Making Moves

Things are about to get real deep and overly dramatic, prepare yourself.

As of Monday, I am no longer with my Mod 2 family, I am now a Mod 3 with scary new students, new subjects, and a new Chef.


"Will little brainy Bobby be the stockbroker man? Can Heather find a job that won't interfere with her tan?"


Pshhh. More like, "Will silly Suzy survive an impatient  Chef John? Can Kat and Kirsten keep up with her antics when I'm gone?" Yes, that just happened.


While my world is currently slightly sideways as I am with new humans and I am starting class about the time I was returning home last week, my final week as a Mod 2 was pretty stellar. 

Look at the happiness.....

• Four day week. Monday was an inservice day, weird, but it came at the PERFECT time as my table service exam was Tuesday morning.
• Table Service Exam. Meh. Even though I transfered with a degree in HRM I still had to test out of table service, it's whatev, it's over. 
• Feast. All week. Bahhhh. I introduced the Northeast to the incredible combination of chili and cinnamon rolls, we had Scooby-Doo waffles, and pesto and prosciutto pizza. Now I'm trying to get fit.  

• Big learning week. Chef Matt is pretty legit, I guess.... No, but really. Last week he let me come in early and helped me on laminated doughs, as the only experience I had with them was during my practical exam and I wanted to be prepared going into Mod 3. 
• An additional learning moment, and a fairly devastating one at that, I was making cookies and Chef Matt came to the oven to see their progress and reacted with, "Oh gosh, those are horrible"-no kidding. It was rough. They spread like gossip on campus (which is worse than high school, bee tee dubs). I have never failed at cookies-the most basic baked good known to man, yet I had made chocolate chip frisbees rather than the soft, sugary dumplings I adore. I scaled down the recipe and paid particular instruction to the procedure and I failed once again. It was truly tragic. Long story short-I literally woke up with an epiphany, I had used cake flour rather than all purpose flour, idiot. 
• A fun farewell bake. Kat and I helped Tyler with the breakfast pull and multitasked with a dance party, it was fantastic. In addition, I slid on some sneaky muffin batter and fell into Chef Matt branding him with a blueberry handprint right in the middle of his whites, a surefire way for him to remember me forever. He sure is a lifesaver...

Chef Matt, Kat, Kirsten, and Suzy

Sophia Grace and Rosie...Super Bass

Happy Birthday Suzy!! And yes, those are stir stick candles and yes, he is lighting them with a torch.

While I do preface entering into Mod 3 with a dramatic saga about my departure from Kat, Kirsten, Suzy, and Chef Matt, it has been a very educational week. I begin Mod 3 with Cakes and Tarts, a 6 week class starting at 5 am and ending with a lecture/demo at noon. I am now accompanied by 10 classmates and Chef Phillipe. Each day we rotate onto a new task with the ultimate goal being to fill the bakery showcase with aesthetically appealing and tasty cakes and tarts. 


Week one, so far:

• Monday. Production: 23 Chocolate Chiffon cakes, lemon curd, chocolate lecture, and a new alias: Anna. Chef Phillipe also has an accent, although his is a bit more pronounced.
• Tuesday. Thanksgiving production: 28 Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecakes, Biscuit Jaconde with orange strips, and Chocolate piping demo. 

Times 28

• Wednesday: Thanksgiving production: Lemon Mousse Cake with Black Currant (Black currant gelatin insert, lemon mousse, biscuit jaconde, black currant glaze, and candied lemon garnish) cake assembly, cake catastrophe--5 meticulously assembled cakes were lost to a little nudge of a rolling rack by a classmate, I survived and carried on with my task- cake assembly round 2, mini lemon mousse cakes with my extra product. 

The inside of my cakes without the lemon mousse

• Thursday: Decoration: chocolate garnishes (my first experience tempering chocolate-it was a success, Chef Phillipe complimented me on it prior to knowing it was my first time!), candied lemon zest, candied lemons, black currant glaze, final assembly of my Lemon Mousse Cake, white chocolate spraying on my mini mousse cakes for texture and then garnishing them, and a buttercream piping demo.

Not at clean as I'd like, but "pretty neat huh"?

• Friday: Filling and coating eclairs, made raspberry and passionfruit pate de fruit and packaged them for sale, and helped with tiramisu. Lecture consisted of a chocolate tasting. What did you do in school today?

I am hoping that with time I will be as comfortable with my new classmates as I was with my amazing Mod 2's. But if not it's NBD, quiet boss-time never hurts. 

On another note, My Friend arrives very very soon and we are very very excited to tear up the Northeast. On the agenda:

• Burlington for dins and to see Champ- Lake Champlain's river "monster", I'm sure he's friendly.
• Church, Ben and Jerry's, Cider Mill, Cabot Creamery. Super tourists
• Birthday Dinner at Positive Pie with Tyler and Lizz, then cake.
• Dinner at NECI on Main, with wine, duh.
• ROAD TRIP!!!! Dinner date and slumber party with Bailey Meeee-ler!!!!
• MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE!!!!! boom, knocking things off the bucket list!

I. CAN'T. WAIT!!!

Delirium

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, "Delirium is sudden severe confusion and rapid changes in brain function that occurs with physical or mental illness"........or with overnight baking.

Over the past two weeks I have been partaking in NUMEROUS learning moments and instances of delirium, made possible through "Artisan Breads" and the magic the happens when the clock strikes midnight......Cinderella doesn't get all the excitement. 

Spending extended time with my blockmates and Chef Matt has allowed us to gain further insight into points of weakness with which we can ruthlessly torture each other. Chef Matt has a sense of humor and minimal sympathy, which can be misconstrued for having no heart.... however, his ability to provide an enjoyable work environment has eased the pain of the overnight bake-onset delirium.  Kat's unfathomably high metabolism has her taking mis-shaped bread and leftovers to munch on.....which Chef Matt translates into nourishment for her family, "Remember, Kat has a family to feed". Kirsten's grace allows easy access for jokes, she often "falls off her shoes" and lets the mixer cage "slip". Suzy's Suzy-ism's are priceless and provide plenty of entertainment, "I saw a streetsweeper once". And the continued abuse for my "accent" has proved to be classic entertainment to apparently withstand the test of time. 

The soliloquy I was asked to recite for their entertainment, any word with an "en" or "n (in)" results in a little chuckle. 

Furthermore, the discussion of the creepy security guard, Chef Matt's fear of the Midwest (his fear roots from BTK which he explained to Suzy to be Burgers, Tacos and K-esadillas), and potentially postal people, combined with exhaustion, has resulted in paranoia and elevated anxiety upon our departure in the wee-hours of the morning. Pumped up kicks.