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!