Sunday, January 20, 2008

Experimental Cuisine

Okay, I am so excited about what I learned at school this week. I have a rather strange love of chemistry, and learned that I can actually include chemistry in my baking. First, I went to a workshop by one of my chef instructors about experimental cuisine. I was not completely sure what to expect, but when I got there Oh My Goodness I was so excited. I learned about using these really cool additives, some natural, some not so natural, in food. I won't go into everything we learned, because this blog would be way too long. I will just touch on some of the pictures I took at the workshop.
The first one is of all of the cool ingredients he used to make some of the stuff he showed us, such as Poblano Chili Caviar, Peanut butter powder and concord foam.


Here are all of the books that I hope to one day own. They are all so amazing and about how experimental cuisine is being used.
This is my instructor, Chef Reynolds preparing the Chili Caviar. I know it sounds gross, but it is not really caviar. It is actually a mix of poblano peppers, cilantro, and garlic blended into a liquid and made into little beads that resemble caviar. Believe me it was so Yummy.


Here is what the Chili Caviar looks like. They look almost like little peas. Chef has said that this technique can be used with almost any liquid. I am so excited to start testing this out. Well, that is all I have for now, but hopefully I will be posting more soon.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

My Education

Okay, I know I promised to let you all in on what I am going to school to study. Well, I have always had a passion for baking so I decided that I would apply at Le Cordon Bleu. I was accepted and am now attending every M-F from 12:30 p.m to 5:30 p.m. I should be able to graduate in early November. I hopefully then will be a certified Pastry Chef. I will give more details later, but I must rush off to school now seeing as how it is about an hour drive depending on traffic.

Oh yeah, Beth G. if you are reading this I might need your help in pronouncing some of the french terms. I have to know just about every ingredients french name. My head is swimming. :)

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