of transforming myself from a software engineer to a professional baker. Professional Baker! I can't say it out loud without laughing. However, I've registered and paid for Spring quarter, which makes it all seem much more real. I have my food worker's permit, and have signed up for the "highly recommended" student accident insurance (knife skills are one of the first things we learn...) and I have my first quarter class list:

BAK 101 Introduction to desserts & breads
BAK 111 Desserts/breads practicum
CUL 106 Culinary arts theory
CUL 151 Sustainable food practices
HOS 101 Customer service practicum
HOS 110 Principles of sanitation
MIC 102e Excel for culinary students

The customer service practicum is "by arrangement" and consists of working a few hours each week at The Buzz, which is the school's coffee-and-pastry shop. Most of the food created in the culinary and baking programs is sold at either The Buzz or at the two full-service restaurants run and staffed by students. The schedule for my other classes will be:

Day	7:30-8:50	9:00-9:50	10:00-1:30	2:00-3:30
Tue	BAK 101	CUL 106	BAK 111	HOS 110
Wed	BAK 101		BAK 111
Thu	BAK 101	CUL 106	BAK 111	MIC 102
Fri	CUL 151		BAK 111

Classes start April 8th. I will go up to school tomorrow to be fitted for the student uniform: chef's jacket, trousers, cap and (of course) aprons.