semaine neuf.

     After a couple of quiet days at home, I woke up (dark) and early and trekked up to campus for demo. We were going to learn how to make a Mogador, a layered and imbibed chocolate and raspberry cake. The demo was pretty interesting because not only did we learn how to make chocolate mousse, Chef also prepared some chocolate decorations, which we sadly would not be prepping for practical ourselves, but it gave us a preview of things soon to come in intermediate and superior. The cakes were simply but beautifully decorated, and I must also say, delicious (of course)!
     I'm not usually a huge chocolate and fruit fan, but I did appreciate the Mogador. After demo, I changed and headed home to study since our written exam was the next day. I also had my practical to make the Mogador immediately after the test, but the exam was my main focus.
     After some procrastination (whoops) I got a few hours of studying in, mainly focusing on the methods, terminology, etc. that were all a part of it. I woke up early on Friday to study some more before my 12:30 exam and then walked up to campus to clear my head and calm down a bit before the test. Once I was changed into my uniform, I joined the rest of the team in the Winter Garden to go over our notes once more. It was insanely crowded because the entire Basic Pastry program would all be taking the test that day. Generally, our half of about 60 students (A-D) are together, and the other half (E-H) meet up at alternate times. Today, we were all in it together.
     One of the administrative staff made an announcement that they would be splitting the group in two, the first half taking the exam the first hour, and then the rest of us would be let in to take the exam the second. There was a severe lack of organization (unfortunately not a first for the staff) but eventually half of the class made it into the room for the test and myself and my good friends were in the latter group who had to hang out for another hour before we could get our chance.
     We did our best to pass the time, but the first group ran over so we were waiting longer than expected, (about an hour and a half, joy!) but finally got our chance to enter the room and take the test. I felt prepared before hand, but the second I opened the exam, there was a collective hush in the room (it was already silent obviously, but the tension and vibe in the room definitely shifted) and we suddenly felt unprepared. The questions were very specifically aimed at quantities and weights for specific recipes, some of which we had only seen in Demo and had never made ourselves. I was all set for the few questions on terminology and such, but felt slightly hoodwinked since we had been told to not worry on the specifics of recipes since we would always have them provided. Oh well. The exam was (luckily) only worth 10% of the grade and we only needed to get 50% to pass (I landed with a C+, normally I'd be pissed, but this time I'll take it!) and now had the knowledge to better prepare for the written during Intermediate.
      In not the best of moods, our group prepped and made our way upstairs to make our Mogadors. We were hoping for our favorite Chef, or at least our 2nd favorite, since we could seriously use a break after our long and rough morning. Luckily, our wishes were granted, unluckily, Chef had to leave 20 minutes in because he had lost his voice due to a cold, so another Chef stepped in. While
he's also very nice, he tends to be a bit more strict and regimented, particularly with decorations. At the end of the day, the cake came together (I now know how to make a fool proof chocolate mousse, score!) and my decoration wasn't Chef's favorite (surprise, surprise) but the day was over, hoorah!
      Since the previous weekend's shenanigans had left many of our budgets a bit busted, we decided that this Saturday called for a lovely movie night in together. What do a group of Culinary students in Paris watch for movie night, why Ratatouille of course! It was actually a lot of fun to watch after a couple of months of school and getting to know the city better; we watched it through a totally different lens and suddenly lines like "Oui Chef!" are funny. Good times. We also shared a mini potluck, Nora made banana pancakes and Joana made us some delicious Portuguese rice pudding. Overall, the night was a delicious and comforting success. Paris felt that much more like home.
      Once the movie was over, it was pretty late so since Joana and I lived the farthest away, we decided to crash at Goni's on the couch. When we woke up on Sunday, we all enjoyed our additional hours of sleep due to daylight savings starting up the night before and more of Joana's rice pudding for breakfast. We parted ways with plans to try and meet up later to venture out in the afternoon, but after a long week we all ended up staying home and chilling before school the next day.

My Sacristains and Pithivier

Our kitchen's final products

     On Monday, I had another double day with Demo and Practical back to back. It was a puff pastry day, where Chef made all sorts of delicious concoctions including almond cream filled delights. Our dishes for Prac included a Pithivier (Three Kings Cake) and Sacristains (puff pastry twists). The demo dishes were all delicious, and after a small break and grabbing my things for practical I headed upstairs to start baking. The Cake is fairly ornately scored, and puff pastry can be temperamental, but I was very pleased with the final product. The cake is essentially an almond-rum cream filled puff
pastry cake, and it's awesome. We had never had this particular Chef for practical, but he was also pleased and impressed with my cake and made sure to give me an extra thumbs up during grading time. It was nice to have a solid day in the kitchen after a rough couple of days the previous week.
     Today I only had my demo for the Pistachio Chocolate log cake. The recipe itself is fairly straight forward, but the assembly of the cake itself is more tricky so we have been forewarned! The hardest bit will be glazing the cake without cracking or messing up the presentation, so tomorrow I have that to look forward to. Guess I have some piping to practice before tomorrow!