Stage - Week 6

Back to work on Tuesday in the production kitchen......except this week, I did no production work at all! Work consisted mostly of helping out the "finition" section of the production kitchen (one word, ISPAHAN!) and then doing any other stuff that needed to be done around the kitchen. At first, I was a little peeved  about being in finition this week since I am off to the other shop next week which is all finition and will be there for 3 weeks running. However, I soon got over it and even started to enjoy it cos a) I'm tucked away in a corner of the lab and can work in peace (well, almost!) and b) the quicker I get my Ispahan done, the sooner I get to see JD (another week to go, tho) :) The other secret, I believe, is try to make Ispahan with love (I find that always makes my work look a little bit better) and remembering that someone out there will be forking out almost 7 yoyos for one of these cakes for his/her pastry "moment" so it should always be your best work possible.

Towards the end of the week, I helped out with the finishing touches of various millefeuilles, tarte citron (glazing) and tarte tango. One of the girls in finition gave me a quick reminder for the tango which was grand but for the entremet demo, she made a complete dog's dinner of her Parmesan tuiles and I'm proud to say that this lowly stagiaire thinks she did a pretty good job with the remaining entremets!! A very nice feeling :)

No scolding for me this week which was nice but there was minor mayhem elsewhere on Saturday - lots of shouting in the main lab with someone screwing up the millefeuille and a couple of reprimands in finition, primarily about the caramelisation of the top of the tarte garance - a roasted fig and raspberry filling in a tart shell topped with a caramelised cinammon creme chiboust. IMHO, whoever was doing the caramelisation should've known something was not quite right when there was enough smoke in the lab to make folk's eyes water and burn!!

So off to 3 weeks finition next week and then back to production lab for a couple of weeks in the "tour" - the section where they make and roll out all the different doughs, as well as all viennosserie. I had asked "arsey guy" a few days ago whether it would be possible to work in the "tour" before the end of my stage and he said it shouldn't be a problem - my schedule has changed slightly so I get to go straight there after finition and have no afternoon shift which is pretty cool. Another name change......."formally arsey guy" now ;)