"Dessert can smooth anything out."

Chef Lorriann is used to dealing with culinary students who don't see the benefit of learning baking and pastry. Just like Robert Irving on last night's episode of "Dinner: Impossible", they claim "I'm a chef, not a baker", so she must begin by persuasion. (As for me, my kitchen training began with baking, on the other side of the counter from my mother, so I don't need convincing.) But the Chef has rationales of all kinds (economic, competitive, hospitable) as to why it's important for a chef to know how to properly measure, weigh, and keep time. For example, if you end a meal with a weak dessert, it spoils your whole dining experience, but a poor meal can potentially be saved by a wonderful plate of something sweet. For example, when my wool coat was "dampened" by the burst pipe in Postrio's cloak room, the expansive dessert platter did much to ease my distress. And they had the coat dry-cleaned, of course.

It's all about the multi-tasking. I made the custard base for the creme caramel that I began yesterday, then baked them off; they'll be part of our Friday dessert buffet table. I cut Monday's cheesecake into little diamond shapes, and glazed Tuesday's mousse cakes and cut them into small disks. All will be garnished for the buffet table, also.

Chef Weller stopped in and I told him my idea. There's a school-wide culinary competition in three weeks, for teams of three, and prizes include as much as $2000 per participant towards tuition expenses. The catch, though, is that we need a team member from each of the three programs: Culinary, Baking & Pastry, and Hospitality & Restaurant Management (HRM). But none of our classes overlap, and it's especially hard for those of us who live "off campus" to know any of "them". We need to have some sort of a mixer -- a "speed dating" kind of event, perhaps -- so that we can find some likely teammates. Chef Weller thought it was brilliant. Meanwhile, Andy chatted up some of the HRM girls today who came in to get sample dessert plates prior to service. They weren't interested in the contest, but they introduced Andy to Sean, their "awesome" classmate, and now they're two-thirds of the team to beat.

For dessert this afternoon, you could select the tiramisu with chocolate-dipped biscotti.Or perhaps you'd prefer the sticky toffee pudding cake. Some of us thought the piped whipped cream was a little on the Halloweeny side. "It's not a color found in nature," Andrea opined.And Andy went all out with his peanut-butter mousse. There's a layer of crunch inside, and it's covered with ganache, drizzled with caramel sauce, and garnished with candied peanuts. He took one home for his girlfriend, lucky girl.