School stared! I'm taking Advanced Restaurant Desserts and Speech & Communication. The latter is one general ed class that none of the classes from my previous education covered...so alas, I need to learn how to speak in public. According to the statistics, far more people would choose death over public speaking, so this is an important class I guess :P
In Advanced Restaurant Desserts, we'll be really learning how to plate--there will be a lot of techniques and tricks involved. Sugar work, chocolate work, molecular gastronomy, deconstructing, etc...
Chef did a demo on spun sugar. The instructor in my Intro to Pastry class did the demo using the handle on the pizza paddle and took up a 7' by 7' space doing it, but the instructor in this class used spoons and did it on the table. Much easier alternative.
We split into pairs and made the desserts: Chocolate Cake, Apple Cobbler, Lemon Meringue Tart, Creme Brulee, and Cheesecake.
They are all classical desserts that have been served in pretty much every restaurant across the nation since their invention. Today, they are still being served in chain restaurants, but have definitely morphed/evolved into something much more sophisticated in fine dining establishments. By deconstructing them into their components and enhancing each of them, desserts have been modernized and took on an avant garde form.
Chef had us make these because in order to deconstruct, we need to know what the components we are working with. For example, the Lemon Meringue Tart has 3 components: the crust, the lemon filling, and the meringue. In the weeks to follow, we'll be deconstructing the desserts, prepping one week and then plating it the next week. For Week 2, we'll be prepping for the deconstructed version of these classical desserts.
sounds like your having a blast! I've been learning molecular gastronomy stuff on my own. its so much fun! have fun deconstructing :)
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