It’s been a while since I last wrote, as a friend pointed out, but it’s been a crazy few adventurous months. And since writing does not come effortlessly to me, it’s that much tougher. Having said that, here are 3 things i must share:
1. I developed reverence for Chocolate
Sometime last year I realised I had to learn how to handle chocolate, it’s an unwritten pre-requisite to becoming a competent patissier. So I enrolled myself into an online course for three months. Those three months have come and gone and I am not even close to becoming a chocolatier, but if that course achieved anything, it helped me develop my reverence for chocolate.
I learnt how to really taste chocolate and found it utterly surprising that different varieties of dark chocolate with similar levels of cocoa content could taste so different. I learnt how important it is to temper chocolate and actually learnt how to hand temper it. But above all, the course helped me take a leap into the world of chocolate excellence. It helped me understand why a master chocolatier like Pierre Marcolini is regarded so. Why Jean-Pierre Wybauw is able to create those exquisite chocolate designs. Every now and again, as I browse through Pierre Wybauw’s book, I get the same feeling as watching someone paint or listening to someone compose a beautiful melody.. it’s inspiring and uplifting and everything that art should be.
2. I did a short course at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris
Like many French patisserie aficionados, I walked starry eyed into the Cordon Bleu campus. And the cordon bleu course was all that I had imagined and more. It was fun, informative and truly revealed secrets of macaroons (which is what the course was) which I had been struggling with for the past six months.
But most importantly, the course helped me see Paris from a different lens. I lived close to the school in a residential part of Paris where there was no sign of any tourists. I watched closely as local patisseries, fromageries and rotisseries went about their daily business. I soaked up the food and café culture of Paris by chewing on Salade Nicoise and watching the world go by through endless cups of hot chocolate. I hunted down traditional patisseries through seedy areas and even got chased by urchins at one point. I guess, the course helped breed familiarity with this beloved city like never before.
3. I built three large beautiful cakes
This part was just so unexpected. It was never on my agenda to build such varied birthday cakes, leave alone large ones. But it started with Myra’s birthday cake and then led on to Kabir’s and then Niharika’s Gruffalo cake. With each cake I learnt something new, stumbled on unexpected problems and struck startling friendships. The last of the three, the Gruffalo cake, was like a cherry on the topping. I designed and built it completely by myself without the aid of any cake books. Very gratifying.
All in all, I am exhilarated and exhausted at the end of these three months. May be I should take a small vacation. As goes in the movie Forrest Gump, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’r gonna get!'
1. I developed reverence for Chocolate
Sometime last year I realised I had to learn how to handle chocolate, it’s an unwritten pre-requisite to becoming a competent patissier. So I enrolled myself into an online course for three months. Those three months have come and gone and I am not even close to becoming a chocolatier, but if that course achieved anything, it helped me develop my reverence for chocolate.
I learnt how to really taste chocolate and found it utterly surprising that different varieties of dark chocolate with similar levels of cocoa content could taste so different. I learnt how important it is to temper chocolate and actually learnt how to hand temper it. But above all, the course helped me take a leap into the world of chocolate excellence. It helped me understand why a master chocolatier like Pierre Marcolini is regarded so. Why Jean-Pierre Wybauw is able to create those exquisite chocolate designs. Every now and again, as I browse through Pierre Wybauw’s book, I get the same feeling as watching someone paint or listening to someone compose a beautiful melody.. it’s inspiring and uplifting and everything that art should be.
2. I did a short course at Le Cordon Bleu, Paris
Like many French patisserie aficionados, I walked starry eyed into the Cordon Bleu campus. And the cordon bleu course was all that I had imagined and more. It was fun, informative and truly revealed secrets of macaroons (which is what the course was) which I had been struggling with for the past six months.But most importantly, the course helped me see Paris from a different lens. I lived close to the school in a residential part of Paris where there was no sign of any tourists. I watched closely as local patisseries, fromageries and rotisseries went about their daily business. I soaked up the food and café culture of Paris by chewing on Salade Nicoise and watching the world go by through endless cups of hot chocolate. I hunted down traditional patisseries through seedy areas and even got chased by urchins at one point. I guess, the course helped breed familiarity with this beloved city like never before.
3. I built three large beautiful cakes
This part was just so unexpected. It was never on my agenda to build such varied birthday cakes, leave alone large ones. But it started with Myra’s birthday cake and then led on to Kabir’s and then Niharika’s Gruffalo cake. With each cake I learnt something new, stumbled on unexpected problems and struck startling friendships. The last of the three, the Gruffalo cake, was like a cherry on the topping. I designed and built it completely by myself without the aid of any cake books. Very gratifying.All in all, I am exhilarated and exhausted at the end of these three months. May be I should take a small vacation. As goes in the movie Forrest Gump, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’r gonna get!'
