Week 5 – Sweet Week !

Plated Dessert Day – Michelin Star worthy ?

With the Bank Holiday Monday and the Friday scheduled as an optional day focusing on an all day lecture  entitled “ Starting a Food Business” many students took this week as a very short one and were in the kitchen for only 3 days. Those 3 days were all based around Sweet things with the Tuesday being a “ Mis En Place” day for the following days highly anticipated “Plated Dessert” event- a chance to show off our presentation skills using various components of sweet products we were to prepare over a 2 day period.

First off though we were to make our own breakfast of Pain Perdu (French Toast  to you and me) accompanied by Pan Roasted Strawberries and Elderflower Sabayon. The task was to ensure we all understood how to make a sabayon and tick that box. I certainly ticked the box as to preparing the components of the dish but gave no thought to plating and basically piled my strawberries onto my toast followed swiftly by my sabayon, which, despite being the right consistency etc, just filled my plate ending up like a cup of sick on a plate. Amazingly my teacher commented that it looked appetising – I had to steal myself wondering if he was being ironic or not. Here’s my effort which I was too ashamed to post on Instagram – especially when I saw the same dish being beautifully plated by other students. The taste was faultless but maybe I would need to up my game “presentation wise” for the big day tomorrow !

The centrepiece of our Plated Dessert was to be an Almond Pannacotta so this was duly made after infusing toasted almonds with a warmed up mix of milk/cream and sugar, then scalded and being mixed with gelatine so that it would set overnight. A quick almond crumble and a Lemon Gel were wizzed up and these would be added to additional sweet things on the following day, including a Hibiscus Meringue and the very messy spun sugar we would entangle ourselves with ! This basically involved making a caramel with the addition of liquid glucose and once arriving at the temperature of 152c having a viscose mix that could be “spun” and made into threads. In theory this enabled you to be as creative as your mind would allow you to be. EG – Making latticed baskets on the back of lightly oiled ladles, coils around Knife Steels, angel hair balls etc. In practice it meant that I was desperately trying to make a latticed disc by spinning the sugar over a Cutter, but the experience was far more difficult and messy than anticipated. It is certainly something that you need practice at, and the schools kitchen is better to do this in than at home due to the mess that ensues and the difficulty of cleaning pans and utensils with hardened caramel encrusted upon them. Having said this I had actually tried at home the weekend before and my kitchen became a nightmare with spoons and pans coated in molten sugar and shards of hardened caramel scattered across the floor – all being cleaned up before my wife came home to avoid EU kitchen crisis talks !

Effectively our Plated Dessert was Chefs choice in that we could decide how many, and how much of the various components on our finished plate as we so desired – providing the Pannacotta was the central theme. We were also provided with fresh apricots and raspberries to use as required. I made a quick Aprict and Vanilla Purée as I has a plating idea that required streaks of a colourful purée on one side of my plate. The end result was something I was quite proud of ( despite the consistency of my purée being difficult to paint with in the way I wanted) and came as close as I could to a dessert you may see in a Michelin star restaurant. Other students also produced some beautiful dishes proving evidence that a relatively small selection of sweets could be presented in so many various ways- an enjoyable and informative exercise.

The only Non Sweet “Cook” we would be preparing during the week was a Focaccia which we had prepared a simple version of during the Beginners Term ( an age ago !) , but were advised this would be more like the real thing – and it certainly was ! Everybody loved them ! Again we had to start the process the day before by making a “ Biga” basically a “Starter” involving flour,water and a tiny amount of fresh yeast that would sit overnight and help to enrich and ferment our Bread with an enhanced flavour.

The following day was a long process involving folding the mix as carefully as possible to aerate it,  proving it, and allowing it to be gently coaxed and oiled into a large baking tray before sprinkling with more oil, Rosemary and Sea Salt, and eventually the bake. The kitchen smelt wonderful as the bread began its baking time and the scent of Rosemary filled the room – we could not wait to get them out of the Oven and try them as we were on a full days cook and nobody had eaten lunch – 16 ravenous Students all clock watching at 4 having spent the rest of the day making Petit Fours. To a man ( or Woman)  I think the breads all came out successfully and thankfully in generous proportions. Some commented it was the best Focaccia they had ever tasted !

As mentioned most of the morning had been spent making Petit Fours which was not too stressful and quite fun. We all had to make Chocolate Truffles individually, Macaroons between 2, and the Table of 4 would make Nougat, Salted Chocolate Caramels, Lemon Marshmallows and a Passion Fruit Pate De Fruit ( basically a Jelly).

Each of us took responsibility for one of these tasks and produced a table of wonderful looking Petit Fours that were also photographed by the School and used on Social Media- one of our students recognising her burnt hands on a Twitter feed !

Other than a Demo the day before on how to make the above mentioned Petit Fours, there were non others during this week as one of the other afternoons had been set aside for One to One discussions with your class Tutor – a kind of Progress Report. Whilst various individuals would have specifics to discuss the overall feedback was again – “You need to up your Finesse” this is becoming the class Mantra and I think we all need to organise a T- Shirt with this slogan for our Graduation Day !

Next week will all be about Wine as the week culminates with our WSET Grade 2 Exam – we have a day off to revise, and a compulsory days visit to, not one, but two Vineyards ! The school (and we ) are desperate for us to pass the exam, and I think are very worried about our chances !