Tuesday 20 February 2007

le cordon bleu - day 11

A somewhat interesting day making chocolates; actually I thought the chef was perhaps a little stressed over finishing on time. We managed that alright but there was just something about the way the class was run today that got on most people's nerves. It could've been the fact that the chef questioned us on the nitty-gritty of chocolate making and the fact that we were made to do things slowly and much more pedantically; it just seemed so much easier yesterday to make chocolate. I guess one other thing was that it seemed like the chef was telling us off for doing things the wrong way when we learnt all of it from the chef yesterday. Well, seems like we've all learnt to keep quiet; at the end of the day, you adapt what you've learnt and do what's best for you.



I managed quite alright today. The chef complimented me on the shine of my chocolates; I didn't do anything fancy like some of my classmates did although should time permit, I'll have a hand at it tomorrow (I hear we'll have some time after we make florentines). My chocolates were dark chocolate filled with the assorted ganaches from yesterday; strangely enough my favourite is probably Wattleseed. I'm not quite sure what it is; my cousin tells me it's the seed of the wattle plant but anyhow, the important thing is that it tastes really good! Lol...I actually filled about half my chocolates with Wattleseed...today I managed to make 4 trays (I've been told that that could be worth up to $200!!!).

Other than that, not much else today. A bit of an early mark like yesterday and really, I'm grateful for it. Whilst my body seems to wake up punctually every morning at about 6.30am, I struggle to get through the rest of the day so it's actually a really nice feeling to get home early in the afternoon and rest. On dinner duty tonight so should probably get going on that.

4 comments:

mydi said...

ga you ah jenny! =D its chocolates! =D hmmm.... hving a chocolate shop would b just as good as a patisserie shop. better i reckon. seems less strenuous.

panda said...

far out...you don't know how hard it is to make chocolates! it's not just about getting the tempering of the chocolate right, even just a spec of water can ruin an otherwise perfectly good batch of chocolates...a lesson I learnt today :( not sure if i'm working this week in atarmon but if i am i'll pop by with chocolates :D

Vic Cherikoff said...

Hey Jenny, you are absolutely right about Wattleseed coming from wattle trees or Acacias as they are more widely known.

Wattle seeds from about 120 different species were eaten by Australian Aborigines in the same way as American Indians used corn. That is, roasted and eaten fresh or dried, heat parched and milled to a flour to be made into cakes.

However, the Wattleseed you added to your chocolates was invented by me in 1984. If you want to know more, check out my info on Wattleseed.

panda said...

hey vic! that's awesome! i didn't realise there was so much to the wattleseed and your website has all the info and recipes i need to cook up a storm :D any recommendations as to which recipes I should start on? thanks once again!