Chef de Partie Tasting

Way back in August, my boss (the Exec Pastry Chef) told me and two of my coworkers that he needed two Chef de Partie to replace the former sous chef (who had been fired...apparently he blew up on one of the banquet staff in front of our guests), to help him run the kitchen.  There were three candidates, but he could only pick two--so we were to have a tasting (basically a culinary competition) to decide the two people who will get the position.

We were all pretty stoked!  But I didn't want to this be like a "competition" of any sorts.  To me, it was a fun challenge that allows us to utilize EVERY skill that we have learned so far.

Our agenda--prep and make a tiered cake, a plated dessert, and and a banquet dessert.

He let us know about a month in advance, so all of us had plenty of time to think and come up with whatever we wanted.

I first started by making a list of flavors that I wanted to incorporate: chocolates, nuts, fruits, etc.

Then I consulted the Flavor Bible (pretty much my go-to reference book for flavor combos) and grouped the flavors that go well together.

For the tiered cake, I wanted to pay respect to my heritage by incorporating Japanese flavors and elements to the cake:  green tea and yuzu.  I came up with a sakura cherry blossom design for the cake--pink, flowery, and very Japanese.  This is the result...

Three-tier fondant cake.  Top tier is vanilla cake with green tea bavarian cream filling, bottom tier is vanilla cake with yuzu cremeux filling. I made origami fondant cranes and isomalt sugar heart decor for the cake topper.  Everything is made by hand.

For the banquet dessert, I made a miniature version of the Whiskey Hazelnut Dome that I made way, way back in culinary school.  That was an entremet that I actually liked...and so did most people that sampled it.

The actual dome itself consisted of chocolate biscuit base with crispy praline feuilletine, and milk chocolate-hazelnut mousse spiked with whiskey, with layers of salted dark chocolate discs inside.  I tweaked mine a bit, by substituting hazelnut dacquoise for the biscuit and caramelized hazelnut for the feuilletine.  I omitted the chocolate discs, instead making a salted caramel cremeux insert inside the mousse. I wanted sort of this "galactic" feel to the dessert, so I molded it in a silicone cone mold.

Here is the "Galaxy", in all its glory.  Finished with dark chocolate glaze, gold and silver edible glitter sprayed on for the "milky way" effect.  Caramel sauce, almond-cream filled cherry and fresh fruits for garnish.  

And that's right...because I substituted the biscuit with dacquoise and feuilletine with hazelnuts, this very decadent beauty is gluten-free!

For my plated dessert, I wanted a contrasting flavor to the Galaxy.  Something a little lighter, something fruity.  Also, I knew that my boss will be one of the judges for the tasting, so I figured using a flavor that he likes will definitely get his attention :)  His favorite flavor?  Blood orange.  Or anything citrus really.  I also wanted to use this bag of Valrhona Dulcey, the blonde chocolate, that has been sitting in the dry storage, ignored, for quite some time.  Blood orange and the caramel-y flavor profile of Dulcey goes very well together.  With these flavors, an almond-flavor base will bring them both together.

So this is what I came up with...

 "Sanguine".  Valrhone Dulcey chocolate mousse with red cocoa butter spray for that velvety texture, with a pool of salted blood orange cremeux adorning its crown, all atop a disc of moist almond financier.  Coconut sorbet added a refreshing accent to the desserts...along with four different kinds of sauce.  Yep, four kinds of sauce.  Caramel, basil-lime, yuzu, and lychee.  It was very fruity indeed.

All of us prepped the entire for the big presentation day.  On the day, we plated everything we had prepped, and took them to the Oak Room, a dining hall usually reserved for VIP guests and special events.  We were told that there will be three judges--the Exec Pastry Chef, Executive Chef, and the Director of Food and Beverage.  So we were quite surprised when, after we set the plates down, the Chef de Cuisine, his sous chef, and several other food and beverage managers showed up!  Granted, they were probably just there to sample the desserts, not judge/make any decisions on who gets the Chef de Partie position.  But all in all, there were maybe about eight people (instead of the original three) tasting our desserts...
Everyone did an awesome job!  Unfortunately, one of my coworker's mousse cake dessert apparently didn't have enough gelatin in it...and started melting even before the tasting started.

As for the result? Well...

...pretty much five out of the six plates that I prepared had been licked clean.
And I ended up getting the position!  :D

As far as the position, I now have a bit more responsibility, to make sure that everything at the pastry shop is stocked (to the best of my ability), everything is prepped for the High tea, and the pastry for the VIP amenities.

Gotta admit, I definitely didn't mind the raise either.

OMGanache!!!

Seriously, has it been freakin' almost a YEAR since I wrote something in my blog???
I gotta say though, this year has been...very eventful.

Last year's Christmas/holidays were insanely busy, and I was doing around 10~12 hours per day at work.  Things have finally settled down (or so I thought) and I remember actually going home on time the day I last updated the blog.  Then the Valentine's Day hit, and right after that was Easter and Mother's Day.... while my (now former) partner/coworker took--not one, but TWO--2-week long vacation during this time, one of the busiest time of the year.  Which meant extra overtime for me.

Things settled down after Mother's Day.  I took some well-deserved time off to go on a weekend trip with my (then) boyfriend to Lava Hot Springs.  We went hiking up a trail, but hit a dead-end half way up the mountain.  Too bad I didn't have my phone with me--the view was breathtaking!  The valley was covered with velvety carpet of green dotted with farmhouses and stores, with blocks of farm land here and there, spooned by lightly snow-capped mountain ranges on the opposite side.  It was a scenery straight out of children's story book.  We stood there and talked about random things...when all of a sudden, my boyfriend blurts out, "So...this dating thing?  It's not working out."

....Judging from his facial expression, I figured he was just kidding.  At the same time, I thought to myself,

"...OK, the punchline had better be DAMN good or I may have to smack him."

That's when he got down on his knee and proposed to me!! :D

Of course I said yes!

Once we got back from the trip, most of the time was spent planning on the wedding.

I decided to have the wedding at my work, a luxurious 5-star hotel;  of course, I was putting my employee discount to a full use. ;)  I also kept it a secret from my coworkers;  right after the ceremony/reception, my plan was to have the banquet captain call the kitchen to announce that the bride would like to personally thank the staff for their hospitality, go down to the kitchen, and surprise the crap out of everybody.  Besides, I would avoid all the annoying questions and drama (when's the date?  Did you pick a dress?? Flowers??? How many people??? Planning on kids?? Lemme see the RING!!!)

So I kept it a secret during the entire 5 months of our engagement...and it was well worth it.
My boss's face when I showed up in my wedding dress along with my guests (we had an immediate family-only ceremony, which turned out to be an intimate group of 17 people) was...priceless.  For the first few minutes, he stood there dumbfounded with "WTF" face!

Then pretty much right after the wedding...I found out that I'm pregnant.  I'm now about 12 weeks along!

Here's a shot of my belly at 12 weeks.  There is a bit of a pooch developing in my lower abdomen...

So as you can see, it has been a busy, eventful year.  We haven't gone on a honeymoon yet, so we're planning on a honeymoon/babymoon very, very soon.

Holiday Recap: Halloween

Wow, the last update was before Halloween??  I thought September was bad, but the last part of November through the entire month of December was even worse!

But all of us survived, with some good/crazy memories of the holidays.  I should review some of the memorable stuff that happened during those chaotic times.

The last half of October was all about pumpkins and Halloween.

We made these Halloween pumpkins macarons for La Bonne Vie...

We also serve English high tea every day, but just during the Halloween season, there's a special promotion called "The Witch's Tea".

All the dessert pastries are spooky and Halloween-themed.  This year, we served the Halloween macarons, Spider web almond florentines, and Bloody Devil's cupcakes (with raspberry jam filling).
The opening day of the Witch's High Tea, I happened to go out to the hotel lobby and came upon an (almost) surreal scenery....

O_O  ...What the....??

Apparently it was the Utah Black Hat Society, a group of (I think) real witches living a life of magic.  The hotel lobby suddenly resembled the Hogwarts School of Magic.

The amenities for the guests got a little spooky also.  

"What's this? What's this?? There are pastries everywhere!

What's this? They're being made with greatest care!"

...Just me playing around with tuxedo strawberries.  The servers thought they were adorable.

One of the employee's grandmother was at the Witch's High Tea (no, she's not an actual witch...).  But it was also her birthday, so she asked me to make her a special, Halloween birthday cake.

It's a chocolate mousse cake glazed with dark glacage and decorated with (handmade) chocolate spiders, webs, and spooky strawberries.  She loved it!

And that was Halloween.  Next up, the Thanksgiving and Christmas recap...

Specialty Macarons at La Bonne Vie

OMG.  September was BAD.  I'm always busy, but the hotel was "everybody-must-work-6-or-7-days-straight-no-days-off" busy.  Couple that with some stuff going on in my life outside of work left me pretty much no time/energy to update my blog.

During September, we welcomed the new Executive Pastry Chef!  He's really cool, nice guy, very knowledgeable with a LOT of experience in the industry.  I'm really excited to learn a lot of new pastry skills from this guy! :)
....Which also meant a lot of changes in the La Bonne Vie menu as well.  He first wanted to make some changes to the macarons.  He felt that ours were drab and boring...true, except people here tend to be pretty conservative (i.e. not adventurous) when it comes to food.  But it's OK, I was craving some changes too.

First up...Tiramisu macarons!

Coffee-infused shells filled with mascarpone buttercream, topped with cocoa nibs and cocoa powder.  This was an instant hit, and so far, is as popular as salted caramel macs.

The next one, I have to admit, is my least favorite to make....the Chocolate-Mint macs

  Mint green and chocolate swirled macs filled with chocolate-mint buttercream.  Pretty, yes.  But I'm just not very fond of mint-flavored desserts/candies, period (sorry New York patties and Junior Mints fans).  The flavor reminds me too much of kid's toothpaste or chewing gum, neither of which should be ingested.  Needless to say, this is our least popular flavor :(

September also marks the beginning of football season.  We have a local university football team which (at least) half the population of Utah is a fan of...and the hotel is located just a few miles away from the university.  So during the homecoming week, we had a special promotion...

Red Velvet University of Utah macarons!  These flew off the shelves during the week.

And of course, with the upcoming Halloween and to celebrate the coming of fall...

Pumpkin macarons!  The shells are lightly spiced with cinnamon and ginger.  With spiced pumpkin buttercream filling, these taste just like creamy pumpkin pie!
....But chef thought these were too drab looking.  I really hesitate to use an ungodly amount of food coloring, but if he insists....

There.  I had to add a almost 2 tablespoons of the orange powder color to achieve this hue.  But I have to admit, the Jack O' Lantern orange color make them look a lot brighter, prettier, and yes, very Halloween-y.

With addition of Halloween themed chocolate plaques, they are ready for anyone's spooky yet classy tea party!

October marks the onset of the hectic holiday season, as well as transition in the seasonality of menu items.  It's this time of the year that everything on the menu has something pumpkin.  Everything.
Thus begins the pumpkinization of La Bonne Vie...

The Macaron Tower!

Over the course of a year, La Bonne Vie pastries have changed drastically...due to our exec pastry chef changing.  One thing that remained on the menu (and probably the only thing that "survived" the change, other than the chocolate eclair and macarons) is the Lemon Chiffon.  Although it evolved quite a bit from the original, its base remains the same, as a pastry with a vanilla chiffon base, lemon curd filling, and Italian meringue waves.

With the sous chef now in charge, he added another twist to it.  He now wanted the entire thing evolved into a tartlet.

So here it is... Lemon Chiffon Tartlet.

It's a tartlet shell filled with a thin layer of vanilla chiffon, lemon curd filling, and Italian meringue waves--exactly like the previous versions.  The golden dew drops are crystal glaze dyed yellow, for a touch of color to otherwise plain pastry.

A slew of new pastries plus a wedding cake has kept me quite busy.  This was actually my first time helping at work with a wedding cake.  The bride wanted a macaron tower/tree to top her wedding cake, so the guests can pick the macs off the tree to eat them.

She wanted 400 macs, in shades of vanilla, light green, and light peach.  I can make at least 134 macs per batch, so I did three batches, which made a little over 400 macs.

The sous chef made a cone using styrofoam cone and pastillage.  I stuck the macs on using white chocolate and cold spray to instantly set the chocolate (that way, I don't have to stand there holding the mac for a while waiting for the chocolate to set).
So here it is...

Other than a few misaligned macs, turned out fine.  Some aren't angled correctly, but not bad for my first time.  If there is a next time, I at least know what to do.

New stuff at La Bonne Vie...again

Back in the middle of July, our executive pastry chef resigned....ALREADY.  He was with us for less than a year.  He had his family back in Las Vegas where he's from, and decided to go back for his family.  We supported his decision to leave--family is important.
But we are now in the process of looking for a new exec.  In the meantime, our sous chef has taken charge, bringing about a lot of changes in the La Bonne Vie pastries.

He had been gone for a week for a sugar-work class in Paris.  When he returned, he was raving about the pastry shops of Paris, and excitedly reported that what we're making at La Bonne Vie is pretty much the same as those of Paris...which is pretty awesome I must say.  He now wanted to incorporate a lot of his discoveries ideas into our pastries, making them more fancy and refined.

Over the course of a week or two, he came up about a dozen new pastries, while keeping a few of our previous ones.
#1 Peanutbutter-Mousse Decadence
A block of peanutbutter-chocolate mousse, on rectangular tart shell filled with ganache and crispy chocolate pearls.

Here's the cross-section.  It's decadent, but not very sweet, which tones down the overall richness.

#2 Passionfruit Globe/Dream
A chocolate sphere filled with passionfruit mousse, on a square tart shell filled with passionfruit curd and feuilletine.  Our sous chef loves to play with textures, so I like how his pastries incorporates the full range of textural contrasts.  As for the flavor...not a big fan of this one.  While textually interesting, the flavor is predominantly just passionfruit, making it somewhat one-toned.

#3 Fruit Tarts and Red-Berry Tarts
Pretty self-explanatory.  We switched out the puff pastry for tart shells, which is readily available.  No need for us to bake off the puff strips every morning.  Filled with pastry cream and topped with mounds of fruits.

#4 Bienenstich eclairs (i.e. Bee-sting eclairs)
Bienenstich is a German dessert that consists of sweet yeast dough with caramelized almond and honey topping filled with cream.  This is chef's eclair version of that.  Filled with almond cream, Bavarian cream, then capped with a piece of honey-almond florentine wafer.

#5 New flavor of macarons
We are making peppermint (in the middle of summer, which is odd) and passionfruit-raspberry (below).
The passionfruit-raspberry is filled with passionfruit curd and a dot of raspberry jam in the middle.
I think (especially)during summer, peppermint needs to be paired with something else.  Chocolate, for example.  Or add a dot of lime curd to make it Mojito macaron. Or add bourbon whiskey to the peppermint buttercream to make it Mint Julep macaron.

The end result...The display cake looked GORGEOUS!!

 Oh, I forgot to mention...see the green glittery macaron?  It's our pistachio macaron, all glammed up with gold glitter sugar.  It's glitzy enough to be worn as a bling.

I'm sure once the new exec arrives, more changes will happen.  Stay tuned....

My friend's wedding! ...AND a birthday cake

Oh.  WOW.  The month of July was EXTREMELY busy.

The month started out with a family friend's surprise birthday party.  Her husband secretly ordered a small dessert buffet:  strawberry mini-cheesecakes and double chocolate brownies, and a decadent chocolate mousse birthday cake.

Now, the following day was my co-worker's wedding...and she had asked me to make her a three-tier wedding cake.  This will be my first time making a multi-layer cake outside of school, and I was up for the challenge!  She wanted it simple, with white buttercream frosting (she hates fondant);  and she emphasized that it has to taste good.  Of course, I am not going to argue;  most wedding cakes are known for looking pretty but not tasting as good.  I was determined to make her cake look elegant, pretty, AND tasty!

But first things first...

I got the cheesecakes and the brownies done pretty quickly (he only requested 30 pieces or so of each).  I used a cake mix for the chocolate cake, and put two layers of chocolate mousse.  The cake was finished with chocolate buttercream, chocolate decor, fresh fruits, and a few Lintz truffle balls (cuz they're cute!)

I did the piping with melted white chocolate.  As soon as I delivered all the goodies, I had to drive to Park City, (a good half-an hour drive up the mountain) to finish my friend's wedding cake.  Her wedding was held at Waldorf Astoria hotel.

There's a story behind this.  When our sous chef found out that she's getting married, and that she had asked me to make her the cake, he offered to let me use the ingredients and the equipment at our workplace.  Which meant I didn't have to bake the several batches of cakes (in my teeny oven) or make the huge batch of Swiss buttercream (in my dinky mixer) at home!  I was more than happy to accept the offer.  So up until this day, I stayed a few hours later each day assembling the cakes (I was clocked out of course).

She wanted one tier chocolate cake w/chocolate mousse and another tier vanilla cake w/strawberry mousse.  I didn't stack the tiers, just filled and frosted it.  All I had to do was take the three cakes to Waldorf-Astoria and finish the cake there.  There was NO WAY I was going to transport the assembled three-tier cake up the swervy canyon road to Park City!

Once there, I stacked the cakes and finished decorating.

Very simple but elegant.  I put the cake away in the hotel's walk-in fridge and left for the night.
The next day, (the big day!) I arrived early to do some finishing touches...

I

 The florist gave me some flowers and the cake topper.  I stood back and thought, "...THAT. IS. CUTE."
Indeed, it turned out to be a very cute wedding cake, enough for about 70 people.

 After the ceremony, all of us congratulated the bride and the groom with some cocktails.  I didn't drink, since I'm a major lightweight and I'd prefer not to be tipsy while driving down a canyon road on the way home.
The next day, she texted me, telling me that the cake was delicious and the perfect amount!  *phew* Despite a few mishaps (yes, the cake ended up with a few scratches and dents during transit that I had to fix), the cake turned out awesome!