Plated Desserts (Chaos)

Today was dedicated for making a few things to plate today and tomorrow, then set up stations and plate a few different desserts. Unfortunately, Chef G wasn't on her game today and we ended up with a quite unproductive, disorganized class. Well, you can't just pin it on the Chef, a lot of the students tuned out because of disinterest in the subject matter, while others were in their usual haze.

Four teams, each got assigned a few things, for some reason my team only got assigned one thing -- milk chocolate panna cotta. After a few words, we got the go ahead to make vanilla panna cotta, but it still only took maybe 20 minutes, and we had an hour and a half to get through.

Milk chocolate panna cotta, easy peasy. Milk, cream, gelatin, half a vanilla bean and milk chocolate. Sprinkle the gelatin over the milk, wait a few minute for it to absorb -- looks like brains growing on top of the milk. Bring cream to a boil with the split vanilla bean, turn off heat and let steep. After a few minutes, combine with the gelatin mixture. Turn on high heat, add chocolate till melted. Pour into cups, cool and refrigerate.

Long Island Lolita was assigned to head up our team of four and she went to help make tart tatins for another team (oval silicon mold, with layer of caramel, fruit (pineapple, apple, banana, etc) then a piece of puff pastry. When cooked, flipped out so caramel and fruit on top. Natasha and I cooked up some caramel (water and sugar on the fire till brown, finished with a solid amount of butter.)

When we finally got around to plating, Chef went around and gave some pointers -- odd numbers always look more interesting on a plate, too symmetrical is boring, choose ice creams and sauces that make flavor sense with the main attraction, always like the main element be the main element, etc etc. Reminded me of many of the art directors I've worked with over the years. Here are a few of the things I slapped together:

This is a glass full of layers of cake and pastry creams, topped with merengue, torched.
This apple tarte actually tasted pretty gross, but the vanilla ice cream (made with beans, not extract) and the caramel sauce was kickin' it.

The caramel of the banana tart tatin brought out the texture of the fruit, and the 1-2 punch of the caramel sauce and the caramel ice cream was a serious menage a trois in my mouth.

Not very porny, I know, but was not feeling particularly inspired with all the grouchy team members and scolding authority figures around. Tomorrow is another day of plating and the last day of pastry, before a battery of tests of Friday.

ADDENDA:
Went to a demo by chef Michael Schlow, cooking recipes from his new cook book. He owns and runs six restaurants, one of them 4-stars, and to have him cook for me (and 19 other students) personally was a treat. I had forgotten what this demo was about, so I made a big bowl of pasta before I went. Used the tomato sauce I made over the weekend, a mash-up of my dad's sauce and Mario Batali's. I sauteed some shrimp in browned butter and a little garlic, hit it with a little mirin and damn if it wasn't the best shrimp I made at home yet.

Then I sat in on this demo, and the chef basically made a simple tomato sauce with salami, white beans and olives that tore my pasta a new one. Mine was 'good', maybe even servable in a cheap red-sauce joint. His pasta had so much heavy, starchy, fatty stuff and STILL tasted balanced, bright and delicious, even though I wasn't hungry at all.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good yogurt and milk, blueberries, cherries, grapes, banana, flax, dash of sea salt, ice.

AM TASTINGS: 9-11:30am, caramel ice cream, banana tart tatin, caramel sauce, hazelnut sponge cake, handful of chocolate, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
A full meal of sweets, I can't wait to start cooking real food again next week.

LUNCH: 2:15pm, large green salad with a handful of sesame stick pretzels, half glass of sauternes with a small piece of cheese, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 4:45pm, rigatoni with shrimp and homemade pasta sauce, grated parm, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM TASTINGS: 7-8pm, 4 pieces of creamy mushroom crostini, pappa al pomodoro (tomato and bread soup), rigatoni with soprasetta, white beans and olives, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5