Witch's High Tea at the Grand America

Happy belated Halloween to everyone!  During the week leading up to Halloween, we hold a special event called the Witch's Tea.  Instead of our usual tea pastries, we serve Halloween-themed goodies.

 

First up, Gingerbread zombies...

...with half of its head and leg bitten off.
We also made crispy meringue spiderwebs, then dipped them in chocolate.

 

Next year, maybe we can try piping out skeleton's claws??

 

We also made gravestone cookies--chocolate shortbread cookies sandwiched with chocolate mousse, just like chocolate-creme oreos.

For our entremet, we made blood orange mousse layered with joconde.  It is then finished with cocoa butter spray.  Originally, we decorated them with crossbones, but we special ordered some Halloween sugar decorations...

...and the results were much cuter. 
I didn't take a picture, but in addition to the above, there were Chocolate "ooze" cupcakes (chocolate cupcakes with raspberry jam filling, with purple frosting), cranberry-orange scones, and pate de fruit dusted with poprocks instead of sugar.  Because of this special event, the number of reservation had skyrocketed during this time, forcing me and my partner to stay longer hours.  We were both pretty drained after this whole ordeal.  Inbetween now and Thanksgiving is the time to (somewhat) catch up and relax a bit.  Cuz the holidays, I've heard, is going to be like an arrival of a hurricane...

Da New Executive Pastry Chef...

Our Executive Pastry Chef resigned a month or two ago.  He had accepted a position somewhere in Napa Valley as a group pastry chef.  All of us were pretty sad to see him go.  Then a few weeks later, the new exec arrived...and things have been quite interesting since then.

Definitely a lot of changes in the menu.  He pretty much wiped out everything the previous chef had implemented, replacing the pastries with his own creations.

First up, replacing the Black & White Berry Tart, is the Fruit Strip.  Sounds kinda sexy...
A big strip of puff pastry is baked off, then shmeared with pastry cream.  It then gets loaded with fruits.  And our new chef likes to emphasize the "loaded" part of this pastry.  I'll get into that later...

After finishing with apricot glaze, the rims are dusted with snow sugar, then cut.

Very pretty and colorful.
He then redid the previous chef's eclairs.  He first baked them off topped with what's called a craquelin--something very similar to a shortbread dough, sheeted out to 1.5mm thickness.  After filling them with cream, he finished by glazing them with--*GROAN*--fondant.

I honestly don't know of anyone who actually likes fondant.  As a matter of fact, most people I know don't like fondant at all.  Just sayin'...

This is our brand new pastry item, da Raspberry Cream Puff.  A choux puff (again baked with craquelin) filled with pastry cream, raspberries, whipped cream.

Our amenity cakes got a makeover as well.  Instead of the buttercream frosting, we are now glazing the chocolate mousse cake with black glaze and garnishing with crapload of chocolate decor.

 

The anniversary cakes got a similar makeover;  glazed on top, garnished with (again) crapload of chocolate decor.

There are still more new things, more changes.  It's gonna be a bit tough adjusting to all these changes and new things...

My first Utah State Fair...

All these years I've lived in Utah...I've never been to the state fair.  Or any state fair for that matter.  I've heard stories about it, how there are lots of farm animals, contests, crafts, and fried everything.  So when my friend invited me to go with her family (her dad had entered some vegetables in the contest), I was more than happy to join them to check it out.
We first stopped at a building that held all the crafts and culinary (...!!!) contests.

I. WANT.THIS. QUILT. This is the most creative quilt design I've ever seen!
There were also baked goods entries.  Some of the categories included yeast breads, quick breads, cookies, sourdough breads, etc...

 

What kinda bugged me was the judging criteria.  I mean, look at this banana bread--it totally collapsed!  And yet it won second place???  ...Well, as much as I would love to enter something in next year, I feel like I would be cheating for some reason...

We went outside to a light drizzle;  the glitzy, blingy ferris wheel jutting out into a grey, dingy sky.  There were plenty of games and rides typical of amusement parks.

But we couldn't forget why we were there to begin with.  My friend's dad had entered a vegetable (an Asian eggplant) so we had to see how he did...

Tomatoes after tomatoes after tomatoes. The entire place were filled with tables strewn with vegetables of all sorts...

...including this mutant carrot. This particular one won first place in the "Oddity" category.

 

Giant pumpkin contest.  The winner weighed 620 lbs.

 



Then we spotted her dad's eggplant...which had won first place!  Congrats!

We then ventured into the farm animal section.  Some were on sale, including this adorable bunny.

 

 

 

The barn had your usual farm animals; cows, pigs, sheep, goats, etc. 

 

The piglets were just so cute. And curious. One was so curious that it pressed its snout up against my phone right when I was about to snap a photo.

Every year, a local sculptor makes a sculpture...using a solid block of butter.  Impressive isn't it?

State fair was fun!  My friend encouraged me to enter some baked goods next year but...that's a definitive maybe.



High Tea at the Grand America

Hello all...nice to be back to blogging after two months of break.  Sorry, life has been hectic, with 8~12 hour shift workdays.  Man, we are busy!

 

Anyway, my last post (way back in August...) was about amenities for VIP guests.  After I'm done preparing for those, I prepare for the afternoon high tea.

 

During the High Tea, the guests are offered several selection of teas, tea sandwiches, strawberries with whipped cream, and assorted pastries.  The banquet kitchen prepares the sandwiches so I don't know what's being served.  But here are the tea pastries that we make...

 

We serve three kinds of baked goods, three kinds of pate de fruit (fruit pectin jellies), and three kinds of cold desserts.
In this picture--from the back, three flavors of pate de fruit: passionfruit, sour apple, and strawberry flavors.  The raspberry-filled linzer cookies are one of the baked goods.

The other two baked goods are scones and madeleines.  The scones are served with Devonshire cream, which is made with mascarpone and cream whipped together.

Our cold desserts.  From the back, Strawberry-Pistachio Bars, Praline bars, and Lemon-Meringue tartlets.  The Strawberry-Pistachio bars are alternating layers of strawberry mousse and pistachio dacquoise.  Praline bars are layers of crispy feuilletine-praline and chocolate mousse. My mom fell in love with these guys.  The Lemon-meringue tartlets are mini tartlet shells filled with raspberry jam and lemon cream.  We have to make all these from scratch--as in , bake off the dacquoise base, then make the mousse to assemble.  My pastry skills have improved significantly over the past few months.  With the upcoming holiday season, things are sure to get even busier...

Amentities at the Grand--for that special occasion. Or just cuz.

Ah, amenities--according to the Wiki, an amenity is defined as "something of a premium nature provided in addition to the room and its basics when renting a room at a hotel, motel, or other place of lodging".  Amenities at your average hotels can be anything from continental breakfast to those cute travel-sized shampoo and soaps.  But at five-star hotels, these amenities can get quite extravagant...

The guests places their orders with the room service, who calls us to get them prepared.  This day, I filled an order for an anniversary cake...
A strawberry or cholate mousse layer cake, frosted with buttercream.  The cake is already made and kept in the freezer

 

We also offer artisan truffles/chocolates and tuxedo strawberries....

 

This day wasn't too busy.  Hand-dipping six strawberries are a breeze, but when we get an order of 100 of these studs...things can get a little crazy.
This is the French Affair, a collection of French-inspired sweets: two Parisian macaroons, creme-filled chocolate cups, and chocolate bonbon coronets.

Of course, these aren't all the amenities offered at the hotel.  There are also cheese plates, antipasto platter, milk & cookies, and bottles of wine...but these are sent to the main kitchen, not to the pastry department.
Once the amenity orders are filled, I start preparing the pastries for the English Afternoon Tea.  My day goes by fairly quickly...

La Bonne Vie Pastries--Part II

 Aaaand here are the rest of the La Bonne Vie pastries...

 

S'more tarts.  Almond sucre tart shell, filled with ganache, topped with Italian meringue "marshmallows".  Torched to golden perfection.

 



 Mini cupcakes, three varieties: Chocolate w/mint frosting, Vanilla w/vanilla frosting, Red Velvet w/cream cheese frosting.  The other day I saw a little girl with the chocolate cupcake in hand, licking the minty frosting off the top like an ice cream cone...

 

Dipped strawberries, three varieties: Dark Chocolate dipped w/chocolate croquant, White chocolate dipped with white chocolate shavings, and white chocolate dipped w/pistachio flour.

 

Of course, we can't forget about the Parisian macarons.  We have seven flavors: pistachio, vanilla, strawberry, passionfruit, coconut, hazelnut, and salted caramel.  Italian meringue method is used here, which creates a more stable meringue and fuller textured macs.

 



In addition to the sweet dessert pastries, we also carry breakfast pastry items (courtesy of the bread team.  We have a whole group of people just doing breads).  Pictured here are croissants, pain au chocolat, almond brioche, and cream cheese danish.  Other options include mini coffeecakes and strawberry-almond croissants.

These pastries need to be delivered to the shop by 9AM.  My shift starts at 6AM, so I have three hours to get all these prepped.  It seems like I would have plenty of time, but each pastries take so much care to prepare that time just whizzes by.

Once I'm done with these morning duties, I tackle onto the next task...the amenities.  The hotel provides amenities to the guests as a special gift/occasion service.  These can include birthday and anniversary cakes, special treats, etc....but that's for the next post. ;)

La Bonne Vie Pastries--Part I

I've been having such a blast at my new job that I've been neglecting my blog...

I absolutely love it.  It's (minimum) 8 hours of nonstop production of high-end pastries and/or confection.  It's what I went to school for.  It's what I switched my career for.  It's (so far) everything that I've wanted.

I'm getting trained to make pastries for a small pastry shop, named La Bonne Vie ("The good life" in French) located inside the hotel.  Every morning shift starts with restocking the store.

 

Here they are....

 Left: Strawberry Mousse Bombes.  Strawberry mousse, chocolate mousse, sitting on a disc of almond sucre.
Right: Nutella Tart. Almond sucre tart shell filled with ganache, topped with creamy nutella mousse, garnished with a hazelnut.

Lemon Chiffon. Layers of luscious lemon cream on vanilla chiffon, topped with Italian meringue.
This is our most popular pastry.

Fruit Tart.  Almond sucre baked with frangipane filling, topped with chocolate pastry cream and a half-moon of vanilla bavarian cream and assorted berries.  This one doesn't seem to sell well...

Eclairs.  Yep, these are eclairs.  Definitely much more refined and sophisticated than the (although delicious) giant behemoth of an eclair that I used to make at Pierre's.

Napoleons.  Layers of puff pastry and vanilla bavarian, topped with chocolate mousse and chocolate plaque.  Garnished with a bit of goldleaf.  So pretty!

I'm definitely honing my skills here.  My ultimate, personal goal is to become better and better...until I become the BEST.  Well, I seriously doubt I'll ever reach Pierre Herme or Jacques Genin status...

But my reason for wanting to become the best at what I do...is so that whoever eats my pastry will be happy.  Every chefs/cooks live for that moment, when someone eats the food that they just prepared, and instantly "melts" in their chair with a look of euphoria on their face.  It's for that moment that a chef will toil in the sweltering kitchen for 10 hours--sometimes more.  Because knowing that s/he just made someone happy with what they just cooked makes all the hard work worth it.  I feel the same way.  That's why I want to continue to improve my skills, so I can be certain that whatever I produce are guaranteed to taste good--and thus make people happy.

New job--at Grand America hotel

Yes--I got a new job!  I got hired as a pastry cook at the Grand America hotel.  This 5-star hotel boasts a restaurant, a toy store, a French pastry shop, a tea room, and a spa (with massage rooms, saunas, pedicures, waxing, the works.), with fitness rooms and pools, luxury suites...

My first day on the job involved plating desserts....for 1000 people.  That's right, over a 1000 people.  We had several different options for desserts.  This one here is caramel mousse bar with creme anglaise.

And check out this massive array of raspberry-lemon meringue tartlets...

We do the "assembly line" of plating, where the lead person(s) puts down the sauce, the second in line puts down the main dessert, the next puts garnishes or finishing touches, then the last person takes the finished dessert and places it on a rack.

Vanilla cheesecake with white chocolate ganache glaze, macerated berries, graham cracker crumbles, and strawberry coulis.  The plating is not as complex as the next one here...

 

Napoleon, with caramel sauce, yogurt gel, and chocolate rubble.  One jittery hand and the chocolate rubble goes all over the plate.

 

Dessert plating is something I never got to do while at Pierre's bakery, but something I've always wanted to do.  I haven't been here long, but I'm already learning so much!

In the meantime--New sink and Akasaka Sushi

We've been having issues with our kitchen sink.  The guy who installed it for us didn't do a good job;  his plumbing skill (or lack thereof) was proven the very next day it was installed.  Yes, it leaked.  And it's been that way ever since, for three whole years.  The leaky sink was gross, unsanitary, and stunk up the area underneath it.  It was about time we did something about the sink.  So I called up our friend, who's a contractor, and asked him to replace the sink entirely, plus a ton of other repairs and projects that needed to be done around the house.

 

So he showed up with a shiny, brand new sink and installed it in about three hours.  He told us not to use the sink for a few hours to allow the adhesive to completely dry out. 

Well then, what shall we do for lunch?  We decided to take this opportunity to eat at a sushi restaurant in our neighborhood.

 

Akasaka sushi restaurant.  It was one of those restaurants that's been open for who-knows-how-long in our neighborhood that we never bothered to try--until fairly recently.

It's a small place, probably 40 people capacity.

We ordered their Orange Blossom roll and the Super Dragon Roll.  Their lunch special is the "buy a roll, get one free", so we got a really good deal.



 Orange Blossom Roll.  Smoked salmon and cucumber on the inside, white fish and more salmon on the outside.  Topped with tobiko and served with sriracha, sweet-spicy teriyaki sauce, and spicy mayo. The spicy sauces went really well with the rich, mellow flavor of the salmon.

 Super Dragon Roll.  Shrimp tempura on the inside, unagi and avocado on the outside, topped with black, orange, and wasabi tobiko.  It was good, but I couldn't figure out what was so super-dragon-y about it.

Baked mussels.  Topped with spicy mayo and tobiko.  Good flavor, but it was slightly overcooked and boderline too chewy.

After we came back from our tasty sushi lunch, we went home to admire the brand new sink.  Our old one was only 7" deep, but the new one is 9", which provided plently of dish-scrubbing space without overflowing all over the counter.  And it didn't leak. What a relief!

In the meantime...Irish Cream pound cake

I'm kinda-sorta enjoying being out of work...for now.  My hand still gets stiff and swollen in the morning, despite the three-week rest.  But of course I didn't want to rest too much--I mean, what if I get rusty or lose my touch?

 

So I've been baking macarons every now and then, with good results.  To this day, I wonder if Pierre's bakery (where I used to work...) ever got someone to make the macarons.  As far as I know, I was the only one who was able to make them.

But today, there was one issue that needed to be resolved...a half-bottle of Irish Cream sitting in the fridge.  I had used it to make Irish Cream cheesecake for a dinner few months ago, and being a major lightweight, I haven't touched it since.  If I can't drink it, what should I do with it?  (...Other than giving it away, but c'mon...giving someone half a bottle of liquor is just so not classy)

 

Bake with it of course.  I've always wanted to make a pound cake loaded with booze, and this was the perfect opportunity.

 

So I took a basic buttermilk poundcake recipe and substituted the buttermilk with a mixture of Irish cream, amaretto, and bourbon.  I also added instant coffee to the mix.  In other words...

 

Irish Cream + Amaretto + Coffee equals a mixed drink known as "Orgasm".



 

...Yes, this is my "Orgasm" pound cake.  Not too sweet and uber moist, this cake starts out with coffee flavor and finishes with a boozy punch.  Paired with Earl Grey ice cream, it was indeed, orgasmic.