All You Zombies

Nobody was ready to come back to school this morning, that much was obvious. Chatter was at a minimum. Chef Alex set about handing out assignments, and by 7:30, everyone was working, though still somewhat dazed.

My team (under Chef Lorriann, we'd be making bread this week) has been reintroduced as Chocolate and Sugar. First, we tempered chocolate, formed it into slabs, and cut out and constructed free-form boxes. Chef noted that this was the kind of thing you might be called upon to produce for VIP guests in a five-star hotel. Our notes on tempering from Chef Lorriann are worthless, pretty much: Chef Alex prefers that we melt chocolate on the stove, over boiling water, rather than in the microwave. And he doesn't believe in thermometers.

After I assembled my box, I cooked up a portion of sugar for Chef's pulled sugar demonstration. It's sugar, water, corn syrup, and a pinch of cream of tarter, boiled. After it reached 315°, and the bubbles settled down, Chef poured the hot sugar onto a silpat and began kneading it, using the edges of the silpat to flip the sugar, which was still really hot. He quickly formed a rose, a blown ball about 2" in diameter, and a swan. "Looks easy, eh?" he asked. "I will tell you all the things you will do incorrectly." And he did. Tomorrow, we'll try to prove him wrong.