learning from an artisan
I dropped Jeremy off at work today on my way to class. My pastry skills class is normally on Thursday evenings, but today, I was going to be a guest in the pastry arts class. The pastry arts class is the professional program and I was checking it out to see if perhaps I want to plunk down a large wad of cash to learn the ways of the pastry chef. Class starts at 8 am and I got there a little early. I had checked with the staff yesterday to make sure it was still on and also to verify that the instructor was okay with 1) my visit and 2) my camera. She was. The guest chef is an artisan chocolatier and the assistant in my pastry skills class works for him. Chef Will was incredibly friendly and delighted to have me take pictures.
Although we had already gone over tempering and enrobing, the PA class was doing it in far more depth and detail. Plus, it was fantastic to see how differently the chefs teach about chocolate. I learned so much more. Will told me that he is OC, not OCD, because he doesn’t believe it is a disorder. I felt as if I had stumbled upon a group of people who totally understood me. Will said being OC is an asset because, “who wants to eat shitty looking chocolate?” Many of the students asked about my PS class since several had considered taking that instead. I said it was great.
raspberry sugar truffles
turning out truffles, production style
playing with chocolate on acetate
beautiful mendiants
Halfway through class, they let us break for lunch. The school was having an open house lunch, so we were allowed to hop over to the Home Cook kitchen and grab some beer and brats before resuming work on rochers, mendiants, chocolate decorations, and enrobing some amazing toffee Chef Will had brought in. We tried some with smoked sea salt and it was such a powerful combination. Everyone began cleaning up by 3 pm and then tasting plates were passed around to everyone (including me!) along with two wine glasses per person. Chef Marilyn had brought in a Malbec and a wonderful Sauternes-esque to pair with the tasting plate.
artisan truffles from chef will’s chocolatier business
preparing for the tasting
chef marilyn describes the wines
white, milk, and dark chocolates, fruit, truffles, toffee, cheese, nuts, and confections
By the end of the class, I was ready to pick Jeremy up and head home. I felt exhausted. I actually think I would have been less tired if I had actually been pastry-ing rather than standing around for 8 hours holding my rather heavy camera in my hand. I thanked the instructors and said good-bye to the students. They were a fantastically friendly lot. They did ask me to take a group shot for them, even though they have a professional who comes in to do that at the end of their program. I promised I’d drop off a CD for them to get copies of if they wanted. I think they are a pretty close knit group – they are certainly a fun group.
group shot
