How to make a $10 plate

It's all about the garnish.

Chef Lorriann showed us some sugar tips today. First, she made caramel by melting sugar and water together. She cautioned against using too much water, because you need to boil it all away, and the more you have, the longer it takes. You should make a slurry (regardless of what the recipe says) of just enough water to coat every grain of sugar. And once it starts boiling, NEVER stir it, but wash down any crystals that form on the side of the pan, using a wet paint brush. The caramel will continue to cook well after you remove it from the heat, so pull it off just when you begin to get some color.

An alternate method of making caramel involves no water, and lots of stirring. Just pour the sugar in a pan and heat it over a low flame, stirring all the while. It will clump at first, then the whole mass will melt. It's fun. But a word of warning: melted sugar is VERY VERY VERY VERY HOT.

Chef demonstrated making some twigs and curlicues and other fanciful decorations, and she used a nifty sugar tool to make spun sugar, like cotton candy. Then she made some of the same decorations using isomalt, chemically modified sucrose that melts clear, so you can add food color and go crazy. It comes with a warning label, though, for some potentially unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects.

The whole episode reminded me of a Saturday afternoon when Adam was still at home, a young teenager, and we watched Jacques Torres make wispy domes out of spun sugar. Adam was determined to decorate our dessert with similar constructions, and so we did. That same evening, while David entertained Cassandra and Gabriel in the living room, Adam and I poured all the different kinds of alcohol in the liquor cabinet into little dishes, and tested them with matches to see which would ignite. Science in action.

Today's kitchen work was much more pleasant and organized than yesterday, to my great relief. And I can see what kind of a class it will be: we each get an assignment, and then another one, and then another one, until it's time to clean up. If you're inclined to do one thing all day long, that can happen. If you want to do bunches of stuff, that can happen, too. Today I made red velvet cake (somebody will decorate it later in the week), then worked on some middle steps of a layered mousse dessert. I melted dark chocolate, then spread it thinly on a sheet-pan-sized piece of chiffon cake. Oh, but first, and this was cool: I rubbed off the top surface of the chiffon cake, using my fingers -- it all sort of beaded up -- which is just what it would do if I tried to spread chocolate on it, so you take it off first to avoid that problem. The chocolate layer will be the bottom of the creation. I covered the chocolate with parchment paper, then flipped the whole piece back into a sheet pan, then covered the other side of the cake with mousse -- half of the cake with raspberry, half with mango. The whole thing went into the freezer, and tomorrow somebody will continue the construction process.

I helped pleat some pie dough over rhubarb-strawberry filling for tarts, then joined most of the class in assembling today's three plated desserts: first, saffron pannacotta with poached apricots and a honey tuile.Then, chocolate tower cake, filled with chocolate ganache and coated with chocolate and mocha glaze.Finally, the tarts, with a crumble topping. We plated the desserts and left them ready for today's wait staff to pick them up as ordered during lunch service.