Pastry Kitchen

This was the one department that was selfishly on my list of departments to work in. The reason it was for selfish purposes? I like to think of myself as well rounded, and yet I can't bake; nor have truly found it as relaxing a hobby as my mother has always found it to be. My priorities were my own when beginning this week of work, and not those of my internship professor. Day 1 in this kitchen I was asked what I wanted to learn to make and I said, "Bread". Naturally I didn't jump right into making bread though. For the first day I sheeted cracker dough, the process of thinning out the dough to a width of 1 cm or smaller so that it can be promptly frozen until it is baked. I also learned that our owner loves these crackers and we send over two bins every so often. One of these bins would have unsalted crackers in them, the ones his wife preferred he had, and the other bin with salted crackers; the ones he ate when she wasn't there. Whether the last part is true or not is inconsequential, but still a great story of love for the crackers. After a full day of sheeting, and sometimes resheeting I got the feel for how dough would shrink and stretch depending on how warm it was.
During my time in this kitchen, Chef Joel; our executive chef, worked closely with us and gave us a lot of direction. Matias was working on preparing different breads to be closely scrutinized by the chefs to see if they could be used when the new restaurant opens up. I was able to work with Matias as he did his preparations to learn some of his techniques. The former pastry chef Jamie, worked with me as well to help me create a turtle cake and gave me direction as much as anyone. They taught me how to make truffle filled chocolates, bake bread and make the dough successfully. So as I said in the beginning, this was my selfish week so that I could experience this side of the cooking spectrum. I enjoyed working in this kitchen very much. Though it was only to be able to prepare these things at home. As a consolation prize they sent me home with every recipe they had; so my dessert portfolio just grew by a few hundred pages.