Changes.

Hello!! 

My sincere apologies to the readers of this blog; it seemed I've disappeared right from the face of this earth after my study stint in Bangkok for my Le Cordon Bleu diploma...but I assured you guys, that's not the case!

When your journey at one point of time ends, you'll be hustled along by Life to proceed on another journey in no time at all - and that's how Life informs you, that time, waits for no one indeed! 

Ever since I've got back home after Graduation, I took a short 3 weeks break, before jumping right into job hunting and eventually decided to start working at Paul's, as a Pastry Commis in their main kitchen. The hours was long, the pay was reasonable, the work was more on production, I had so much fun with my colleagues pushing ourselves to the best of our limits to complete orders before the delivery period and at the same, challenge ourselves to ensure great standards and I, take great pride in my work. 

Lemon Meringue Tarts - I've learned to pipe meringues and completed the assembly for 47 tarts under 20 minutes!

Chocolate eclairs with shiny, even chocolate glazed by yours truly! One of the few things I've done at Paul.

But alas, after two short months, I decided to move on because of the conflicting schedule.

The working hours was taking a toil on me; I was working at what was commonly known as; the graveyard shift - working from midnight to about 10am in the morning. Though the off days was good; 2 days off while we worked for only 5 days/week, I found myself just completely drained of energy. Basically, I wake up straight and head to work straight, with no appetite for dinner...worked till 6am in the morning before we have our first break (and have lunch/breakfast, whatever you want to call it), and then after work, head back home to catch up on sleep.

I wasn't able to tell for myself, but my hubby was upset that I looked haggard and like, a walking zombie.

After a while, the internal office decided to change the timing to 4am in the morning; and that's when I realised...I'm a married woman with other responsibilities. With that new time change, I won't be able to see my hubby at all, or any one else, for that matter, because by the time I have finished work, every one else is still working and by the time they are free for dinner, I have to sleep. I did gave the odd hours a try, but I ended disrupting my hubby's sleep time when I have to wake up in the morning at 3am just to prepare for work at 4.

It just wasn't working for me. I had to go...I'm already so burnt out by the first timing, and I just can't take the second timing.

It hurts me to move on so fast from my first workplace because it was like a dent into my dream of carving out a career. However, I felt like I bit off more than I could chew; I should have started small somewhere else, before jumping onto the big time scaled production and at such odd timings too. It's little wonder that my body had a hard time adjusting to the reversal of day and night.

Nontheless, I've learned so much from the short two months under the guidance of Chef Franck and my colleagues who grew together with me - things that school alone isn't enough, and I will remember these experiences well at heart and bring it forward to the next place I will set foot at.

To clear my head and for a short vacay, Ben made plans for us to visit our sister-in-law and her kids in Perth, Western Australia. He also made bookings for us to go on a two day one night road trip to Dunsborough for a resort stay at Pullmans Bunker Bay Resort and Hotel.

We had so much fun just taking in the fresh air and spent some quality time together away from the bustling city life, but the break was just a short getaway after all, and we were soon back at home again - this time, with me starting a new job at a quaint cosy pastry shop while Ben scoots off to start his two week long reservist duty.

And that's what brings me here - typing this ultra long post in real time, after a good 4 months or so.

When I first went to school, my learning objective was to fully immersed myself in the world of French Pastries; understanding the basics, picking up the skills of making a good batter; folding it right, incoporating ingredients right, respecting the ingredients etc, to assembling the entremet and finally, decorating the entremet. It was all so delicate, so beautiful, so pristine.

I remembered that I wanted to document my journey, to one day be able to churn out beautiful cakes like those I've seen from the Internet, books and so much more. 

Until today, I've come to realise that, my objective has not changed one bit, but the choices I've made - will it lead me to where I eventually want to be?

Yea. Decided it was a right moment to slot this picture taken by Ben when I was just really gazing out into the Indian Ocean; a picture to depict this very moment I am feeling; lost, vast and yet strangely at ease.

Till date, I'm stuck in a situation whereby I dread going to work because despite doing what I like to do, it is not all roses and sweets - it takes two hands to clap; the environment must suits you, and you are able to work efficiently and adapt well to it AND the team must be right. I feel bad and ashamed for realizing it real fast; for giving up so fast, but I know clearly what I want, and I think that's the only way to just keep growing and going. Until you find a place you know will challenge you in a good way and you grow in a good way too. I felt bad, I felt confused and lost - but yet, by admitting to a certain extent on what I need, what I want - and that I want to be happy...I'm just being honest and real to myself.

What I am saying is, it's okay to feel this way. It's the same, when you have just graduated from school and looking for a first job; you don't have to be hard on yourself for moving on so quickly because it's a life time commitment; you will have to spend the next few years working anyway, so choose wisely and make those next few years of hard work count and amounts to something fulfilling.

You may not be a good fit for this company, you may just be a great fit for the next. So long as you don't stop and refuse to move on.

With that, I guess it's time that I stop feeling bad and guilty and get back on track, working towards what I want. Thank you for being here with me, reading this space. I will be back soon with some exciting news, I hope! :)

Pardon the awkward pose! Wasn't sure if Ben was taking a picture of me or the view, haha!

Cheers! 

Baking - Minions and Chocolate showpiece

Aloha!!

I'm here to update the demonstration carried out on 18 - 21 Nov..I know I've lag behind by almost 2 months! Give me time to upload my photos, gather my thoughts before I update my blog. Thank you!! 

These few weeks has been so much of a whirlwind ride!

I've been spending like 3 practicals = 9 hours to complete one chocolate character and a chocolate showpiece.

Believe me, even with all that time given...it just wasn't enough.

Here is the disassembled parts of this cute little minion with the mustache and mohawk hairstyle. The clothing and all are made out of plastic chocolate, which is something like fondant, but is stickier and can be set using cold spray.

Then, the body of the minion is made out of yellow coloured white chocolate in a huge egg-shaped chocolate mold. White chocolate is always trickier as compared to dark chocolate to work with, because it sets really, really fast. Plus, humidity sets in rapidly too, so we have to work really, really fast.

Chef also made a wonderful blossoming rose out of plastic rose, using the flexible knife to fraiser the ends instead of using our palms. It looks so real as compared to using marzipan. I wish I can do that one day!

Here, we have the lovely chocolate minions done by Chef and his assistant. Greedy little minion holding a mini banana! How cute!  

An old man version next to a rock & roll minion.

Alright, enough of the minions done up by Chef and his assistants! I'm pleased to present to you, our SP (B) family shot!!
 

It was one of those classes where we had so much fun! Or rather, I had so much fun! And seriously, look at everybody!!! There's a surfer, a tai-tai version wearing pearls and earrings...Mew's harry potter, a baker carrying a baguette, Charmaine's "itching to get beaten" face...

And then, there's mine!!!

Looking all so excited to devour that piece of chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherry! I spent too much time trying to roll out the attire for my minion, and Mew helped me with the shoes. HAHA! Thanks Mew!!

They see me rolling, they hating!!

Next up! It's the demo on Chocolate showpiece - for our term this time, we had to do a chocolate box, with some exotic decoration on the top.

Chef Fabrice did this lovely chocolate box with a nice piped heartshaped cover.

The above chocolate box is the one we have to do...complete with a curved lid, odd egg shape centerpiece with some white chocolate 'straws' and white chocolate eggs which is coloured with green, red, yellow cocoa butter.

Here, we learned the recipe and technique of creating our own silicon mould using gelatin, with which, we used to create the indent found in the egg. 

I liked this the best, with the white chocolate corals, stars and some cut out fish shape...it's like a 3D chocolate aquarium. =D

Then, during the second demo for the week, Chef Fabrice showed us the different ways of creating flowers using different techniques. A fish knife, by spreading on the chocolate sheet and cutting into long triangles after that...etc...

Here's a closer look at the different type of flowers, the left side is done using the method of cutting long triangles, and on the right hand side, the petals is created using the flexible fish knife.

Moving on, here's a look at my dreaded piece of work!

There's so many things I could have done better! Like, the lid - I didn't managed to 'cut' the chocolate mold in time because it set too fast, and hence my lid didn't have the lovely curved texture. Plus, there wasn't enough time for me to complete the things we have to do...I even had to borrow the 'straws' from Tip, who was piping extras but because I felt extremely imposing on her, I didn't take much to cover the base of the egg structure. =(

We also did some of the white coloured chocolate mini eggs, but somehow, the class didn't have enough, so we ended up sharing the halves.

And the flower...oh my god. I've never had any issues with my chocolate flowers, but I screwed up big time during my chocolate showpiece (of all times!!)!! I chose to make the petals using the fish knife method, and when I started to assemble my flower, I realised that I have made all of my petals sideways, and none of them was straight, resulting in a flower that had 'wrap' petals, creating the look of a close flower instead of a blooming flower.

Which is, of course, a big no no! *le sigh!*

Last but not least, the egg!!! Dunno why there is this horrible after mark on the surface, which, most of our eggs has it, perhaps it will be better if we had a chance to air spray coloring over the chocolate. But at least this was my only saving grace! The egg hold up, was of the same size and the exterior looked alright - according to Chef Willy, that is! HAHA!

Oh well! After this whole entire eggy fiasco, I can finally move on and do something else - Sugar that is!!

Till then!!

Baking - Panna Cotta, Chocolate Bonbon & Loy Kratong

Hello!! 

I'm here to update on the demonstrations being carried out on 11 Nov - 14 Nov, and touch up a little on my first ever Loy Kratong (Which I can remember) in Bangkok!

First up, Chef Willy did the demonstration on sugar free plated desserts - the Boule Mystère and the Red fruit panna cotta.

The  Boule Mystère consists of a dark chocolate shell filled with chocolate mousse, layers of sable breton, topped with a gold leaf covered chantilly quenelles and finally covered with a red sprayed chocolate dome - which looks super exquisite, and is super duper tough to make; because you have to be really patient and careful while creating the holes so that the shell doesn't break. 

It's sugar free because the sugar is replaced with Manitol, a type of sugar suitable for diabetic patients to consume. 

Next, we have the red fruit panna cotta - which is a personal favourite of mine; I'm always ordering the Panna Cotta in Osia, a restaurant at Resort World Sentosa; their panna cotta is super creamy and delicious with a generous serving of red berries compote.

This Panna cotta is filled within two white chocolate shells, which has two spheres of frozen strawberry and raspberry sauce, presented on a sablee breton disc, sprayed with pink and white spray and finally...decorated with fresh raspberries, rose petals and pulled sugar rings! (More on that later!) 

Meanwhile, I would like to express my heartfelt major thanks to James and Por, the two wonderful assistants who helped create these beautiful miniture desserts for tasting! Super cute isn't it!!!

Presenting to you, my Red fruit panna cotta! 

With plated dessert, we can actually play around with the decorations! Here, I created the red sauce look using a drop of sauce and smearing it with a spoon - the easiest and simplest way to dress up a plate. Chef mentioned that the drop of sauce can be slightly smaller though. HAHA!

My first attempt at pulling sugar - creating rings after rings of pulled sugar. We were all wearing gloves, heating up our hard lumps of pulled sugar in the microwave when it is too cold. Quite fun actually, and the heat from the hot sugar is also quite bearable. =)

The next few lessons will be more on sugar, where we will try to present our first ever sugar showpiece! I'm quite excited but I know it's gonna be a mad rush! Just like how my chocolate showpiece practical went (More on that on the next post!)

Closer look at the chocolate spheres with a nice panna cotta center! Well, you do know that because this is a plated dessert, we get to dig in after presentation right? HAHAHA!

Last look! It could be better in terms of plating! I will just keep improving and improving through practicing, I supposed!

Next up, we have the Chocolate Bonbon for the next two demonstrations! On the first day, we had Hazelnut Praline and cinnamon ganache and Cappuccino Ganache.

The Hazelnut Praline and cinnamon ganache is type of chocolate bonbon with a praline bottom, topped with cinnamon infused ganache, and chablonnage with milk chocolate bottom, and left to set outside over night in a chocolate room so that it sets well and proper and retains its creaminess.

It is quite a beautiful flavour, with the cinnamon spice kicking in after, complimenting the taste of hazelnut.

Then, we have the cappuccino ganache, which is filled inside these beautiful shaped chocolate bonbon molds!

Chef also decorated it with some modeling chocolate flowers, jelly, transfer sheet, etc.

Here's a look at my Chocolate Bonbon! I chose to do heart shaped because it was my hubby's birthday and I wanted to send him some love! HAHA! 

The chocolate mold is sprayed with red cocoa butter, with a little gold powder, filled with chocolate, remove maximum so that the chocolate shell is thin...filled with the ganache and then covered with chocolate and let set with a plastic sheet over the back so that its shiny!

I took the chance to make a chocolate dish using a technique I learned from a book; Working with Chocolate. It could have been better if my chocolate threads was piped slightly thicker, because more than half broke off due to the connecting "threads" being too thin.

A look on the inside! The bottom chocolate should be slightly thinner, but as this is the first time we did chocolate bonbon with mold..I didn't know how to gauge how much more of fillings I should have piped. =P
 

Next, the last demonstration for the week is still on Chocolate bonbon, but in the form of doing chocolate bars with different fillings! 
 
 

Here, we have the crystallized hearts, which is made with pastillage (made from gelatin powder and SQ icing sugar, mixed together till it forms a nice soft dough, which can be rolled out), and soaked in candy syrup made of water and crystallized sugar for nearly 4-5 days.

The result of that is sugar crystals forming around the heart, creating a beautiful, sparkling crystal heart.

Then, we have the chocolate bars with dry fruit/nuts! Chef advised that by adding dry products like fruits or nuts to chocolate, it can help prolong the shelf life of the chocolate product.
 

Next, we have the Caramel Passion fruit ganache (which was a super hot favourite!!), filled with passion fruit puree, and decorated with colourful cocoa butter dye. It's like graffiti art!! I love the look and fell in love with the taste, the sweetness of the white chocolate is reduced with a nice sharp tangy sourness of the passion fruit!

I would make this bonbon when I'm back! 

For our practical, we have the chocolate bar with vanilla ganache with tonka beans! Tonka beans is a type of spice that is commonly used in perfume making, and is super duper fragrant. It has the fragrance of Vanilla, and hints of cinnamon, if I am not wrong!
 

Last but not least, Chef created a sample piece using left over nuts and chocolate, rolled between two bubble wraps, let set and randomly cut to sizes! These chocolate bits are equally delicious, and can be samples for little kids and adults to try.

Presenting to you, my chocolate bars with vanilla ganache and tonka beans! =D 

It's a pity that my chocolate set a little too fast upon pouring, and hence when I scrapped to remove the excess at the back, my chocolate wasn't smooth at all, instead, having these wavy curves. =(

Oh well, after the usual school week, I had something to look forward to, on Sunday! It was the Loy Kratong Festival - where we apologise to the Mae Nam (Mother Nature/water) for polluting the water, and in this water latern, we put in a coin, a clipped nail and a strand of our hair to symbolize washing away our bad fortune so that we have good fortune in the coming year!

Some of the beautiful Kratongs available for sale! My friends, Jane and Mew and myself, took a Tuk tuk down to Asiatique, where I've heard that the people in Bangkok usually head to, to release their kratongs. We took a tuk tuk instead of the ferry because boy, the whole place is super crowded and packed! The traffic jam was 2 hours over from the main road to the Asiatique itself!

We count our lucky stars that the Tuk tuk driver knew the shortcuts. He was speeding all the way though, and we hanged on for our dear lives! It was also a good thing that we reached our destination in less than half an hour.

This is my Kratong! I initially bought another kratong with roses and all, but it was a mistake! The kratong was made with a foam bottom - and this was made with a coconut tree disc (I think), anyway, something organic that won't harm the sea lives in the sea.

 Jane, Mew and myself! 

Sorry for the blur photos - taken with my phone. 

Lovely, lovely kratongs! Besides these lovely flowers and leaf type of lanterns, there was also lanterns made out of bread, biscuit, etc!

There was so much going on, there was a night market along the road for a food fair event, we also had dinner at a nice live bar restaurant place right next to the ferries wheel. It kept raining water droplets though, because of the condensation from the ferries wheel.

The journey back home was super tiresome! We were stuck in traffic on a tuk tuk for 2.5 hours! There was two lanes, but one of the lanes was occupied with party goers (What the hell are the pavements for!!) and there was this one stupid car who occupies two lanes! And the rest of the other cars doesn't even honk or anything. This continues for another 45minutes or so. Like seriously?!

When I finally got back home, I had a major pimple from the pollution. =(

Ah well! At least I had fun! =D

Alright! That pretty much sums up my wonderful week! Next up, will be an upcoming post on my first ever chocolate showpiece! I'm dreading to show it actually, because I could have done so, so much better. Oh well!

Till then!

Baking - Shot Glasses & Molecular Snicker plated dessert

Hello guys!!!

So sorry for the lack of updates recently! I know, I've been like 3 weeks late with my updates and all, plus it's only less than a month till I fly back home for good!!

There's so much going in the recent weeks of school, but yet, if I run it through, you'll feel like there's nothing much!

First up! Allow me to cover the practicals and happenings from 6 Nov - 9 Nov'13!

Basically, we had demonstrations on shot glasses and some basic molecular plated dessert - which in this case, Chef Fabrice dissected a snicker bar's components and have it assembled on a plate.

First up, we have the Mont-Blanc Shot Glass, which has swiss meringue on bottom, covered with vanilla white chocolate whipping cream, topped with chestnut mousseline and pear milk chocolate jelly.

I liked this so much because of the sweet, creamy chestnut. =D 

Next, we have the cream cheese & raspberry jam shot glass; which has layers of light almond pistachio biscuit, with red fruits compote and topped with creamy au fromage blanc.

Chef decorated it with hues of red, from the raspberries and the rose' petals, making it oh so romantic! 

Then, there's the chocolate shot glass, which is made with chocolate flourless biscuit, feuilletine, topped with two types of mousse - the cocoa bean mousse and light dark chocolate mousse, and topped with a layer of chocolate jelly.

The translucent looking decor is made with cocoa nibs, which is baked on glucose in the oven. It's really pretty, but super sweet and bitter. 

Then, we have the apricot panacotta shot glass to round up the demonstration for shot glasses. There is the apricot compote, jelly, creamy dark chocolate and filled with panna cotta mixture. Chef decorated his with mini macarons and gold, just to give it a little shine.

After this demonstration, I have new respect for chefs doing the desserts at buffet tables. =D

Here's a look at my chocolate + Panna cotta shot glasses! We were able to decorate however we like to. 

 

The peach slices was torched with a blow torch to give it a little smoked edge.

Then, there's my chocolate shot glasses, which I've decorated with pink rose petals (because that's all that's left in the prep room) though I would love to have red instead, because red makes dark chocolate stand out!

Check out the different layers of the mentioned components! Pretty, isn't it? 

For the last demonstration for the week, we had the molecular plated dessert done by Chef Fabrice!

The demonstration was pretty dry, my interest was fading quite rapidly, because most of the works has to be prepared in advance, and most of the components was created using Nitrogen.

However, molecular cuisine is quite interesting if you love science and physics.

Here's a closer look at my plated dessert! 

As the shape of the plate is different from Chef's, I plated the dessert to suit the plate and not have too much of an empty part of the plate showing - something which I've learned from one of my dessert books.

Closer view - there's the white powder; which is milk powder, the brown powder is the praline powder, then there's the peanut caramel balls, chocolate Gianduja (I can't remember which was this).

The 3 drops on the plate is actually a sweet caramelized milk sauce. 

The melted weird looking thing is chocolate foam dipped in Nitrogen, instantly freezing it and giving the frozen look. The dark coil thing is strips of chocolate jelly, which we called it chocolate flexible.

The dark flat pieces is actually a type of dark chocolate meringue, dried in a dehydrated machine till it's super crispy for about 24 hours. Then, beneath it, are cubes of chocolate biscuit. On the right hand side, we have the caramelized white chocolate sorbet.

Does it taste anything like Snickers? I would say, "No.".

However, like what Gordon Ramsey always says on MasterChef, "It's a bloody good effort!".

Then, on Saturday, we went for dinner at Long Table to celebrate Wei Chuan a.k.a Panda's birthday! 

I *ahhem* specially bought entirely new outfit for the dinner - because it's smart casual,and the initially planned clothing was not suitable, in fact, what's left of my 3 months worth of clothing is only T-shirts and jeans and one pink shift dress from Topshop; which is way too formal.

HAHA!

On the bright side though, I super love the prints!

A shot with Charmaine - the only person I can speak Singlish to, in school. HAHAHA!

Another shot with Charmaine and Way; who has completed his wine course and all! Pretty impressive! He's a pretty nice guy and certainly does not look like his age!! (Hint: a year younger than as Ben!) 

The ambience at Long Table was nice, but that's about it. There's fixed menu for food, but I didn't like the food at all, it wasn't impressive, and definitely not worth the $2200 I was paying for. But hey! The company more or less made up for it!

With Panda, the birthday boy! 

A group shot after the meal - a mixture of pastry and cuisine students! Chef Marc and Chef Willy came as well, but I didn't managed to take any photos with them. Went straight home because I was dead beat!

Next up, I have a post coming up on Chocolate bon bon, my chocolate character, my first Chocolate showpiece (which was a disaster!) and more on my exam theme!

Stay tuned!! =D