Sunday, December 2, 2007

I. Mertner

As the time for my departure from London grows near, I feel like I'm realizing what I'm going to miss most...Iain. I've never been good with kids, and I know Mamta knows that, as whenever Iain says "lets play this!", I'll usually make up some excuse for why I can't play with him and not appease him. He's an amazing kid in that, he usually doesn't expect attention 24/7 and doesn't need someone to play with him all the time. And when you say no, he pouts for about 20 seconds, and then is back doing his own thing, independent as ever. I see my friends coming over and being so patient and friendly with Iain and it makes me feel a bit guilty. I know I have a low patience threshold for people, but I don't want to be so selfish that I can't even cater to kids!

Somehow, he's decided to like me, and I've realized it more recently, as more people have starting living at the Mertner residence. Antara and Rachana are around, and are definitely more receptive to his random calls for attention and his need for someone to play with him. Except somehow, whenever it's time to go to sleep, he wants me to put him to bed. Maybe I'm taking it to be more of a sign than it really is, but I think he likes me!

So the reason why this is weird is, apparently I've never told Mamta that I miss California, even though I complain to her about anything and everything. I have enjoyed my time here in London but have no qualms about leaving soon. I guess that means that I'm not very attached to any place, or thing, in particular. Right? Except for the first time, I'm feeling this dread about leaving London, solely because of Iain!

A couple things have really done it for me in the past couple weeks. So when you put Iain to sleep, you have to read him a story and then sing him a song. When I came in July, I sang him "Tere Bina" from Guru cuz it was my favorite song, and it seemed melodious enough to put someone to sleep. So I kept singing the same song over and over, because I heard from the rest of the Mertners, that they all sing him the same song. After singing him the song at least 20 times, one day, he says "I like this part", at a certain point in the song. After that day, every time that same part comes, he dances along to it. Not only that, he sings along to the song when I try to put him to sleep!

Speaking of putting Iain to sleep, the other day, after eating a MASSIVE amount of chocolate, which he justified by saying in his adorable British accent, "But I just can't help myself, it tastes so good!", I took him to brush his teeth and go "wee-wee". He was being so difficult and just playing around and not wanting to do any of it. So after struggling for about 5 minutes, trying to convince him to actually go to the bathroom, I said "Iain, I will count to 10, if you don't go wee-wee..." Immediately, before I even reached "2", he was on the toilet going to the bathroom. It was so natural for me to pull such a mom-type tactic....it was so shocking!

Anyway, I guess what I've learned in the past couple weeks is not only that I'm gonna miss Iain like anything, but also, maybe having kids isn't the most scary thing in the world? They seem wonderful...as long as they're as well-behaved as Iain is. Let's hope I can actually do as great a job of bringing up a kid as the Mr. & Mrs. Mertner have.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Roses are Not Always Red

We've finally started making things I actually like, which is probably not a good thing for my escalating weight. In three days, we made three different cakes--chocolate with hazelnuts and a chocolate ganache and glaze, sponge cake with a raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream, and a black forest cake. This cake segment of the class has given me more confidence, because I'm not always the last one finished and I'm decently good at some of the techniques. We had an "assessment" on the day of the sponge cake. We had to finish the whole cake in 2 hours, instead of the usual 3! I realized through that experience, that pressure is what gets me to get the job done. We all weren't talking and just moving quickly while focusing, and I was the first one finished!

Also, I've decided who my favorite chef is in school. He's another French guy (surprise, surprise), who does both pastry and cuisine. The first time we had him as our chef during a practical was about 4 weeks in, and he was great because he was interested in knowing about all of us. On Thursday, a bunch of kids from school went to the closest pub from school (literally 50 feet away), and Chef Loic also joined us for some pints. He asked me if I wanted to be a chef, which is really an awkward question when coming from a teacher, because I don't want them to think I'm not serious about the course. I ended up telling him that I'm getting my Ph.D. in astrophysics and was hesitant to see his reaction but he was very supportive! He said he really thinks I should get my Ph.D. because I can always be a pastry chef later in life, but obviously, the time to get my Ph.D. is now. It was just nice for him to have been supportive and non-judgemental about my decision to not become a pastry chef when the course is finished.

On another note, I've become really antisocial and lazy lately. I have no motivation to leave the house or hang out with other students. Partly, it's because it's been raining, but for example, this Saturday I was asked to party with two different groups of people, but couldn't get myself to go for the life of me. Eh, I guess it's just a phase, but part of me thinks I should be taking advantage of being in London and hanging out with the new people. Then part of me also thinks I'm only going to be in London for a month longer, and it's been so nice spending this time with the Mertners, let me just keep doing that.

Oh and...I made a rose from marzipan, and it actually looked like a rose!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Quality vs. Quantity

There seems to be some sort of 4 year cycle that occurs in my life. So it has only occurred twice, but it's still worth noting. I've always been one to accept that people come in your life for some time and leave without reason.

I guess I can give the example of high school, since I still am in the process of going through that second cycle. I definitely did things differently back then. I had lots of people around me at all times, and not too many of them really close to me. As we all became distant, physically and mentally (some of us decided to mature, some didn't), what was left for me was less than a handful of close friends. As I'm good at repressing unwanted memories, I'm sure it was difficult letting go at the time, but now I'm more than happy with the couple people I'm still close to from high school.

This time around, in college, I decided to get to know fewer people and build stronger friendships with them. I assumed to a certain extent that since I didn't keep around many acquaintances, it was assumed that these friendships were to last.
Yet again, distance is always a test, and even this time around I'm experiencing the realization that some people are in your life only for a limited amount of time, however close you thought you were to them.

I don't think it tells me that I obviously wasn't as close to them as I was to those friends of mine that survived the test of time, it tells me that friendship isn't as selfless as people make it out to be. I believe, to a certain extent, that people are selfish, and I find that there's nothing wrong with that. After all, you first have to make sure you're happy before you can make someone else happy. Which is why I'm so amazed at mothers. I can't imagine ever being so in control of my life that I can give all my attention to another being who is that helpless and solely dependent on me. But I'm digressing. Where I'm going with this is that friendship is two-way. I've come to realize that those friends that don't pass the test of time were probably just there because you needed them to help with a certain aspect of your life and they needed you. As you both change and grow out of that stage, you don't feel the need for each other. It's a rational and detached way of thinking about it, but maybe that just helps me to accept the reality of losing friends.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Lemon Cake and Italians

So it's been a pretty busy last couple days. I had my hardest day at school, followed by a nice Diwali dinner, and then a trip to Milano to visit Vale and then Venice with Shikha.

Let's start with my hardest day as of yet. I knew getting into it that it would be difficult because we had 3 separate dishes to do in 3 hours--almond cake, lemon cake, and madeleines. And yes, I thought of Sapna Didi the whole time as I was making the lemon cake. So I started off quickly moving around and trying to get everything done, but things really slowed down during the lemon cake. I swear, there's some sort of curse with lemon cake, as I'm sure Sapna didi will agree. We had to cream the butter and sugar, which requires the butter to be at room temperature. So if you start with butter at fridge temperature, you have to work it a lot more and every now and then put it over heat so that it just gets warm enough to beat, but not too warm that it starts melting. Anyway, I don't know if anyone cares, but basically when I tried heating it, it would start melting so I just tried to whisk it vigorously until it got softer. I swear I beat it for at least 25 minutes and finally got somewhere. After that, anytime I made the beating motion, my arms were killing me! So we ended up finishing 10 minutes LATE...which is absolutely terrible. Plus, we didn't even get time to decorate our cakes. And in the process, I burned myself twice. Not really my fault but mostly because everyone was rushing, they'd have their hot trays out and during one of my mad dashes to whisk something or add some ingredient, I would touch the hot tray. The lemon cake tasted good in the end. I'm sure the almond cake would have been good except that I didn't like the dense texture of it. The madeleines were also good, except that the pattern from the pans didn't really show up because apparently I didn't butter the pans well enough.

Ok, enough about school. Now...the weekend! Me, Shikha, and the Merners all went to eat Indian food at a local restaurant dressed in our desi clothes. Even Iain wore his cute sherwani! Then I went to Milano to visit Vale...who decided to completely be a failure friend. I had Dick's phone number and Vale had told me to call him when I get in, so he could tell me their address. I don't know why she didn't just give me the address beforehand. Anyway, obviously they had had a ridiculous party the night before from which they got home at 6 a.m. I landed at 10:45 a.m., called Dick around 6 times and homeboy decided not to pick up. I kind of just sat around at the airport wondering what to do for a good while, then found a computer, hoped that Vale was smart enough to send me their address, then remembered she's an idiot. Finally, Dick called and of course I was expecting Vale on the phone but it wasn't her, but was chirpy and friendly Dick saying sorry and that he can't wait to see me. Vale...not so stupid...knew she should get Dick to call or else I'd yell at her. Haha, by the time I saw her, the anger had worn off. Smart Balls.

Mostly, I walked around the city (it was a gorgeous, sunny day) with Vale, got some great pizza, and then went out with her, Dick, and their friends at night. There ended up being around 5 other I-House people at the party we went to. Crazy! Everyone was speaking Italian most of the time and I felt like a little kid who disturbs their mom, mid conversation. The problem was, because I didn't understand the language at all, I wouldn't realize that Vale was having a conversation, and would randomly start talking to her. She'd turn to me and be like 'hold on' and I'd realize how rude I was being.

Anyway, next part of the weekend...Venice. It was pretty cold, but sunny, so it was still beautiful. Eh..there's so much to write about, but a couple interesting things occurred at one of the bars at night. Somehow the Bangladeshi waiter decided to take me back into the kitchen and I chilled w/ the cooks and they fed me French Onion Soup, after giving me the recipe. Then I asked the owner of the bar for a job working as his pastry chef and initally he said yes, but then said no cuz he couldn't afford it. Then next, I started talking to these people next to us because they had IPhones, and they were from Miami. Somehow I started to talk about America and Iraq to one of them, and obviously didn't realize he was a Republican until halfway through the conversation. Nonetheless, it was interesting giving my opinion and hearing his, since I would never bring up that subject if in a normal state of mind ;-).

Then the last day, I spent walking around Venice on my own because Shikha had already left. It was pretty funny getting awkward reactions to "table for one", but I got used to it and started embracing the solitary existence. Of all places, being alone in Venice is definitely...interesting. I mean, it was funny enough that other than Shikha and I, everyone else at a restaurant was coupled off. Venetians were definitely not used to seeing a tourist alone. That's why a lot of times they'd start talking to me in Italian, assuming I was a local who could be caught dead alone.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Doctors and Chefs

Sometimes I like to compare myself to a med student. When I roll out of class to the grocery store in my uniform, I can't help but think about how it's similar to when doctors do the same in their scrubs. The uniforms, in some ways, are similar too. It's likely that both uniforms are stained with unidentifiable liquids of various colors. Not as much for a pastry chef, but a cuisine chef is definitely bound to have animal/blood remnants staining their clothing. Difference is that doctors' are stained with human artifacts. Oh right, so are chefs'--depending on their proficiency with knives.

But anyway, I think one of the best parts of being a student in this field has got to be this. Most people carry pens in their pockets because who knows when you'll need to jot something down, right? Us...we keep a spoon in our chef jacket's pocket. Cuz you know, who knows when you're gonna have to eat something!

Monday, November 5, 2007

A piece of black plastic...

My god....I'd have to admit to it right about now...best meal of my life. I used to say that it was one from France, near Bordeaux, but this one just owned it. This restaurant was a 3-star restaurant and back in 1999 (or something like that), when the E-Coli bit hit, they decided to rid their menu of all meat. So they basically specialize in vegetarian food! Great for me and the fam. So before we even ordered food...they made us try about 5 different....I don't even know what to call them. Basically it was bite-sized finger food...but soo gourmet. It was all centered around some vegetable....radish, butternut squash, beet roots, etc. Then we had like 5 courses after that..and you know..you can't even describe what you're eating...which is what makes it so amazing! My mom cooks really well and usually can decipher tastes, and I try to decipher tastes as well, but you have NO IDEA what ingredients are used.

Anyway, what was really nice was, at the restaurant, a couple next to us decided to ask us where we're from. They were from Mexico, so I'm guessing that they thought we were Mexican too. The wife loved America and we bonded about how we don't like that people are so uptight in Europe. But lets get down to it...this guy was rolling hardcore. When he was paying his bill...I noticed that he had an American Express Black Card. Anyway, u basically get that card if you are ridiculously bankish...so being intoxicated as I was, I said "so..i notice you have a black card...how did you get that?" and he's like "oh they just gave it to me!" Crazy. Anyway, however bankish they were, it was nice to know that they weren't rich pricks...which is the case for a lot of those rich ones in France.

I bonded w/ the waiter about how much I love that the French take their food so seriously.
The black-card friend of mine apparently knows 10 of the 15 3-star chefs in paris....right...remind ME to roll w/ him. The chef at the restaurant came out and talked to our friend and I was so awkward. Seriously, it was like the guy was a celebrity. I mean, he really was. I know none of you think so...but he's a 3-star chef...of which there are about 15 in Paris. He really IS celebrity status. *sigh* Anyway....good night in Paris.
I visited Le Cordon Bleu Paris, and it's more high class than the one in London. I can't believe I'm gonna be living in Paris in a couple months...a little bothersome. The French scare the crap out of me. Ugh... I'm probably not making sense right now but it's cuz of the really great wine we had tonight....basically...AMAZING night. Goodnight!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Whistle While You Work

So after my epiphany that I would like to do all 3 courses and get certified as a pastry chef, we had an absolutely ridiculous technical demo. This demo is the type in which we just watch and learn the techniques and hope that one day we'll be able to do them. Anyway, Chef Christophe made Chestnut Charlotte and a Chocolate Fig Tart. The Charlotte is a German dessert and is just extremely tedious. The chef had a huge bowl of batter and spread a thin layer of it in a pan, put it under heat for 2 minutes, then added another layer, and repeated the process until all the batter was used. It had to have been about 50+ layers. I'm sure it tasted amazing, but WOW...that's dedication. He didn't fail to mention though, that to actually get yourself to do this, you probably should be extremely depressed and bored out of your mind.

Anyway, yesterday I went to a pub and met up with some friends from school and there was this chef who had his own catering business there. He was talking about a wedding he was about to cater and we literally spent half an hour discussing the entire menu. I had always said, when I entered Lawrence Berkeley Labs, and joined in the 3:30 p.m. tea time, that it was so exciting overhearing conversations about the formation of the universe, galaxies, and all astrophysics talk. This is the same thing. All conversations that take place are food-centric and it's really just nice to get into the nuances of foods and recipes. For example, I've heard so many people describing the excitement and rush they feel when they cook their own stock-- "And then you keep reducing it, and reducing it, until it's just so flavorful. And it's made all from scratch."

I've started feeling somewhat of that rush when I'm in a practical. After hurrying and scurrying across the room for the past 3 hours, not knowing whether the dish would come out right, it feels so fulfilling seeing that the hard work has paid off. What's interesting is, I don't have the inclination to try the dish because I've realized that when it comes to these classes, unless you mess up terribly, the pastry will probably taste good, it's about getting it to look good that's the problem.

By the way, Chef Christophe is borderline insane. Not only does he sing and whistle loudly while working, he talks to his pots, pans, food, etc. Apparently the food tells him when it's ready to be taken out of the oven. I think you gotta be somewhat crazy to be a pastry chef with the lifestyle, and this Frenchie seems to be a perfect example of that. Maybe I should rethink that decision of doing all 3 courses and subjecting myself to the insanity. Hmmm...nah...I'm loving it.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Vive la France!


So I think I'm starting to get a hang of this whole pastry school business. We had a wine class which taught us about how wine is made, how to taste, etc. We were to taste 6 wines. It was 4 p.m. and there was so much wine, that all of us pretty much filled each of our glasses. I mean, free wine! The college student in me still can't say no to free alcohol. Anyway, by 6 p.m., we were all pretty gone. Fun times ensued.

So I've decided to do all 3 sessions of this patisserie program. Two things solidified this decision for me. First, I found out I can do a session in Paris. They don't offer the advanced course in English, but the beginning and intermediate levels are taught in French, but simultaneously translated in English. Second, Friday was an awesome day at school. We made a "Bande Feuilletee" which is basically a puff pastry with pastry custard and fruits. It turned out really good! And by that I mean that it looked nice. I didn't even try it but was really just happy about how it turned out. And the crazy French chef, who is really hard on me usually, said "Fantastique!" I came home to show mummy and daddy, who are in town, and they were really impressed too. And I'm not trying to show off about how amazing I am or anything, cuz I definitely don't have a knack for this, but it's just amazing how much they can teach you to do in just a short amount of time! Dad gave it a 7 out of 10 in taste. Not too bad for a start. Mom was actually able to eat one of the things I made that day as well because it didn't have egg. She gave that a 10 out of 10, but I think that's because she can never eat dessert. Kind of a biased party.

So at first, the reason I had decided not to do all 3 courses was cuz that would mean I'm pretty much in school from now until June 2008. But coming here, I realized, it's not hardcore school like Berkeley. I mean, I have about 2-3 days of a school a week and can do whatever I want otherwise. And back in America, yeah it'd be nice to see my friends...but let's not kid ourselves...how many do I really have? Those that I do have will just have to wait I guess. Or...come visit me in Paris or Sydney! Yay!

I'm really excited for the next two cities though, because I feel like London was an easy move. I'm living here with family so it's really comfortable and a lot like home. Going to Paris will be different because I'll be alone, without family, in a country that speaks a different language! It's high time I throw myself in the deep end.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Plating and Finishing


Today we presented our creme brulee and creme caramel. The presentation of the brulee was just torching the sugar on top. I was pretty proud of my creme brulee because although one would think it's pretty easy to torch the sugar, there was a trick involved. We were to first torch a thin layer of brown sugar, and then another thin layer after that. Because I've made creme brulee before and had Daddy Bhardwaj to critique the top layer, I knew that it was easy to burn the top, and if you made the layer too thick, the whole dish would be too sweet. So taking that into account, I ended doing a really good job of getting the right proportions. The chef had been tasting, critiquing, and grading our dishes and mine was pretty much the only one which wasn't too sweet or burnt. Yay!

For the creme caramel, we had to decorate our plate like it would be served at a restaurant. I was stressed out because I'm totally not artistic and kept seeing people next to me doing extravagant things with their plates. I stared at a blank plate for about 10 minutes before even attempting anything. We had some sauces and fruits and little "tuile biscuits" that we made to garnish our creme caramel. I tried a couple different things with the sauces, which proved to be too complicated and difficult for my untrained hands. I realized that I shouldn't try to be overly ambitious in my artistic abilities and just do a simple design that was worth presenting. In the end, I was pretty happy with it!

And finally, I decided to make this blog a little more exciting by adding a picture. Soon to come...me in the ridiculous chef's garb.

Friday, October 19, 2007

If it boils, it's dead.

So today was creme brulee day. Exciting, since I know it's easy and it's about time to show the chefs that I know what I'm doing. It's really weird, as I'm sitting in class waiting for the chef to start teaching, I get this odd rush of excitement. I think it's just weird for me to realize how something I find FUN can now be taught in a class and taken really seriously.

So our task was a creme brulee and a creme caramel (which, uh, I didn't realize was flan until it was taken out of its mold during presentation day), along with a couple sauces. We worked with a partner, and things were going really well with our creme brulee. I'm usually one of the slower ones, so it was exciting handing my creme brulee to the chef to put in the oven before the rest of the group.

Ok, let me back up a bit. There's a new sherriff...errr...chef in town. Today we had the other French chef teaching us. He's a scary guy, but oddly comical at the same time. I mean, the guy sings hip-hop songs in a French accent. And not just any songs, but the ones with odd lyrics. Someone asks "Where's the ice, chef?", and he starts singing "Ice, Ice, Baby." And while he's walking around doing his rounds, he's singing "Baby if you give it to me, I'll give it to you..." Mind you, all with an impossibly strong French accent. So strong that half the time you think he's speaking French when he's speaking English. And the other half of the time, he really is speaking French, and assuming you understand that he wants you to stop beating the egg.

So even though the creme brulee went well, I really think I do stupid little things to embarass myself and show myself to be a little slower than the rest of the gang. Then I gotta play the "Oh right. I'm stupid. Haha" bit. I hate that bit. Reminds me of high school during basketball when I sucked so I decided to just be amusing to the coach about my retardation on the court. (Ok, pastry school isn't that bad) The stupid thing I did this time--I still don't really understand what the problem was, but nonetheless, Chef didn't like it. "Khoo did thees?" asks the chef, as I'm facing away from him. He repeats his question again, and I finally notice him at my station, holding up a piece of butter. Oh god, do I really have to own up to this in front of the whole class? "Do you cut through a pizza box when you cut yourself a slice of pizza?" Mmm...takes me a second to realize what he was saying. I cut the butter with the wrapper still attached to it so as not to get the whole butter in contact with air. Apparently not the thing to do.

So things were a little more high stress than I would have expected with easier dishes. But, then came the Creme Anglaise. For those of you who don't know what that is, its a vanilla sauce that pretty much tastes like melted vanilla ice cream. What you do eventually, is add hot milk to an egg mixture and put it on a flame until "the foam disappears." At demonstration, the chef said "If it boils, it's dead." I found that funny cuz it was so dramatic. Didn't realize it would happen to me. The egg separated from the milk on the stove and I was left with scrambled eggs and milk, so I had to start again.

So much for an easy day!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Nourishing Dreams

I just had this odd realization the other day. I think, every night that I dream, at least one of my dreams involves food!

The realization occurred when Anna said, "Sometimes food smells bad but tastes good." I couldn't think of an example supporting that, so I asked her for one. "I had something yesterday that smelled bad....or wait...I might have dreamt that." So I laughed for a second and said "wow you dream about food." Then I realized, the night before I had dreamt about enchiladas and how there were no refried beans at the grocery store. Clearly, I'm missing my Mexican food.

We've been eating pretty early here at Mamta didi's place, so I'm sometimes hungry by the time I sleep. That obviously would be one reason for the food dreams. Last night, I had a midnight snack and wasn't hungry at all when I went to sleep. Again, dreams of white truffles.

All this talk of food is making me hungry. I think I'll go make myself some lunch.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Lattice Failures

Working as a pastry chef in a restaurant, you're usually the first person in the kitchen to prepare doughs and other things that you need to use later in the day. And since you're working with dessert, the last (and best) part of the meal, you're also the last one leaving at the end of the day. Today's practical only showed me 3 hours of that environment and I was absolutely knackered (hahaha...there's my pretentious attempt at adopting British terminology). Antara and I once cooked for 7 hours straight, but the difference was that at least we would have a couple minutes here and there to rest our feet and sit down. Our kitchen doesn't have any place to sit and not a moment goes to waste. If one item is put in the refrigerator or oven, we start work on something else.

We made a Puff Pastry with Poached Pears and Almond Cream using pre-made dough, and started work on our own puff pastry, made from scratch. The fresh one takes a couple days to make and can be frozen and used in the future, so we will finish that on Thursday. Poaching the pears was fine--we made a sugar syrup and let the pears simmer for a while. Although initially when adding the eggs to the almond cream, it curdled, the chef helped me rectify the situation. Rolling dough is definitely a difficult task for me, but the worst was when I was putting together the whole thing. The top layer of the pastry was to have a nice lattice design made by a lattice cutter, which would then be gently placed over the rest of the pastry. Obviously a delicate task, and I completely screwed up. The dough was all over the place tangled up and the chef just looked at it, then at me, and chuckled to himself. He told me to put it in the fridge before we put it in the oven and I asked, "will that fix it?" He responded in his thick French accent with, "A fridge doesn't do miracles." Anyway, it was so demoralizing because I had worked for 3 hours getting all the separate pieces together for this pastry, and at the end, although I knew it would taste good, it looked like crap. Plus, it didn't help that most of the other students' lattice looked pretty good.

Since Friday, when I had my last class, I've been pretty much hanging out at Mamta didi's place. Saturday, Shikha also came over and me, her, Mamta, and Anna had a girly night of watching House and Love Actually. I think Anna was a bit amused at our drunken antics and our love for Hugh Laurie (Dr. House) and then Hugh Grant as Prime Minister. Both named Hugh, both hot. That was my attempt at alliteration, by the way.

It's been awesome just watching tv (House and BSG), eating good food, and relaxing. The weather's been amazing in London but still, I just enjoy spending time at home. I don't know how it'll be when it's cold and rainy out. I'll really not want to leave home at all!

Oh and, I found out that the Paris Cordon Bleu only teaches in French. Guess that's out. Looks like Sydney it is, then?

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Fruit Salad

Wow. First day. So much to say. The course is set up so that we have a Demonstration in which the chef makes a given dish and teaches us the necessary techniques. Later in the day, during the Practical, we do just as the chef did in the Demonstration (or attempt to, in my case). The head pastry chef of the school taught us how to make a fruit salad today. Fruit salad...easy, you would say? It took me 1.5 hours to make a frikkin fruit salad!

As I entered the practical, I was really nervous for some reason. The chef told us to take out our knives and the utensils we would need. I was shaking as I took out my knives-- not so safe when dealing with brand-new Wusthof knives. Somehow, I was the last one to take out all my utensils and made the whole group wait a little. What a great first impression to the chef. I could just hear him saying to himself, "Ah, so we've identified the straggler in the group." (except he'd probably be saying it French)

So you must wonder why it took 1.5 hours to make a fruit salad. As we all cut the fruit, it seemed like we had never cut an apple or pear before in our lives. The technique was so particular. Peel the apple, quarter it, then cut each quarter into thirds and dice them in equal pieces. Each fruit had its own technique that was different than the way I would cut fruit at home. We also made a sugar syrup to toss the fruit in, with vanilla, cinnamon, lemon zest, and cloves flavoring. At the end, we needed to present our fruit salad to the chef and he would critique us and grade us on our dish. I was told that "some of these pieces are too small. Fruit salads wouldn't have such small pieces." and "The pieces aren't evenly sized." Oh and obviously, with no artistic fiber in my body my decoration was so ugly.

Other than the intensity and excitement of the first practical, I was really inspired by the chef who did our demonstration. A couple things she said really stuck to me. She told us that if ever, she woke up and didn't want to go to work and wasn't excited for the day of work ahead of her, exactly that day she would quit her job. It was pretty surprising to think of the passion that she has for her work and made me really think about how so many of us don't have that for our careers.

Speaking of passion, it was amazing meeting the fellow students. It's so awesome to meet people just as obsessed with food as I am! All we did was talk about food and cooking (I learned how to make sour cream...yumm!). One kid turned out to be an 18 year old who had dropped out of high school at 16 and didn't want to be a complete burden on his parents, so he decided to take a job as a dishwasher in a kitchen of a restaurant. He slowly moved his way up and realized he really wanted to be a chef. Now, working in the kitchen of a restaurant as a permanent career choice is signing up for long 12-16 hour days in a stress-filled environment. As Chef Julie put it, "the kitchen is no different from other fields, the same office politics, but with knives." Haha, imagine that. So apparently, you pretty much have to be somewhat crazy to throw yourself into that. Yet all these people I met wanted to do just that.

I've always loved meeting new people because they give you different perspective on life as they all come from different backgrounds. Recently, living in the I-House, I've met such amazing people who have really helped shape my views on how to lead my life. Although they all came from different backgrounds and countries, the one thing that kept them all similar was the importance they held for a college education. Here, I met people who dropped out of either high school or college to pursue their passion in cooking. And, usually I would be shocked at why someone would drop out of high school, but it was so refreshing to realize that not everyone has to follow the prescribed path that we're so used to seeing and that success can be achieved in different ways, for different people.

I don't like to completely throw out the option of ever pursuing pastry professionally as an option because who knows where life will take you. Chef Julie told us all to "figure out what you want from this course" and I'm trying to do just that. All I know right now is that I want to work really hard and change that first impression I made on the chef.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Mind Boggling

Tomorrow is my first day of school. This past weekend I went to Edinburgh, Scotland with the Mittal Family. They've adopted me as their 3rd daughter :-). We all had a great time...got to do the sightseeing thing and hit up the pub too! Sanjay Uncle was officially given the title of a "Scotch Connoisseur" by a bartender at a pub. Pretty impressive! I tasted different scotches with uncle, of which the last one ended up tasting like a bathroom.

The way Sanjay uncle has gotten the title of a connoisseur, he has pretty much given me the title of alcoholic. As I stood in front of the store "Fat Face" taking a picture with the sign, Sanjay uncle points to the store "Lush" and asks, "Vaishali, don't you wanna take a picture with that sign?"

Last night I finally made it out to Mamta didi's place. Mamta didi made an amazing pasta and we played Boggle! The first time for me actually. It was just me, Mamta, and Anna playing and was going pretty well for my first time, until Allan came home. First round with Allan there, letters were pretty bad so I got 1 point and Allan got around 6, I believe. Next round...boom...the insecurities are in full swing as I see Allan to my left, head down, writing profusely. When times up, I decide to read mine out first, just to get the pain over with. Somehow I did get 1 point for a word starting with a letter that Allan "didn't even get to yet." And Allan's score?

43.

That is absolutely mind-boggling.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Rising in the East

Did you know, the word "orient" meaning "to find one's position in relation to new and strange surroundings" came from the fact that sailors used to navigate by first fixing their position on the Orient, or the east? I think I read that from "Life of Pi." So I had my first day of pastry school: the much-needed orientation.

As I walked the 10 minutes it takes to get to school, I had hesitations. Are the students going to be overly competitve? Or worse, are the instructors going to, at any chance given to them, tear apart my work? Apparently, this shouldn't be a worry though, since my dear friend Charitha didn't let me forget that "you paid your way into the program...they won't do that." Sorry Sballard, the essay you wrote to get me into p-school apparently doesn't hold that much weight.

Upon entering the orientation room, I was struck by two thoughts. First, staring me in the face was a tray of assorted pastries. It somehow calmed me to realize that however difficult school could be, in the end, it was really all about producing something that would not only cause happiness to me, but to those around me. Providing happiness to others--my first indication that pastry is quite different from astrophysics.

On that same note, my second thought was shock at the girl-guy ratio. A total 180 from the standard 90% boys, 10% girls that exists in physics classes. Here, I walked into a room full of girls with a handful of boys dispersed throughout. To be honest, it was a little worrisome. I haven't dealt with girls in an academic setting in so long. I really hope they're not as brutal here as they are when it comes to boys :-).

All in all, orientation was awesome. We were talked at about rules, and got a tour of the facility. Best rule...."you must take home what you make." Don't think that will be a hard one to follow! The fatty has spoken.

So of course...a day cannot go by without Vaishali jaurment-ing massively. (I'm sure you can figure out what it means by now.) So we received a course manual with lists of pastries we're going to learn to make. I quickly started reading through them excitedly. "Fruit tart, chantilly cream, hazelnut and chocolate cake, fudge...." and "....Marzipan Easter Chicken." Heart skips a beat. Whoa whoa...pastry school? I have to cook meat? In my sudden panic, I read through the recipe. "Cut through the leg and tear across..." As I attempted to calm myself, I turned the page only to read "Marzipan Easter Bunny." Oh...right. Marzipan is a dough made from sugar used to make edible figures. So...I guess I really don't have to cook chicken. But really, I didn't know the chicken was regarded as an integral part of the Easter Family. I thought that was limited to the bunny and the eggs. Who wants to see a sugar figurine of a chicken anyway!? I mean...I get the cute bunny and all. Well...Day 1...moral dilemma averted!

Oh and...did I mention, I saw Kevin Spacey at a cafe on my way home?

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Blogging?

Blogging to me has always had the association with 16 yr old male Asians, writing in half capitals, half lower-case, being overly emotional about their failing love lives. (Totally not being offensive by this, btw) Thus, I never really thought about starting one myself. But then I figured, I usually bore my friends with pointless stories, and repeat them over and over for each friend separately, why not give them the option of having to listen to them or not? Ok no, I'm not that nice. If you're one of those who have to put up w/ my useless stories, I'm sure you'll still have to not only listen to them, but be forced to read them and write comments on my blog :-). But I did realize that in the coming year, when I plan to go to pastry school and hopefully travel around, I may have more to talk about than the useless minutia that I try to pass off as a consequential occurrence in my life.

Thus, the birth of this blog.

So the title of my blog? Inspired by Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential." The book has given me an idea of what lies in store for me in pastry school. Anthony Bourdain, who I fondly refer to as "Tony" (as if I'm his friend), has become a sort of idol for me when it comes to the pastry school chapter of my life. Speaking of his life as a chef, Tony sums it up by saying, "It can be, at times, the purest and most unselfish way of giving pleasure (although _____ has to be a close second)"....you fill in the blank ;-)

Right. So this is my life...Kutu Confidential.